Shortness, Sense and Salt

      Comments Off on Shortness, Sense and Salt

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. There are hundreds of everyday proverbs in the English language.  Each of them suggests, “This is how life works.” What’s interesting is that most of us are well aware of the fact they aren’t always true.  Check these out: A watched… Read more »

Seeing the Old Through the New

      Comments Off on Seeing the Old Through the New

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. What’s a follower of Jesus supposed to do with the Old Testament?  That’s not a small question.  The OT – which tells the story of creation up through the history of ancient Israel – accounts for approximately 75% of the Bible’s… Read more »

Saying No, Saying Yes

      Comments Off on Saying No, Saying Yes

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s epic poem Odyssey, had to fight his way past innumerable obstacles to return home after the battle of Troy. One of the most daunting was the Island of the Sirens.  Its resident half-bird, half-female creatures were… Read more »

Generation to Generation

      Comments Off on Generation to Generation

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. Author Ben Patterson describes an experience that has been common to many Westerners, especially missionaries, when they arrive at the edge of dense Amazon rain forests and ask for directions. “I have a compass, a map, and some coordinates,” they will… Read more »

Three Blind Mice

      Comments Off on Three Blind Mice

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. Lots of notable things come in threes. There are three primary colors, three Newtonian laws of motion, and three persons in the Trinity.  Baseball hitters get three strikes, basketball players shoot three-pointers, and hockey players in search of hat tricks dream… Read more »

The Top Button

      Comments Off on The Top Button

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. Lexia Campbell is a young mission worker who grew up in the congregation I served.     She was on an overseas trip when she learned that her father had taken his own life.  The ache and the yearning that she had… Read more »

Solomon: A Life Lesson

      Comments Off on Solomon: A Life Lesson

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel…” With those opening words, the reader of the book of Proverbs is immediately transported to the Golden Age of ancient Israel. Things were never better for God’s people than about a… Read more »

A Book Like No Other

      Comments Off on A Book Like No Other

Throughout July we’re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible’s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. A lot of smart people do really dumb things.  A fairly large slice of any day’s headlines – what we call “news” – turns out to be a recitation of the missteps, miscalculations, and mistakes of people who probably should have… Read more »

A Reason to Live

      Comments Off on A Reason to Live

Nursing homes can be dreadful places. Dr. Bill Thomas describes what he calls the Three Plagues of nursing home existence:  boredom, loneliness, and helplessness.  And that was before the extraordinary levels of isolation imposed by the pandemic.   When Thomas arrived in 1991 at the Chase Memorial Nursing Home in the hamlet of New Berlin, New York, Thomas decided he would… Read more »

It’s Time to Jump

      Comments Off on It’s Time to Jump

The notion that people can “train fleas” is just an urban legend, right? Every now and then, however, urban legends turn out to be true – and it just so happens that one of the smallest entities that might lurk in our carpets can be taught a fascinating trick. There are more than 2,500 species of this tiny, wingless insect. … Read more »