Our Ruler-Creator and Personal Savior
In God’s immeasurable power, He is not only the ruler and Creator over all things but also the personal Savior of all who trust in Him. The God who has the power to make all things also has the power to make personal, real contact with those whom He has made. Herein is the heart of the Gospel…
The Song of Christmas: A Poem
A wicked king ruled o’er the land
Darkness and dread poured from his hand
A thick gloomy mist draped over the people
Weary and worn, there was no sign of a steeple
This evil king was not heir to the throne,
His path was crooked and cruel, “so let it be known!”
He usurped authority, overturned the law,
Coerced to the place where he now sat sneering with set jaw
The Heart of Christmas
We love all the festive decorations, candles, lights, trees, and ribbons of Christmas around our house. In fact, Christmas music has been ringing and singing through our place since the beginning of November… or maybe even October. Memories of snowball fights, goofy red sweaters, sleigh rides, and hot chocolate warm my soul. How about you?
Sun in the Storms
As the old saying goes, “If you don’t like the weather in Michigan, just wait five minutes.” Today is proving the wise old sage knew what he was talking about. Yet from sunshine to storms…and back again to sunshine then storms this is the day the Lord has made, therefore, let us rejoice and be glad in the One who has ordained it…
The Cup of Death
One of my “old favorite” movies is geared around the search for the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, some call this cup the Holy Grail.
And why in this film are the Nazis, a medieval-oriented religious group, and Indiana Jones on a mad-dash against each other to find Christ’s sacred cup? Because they believe anyone who drinks of it will have eternal life – but they are not talking about eternal life as a new and forever relationship with God, as the Bible defines it. No, they think it is like the so-called “Fountain of Youth” that will give them life forever, immortality right now, and invincibility (which, of course was very important to the Nazi general). Now all that is a silly twisting in order to make a Hollywood blockbuster film…
But what was the cup Jesus spoke of? Not the actual cup He drank from at the Last Supper, but the cup Jesus spoke of when He expressed His desire to let “this cup” pass by Him, meaning that He longed to not drink of it?
It’s Still Raining
Why would God send me to India, and then take away the gift that I was so sure he had given me? Why does it have to be my voice? “God, why does it have to be me?” As the doctor showed me the video from the stroboscope he had put down my throat and said, “Well Michael, what you have is a laryngeal asymmetry caused by the apparent viral damage of your upper superior laryngeal nerve…in other words a semi-paresis of your left vocal fold”…I don’t remember crying outwardly, but if I wasn’t, I certainly was weeping on the inside.