Month: August 2014

America’s Nero?

  

So now we’re sending humanitarian aid—finally—to those displaced in Iraq by the bloodthirsty ISIS terrorist organization. And we’re dropping a few bombs on ISIS positions. I wonder how many Americans have been fooled into thinking this somehow represents decisive action? I don’t recall which military spokesman it was, but someone in the last day or two clearly stated that our pinprick policy of bombing wasn’t going to put any real dent in the ISIS forward movement. Back when President Obama… Read more »

The Pilgrim Story: Dealing with Death

  

The Pilgrims survived the voyage to the New World. They avoided civil disorder by establishing the Mayflower Compact. But they weren’t able to escape the specter of disease and death. How did they handle this new challenge? First, they had to search out a place to call home. They sent out a party of men to try to find an opportune piece of land, but the Cape Cod area wasn’t hospitable to farming, and they also had their first encounter… Read more »

Those Dark Nights of the Soul

  

A couple of Sundays ago, I offered an excerpt from Winkie Pratney’s book The Thomas Factor: Dealing with Doubt. As I’ve been steadily reading it, using it as a devotional, I keep coming across passages that make things so crystal clear, I want everyone to read them. So I have another section of the book to give you today. It’s in a chapter where Pratney is talking about how every Christian experiences, for want of a better phrase, “the dark… Read more »

Lewis: Stop Making Mud Pies

  

“The Weight of Glory,” a sermon delivered by C. S. Lewis at Oxford in 1941, has to rank in the upper echelons of all his thinking/writing. It is filled with memorable images. One of the best is this one: If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics… Read more »

Pray for the Persecuted

  

I’m not going to say much today, except to draw attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. Latest reports are that even children are being beheaded by radical Islamists. They have no mercy. Please devote at least a few minutes to praying for those suffering this persecution. We need to remember those who are standing for our Lord. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as… Read more »

The Pilgrim Story: The Mayflower Compact

  

Probably everyone has heard of the Mayflower Compact, but I wonder how many really know its significance? I’ll address that today as we continue our trek through American history. As I noted in my last Pilgrim post, getting to America was a major trial in itself. The preparations put this small band deeply in debt and the voyage was memorable, to say the least. They wouldn’t soon forget the storms and the cramped living conditions. Yet, up to this point,… Read more »

Obama’s Strange Dichotomy

  

It’s a strange dichotomy. On the one hand, President Obama is fully engaged, while on the other, he’s about as disengaged as a president can be. What am I talking about? On his watch, government has become more intrusive than ever, yet America has nearly disappeared as a world power. I say that’s strange, but the more I think about it, it actually makes sense in an Obama kind of way. He believes fervently that government direction and control over… Read more »