I’ve never been to Rio de Janeiro. But I’ve seen the picture. You know the one. It’s the famous “Christ the Redeemer” statue that overlooks the city.
It’s 130 feet high. The wingspan is 63 feet. And the head is 9 feet tall! Those who’ve seen it in person marvel at its majesty. Author Max Lucado says the first time he saw the magnificent Cristo Redenter two things caught his eye through the telephoto lens of his camera. Continue reading
Filed under It's Friday. But Sunday's Coming!
Tonight the San Antonio Spurs play the Miami Heat in the final game for the NBA Championship. The series should have finished Tuesday night. But the Spurs didn’t finish!
The Spurs were in control with a 10 point lead going into the fourth quarter. And with 28 seconds to play they were up five points. Security guards were lining the floor. Yellow tape was being stretched around the court to keep the crowd from coming onto the floor. The victory platform was ready to be rolled out on the court. In 28 seconds the Spurs would celebrate their fifth championship. But something happened on the way to the victory stand. Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, Victory
Suppose you are in a shopping center parking lot. As you head to the store, you see someone pull into one of the handicap spots. Then to your surprise a lively and pretty young lady who looks to be 19 or 20, jumps out of the car and heads to the store. She obviously is the picture of health. No crutches. No cane. No limp.
What would you do? Ignore it? Call the police? Confront her?
Here’s what one person did. Continue reading
Filed under Judging
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My story is really very simple,”, says Ryan Hreljac. “One day in January 1998, I was sitting in my Grade One classroom. My teacher, Mrs. Prest, explained that people were sick and some were even dying because they didn’t have clean water. She told us that some people walked for hours in Africa and sometimes it was just to get dirty water.”
“All I had to do was take 10 steps from my classroom to get to the drinking fountain and I had clean water. Before that day in school, I figured everyone lived like me. When I found out this wasn’t the case, I decided I had to do something about it.” Continue reading
Filed under Ministry
“Sundays are usually the only time subway’s are peaceful. But this particular morning in the midst of a quiet time of reading and relaxing the peace scene was shattered when a father with two boisterous children burst in the car. They were loud, obnoxious, and totally out of control as they raced around the car even grabbing people’s newspapers”
If you were on the subway, what would you think? How would you feel toward the father? What would you say? Well, it happened to Stephen Covey author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In the book he describes his irritation. Continue reading
Filed under compassion, Word of the Week
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
Filed under Cross, It's Friday. But Sunday's Coming!
A poem that I memorized years ago by the British poet, Alexander Pope came to mind this week. It goes like this.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too often, familiar with her face,
We first pity, then endure, then embrace
The moral code and compass of our culture has moved considerably during my life time. The things that were once shocking and abhorrent, are now accepted, endured and in some circles embraced. Continue reading
Melvin Newland relates a touching story from the Special Olympics several years ago. The children were having a great time and competing with tremendous dedication and great enthusiasm. One event was the 220-yard dash. The contestants came to the starting line and at the signal took off as fast as they could.
One boy by the name of Andrew quickly took the lead. And soon was about 50 yards ahead of everybody else. As he approached the final turn he looked back and saw that his best friend had fallen and hurt himself on the track. Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, compassion, Ministry
On this day in history 83 years ago William Beebe set a record. On June 11, 1930, Beebe dove to a record-setting depth of 1,426 feet off the coast of Bermuda. He used a diving chamber, invented by Otis Barton, called a bathysphere.
This caught my eye because of the derivation of the word “bathysphere.” It’s a compound word. The first part comes from the Greek word “bathos” which means deep. It’s used by Paul in explaining the revelation of God’s Word by the Holy Spirit. Continue reading
Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of the television set when Lucy said to Linus, “Go get me a glass of water!”
Linus looked surprised, “Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me.”
“On your 75th birthday,” Lucy promised, “I’ll bake you a cake.”
Linus got up, headed to the kitchen and said, “Life is sure more pleasant when you have something to look forward to.”
Our Bible word of the week is “hope.” Continue reading
Filed under Hope, Word of the Week
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