Four Ways You Can Reflect the Truth

Think about your typical morning. After you roll out of bed, it probably isn’t long before you’re staring into a mirror. If you’re like me, most days your hair looks like an explosion from a mattress factory, your face resembles one of the Seven Dwarfs, and your breath is . . . well, let’s just […]

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A Rare and Remarkable Virtue

If one attempts to lead a congregation without this Spirit-given virtue, he is driven to frustration, irritability, and severity. His pulpit becomes an avenue of anger, his preaching a diatribe of demands, and his person insulting and intolerant as Diotrephes of old. No, God encourages me and my ilk to be “long-tempered.”

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Rumors

Abraham Lincoln’s coffin was pried open twice. The first occasion was in 1887, twenty-two long years after his assassination. Why? You may be surprised to know it was not to determine if he had died of a bullet fired from John Wilkes Booth’s derringer. Then why? Because a rumor was sweeping the country that his coffin was empty. A select group of witnesses observed that the rumor was totally false, then watched as the casket was resealed with lead.

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Dialogues of the Deaf

Listening. I don’t mean just hearing. Not simply smiling and nodding while somebody’s mouth is moving. Not merely staying quiet until it’s “your turn” to say something. All of us are good at that game—cultivated in the grocery store, local laundromat, or on the front steps of the church building.

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Short and Sweet

Average life spans are shorter than most of us realize. For instance, a face-lift lasts only six to ten years; a dollar bill lasts for only eighteen months; a painted line on the road remains only three to four months; and a tornado seldom lasts more than ten minutes.

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Externals vs. Internals

The nation to whom the prophet Isaiah wrote was going through the empty motions of a hollow religion. All the right words, all the right appearances, but zero results. They even fasted and prayed. I suppose we could say they looked and sounded orthodox, but they missed God’s favor. They observed the external Sabbath, but they lacked the internal Shalom. Why? Don’t hurry through the answer (Isa. 58:6–12). It’s worth reading aloud, perhaps more than once.

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Compassion

It was one of those backhanded compliments. The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastors’ conference. All he knew about me was what he’d heard in the past few days: ex-marine . . . schooled in an independent seminary . . . committed to biblical exposition . . . noncharismatic . . . premil . . . pretrib . . . pro this . . . anti that.

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To All Teachers

I’ve never had a strong desire to be a teacher. Don’t get me wrong. I admire tremendously those who teach. It was a teacher in junior high who taught me to love science. It was a teacher in high school who got me hooked on history. Another teacher helped me overcome stuttering and learn how to speak in public . . . how to think on my feet . . . how to pace the delivery of words . . . how to use humor. And it was yet another teacher who passed along the practical techniques I still use in digging pearls out of scriptural oysters.

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Back-Door Blessing

I had lunch recently with a businessman who runs his own company. As we talked, the subject of wisdom kept popping up in our conversation. So I asked, “How does a person get wisdom? I realize we are to be men of wisdom, but few people ever talk about how it is acquired.” His answer was quick and to the point: “Pain.”

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Adjustments

One of these days it should dawn on us that we’ll never be completely free of irritations as long as we are on this planet. Never. Upon coming to this profound conclusion, we would then be wise to consider an alternative to losing our cool. The secret is adjusting.

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