On Praying … From where I’m sitting I can see two women sharing a meal and chatting. Well, almost chatting. One lady is doing all the talking and the other is doing all the listening. Hardly a conversation. I pondered this and considered the implications. The talker evidently felt she was the only one with […]
Archive | January, 2013
60 Seconds of Pastoral Pondering He was a fellow minister, although almost twice my age. We didn’t know each other well, but he had stumbled on to me and needed a listening ear. His tale was one that many in ministry could relate to … relationships run amok in a small congregation. There were sides […]
Apparently Is Not The Same As Actually
“It looks dead out there,” my wife said, looking into our backyard. And she was spot on correct. From the brown grass to the lifeless rose bushes, the bare butterfly bush and ‘branches only’ fruit trees … it all looked dead. And if I hadn’t seen it happen every spring for many decades I would […]
Dangerous Assumptions
“While you did all this, I remained silent, and you thought I didn’t care.” Psalm 50:21 “The Lord isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.” (Psalm 94:7) It’s dangerous for an individual to make assumptions about God. And it’s dangerous for a nation to do so also. The two […]
Bark At Your Own Stuff
We have a ‘grand dog’ who is living with us on our acreage in the desert. She belongs to our son David whose temporary backyard cramps the style of an 80 pound lab. “DD” (David’s Dog) has a habit shared by many of her canine relatives. She barks at what other dogs bark at. She […]
Hope With a Long Shelf Life
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20 NIV In one of the most emotionally charged scenes in the entire Bible, we become the ‘fly on the wall’ and witness it firsthand. Joseph, now the second in command in […]