Most of us would honestly affirm that there are some things we like and other things that we don't like. Have you ever wondered which list is longer for you personally? Have you ever noticed whether your lists are comprised mainly of inanimate objects or people. When George H. W. Bush was President of the United States, he gained a great deal of media attention when he announced, "I do not like broccoli, and I haven't liked it since I was a kid and my mother made me eat it

When you go swimming, which end of the pool do you choose? As a child, no one in my family knew how to swim. While I enjoyed being in the water, I spent most of my time in the shallow end of the pool because I had not learned to swim. My first summer at Boy Scout Camp, I found out that a swimming test was required for placement in the pool. Many of my friends passed with flying colors and went to the deep end. I was a failure and wound up in the shallow end. At that mom

The Armstrong Browning Library is one of the best-known buildings on the campus of Baylor University. As a History and English Literature student, I spent many hours in that library and its classrooms. It is known around the world as housing the largest collection of books, letters, manuscripts and memorabilia related to Robert and Elizabeth Browning. The building and its contents didn't happen overnight. Dr. A.J. Armstrong served as chair of the English Department at Baylo

One of the questions asked often in church groups is "what is your favorite Bible verse?" Regardless of denomination of the church, the most frequent answer is John 3:16. Even among persons who do not attend church and may not be Christians, John 3:16 is often listed as a favorite Bible verse. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 Why do people state that John

In a few days the United States of America will celebrate its 250th Anniversary. The document we refer to as the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 2, 1776, and signed by 56 men on July 4, 1776. In essence, it was an official break-up document separating the American colonies from Great Britain and its King. John Adams felt that the decisive vote for independence on July 2 should be the anniversary date. He wrote to his wife Abigail these words: "The second d

During the end of May and in early June, high schools and universities across our nation hosted graduation ceremonies. Students received high school diplomas, college students had bachelor, masters, and doctorate degrees conferred upon them, and numerous other schools honored students with various other degrees and certificates of completion. Our youngest grandson was in that number of high school graduates in the Class of 2026. Now, it is off to college where he joins his

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last week I introduced this series of articles under the theme of Breaking the Addiction of Tradition. The basic focus is to see how man has often taken God's truths, altered them in some way, resulting in a tradition that no longer embodies God's truth. This week I want to take a step or two back into our calendar and consider once more the birth of Jesus. For many years I have been taught that God has a plan for your life. Likewise, parents, friends, and even ourselves

Truth has the potential to be replaced by a tradition that seems similar but is really far from the truth. We have just gone through a season of holidays that are filled with family traditions such as menu items and decorations. My focus is not on whether a family has turkey or ham for Thanksgiving or Christmas - that is a family preference (I am still very partial to my grandmother's recipe for dressing with the turkey on Thanksgiving). Rather, for the next several weeks I