Shakespeare called it “the green sickness.” Bacon admitted “it has no holidays.” Horace declared that “tyrants never invented a greater torment.” Barrie said envy “is the most corroding of the vices.” Sheridan referred to it in his play The Critic when he wrote, “There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as this.” Philip Bailey, the eloquent English poet of yesteryear, vividly described it as “a coal [that] comes hissing hot from hell.”
Read MoreTag Archives: Philippians
Balance, Part One
Two extreme tests exist that disturb our balance in life. Each has its own set of problems. On one side is adversity. Solomon realized this when he wrote: If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! (Proverbs 24:10 NIV) The Message paraphrases that verse: If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. Adversity is a good test of our resiliency, our ability to cope, to stand back up, and to recover from misfortune. Adversity is a painful pedagogue.
Read MoreBigness
It was a cold, blustery January night in 1973. Senator John Stennis, the venerable hawkish Democrat from Mississippi, drove from Capitol Hill to his northwest Washington home. Although older (71), he was still the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. At precisely 7:40 p.m., Stennis parked his car and started toward his house 50 feet away.
Read MoreThink with Discernment, Part Two
Discernment is essential. Undiscerning love spawns and invites more heresy than any of us are ready to believe. One of the tactics of survival when facing “the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16) is to make certain we have cinched up the belt of truth rather tightly around ourselves. And what helps us do battle with the enemy also strengthens us in relationships with friends.
Read MoreWatch Out for Fakes
A friend of mine ate dog food one evening. No, he wasn’t at a fraternity initiation or a hobo party . . . he was actually at an elegant student reception in a physician’s home near Miami. The dog food was served on delicate little crackers with a wedge of imported cheese, bacon chips, an olive, and a sliver of pimiento on top. That’s right, friends and neighbors, it was hors d’oeuvres a la Alpo.
Read MoreWhat You Gain in Losing
FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN kept a plaque on his desk in the oval office which read: There’s no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit. Little wonder President Reagan achieved so much in his eight years as leader of the free world. Yet that principle was not original with him. It comes from the heart of God. Here’s how the apostle Paul stated it:
Read MoreVulnerability
Remember these words from yesterday? “I have not arrived . . . I forget what is behind . . . I move on to what is ahead.” Over the next few days, I want to examine each part of this statement from the pen of the apostle Paul.
Read MoreAn Attitude of Strong Determination
Paul commands believers to possess the attitude of strong determination. He confesses, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind . . .” (Philippians 3:13–14).
Read MorePlaying Second Fiddle
I REMEMBER READING OF Leonard Bernstein, the late, legendary conductor of the New York Philharmonic, giving an insightful answer in an informal interview. Following a televised performance, one admirer asked: “Mr. Bernstein, what is the most difficult instrument to play?” With quick wit and without even a thought he replied:
Read MoreI, Me, Mine, Myself
Let’s admit it; ours is an age of gross selfishness. The “me” era. And we get mighty uncomfortable even when God begins to make demands on us. Of course, our inner “self” doesn’t want to dump God entirely.
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