A much-overweight, out-of-shape man decided to take up tennis. He took several lessons from a pro. He also read several self-help books which advised him to “think positively” and “develop a winning attitude.” A friend asked him how his tennis was going. He replied,...
Too many churches track their turnstiles more than their turnarounds, turnabouts and turning points: There is a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip: “I need to get a heart rate monitor.” The tiger asks “What for?” “To make sure I’m chewing at...
What is going on here? The root system is what grew that first four years. It was growing down and out, not up and up the first four years. The Apostle Paul’s ministry was a Chinese bamboo tree ministry. Because his mission to the Athenians resulted in only a...
One wonders what was the back-story behind this legislation published in 1631 by the Virginia House of Burgesses: “Ministers shall not give themselves to excess in drinking or riot, spending their time idly by day or night, playing at dice, cards or any other unlawful...
“Walking now with joy and not with fear, in a clear, steady sight of things eternal, we shall look on pleasure, wealth, praise, all things of earth, as bubbles upon the water, counting nothing important, nothing desirable, nothing worth a deliberate thought, but only...
“When conscience does hurl its chastening bolt, it strikes through our inmost being and down the length of our days. And after such a blow there is no telling who of us will emerge tempered from the storm.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “Lightning,” as...
