Filled with praise , even as I think of the death and approaching death, perhaps, of two beloved friends and the grieving which occurs today in at least three families’ lives I know of this morning. But I am filled with praise, because these beloved saints have known God’s provision and grace and peace and guidance throughout their well-lived lives. Psalm 149 says: “Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp. For…..

Read more

Baccalaureate at Covenant Christian School: Erik Axsom taught the Hebrew word kabod, meaning weighty, or having substance, or being significant. What a great message for the graduates who now face adulthood where many decisions await them, some of them with lifelong implications.

Marketing your book seminar: a misnomer, sort of, since we authors learned we are not marketing a book, but are marketing ourselves as authors of books. We need to focus on the fact that we have something to…..

Read more

Graduation is here. I attended a baccalaureate service last night at Covenant Christian School. I am convinced that the graduating class is showing wisdom of the highest order. They may not be geniuses; none is accepted at an Ivy League school; no one had perfect SATs. But, their wisdom comes from reliance on God, and the Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 24: 13-14 puts it this way: “My child, eat…..

Read more

“When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries, May Jesus Christ be praised. Alike at work and prayer to Jesus I repair, May Jesus Christ be praised! Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine, May Jesus Christ be praised! Be this th’eternal song through all the ages long, May Jesus Christ be praised!” (translated from an anonymous German hymn by Edward Caswall).

I was eight years old when I sang…..

Read more

A favorite hymn reminds me of daily dependence on God for my every need, my need especially for His presence, and my dependence on His mercy to guide and direct my path. It reads: “New every morning is the love our wakening and uprising prove; Through sleep and darkness safely brought restored to life and power and thought. New mercies, each returning day hover around us while we pray; new perils past, new sins forgiven, new thoughts of God, new…..

Read more

Were it not for Ascension Day, Christianity and the impact of Jesus’s life would have been localized to the sandy location of the Middle East. In God’s infinite plan and wisdom, unlike Mohammed, Confucius, and Buddha, without Christ’s ascension into heaven as a living being, where he rules on high, we would never have experienced the power, comfort, guidance, and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Living this side of the resurrection is a joy, for we can see glimpses of…..

Read more

I now live in a part of the world where spring is not as big a deal as I formerly knew it. In Florida I don’t have to endure the bone-chilling cold which must occur before the spring bursts of forsythia and lilacs, and crocus and hyacinths breaking through the frosted earth. I miss that reawakening which is so welcome after the period of greys and browns of winter. Exuberant color is such a blessing after living with the bland…..

Read more