June 7, 2019
"Beards, they grow on you". -Author unknown
In 2 Samuel 10, King David had sent his envoys into foreign territory. Their reception was not friendly. They were seized, their beards were cut off, and clothes cut short. David's reply upon hearing the news? "Stay there until your beards have grown back....
May 22, 2019
I found this special pronouncement online next to a picture of Jesus. Here it is: "You are going to Hell if you are not a member of our FREE online church The True Body of Christ Restored. You can access our entire website without being a member." I'm no expert, and normally, I won't be telling people what they should and shouldn't believe, but I'm going to go out on a limb here. The folks who put this little message online are either confused, troubled, or possibly just nuts. I listened to their video message and learned that although the website could be viewed for free, (yippee), the part where you "avoid going to hell" requires membership for which you are to pay them $100 every month...
May 7, 2019
How many of us have looked to the heavens and said these words. "Lord, if you really have a plan for us," heal our child, help me with this debt, make the flooding stop, save my marriage. You name it, we've asked.These two kids got a quick and amazing answer when they said those words. One caveat: If you are skeptical of the power of God, you should stop reading. You won't like this story...
April 21, 2019
Motivational speaker Wayne Dyer said that a lot of people drag a big bag of muck around with them everywhere they go. It is the rotted accumulation of all the disappointment, frustration, unfair things, and loss that they have experienced in their lives. Sometimes it even holds difficulties faced by past generations.So, they walk around with their bag and once in a while they take out a handful and kind of smear it on themselves so people can see how awful events have been for them...
April 7, 2019
We got a notice a couple of weeks ago asking if we or anyone we knew was in the crowd 51 years ago, on the night Bobby Kennedy stopped in Indianapolis during his presidential campaign. It was the night of April 4th, 1968 and Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed in Memphis earlier that day. Despite fears of riots and concerns for his safety, he went ahead with plans to attend a rally at 17th and Broadway in the heart of Indianapolis's black community...
March 21, 2019
A man was walking across a bridge when he spotted someone about to jump."Don't jump!" He said. "Are you a religious man?""Yes." The jumper replied."Me too." Said the walker. "I am a Baptist—remember God loves you!""I am a Baptist too," said the jumper."Are you a Southern Baptist, or an Independent Baptist?" Asked the walker."Independent." Said the jumper."Oh." Answered the walker, "Go ahead and jump!
March 7, 2019
The Bible is full of moving stories. You know, the ones where someone actually moves from here to there. We've seen Abraham being told to leave everything behind and "go to a place I will show you." There's Ruth who follows Naomi to a new place and a new life. Of course there's the amazing exodus of the Jews from Egypt, and the great commission that sent the disciples all over the known world. Suffice it to say there's a bunch of moving in the Bible...
February 21, 2019
I was with a group of friends recently in a coffee shop and two of them got into heated debate over potholes. (Yes, potholes.) Each offended the other in an effort to prove who was most informed and most powerful. This is getting pretty common. Friends are offended over a word spoken in error, drivers are offended when another driver goes too slow or too fast, shootings occur because a person felt disrespected, and politics: Don't get me started on politics, which we allow to divide friends and families to the extent that TV hosts give advice on how to "survive" holidays with relatives who have different political opinions. Let's face it, It is not a question of whether you will be given the opportunity to be offended but rather, what will be your response when that time comes...
February 7, 2019
Psalm 42:5: Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention.This is the low point of Winter. In February my mother used to lighten her hair color. February has never been kind to me either. I'm not complaining. But oh, the temptation is there...
January 18, 2019
Jim and I received an award this week called the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award.* I'm still trying to get my head around having received this. MLK was and is too big. Like when I was five walking around in my father's shoes. King was a superhero, an example of Christ on earth, staring down evil, motivating the spirit inside anyone who would really hear him to take up the good fight. So here we are two years into our work with UNITE INDY and I confess...
