If your only goal is to love, there is no such thing as failure. Francis succeeded in living in this single-hearted way and thus turned all failure on its head, and even made failure into success. . . That eagerness to love is the core and foundation of his spiritual… Continue reading
Like many of you, I have lots of wonderful memories surrounding Thanksgiving. Most of them are centered around the table of my boyhood home where immediate and extended family feasted on wonderful food, binding memories, and hearty laughter. I also remember the fall leaves (autumn comes a little later in… Continue reading
We now come to our third story in Genesis—the story of Cain and Abel. The origins of this story probably explain the violent competition for land between herders and farmers at the beginning of civilization. Farmers need land to cultivate. Sheep herders need land to graze their sheep. Historically, even… Continue reading
Lewis Smedes once wrote, “Yahweh is the sort of God who sticks with what He is stuck with.” Any love that does not “stick with what it is stuck with” is not sacred and soon surrenders its splendor. A sacred love is precious, deep, and sacrificial. It’s unconditional and goes… Continue reading
John tells us what he sees in his vision. In the right hand of God he sees a scroll, written on both sides and sealed with 7 seals. And of course the crucial questions are, “What is the scroll? What does it represent? What is written on the scroll?” The… Continue reading
New Testament scholars are virtually unanimous regarding the message of Jesus. They maintain that his message was the Kingdom of God. He believed that the story of Israel was coming to a climax in his ministry, person, and destiny. All of his teachings were about God’s Kingdom. He forgave sins,… Continue reading
One of my favorite singing groups, the Canadian Tenors, wrote and perform a beautiful song entitled “Lead with Your Heart.” Here are some of its words: In this world, it’s hard to tell the shadows from the light.What is real can find a way to hide behind the lies. Don’t… Continue reading
I cried this week. I forced myself to watch one of the most powerful movies ever made: Schindler’s List. I watched it again for one reason. Last week a principal in Florida was fired for denying the Holocaust ever happened. I would assume that this man had a college education… Continue reading
Paul was angry when he wrote Galatians. We can tell that by how he introduced this epistle. All of Paul’s letters begin the same way. He opened his letters with a greeting (usually “grace and peace”) and then gave thanks for those persons to whom he was writing. First the… Continue reading
All our early American leaders had read Montesquieu, who differentiated despotism from monarchy from democracy. In each of these forms of society he found a governing principle: for despotism it was fear, for monarchy it was honor, and for democracy it was virtue. Because freedom was practically synonymous with virtue,… Continue reading
