Category Archives: Discipleship

Forbes reports a new poll from the Monmouth University Polling Institute that ‘a stunning 88% of Americans now believe the U.S. is on the wrong track and just 10% believe it is on the right track.”

The issues concerning Americans are gas prices, the economy, bills, abortion, guns, and COVID-19, in that order.

Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said “most Americans are blaming Washington for their current pain.” Continue reading →

This morning I received this nice email from a sister in Wisconsin with a comment and a question.

“I watched your lesson entitled,” How do I Connect with God” last week, Tuesday. What an excellent lesson!”

“I do need help in understanding how happenstance jives with 1Thessalonians 5:18, ‘In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’ You really made me think, I just need help understanding this.”

“I cultivated the habit of thanking God FOR EVERYTHING, quickly.  If it was sad news I would thank God. After hearing your lesson I’m not sure about this. Then I heard your lesson and I believe my reasoning/thinking is off and I don’t know how to reconcile these two and make them mesh. I would appreciate it if you could guide me to right thinking.”

Continue reading →

There’s an old story about a little girl who proudly wore a shiny cross on a chain around her neck. One day she was approached by a man who said to her,

“Little girl, don’t you know that the cross Jesus died on wasn’t beautiful like the one you’re wearing? It was an ugly, wooden thing.”

She was surprised by the stranger’s affront.  But then quickly replied: Continue reading →

“I hated shining shoes in Basic Training,” recalls Nebraska preacher John Telgren.

“There were other things I would rather be doing.” John said “instead of sitting on the floor with a brush and mounds of cotton balls stained with black Kiwi shoe polish. If our boots and dress shoes were not perfect we paid for it dearly.”

He relates a story where one of the guys in his unit discovered a product called “Shine Sponge” that was supposed to produce an effortless shine just by applying the product with a sponge. Almost everyone tried it and it produced “almost an unearthly shine” on their footwear. Continue reading →

“People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy,” once quipped the 18th-century Anglo-Irish essayist, playwright, and poet Oliver Goldsmith.

In an age of extreme individualism that sets oneself as the standard, that parrots such expressions as “I must live for myself,” or “I must be true to myself,” and “I can only know what is right and wrong for me,” Goldsmith’s observation finds modern-day application. Continue reading →

“No one undertakes a journey alone. We depend upon others constantly–in ways both tangible and intangible–to move us toward our destination,” observes John Maxwell in his little book Relationships 101.

“We cannot succeed without the help of others, but forming positive relationships can be a challenge,” Maxwell opines. This is true in business. In politics. In sports. In the home. And in the church. Continue reading →