Can we all agree that there are some serious problems with mankind?  We listen to the news for even a few minutes, and we see stories of crime and cruelty.  The wickedness and brokenness are not just out there within “them,” but it’s warped all of us.  We look in the mirror and see a person who is sometimes proud, impatient, unkind and selfish.  God made man is His image, beautiful, unique, ...

     I recently spent some time in Indiana where I grew up.  I had the privilege of reconnecting with old friends again.  While there my eighty-one-year-old mother asked me to drive her an hour to visit a long-time friend of hers.  I took her to see her friend who now lives in a memory care unit in Plainfield, IN.  When we got to the room her friend lit up with recognition.  She could not remember...

      In the profound story of the Israelites escaping hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt in the book of Exodus there is a great showdown between the God of the Bible (Yahweh) and the fake gods of Egypt.  God sent mighty plagues of judgment on the wicked Egyptian empire for their many sins, including oppression and genocide.  Each plague was an attack on the power or domain of one of the suppos...

     “I bet people kill themselves because of you. You are terrible at your job.” This statement is a criticism I once received while I was working on a crisis line that helped people who were considering suicide. What prompted the criticism was that the individual called multiple times daily and I was the one designated to give the individual some limits on how often they could call. Over thirty...

Years ago, I came across a powerful quote by John Maxwell: “When you are gonepeople will sum up your life in one sentence, write it now.” One of my favorite summarystatements of a life in scripture is about a man named Caleb in the Old Testament.Numbers 14:24 states, “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and followsme wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and hi...