I really should save this for Mother’s Day. But I couldn’t help myself. Years ago, it seems like another life time ago now, I was a young lecturer at a seminary in California. For four consecutive years, I took my students down to hear Chuck Swindoll preach on a Sunday morning and then returned on … More I Couldn’t Help Myself
Today was a good reading day. Two books, besides my Bible were on my docket, a novel, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and What Jesus Demands from the World, by John Piper. Below are two passages, one from each that I think illumine one another. The first one is from Tolstoy. It comes from part two, … More Destroying Our Own Lives
Day 3 Tuesday Prayer of Lament Read Psalm 56:1-13 How is it possible to write without pain?How can anything be written worth reading, that doesn’t pulse from a pen dipped in the blood of a mortal wound? The same could be said about prayer.Lord, is it possible to pray, to really pray without some level of … More A Lament for a Nation’s Soul
Reading an excellent new book with our church. Tonight was our third moderated discussion at the church covering chapters two and three. I thought pages 18 and 19 were particularly insightful. Here’s a quote of merit on the difference our routines make in our lives. “Sometimes, our lives are shaped by these routines in ways … More The Routines that Shape Us
The 14th and 15th chapters of Luke are an interesting window into the evangelistic tactics of Jesus. Here’s a tentative outline of how I see the narrative. Luke 14:1-11. Don’t Be Afraid of Upsetting Religious People (Jesus heals … More Jesus’s Evangelism: Tentative Analysis
In my office are four large file cabinets, 16 drawers in all, and two more drawers in my “aircraft carrier desk” filled with files on every book of the Bible and hundreds of topics related to virtually all fields of literature and the humanities plus numerous topics in science. It is exactly the case in … More Cleaning Out Old Files: Finding Treasures
There is a scene in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Part 2, Chapter 22), where Tolstoy uses the innocent response of an eight-year old boy to the wickedness of the presence of Vronsky in his mother’s circle of friends. It is a brilliantly written scene, powerful in its picture and effective in its movement of the plot. … More Children as a Compass for Goodness
I woke up with a clear thought early this morning. Clarity is never to be wasted. So, though it is 3:17 AM, I have stumbled out of bed and come here to my living room perch, overlooking the backyard that I can’t see now, but moments ago was filled with a moonlight so bright that … More Waking Up with a Clear Thought
More evidence of a deep sickness at the core of American society in these shootings in Georgia on the first week of school. Yet another indiscriminate shooting by a young man, heavily armed and taking lives without compunction or remorse. Unfortunately, within days people on the right and left of the political spectrum will start … More Praying for the Nation’s Soul
I made a mistake this morning. I picked up Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and read the first sentence, then I read the first paragraph and before I knew it, I was two chapters in and now I am hopelessly committed to reading the book again, for the fifth time. Don’t be too impressed. The chapters are … More Confession: I’m Addicted
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