The Trouble With Heroes
When I was a kid, I had a hero: Pete Maravich, a high-scoring basketball player who handled the ball like a magician.
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“Embroidery Of Earth”
Near one of the most majestic sites in God’s nature is a botanical garden of awe-inspiring beauty. On the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is the Floral Showhouse. Inside the greenhouse is a vast array of beautiful flowers and exotic plants. In addition to the flora my wife and I observed, something else caught our attention—the wording of a plaque.
Read More »The Power Of Praise
Praise is powerful! When Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne was troubled with a coldness of heart toward the things of the Lord, he would sing the praises of God until he felt revived in his spirit. Those in his household were often able to tell what hour he awoke because he began the day with a psalm of praise.
Read More »The Fairest
When I first became a Christian and started attending church at age 19, I immediately fell in love with singing the great hymns of the faith. My heart overflowed with joy and thanksgiving as we sang of God’s love for us in Christ. Soon one of my favorite hymns (from the late 1600s) became “Fairest Lord Jesus!” I love the simplicity of the melody and the awesomeness of the One exalted in these words:
Read More »The Final Opening Ceremony
Some words used to describe the opening ceremony of the 2008 summer Olympics were awesome, breathtaking, and extravagant. One commentator observed, “This shows what happens when you give an artist an unlimited budget.”
Read More »Music Of The Soul
In his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks devotes a chapter to the therapeutic role of music with people suffering from Alzheimer’s. He writes of watching people with advanced dementia respond to songs that bring back memories that had seemed lost to them: “Faces assume expression as the old music is recognized and its emotional power felt. One or two people, perhaps, start to sing along, others join them and soon the entire group—many of them virtually speechless before—is singing together, as much as they are able.”
Read More »Sing A New Song
At age 94, Pastor Willis was admitted into a care facility. From his wheelchair, he shared with joy how God had given him a new mission field to share the gospel. When he was bedridden a few years later, he spoke with enthusiasm of being in the best possible position to look up to God. When he died at age 100, Pastor Willis left behind a legacy of one who sang a new song of praise at every turn of his earthly life.
Read More »Royalty Recognized
As a kid, I loved watching the film Little Lord Fauntleroy. The story focuses on Cedric, a boy growing up in a poor home with his mother in Brooklyn. He discovers the stunning news that he is actually the direct descendant of the Earl of Dorincourt and the heir of a vast fortune. One day he’s a nobody playing “kick the can” on the streets of New York, and then suddenly he’s traveling through an English town to the cries of “Your lordship!” from adoring villagers.
Read More »Heaven’s Greatest Delights
What will be one of heaven’s supreme joys?
Read More »Bubbles On The Border
Stuck in a long line at the US-Canada border, Joel Schoon Tanis had to do something to lighten the mood! He reached for his bottles of bubble-making solution, bounded out of the car, and began blowing bubbles. He handed bottles to other drivers too, and he says that “soon there were bubbles everywhere. . . . It’s amazing what bubbles do for people.” The line didn’t move any faster, but “suddenly everyone was happy,” Joel says.
Read More »Hopeful Praise
One of my friends was in tears on a beautiful summer day, unable to deal with life’s difficulties. Another could not look beyond the life-altering sadnesses of her past. Still another struggled with the closing of the small church he had pastored faithfully. A fourth friend had lost his job at a local ministry.
Read More »The Arlington Ladies
In 1948, the US Air Force Chief of Staff noticed that no one attended the funeral of an airman at Arlington National Cemetery, and that deeply disturbed him. He talked with his wife about his concern that each soldier be honored at burial, and she began a group called the Arlington Ladies.
Read More »Lip Service
Smile,” said Jay as we drove to church. “You look so unhappy.” I wasn’t; I was just thinking, and I can’t do two things at once. But to make him happy, I smiled. “Not like that,” he said. “I mean a real smile.”
Read More »Making Melody
Do you know why bees hum? It’s because they can’t remember the words!
Read More »Breathless
When was the last time something took your breath away because of its majesty?
Read More »A Refresher Course On God’s Majesty
My book Disappointment With God explores three questions many Christians ask: Is God hidden? Is God silent? Is God unfair? It struck me that those questions did not trouble the Hebrews in the Sinai wilderness. They saw evidence of God every day, heard Him speak, and lived under a contract signed in His own hand. Out of this relationship emerged a great gift from the Jews to the world: monotheism—the belief in one sovereign, holy God.
Read More »Eating As Worship
When you walk into the bookstore and see a table filled with books on dieting, you know it must be January. After several weeks of overeating all kinds of holiday foods, people in many cultures turn their attention to not eating.
Read More »Awesome!
It’s an often-used word, and we hear it in the most unusual contexts. It’s the word awesome.
Read More »Empty-Handed
As the first green heads of grain formed on the spring barley in Israel, workers would tie a ribbon around each budding stem to set them apart from the still immature barley. When this marked grain ripened, it was harvested for the temple in Jerusalem because God had commanded that when they came to the feast, they should “not appear before the Lord empty-handed” (Deut. 16:16).
Read More »Fickle Followers
If you follow sports at all, you know that sports fans can change like the weather. A team’s star player can hear 70,000 cheering voices if he does well—or 70,000 booing voices if he messes up.
Read More »Dial 9 For Worship
You’re in the dentist’s office and it’s taking longer than expected. You’re late for another appointment, so you ask to use the phone. You dial the number twice and nothing happens. “How do I dial out?” you ask in frustration. “I’m sorry,” says the receptionist, “you need to dial 9 first.”
Read More »Rocks And Robots
During a walk through the picturesque Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, our attention was diverted from the huge, majestic, sandstone rocks toward two people wearing homemade robot suits. The park was thronged with summer tourists who immediately began taking pictures of the robots while their children gathered round to touch and talk to them. Folks who had come to admire the silent beauty of God’s creation were now watching people in cardboard costumes sprayed with silver paint.
Read More »Magnifying Our Master
As a man of unwavering steadfastness, the apostle Paul had a fixed ambition. He spelled it out in his letter to the Philippians: “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (1:20).
Read More »Invisible Companions
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Got Thirst?
Health experts tell us we should drink at least 64 ounces of water each day. It may reduce the risk of heart attack, give our skin a healthy glow, and help us lose weight. We should drink even more water during exercise or if we live in a hot or dry climate. Even if we’re not thirsty, we ought to drink water anyway.
Read More »The Day The Sun Didn't Shine
We often take God’s blessings for granted until they are taken from us. Then we recognize how important even the most common gifts of God really are.
Read More »What Does God Like?
Some churches have become divided over styles of worship. One group may be insisting on a traditional service, while another is agitating for a more contemporary format.
Read More »The Answer Is No
Children are so lovable and innocent—until their parents say no to their demands. When that happens, some kids scream uncontrollably, insisting on what they want.
Read More »Active Worship
In his book Folk Psalms of Faith, Pastor Ray Stedman says he wishes that all churchgoers could stand in the pulpit on a Sunday morning and watch the faces in the congregation during the sermon.
Read More »New Songs
The song of the humpback whale is one of the strangest in nature. It is a weird combination of high- and low-pitched groanings. Those who have studied the humpback whale say their songs are noteworthy because these giants of the deep are continually changing them. New patterns are added and old ones eliminated so that over a period of time the whale actually sings a whole new song.
Read More »See You Next Time?
It was a Sunday afternoon several years ago. The whole family was gathered around the table for dinner. Our 4-year-old son Stevie led off our pre-meal prayer: “Dear heavenly Father, thank You for this nice day. Thank You that we could go to church and Sunday school today.” Then, to our surprise, he said, “And we’ll see You again next week.”
Read More »A Work Of Peace
The small church in Umbarger, Texas, was an unlikely place for an international work of art. But toward the end of World War II, seven Italian prisoners of war, who were being held at a large camp nearby, were chosen to help decorate the church’s plain brick walls.
Read More »Mrs. Craig's Problem
Church attendance is a privilege. We recognize that some people cannot attend because of physical problems or other legitimate reasons. But those who can be in church should be. The singing, prayers, fellowship, and teaching of God’s Word are just what we need for the week ahead.
Read More »Proper Preparation
Eutychus was probably not the first person to fall asleep listening to a preacher in a church meeting (Acts 20:9), and he certainly won’t be the last. Part of the blame can lie with the humdrum nature of the worship service and the dullness of the sermon. But other factors can also be at work.
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