During my years in college and seminary, my eyes began to experience tiredness and some blurriness with all the reading that was required. The optometrist prescribed glasses for me with some correction in the lenses to help me with the reading. Over the years, my eyes have continued changing with age, and stronger and different lenses have been prescribed to help improve my vision. About two months ago, the optometrist said that new glasses were no longer the answer and he

Recently, I have been reading through the Psalms in the Bible. Often, I have noticed multiple phrases from several Psalms that all carry the same instruction: "Let us sing praises to the Lord" "Make a joyful noise to the Lord" "Sing praises to the Lord" "Sing to the Lord a new song" At times in the Psalms, David includes the instruction to sing with the lyre, with trumpets, with horns, with the lute, and with the harp. In 1 Chronicles 25, David is helping prepare for the te

In 1915, a WWI battle raged in Belgium for 17 Days. John McCrae, a medical doctor tended to many of the wounded in that battle. One of McCrae's best friends was killed in that battle. McCrae penned the poem "In Flanders Fields" to memorialize the battle and to remember his friend who died in the battle. The poem reminds us even today of those who have given their lives in the fight for freedom worldwide. IN FLANDERS FIELDS by John McCrae "In Flanders fields the poppies grow

There is an old saying that the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. My intent this week is not to dispute or discuss that saying. Rather, I want to add another item that all of us will most likely face once or perhaps many times in our lifetime. As you might guess, I have revealed that particular item in the title of this article - dealing with painful situations. Early confession - I am not an expert in dealing with painful situations whether I am th

How is your Mothers' Day being spent? For some it is recalling pleasant memories of years gone by. For others it is with a gift of a card and flowers and a good meal. For still others it is a telephone conversation across many miles. Visits in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and even hospitals will be the way for many to see Mom today. There was a day when the role of women was limited to that of being a housewife and the bearer of children. Those roles still

In our world there is a constant challenge to be the greatest. In the world of sports this is highly visible. This year the University of Indiana won the national championship for college football. The University of Michigan won the national championship for men's college basketball and UCLA won the national championship for women's college basketball. Let's not leave out the Seattle Seahawks who won this year's Super Bowl. Rory Mcliroy won the Master's Golf Championship a

Artemis II just completed a 10-day trip around the moon. Upon the return of the four astronauts who composed the crew of the Artemis II, individually and as a group, they spoke of their memories and insights they gained on the trip. Among other comments they talked about the beauty of the Earth, the vastness of space, the cohesiveness of the crew, and the realization of the exactness of creation. For each one it was an experience of a lifetime. Today, as I reflected upon t

When your children are young and you have loaded the car with suitcases, your children may ask - "where are we going?" You might give a destination, a person's name, or a subject like vacation. Children can then ask many more questions such as "how will we get there, who is going to drive, or how long will it take'? Of course everyone's favorite question is "are we there yet?" Now consider these parameters for the trip: You have no map. You have no specific destination. You

In 2017, The History Channel aired a documentary based on the work of graphic experts attempting to recreate a picture of Jesus from the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin is considered by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus following His crucifixion. The Shroud contains a faint image of a man who appears to have wounds similar to the ones the Bible describes regarding Jesus. To accomplish their task, they have used advanced 3D software to capture a more accurate image fr

Easter Sunday is the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, following His death on the cross. While I usually write an article filled with my thoughts and beliefs, today I am choosing to write only a few words of mine and copy the Biblical account of Jesus' resurrection. I encourage you to read a more complete account of the account of both the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus in Matthew chapters 26-28 in the Bi

There are numerous nouns you could use to fill in the blank found in the title of this article. One of the most common would be the word FAN. One definition of a fair-weather fan is a sports supporter who only cheers for a team when they are successful, winning, or popular, but loses interest or stops following them during losing streaks or hard times. It would be very easy to list examples of teams that had a strong fan base after a great season only to see it dwindle afte

Sometime during the month of March, school calendars have a week that is labeled as Spring Break. Teachers and students look forward to that week as a time of rest, vacation, or catching up. When the week is over and classes resume, a frequently asked question is "what did you do over spring break?" Spring Break is a fairly recent addition to school calendars (recent is a relative term based on a person's age). It didn't come into vogue until the late 1960s. By then I wa

In depth thinking in a world of chaos can result in a major headache. A few times a year I treat these headaches by listing some of my random thoughts that are usually anything but serious. Today is one of those days. To affirm for myself that my mind is not the only one with random thoughts or comments, I will begin this article with a snap shot from my college days during a class. In 1967 or 1968 I was enrolled in a European History class at Baylor University with Robert

The church where my wife and I are members is taking steps to create a new staff position. The person who will fill that position is already on staff but this will change his direction of ministry. While we know who is going to be in the new position, the first step of official church procedure involves the approval of a job description. The Personnel Committee has worked on the job description for some time and presented it to the church this past weekend. We gladly appro

By the time I turned six years old and began the first grade, it was obvious that I had inherited from my mother the constant habit of writing or drawing with my left hand. I was one of only two students in my first grade class who wrote with the left hand rather than the huge majority who were more comfortable writing with the right hand. I am thankful that no one ever nicknamed me Lefty. However, I have been in classes when the teacher would ask "how many lefties do we h

One of the most frequently traveled roads in the life of our minds is the road that proclaims "whatever I believe is true." Some individuals would give a little room for a difference of opinion by saying "well, at least it is true for me." These statements, while declaring an often held belief, are based on a false starting point. The real direction our minds should go is when something is true or is the truth, do I believe it? I have spent most of my life in the southern

We value our eyes and our eyesight. A survey by The University of Chicago Medical Center regarding which of the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) would be the hardest to lose revealed, not surprisingly, that a large majority replied sight. Most of us would probably agree with that result. We value our gift of sight because we can take in pictures of the beauty of creation, see the faces and features of our loved ones, and enable our steps to be safer to

Don't get the wrong idea from the title of this article. Neither speed skating, downhill skiing, luge, nor figure skating is the challenge that I picked up from the first three days of this year's Winter Olympics from Italy. Rather, the challenge that stands out to me began when Kirsty Coventry, the president of the IOC, spoke to the athletes at the Opening Ceremony. She acknowledged that each one was an individual, but more importantly they were all part of a team - a tea

(This article concludes this series that has been based on God's truth compared to how man has altered or changed that truth creating a tradition that is far different than what God's Word proclaims.) We don't have to do deep research to see the difference between how God views or sees us and how man has distorted that perspective creating a false impression of how God expects us to relate to others. To see this difference clearly, let me begin by describing how people see o

(This is my third article in a series of Breaking the Addiction of Tradition. Specifically, the focus is how man has altered God's truth and formed a tradition that is not the same as God's truth.) God gave to Moses the tablets of stone that contained the Ten Commandments. Over time the commandments expanded in the Old Testament to 613 laws. The Pharisees then developed between 1500 and 2000 additional commandments or subrules to make sure everyone understood what was abs