Greed, unrestrained ambition, arrogance, pride, revenge, rage, and ruthlessness. Sounds like the evening news. I found them in the Bible’s short book of Esther. An orphaned Jewish girl raised by her cousin Mordecai [more-dah-kie], Esther becomes queen of Persia about five centuries before Christ. Haman is the villain of the story. He is a narcissistic […]
There was a large expanse of green, well maintained lawn, recently mowed. In the background was a building three stories high that almost covered the width of the property. It had all the architectural features of a building that was constructed in the 30’s. As it turned out it was built in 1938 as a […]
Philip Yancey, a writer I often appreciate, wrote an article about his own struggle to carve out focused attention for reading, and how his own personal experience reflects our culture at large. The decline in reading books is something I feel strongly about, as those who aren’t dedicated readers most likely won’t be dedicated readers […]
One of the amazing examples of Creator God’s handiwork is on display in Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is called “Balanced Rock.” I grew up about 80 miles from there. On occasional day trips to the area, we always stopped to admire this huge rock that seemed to have so […]
My wife and I live a short distance east of Portland, Oregon, at the west end of the Gorge. The Gorge is a canyon that follows the Columbia River along the northern border of Oregon. It is not uncommon during the winter to get sustained wind speeds of 20 miles per hour, with gusts registering […]
Here in the Northwest we’ve had a relatively mild winter. While the eastern two-thirds of our country has been brutally blasted with cold air and snow blizzards from the north, we’ve been spared. We had a short stint of snow, nothing like those other cities, but still enough to wreak havoc for motorists. Typically, the […]
One of the marks of a mature individual is their ability to face reality.We do not expect this of children, who have legitimate fears and appropriate imaginations. Adults help younger people learn to sort out what is real and what is make- believe. We can evaluate our level of maturity by our ability to identify […]
At least twice a week, the news stations sound the alarm that we need to get ready for the Big One, the earthquake that will rock Portland, Oregon. Our city officials are trying to get ahead of this and mandate that older buildings be reinforced to make them earthquake-proof. I don’t intend to get into […]
Valentine was the name of a Roman Priest who lived in AD 200’s during Emperor Claudius’ reign. Claudius was an evil ruler who hated Christians and was against the spread of Christianity. One form of persecution he used against Christians was to refuse young couples the right to marry. The sanctity of marriage meant nothing […]
When we were first painted, our colors were dazzling… we were called …. precious… priceless… beautiful… cute But as time went on we began to HEAR the MOCKING sounds from other paintings…“I’m smarter…I’m stronger…I’m richer…I’m prettier…I’m better…” Before long we accepted the lie that our value was based on COMPARISON. We began to DOUBT our […]