MATTER OR MIND My friend Paddy told about his bumping a neighbor up a notch to start him on the path to Christ. “The greatest obstacle this guy has, Pat, is that he thinks creation happened by chance, and with that viewpoint, how can He believe in Christ the Creator. “So I asked him a […]
BUT WHO IS JESUS? A young business woman named Grace was telling one of her friends about Jesus. “He healed the sick, raised the dead to life, drove demons out of those possessed, and walked on water.” “But who is Jesus?” her friend asked. “He taught his disciples about the kingdom of heaven and how […]
THREE POTS OF BOILING WATER There was a single mother with a teen-age daughter who complained about all the troubles she had at school and work, on her soccer team, and with all her friends, especially her boyfriend. She was complaining to her mother about all these things one afternoon after arriving home early from […]
A NEW PAIR OF SHOES Last summer, my friend Ron came across a young man standing in a parking lot, dressed shabbily and wearing a pair of shoes that were disintegrating on his feet. Moved by the Holy Spirit, Ron took him to a store and bought him a new pair of shoes. That would […]
DESPERATION Melissa was a devout Christian who began each morning with Scripture reading and prayer. Her mind was filled with the glory of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit…until she opened the front doors of Harrison Manufacturing. Then her mind became filled with supervising 100 people and all the other details of her […]
WORRYING CAN KILL YOU Last Sunday, Pastor Max started his sermon by reading part of an article from Leadership Journal. “The leading cause of death in the United States is not cancer or heart disease. That distinction belongs to the ‘bug’ of worry and anxiety.” The article went on to say that as many as […]
A GODLESS NATION Mssr. Claude Longet, a faithful Christ follower, was deeply dismayed by the godlessness of his country. “Our government is secular and our people have abandoned their Maker,” he would say. On a July afternoon in 2010, he was reading the 20th chapter of Ezekiel and stopped at verse 32 to pray. “O […]
HALF-COCKED “Fully cock your muskets men; the British are upon us,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jack Chamberlain to his regiment during the Battle of Saratoga. Private Thomas Stark did not heed his leader’s command and went off half-cocked (that is, with his gun in safety position). When an enemy soldier came upon him with bayonet drawn, […]
THE GARBAGE TRUCK One Thursday morning I stood looking out my office window at a garbage truck emptying trash put out the night before. The sun was just coming up, and my brain had not yet awakened to the day before me. It was a good time for the planting of metaphors, […]
WE Beverly was confused about what dying-to-self really meant. Her Christian friends and several pastors over the years declared how important this was but gave few specifics. The thought of giving up all she held dear was too much for her. One morning, as she was praying in her home office, the Holy Spirit […]