An Invaluable Profession

Many professions draw public attention like a slice of watermelon draws flies. Those who practice those professions are constantly in the news. They provide abundant fodder for verbal lunch breaks. If it isn’t the money they make, it’s the company they keep or the trends they set or the controversy they create. Their notoriety is […]

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A Joyful Heart . . . It’s Good Medicine!

A few things in life are absolutely tragic. Some are mysteriously strange. Many, however, are just plain funny. There isn’t a day that passes in which I fail to see, hear, or read something that makes me smile. And because laughter is such effective therapy, I’m grateful that God dispenses this divine medication so frequently. […]

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Not to Worry…He’s Risen!

On the day Jesus was crucified, a sinister darkness blotted out the sun and smothered Jerusalem under a blanket of evil. It would have appeared to anyone seeing through eyes of flesh that the darkness, the devil, and death had defeated the Son of God once and for all. I will admit to you that […]

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Holding on Loosely

Shortly before her death, Corrie ten Boom attended our church. Following the service I met briefly with her, anxious to express my wife’s and my love and respect for her faithful example. She inquired about my family . . . how many children, their ages—that sort of thing. She detected my deep love for each […]

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Hope Beyond Failure

Rarely will one of God’s heroes show up in the Scriptures having lived a life free of failure. Take Peter, for example. As soon as you read the name, you remember his story. Peter experienced the extreme highs and lows of life—from days spent in blessed fellowship with Christ . . . to the heart-wrenching […]

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Getting Past Guilt: Overcoming Barriers to Feeling Forgiven

Puritan minister Richard Baxter warned about the emotional toll of carrying unnecessary guilt: “That sorrow, even for sin, may be overmuch. That overmuch sorrow swalloweth one up.”1 In his wonderful old English, Reverend Baxter captured the feelings of people who have not experienced forgiveness. Grief over past sins plunges them into a depth of sorrow. […]

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Marital Grace

So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. —Ephesians 5:33 NLT The more the grace of God is awakened in a marriage, the less husbands will attempt to control and restrict and the less wives will feel the need to “please no […]

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Reality Check

The older I get, the less excited I am about theory . . . and the more I care about reality. Who cares if the stuff that flows from my pen stimulates the intellect and gives folks fodder for philosophizing? So what if these words tickle ears and answer questions nobody is asking? Provocative, relevant, […]

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Passive Men, Wild Women

That phrase, Passive Men, Wild Women, isn’t original. It comes from psychiatrist Pierre Mornell, MD, whose book bears that title. It’s a good book, written in 1979, but you’d think the ink was still wet. The issue that concerns Dr. Mornell is as prevalent as it is relevant. And it is found in Christian marriages just […]

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