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The Loyalty Factor
Loyalty is the quality of devotion or attachment to somebody or something. It’s both a feeling and an action. Some of us by nature tend to be loyal. Others of us are more skeptical, preferring instead to be mavericks out on our own. Loyalty is being tested everyday in homes and businesses and human relationships across this planet. Who demands your loyalty or has the right to it? Do they receive it from you? How good are you at remaining loyal? Loyalty affects how you approach life—God’s way or the world’s way. I remember being struck by this “loyalty factor” as I watched The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). A man named Edman…
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Lessons Learned in Narnia
Eustace “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader pg. 1 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Philippians 2:3 (Net Bible) If you, like me, have fallen in love with C. S. Lewis’ world of Narnia then you may be quite familiar with Eustace, one of the main characters inThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Though you may remember him well, you may not think quite so well of him. He does begin as most definitely “a…
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A False god to Bring You Comfort in “The Shack” (“The Shack” Review, part 2)
“True worship must worship God as He exists, not as we wish Him to be. The essence of idolatry is the making of images of God. An image is a shadow, a false representation. We may not bow before a statue or a figure, but if we make an image of god in our mind that is not in accord with God’s revelation of himself, then we are not worshipping in truth….” writes James R. White. “If we love Him and worship Him as He deserves, we will not dare to ‘edit’ Him to fit our desires.”[1] “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew…
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Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth War. Every decade of my life has been scarred by war. It seems to me that we have a constant longing for peace and a constant reality of war. It began for me when I was in first grade, just barely learning to read, and I used to spread the newspaper out on the living room floor, mostly to look at the pictures. I still remember one vivid scene from World War II of a US ship at sea spewing black smoke on its way to destruction. I also remember the wild celebration on VJ day, as all our neighborhood poured out of our…
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The Birth of Christmas: The son of god and The Son of God
The year was 4 BC, and much of Galilee was in turmoil. Caesar Augustus, the son of god, had ordered a census for tax purposes, and some in Israel had to go to their home communities to comply. So it was that an unknown couple, Joseph and Mary, from an obscure town called Nazareth of Galilee had to go to a small village named Bethlehem nearly 100 miles away. To complicate things even more, Mary was pregnant and about to deliver her firstborn son, Jesus. Caesar Augustus, Gaius Julius Octavius, was one of the greatest leaders in history. A brilliant administrator, a talented team builder, aware of his…
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God’s Thoughts and Ways – Part VIII (Joseph)
Joseph from Servanthood to Ruler Joseph knows from his youth that he will be a leader in charge of many. This is the destiny that God has put into his heart. However, those closest to him can not see it.
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How Roger Miller influenced my ministry!
In February of 1966, singer/songwriter Roger Miller released a song called Husbands and Wives. The song was a hit for the artist and has been covered by several other big name artist including the Everly Brothers, Neil Diamond, Brooks and Dunn and Ringo Star…a Beatle sang this song – how cool is that! It is a sad song about a couple breaking up because their own pride has driven them apart. The lyrics of the song go as follows: Two broken hearts lonely, looking like Houses where nobody lives Two people each having so much pride inside Neither side forgives The angry words spoken in haste…
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Humility: The Art of Self-Forgetfulness
This Lenten season I’ve been reading The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. In this eloquent novel that cuts to the heart, Lewis writes about the basics of Christian life, our relationship with God, and how to avoid temptation. The fictional novel is written from the point of view of Screwtape, a senior demon, to Wormwood, a lesser demon, on how best to tempt humans and limit their spiritual growth. Since Lent is a season of reflection, repentance, and renewal, I’ve appreciated how Lewis draws my attention to the many ways in which I wander from God and the grace with which God calls me back. Over and over again, I’m…
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Restore to Me
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.” Psalm 51:10–12 (NLT). Italics mine I wish I could say it’s easy for me to go to God whenever I mess up. It’s not. Instead I want to do something—anything so I can feel good about myself before approaching God. This should satisfy God. That should make it all better. He’s not mad at me anymore. Throughout the Psalms, we see the intimate relationship…
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M*I*S*T*A*K*E*S – reponding to and living through them
According to Webster Collegiate Dictionary a mistake is “a wrong action or statement proceeding from faulty judgment, inadequate knowledge or inattention” with synonyms being: error, blunder, slip, lapse (forgetfulness, inattention as a cause). We’ve all made them – mistakes. That is why in first grade we had #2 pencils with strong erasers on them to correct our math errors and begin again. Horrors if you happen to get an eraser that made more black marks than it erased. The eraser allowed us to start over and begin again. Then came “white out” that you used on the old-fashioned typewriters to correct “typos.” Unfortunately there was no eraser big enough to…
