This is the time of year we are beginning t0 receive tax forms from various financial entities. It reminds us that April 15 is coming, to get our records together and file our income taxes. And then pay up!
While we may grumble to some extent about taxes, the waste of government and the supposed inequities in the system, taxes are necessary. Continue reading
Filed under Great Bible Verses
Several years ago I attended an event at a local high school. As I drove into the parking lot, a bumper sticker on a student’s car caught my eye. I’ve never forgotten it. It was only two words. But they say a lot. Continue reading
Filed under Authority
Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day. It is a national holiday, signed into law by President Reagan in 1983 to celebrate the life and work of the slain civil rights leader. The holiday is observed on the third Monday of January, but today it actually falls on his birthday, January 15.
While King’s legacy is his fight for justice, equality, and peace through non-violent resistance, he preached personal accountability, not only to his African American brothers and sisters but to all people. Continue reading
Filed under Word of the Week
William Barclay relates a story from Robert Louis Stevenson in The Master of Ballantrae who writes about the master leaving the ancestral home of Durrisdeer for the last time.
There is a sad scene in which he is talking to the faithful family steward. “Ah! M’Kellar,” he said, “Do you think I have never a regret.”
“I do not think,” said M’Kellar, “that you could be so bad a man unless you had all the machinery for being a good one.” Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living
Recently in our adult Bible class at West Main we were studying the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4. Leah Farquhar, who is a school nurse and the wife of one of our Shepherds, offered this insightful analogy.
“When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He answered each temptation with ‘It is written.’ This reminded me of Psalm 119:11, “Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
During the American Revolution, a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them.
Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, “Sir, I am a corporal!” The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. Continue reading
Filed under Great Bible Verses
It was on this day 11 years ago that Steve Jobs stood before the Macworld convention in San Francisco dressed in his customary jeans and black mock turtleneck and introduced the iPhone.
Jobs said the iPhone was “revolutionary” and a “magical product” that was “literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone.” The iPhone and Steve Jobs’ visionary leadership turned Apple into one of the most valuable corporations in the world. Continue reading
Cal Thomas tells a touching story that recently occurred while he was on a vacation crossing the Irish Sea on a Ferry.
While having breakfast in the lounge he noticed a young father playing with son, who he guessed to about 3 years year old. “The child said ‘Daddy’ in tender and loving way that it touched my heart,” Thomas wrote. Then suddenly the child “became ill and started throwing up and crying loudly.” Continue reading
Filed under Word of the Week
Approximately 40% of all children born in the United States now occur out of wedlock, according to a recent Senate report.
“The sharp rise in nonmarital births is a result of a complex mixture of moral, behavioral, and social changes given how the Sexual Revolution overhauled the American landscape,” noted Robert VerBruggen, deputy managing editor of National Review. Continue reading
Filed under Marriage
I recently came across an article from Forbes entitled “Why The World Is Getting Better And Hardly Anyone Notices It” written by Steve Denning.
“Read the news and you can see that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket—and fast!” writes Denning. “Terrorism, nuclear weapons, economic stagnation, social unrest, autocratic leaders, structural unemployment, deskilling, growing hopelessness, the opioid epidemic, increasing inequality, xenophobia, economic migrations, recessions, financial bubbles and crashes, recessions, depressions—the list goes on.” Continue reading
ThePreachersWord 