We are in the season of Thanksgiving—we are reminded to be grateful for the good and the bad. Sometimes it’s hard for us to see God’s good in a situation but that’s because we’re in the midst of it. We can’t see the situation from His perspective. We don’t know the good He is working out through these situations. It’s times like these that people think God has abandoned us, that He doesn’t care, that He’s forgotten our name. Nothing…
Jesus’ Return Galatians 1:4 “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.” As the day of Jesus’ appearing in the sky draws nearer, we see a more definable difference in those who truly have Jesus as their Lord, and those who don’t. For those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus, there is special protection in this scripture even in…
Often I hear people doubt the authenticity of the Bible. They don’t understand the role of the Scribe in Biblical times. These men spent long hours every day copying every jot and tittle of every word of scripture on to new scrolls. When they finished, they proof-read each line of each column. If there was one mistake in their new copy, they took a knife and sliced the new copy to pieces because it was flawed. To prove the high…
This past week I have had two occasions to be with long-ago friends. About a fourth of our high school graduating class met in the Ozarks for a long weekend. We revisited memories from days past, colored and warped by over 53 years of life since our graduation. The second group was a gathering of Christian sisters who went to the same church over 40 years ago. We came together from all over the map to celebrate one member’s 90th…
What if a doctor handed you a diagnosis today that you would die in a month? Would you get busy checking off items on your bucket list? Would you go into panic mode? Or would you try to tie up all the loose ends of your life? I spent a weekend recently watching CDs on inner healing by Frances and Judith McNutt. She shared the stages people go through when faced with that scenario. Stages of Dying: 1. Denial “This…
My husband’s channel surfing finally landed on the History channel recently. The program listed the world’s resources; gold, oil, and water, among other things. At the end of each segment, they stated the dollar amount of each resource in today’s market. At the end of the hour, they estimated the world’s total riches in so many quadrillion dollars. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get my head around that much money. All I can understand is that’s one…
There is none so deaf as he who will not hear, none so blind, who will not see, none so lame as those who choose their own destiny headed for utter darkness, alone, for all eternity. In this day of increased knowledge, theories abound. People who embrace these ideas consider them new and enlightening. In essence, these are the old lies dressed up in new clothes. Satan has been at this deception since the beginning. He told Eve to go…
Fifty-one years ago the Supreme Court handed down the ruling banning directed prayer in public schools. Today our schools are a miserable failure. Forty years ago the Supreme Court made abortion on demand the law of the land. To date, 156 million babies never had the privilege of seeing the light of day. On June 26, 2013, that same court took another step down the slippery slope by giving the nod for same sex couples to enjoy the same benefits…
I got the call from a fellow chaplain in Texas as I settled into a seat at my writer’s group last Friday. “Could you please make a call on Mr. Bennett’s* grandmother in Paola, Kansas?” “Sure,” I said. “But it will be a while. I’m over an hour away.” “That’s all right. Just so you see her by this afternoon. According to the nursing home personnel, she’s suffering from heart failure. They’ve called in hospice.” “Will do.” “Mr. Bennett is…
My niece called the other day with this question. “Aunt Sally, what is our heritage?” “Yours is mostly English. Why?” “Well, maybe that’s not what I want to know. I mean what’s my ethnicity?” “White bread, honey. White bread. Our ethnicity doesn’t really make a difference. We’re all descended from Adam and Eve, ultimately.” As I thought about it later, what I said to her was true. We’re all a part of God’s creation. But not all of us are…