During our current crisis in dealing with COVID-19, President Trump has often characterized himself as a wartime President in fighting this vicious virus.
He often compliments doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals who are on the front lines combating this “unseen enemy” as “warriors.” The other day in the Oval Office, he described American citizens as “warriors” in fighting this deadly pandemic. Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, COVID-19
Yesterday one of my friends on facebook saw some of our pictures with the brethren in Costa Rica and shared this post.
“And this is how I want to spend my ‘retirement.’ Y’all are sprinting to the finish line!! I love it.”
I chuckled. Then I thought “sprinting toward the finish line” means I’m nearing the end of the race. So I responded, “I hadn’t thought about it exactly like that. Maybe you could say we’re starting the last lap.” Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living
Last night during the Alabama-Clemson national championship football game, there were some clever commercials. But the most amusing was AT&T’s ad with the catchphrase “Just Ok is not OK.”
The ads depict various situations where settling for ok is unacceptable. One shows a man in a hospital bed waiting for surgery. While his anxious wife looks on, she asks the nurse about the doctor and she responds, “He’s ok.”
In another scene, an artist tells a man getting his first tattoo that he’s “one of the tattoo artists in the city” and that the result is going to look “OK.” Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, Growth
The story is told of the great British explorer, William Edward Perry, who led an expedition to the Arctic Ocean in the early 1800’s.
They wanted to go farther north to continue their charting. So they calculated their location by the stars and then started a very difficult and treacherous march north. Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living
Friedrich Schleiermacher was an 18th century German philosopher and theologian. He became famous for trying to reconcile the criticisms of The Enlightenment with “traditional Protestant Christianity.” He is often called “the Father of modern liberal theology.”
The story is told that one day as an old man he was sitting alone on a bench in a city park. A policeman saw him and thought he was a vagrant. So he came over, shook him and asked, “Who are you?” Schleiermacher sadly replied, “I wish I knew.” Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living
Yesterday Norma Jean and I spent the day driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leaves appear to be at their peak and it is gorgeous. But to break up the drive we stopped at Mount Mitchell and walked to the top. It’s the highest peak East of the Mississippi.
We also stopped at Linville Falls and hiked from the Ranger station to the Falls. The trail was rocky. Uneven. And overgrown with roots. There were places where the trail was slippery. Rugged. And steep. In fact, it was uphill…both ways! Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, Discipleship
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
In a particular PEANUTS cartoon, the team “statistician” brings Charlie Brown, the manager, his report.
“I’ve compiled the statistics on our baseball team for last season,” Linus says. “In 12 games we ALMOST scored a run and in 9 games the other team ALMOST didn’t score before the first out. In right field, Lucy ALMOST caught 3 balls and once ALMOST made the right play.”
“We led the league,” he concludes, “in ‘ALMOSTS,’ Charlie Brown.” Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, Discipleship
It happened 120 years ago. On September 7, 1892, James J. Corbett won the first heavyweight championship prize-fight in which the contestants used boxing gloves. Corbett won the match against John L. Sullivan with a knockout in the twenty-first round. That’s right the 21st round! However three-year earlier Corbett had to go 27 rounds, boxing with bare knuckles, to defeat fellow hall-of-famer Joe Choynski.
James J. Corbett also had a way with words. Knowing his background, we can appreciate them even better when he said: Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, Discipleship
Do you know what these people have in common? Nick Skelton? Taylor Ritzel? Kayla Harrison? Vincent Hancock? Kristin Armstrong? Continue reading
Filed under Christian Living, Discipleship
ThePreachersWord 