As some of you have noticed, I have not been posting or commenting as often on this blog which is no longer connected to Our Daily Bread Ministries (formerly RBC Ministries). Part of the reason for the change is that, on reaching the age of 65 (three years ago), I decided it was time for […]
While watching a PGA golf match on television the other day, I caught an interview with the professional who, at that point, was on top of the leader board. When he was asked, “Do you have a strategy for what it’s going to take to handle the pressure and win this tournament?”, I expected him […]
For much of my life I’ve had trouble with the word holy— and with those who seemed to love and long for it. My associations with the word— didn’t seem to put a good face on God. Left me thinking of him as distant, frightening, and not like someone I want to be with. So […]
What do the questions we ask, or don’t ask, say… About us? About our thoughts of one another? About what we think we already know? What about the questions we ask, or don’t ask, about God? Why am I asking? Maybe because I’ve been listening to conversations, to the way people like us sometimes talk […]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is widely remembered as a German author and pastor who was arrested in 1943 for his role in resisting the policies of the Nazi government. While in prison he continued to write and was assisted by sympathetic guards who smuggled his letters to the outside. He was executed on 9 April 1945 as […]
While reading an article on what the Apostle Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit, I was struck by the author’s reminder of something that we might regard as either too obvious to mention, or a wonderful re-discovery of what we already know. The author pointed out that it’s important to remember that the fruit […]
Someone left the backdoor open. Until recently no one realized the problem. Computer hackers could come and go without being noticed. While the technical side of the internet and computing world may elude us, the idea of an unlocked door to our personal information probably isn’t too hard to understand. Thanks to alarms set off […]
In Old Testament times, innocent people could find temporary shelter by running to “cities of refuge” or by getting to and hanging on the “the horns the altar” of sacrifice. But that was for those who i.e. unintentionally harmed others. What about those who were guilty? Only with the Cross of Christ do we see […]
As baseball season returns, I bumped into an old story that still makes me smile. My apology to cricket fans, and the March Madness of college basketball. Three baseball umpires are each asked how they call balls and strikes. The first explains,”If a thrown pitch crosses the plate between the knees and the shoulders, it’s […]
In these health-minded times, we may have lost a proverb. It’s been a while since I’ve heard, “Whatever you do, keep your eye on the donut… and not on the hole.” Maybe switching to bagels could help us recover one of life’s most important lessons. From the beginning of time it’s been an issue. We […]
