Norman Vincent Peale once told about finding a big, black cigar when he was a little boy. Quickly he slipped into an alley and lit it up. Peale said it didn’t taste good, but made him feel grown up. Until…. Continue reading
Category Archives: Passage To Ponder
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Two weeks ago at the Southside Lectures Russ Bowman presented a lesson simply entitled, “Train Your Children.”
It was personal. Powerful. And penetrating. It was the impassioned plea of a father who has raised his children, continues to care about them, and fervently desires for Christian parents to seriously consider their God given family responsibilities Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder
Matthew 11:28-30
Richard Swenson is a physician, futurist, and author who wrote a book entitled, “Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.”He describes modern society as harried, hassled, and overloaded with no room left for rest.
Dr Swenson observes, “Overload is not having time to finish the book you’re reading on stress. Margin is having time to read it twice. Overload is fatigue. Margin is energy. Overload is red ink. Margin is black ink. Overload is hurry. Margin is calm. Overload is anxiety. Margin is security. Overload is a disease of our day. Margin is the cure.” Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder
Psalm 139
The other day our grandchildren, Miles and Katherine, came over to our house to swim. As we stood on the pool deck, Miles exclaimed, “Look, Papaw, there’s a black Asian beetle.”
Honestly, I didn’t know anything about its ethnicity. I just wanted to throw it out in the yard.
However, 8 year old Miles, began to speculate how it arrived from Asia. Maybe on a cargo ship from China, he opined. Regardless, he was very excited about the little bitty beetle. Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder, Psalms
Psalm 127
Steve Shepherd tells a story about some construction workers who drove to their local lumber yard. One of them walked into the office and said, “We need some four-by-twos.”
“You mean two-by-fours, don’t you?” The clerk asked.
The man said, “I’ll go check,” and went back to the truck. He returned and said, “Yeah, I meant two-by-fours.”
“All right. How long do you need them?” asked the clerk. Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder, Psalms
Psalm 19
“I take this [Ps 19] to be the greatest poem in The Psalms and one of the greatest lyrics in the world,” opined C. S. Lewis in his book Reflections on the Psalms.
Multiple commentators and authors laud Psalm 19 as one of the noblest and greatest examples of Hebrew poetry. I would encourage you to pause for a minute and read it.
The Psalm naturally divides itself into three sections all of which ultimately give glory to God, proclaiming His reality and affirming His everlasting existence Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship, Passage To Ponder
Psalm 115
“Is God Dead?”
These 3 words on the April 8th issue of Time Magazine stirred the emotions of a nation in 1966.
I remember it. I was a senior at Cascade High School in Clayton, Indiana. Not that I remember seeing the magazine, because my Dad subscribed to Truth Magazine, not Time Magazine. Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder, Psalms
Psalm 8
The 17th century German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, was said to be a deeply religious man who was a Creationist.
The story’s told, though it may be apocryphal, that Kepler was troubled by a friend who denied God’s existence. In order to convince him, Kepler constructed a model of the universe with the sun and the planets revolving around it.
When the friend visited his Observatory one day and saw the model, he exclaimed, “How beautiful it is! Who made it?” Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder
Psalm 2
It has been said that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was often bored by those long receiving lines at formal White House functions. Furthermore, he was convinced that people really didn’t listen to what was being said.
While the story may be apocryphal, it’s told on one occasion to test his theory FDR graciously smiled at each person, shook their hand and said in a very kind way, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder, Psalms
Psalm 73
In a 2003 Parade Magazine column, Ask Marilyn, Marilyn vos Savant gave an interesting perspective on contentment.
A reader was bothered that her neighbor’s yard looked better than her own. So, she did something unusual. She walked over to her neighbor’s house to look at her own yard. When she did, the grass in her yard looked greener.
“Why does this occur?” the reader asked Continue reading
Filed under Passage To Ponder, Psalms
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