-
Salt and Light Online
Salt and Light Online During the pandemic, I was honored to be asked to address a student leadership conference for a Christian school in the Philippines via Zoom. Looking over my notes, there isn’t much here that doesn’t apply to ALL of us with any kind of online connection. In order to follow Jesus’ call to be salt and light, and applying it to online life, I’d like to take a look at dangers of the dark side of online life, as well as suggest ways to be wise in the use of this technology. The Comparison Trap I don’t think anything has fueled the temptation to compare ourselves to…
-
Why I Love to Learn I’m Wrong
As the webmistress for Probe.org, I love getting emails alerting me to typos, either in the content of our articles or the coding that keeps people from seeing or hearing what they are looking for. I love being able to fix mistakes; there’s a deeply satisfying sense of, “Ohhhh that’s better!” I want to get things right. I want to set things right. I want to BE right. That could certainly be about sinful pride, but there’s another side to it. I love truth, that which corresponds to reality. If I am mistaken—or worse, misled—about something, I love learning about it so I can shift, bringing my beliefs or my…
-
Is God Still Doing Miracles?
I asked Cara Polsley, author of the forthcoming book The Bible and the Holographic Universe, to share her faith-building story that encourages me to ask big, bold prayers of a God who is still willing to do the miraculous. Dr. Cynthia “Cara” Polsley is a writer, researcher, teacher, and speaker. An alumna of the University of Kansas (Classics), she received her Ph.D. in Classics (Classical Philology) from Yale University, with a background in Greek and Latin languages and linguistics, ancient civilization and history, and literature. Her work emphasizes social commentary, narratology, and the inerrancy and intricacy of the Bible. A spinal cord injury survivor and blogger at www.cpolsley.com, she is…
-
Pain: God’s Just-Right Tool
I wrote this blog post on May 7, 2012. When I ran it again almost five years later, I added this introduction: Not quite five years ago, when I originally wrote this, I had no idea that by this point, I would hardly be walking, using a scooter 95% of the time and unable to move without a walker for the rest. Pain and serious weakness are my daily companions. As I noticed the counts on my most popular blog posts and discovered this one among the top, I am grateful that the wisdom God gave me five years ago is even more true today. And I am grateful that…
-
Christmas SHINY!
I love shiny. I love sparkly, glittery, light-filled, dazzling anything. My motto is, “If it don’t shine, it ain’t mine.” And I’m not alone. When women visit Dallas, one of the most popular places for friends to take them is to a huge store that sells thousands of pieces of costume jewelry with more bling than you can imagine. Why do so many of us like shiny? I think it’s because we are hard-wired for worship and we long for heaven where even the streets gleam with gold, and beautiful jewels and pearls abound. Heaven is a shiny, glorious place that radiates the beauty of a shiny, glorious Savior. But…
-
Who Told You That You Were Naked?
There is a most interesting interaction in Genesis 3 between Adam and God after the Fall, when Adam and Eve sinned by rebelling against God’s command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God calls to Adam, who is hiding among the trees of the Garden of Eden, “Where are you?” Adam explains, “…I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked?” (3:11) Hmmmm. Interesting question, one that Adam doesn’t answer. The first thing the newly fallen man tells his Creator is that he was afraid, and he was naked. Up to this point, in a literally perfect world, there was no fear, and there were…
-
“My Daughter Says She’s a Boy–What Do I Do?”
A real question from a real mom: “Sue, my daughter insists she’s a boy. She has rejected all things feminine since she was a toddler. Now as a 15-year-old she says there’s a mismatch between her brain and her body. She wants “top surgery” (a double mastectomy) and testosterone to bring her insides and outsides into alignment. She says God made her this way and He doesn’t make mistakes so she is embracing a transgender identity. What do I do?” Oh sister. I am so sorry. I can only begin to imagine the pain, the chaos, and the conflict this is causing in your family. Let’s start with, what do…
-
Living with a Sense of Urgency
I asked my dear friend Caren Austen to write about the life-upending diagnosis that, in a single moment of time, changed absolutely everything about her life. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 Cerebral atrophy. That was the diagnosis resulting from a recent MRI. Deterioration of the brain. After judiciously researching the diagnosis, a consultation with a friend in the medical field confirmed the most likely cause that my brain is shrinking: Alzheimer’s. A singular moment with horrific implications. At 66, I was stung as the future I had anticipated seemed to be snatched away. The time I likely would not…
-
A Gift For You, A Gift to Give
I am delighted to republish this 2014 blog post featuring just AMAZING 4×6 scripture-plus-photography images that you can have printed for a penny apiece on the Snapfish phone app. I just ordered another hundred to give to nurse friends to share with their patients. Linda Tomczak, a gifted and generous graphic designer who works at Dallas Theological Seminary, has a contagious passion for the power of God’s word. A number of years ago, when a family friend was battling cancer, Linda printed out a few Bible verses and handed them to the lady, saying, “I have found it helpful to read Bible verses when I’m anxious. They remind me that…
-
How Should We Think About Pride Month?
How should Christ-followers think about Pride Month? Well, first, in case you are not aware, Pride Month is a time of highlighting and celebrating everything LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). You might have seen a few more letters tacked on—QQIAA (queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally). It’s hard NOT to notice it’s Pride Month when rainbows suddenly appear on all kinds of products and logos. Many cities have Pride marches, much of which is not safe to broadcast on the evening news because the behavior in these parades is definitely not family-friendly. How should believers think about it all? We need to pass our thoughts and judgments through the filter…
