One of the more popular television shows in past years has been “Dancing with the Stars.” Famous people are paired with professional dancers in a series of competitions for a shot for glory.
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While studying in Israel some time back, my wife and I were privileged to take a “day trip” to the Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, located in the city of Jerusalem. I can’t tell you how moving it was to walk through this heart-breaking display of mankind’s depravity.
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Here’s a phrase often batted around Christendom that you never read in the Bible. Ready? Be prepared for a surprise. Here it is: “Where do you go to church?”
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Jesus loved to tell stories. Many of these “parables” were offered to correct notions about what God was like and who God loved. One of these stories is known as the Parable of the Great Banquet. It speaks of a lavish love that went beyond all expectation.
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Do you know what the earliest Christian symbol was? You might guess the cross. That would certainly be the most popular answer. Yet that’s not case. Early on, believers were hesitant to display it publicly lest they be persecuted for their faith, so the cross was downplayed.
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I have this odd pattern inside of me. When somebody is speaking into my life, if they compliment me, I'm quite ready to hear that. I love hearing in graphic detail how well I’m doing and where I’m growing. It makes me feel so good. But if they're going to say something that is confrontational about my character, about my need for growth, such “bad news” isn’t nearly as welcome.
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Author Mark Batterson makes an interesting observation: “There is a pattern I see throughout Scripture: Sometimes God won’t intervene until something is humanly impossible.” I think he’s right.
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The coed had two problems common to many college students: low grades and no money. She was forced to communicate both to her parents, whom she knew would have a problem understanding. After considerable thought she decided to use a creative approach to soften the blows of reality. Here’s what she wrote in her letter home:
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The story is told about how a little girl was late walking home from school. Her worried mother, while relieved to finally hear the girl come into the house, spoke sharply to her about her tardiness. “Where have you been? I told you to come home immediately after school,” the mother said.
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I read this story online.
A guy was being tailgated by a stressed out, angry woman on a busy street. Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing. He stopped at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
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I read a phrase recently that stopped me in my tracks. “We have a tendency to freeze people in time.”
The context of the phrase was a discussion about the challenge of forgiveness and the difficulty reconciliation. The point being that, when someone fails, disappoints, or hurts us we let that memory of what they did then define who they are now.
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Buried deep in the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel is an obscure passage of Scripture that, I’m guessing, very few of us have ever reflected on. “There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel..."
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The writer of Proverbs is right. “The right word at the right time in the right tone to the right person is pure gold.” My guess is you can remember getting a word like that from somebody. And that word you received was powerful. It not only warmed your heart. It boosted your spirit.
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In their never-ending quest to increase market share, advertisers will go to great efforts to get your business. One thing they have concluded is that the most attention-grabbing word potential customers and clients react to is their own name.
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The Apostle Paul offers here one of the classic texts regarding Easter and how Jesus’ resurrection demonstrated that He was bigger than death. It reminds me of a great story I heard some time back about a pastor in Minnesota who enjoyed a working relationship with the local funeral home director.
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The original recipients of this text would have heard these words with an awe and wonder that we could never know. They were very familiar with the curtain of separation described here. Sixty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and six inches thick it hung in the Temple in front of the most sacred of all spaces – the Holy of Holies. This was an area that was completely off-limits. Worshipers in that day were governed by strict rules of access.
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Most of us are familiar with the gospel accounts of the crucifixion on that gray Good Friday afternoon: the brutal nails pounded into Jesus’ hands and feet, the cruel mocking of the onlookers, the callous gambling of the soldiers, and the last words spoken by the dying Savior.
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One of the goals of companies these days is to come up with a high-impact logo that has the potential to get indelibly fixed in people’s minds. A symbol with enough appeal, that when people see it, they will not only think of the company, but will want to buy the company’s product.
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Elephants are powerful creatures, capable of amazing feats of strength, yet trainers can keep them in place with a rope and a small stake in the ground. No chains, no cages. How is this possible? It’s obvious that the huge animals could, at any time, break free. But they don’t. Why is that?
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In his book, If Only, Dr. Neal Roese makes a fascinating distinction between two types of regret: regrets of action and regrets of inaction.
A regret of action is “wishing you hadn’t done something.” In theological terms it’s called a sin of commission. By way of contrast, a regret of inaction is “wishing you had done something.” In theological terms it’s known as a sin of omission.
I have my fair share of action regrets.
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