SACRIFICE Hilda Mason served as an active Washington D.C. city council member into her 80's. She didn't serve her city alone. Her husband, Charlie Mason, assisted her in her work for more than twenty years. How did he find the time? He went the second mile and gave up his law practice to be her assistant.…

FINISHING WELL According to Professor Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary, there are 100 or so leaders in the Bible, two-thirds of whom did not finish well. —Go the Distance p. 4 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson When King David fell, he brought shame to his entire house and his kingdom. His…

STEWARDSHIP After terrorists attacked America on September 11, 2001, people opened up their hearts and their pocketbooks to give to those directly affected by the tragedy. The American Red Cross received $547 million dollars for the cause, but until there was a public uproar, the Red Cross was not planning…

TITHE God promises to rebuke the devourer for tithers. Devourer. That's an interesting word. A word that makes me think immediately of the Tasmanian Devil. Not Bugs Bunny's nemesis, but the animal that haunts the dark nights of the island. The devil is about the size of a cocker spaniel, but don't let…

PROVIDENCE Cooling down after practice, Daniel had taken one last dive and his neck struck the bottom of the concrete pool. Daniel sustained damage to C-3, C-4, and C-5 vertebrae of his spine. Two fusion operations followed and the surgeon was successful in preventing paralysis, but Daniel's parents…

In Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a relentless God, Francis Chan writes “Stan [Gerlach] was giving a eulogy at a memorial service when he decided to share the gospel. At the end of his message, Stan told the mourners, ‘You never know when God is going to take your life. At that moment, there’s nothing you…

BROKENNESS "Going once, going twice, sold for $7,000.00!" The auctioneer said right before his gavel hit the table. Rita Coors was elated. She'd just purchased a porcelain mask, hand painted by John Denver. She couldn't wait to hold it in her hands. As the auctioneer at the 1997 Charity Celebrity Ball…

RECONCILIATION As we sat waiting for the traffic light's permission to proceed, my son once again asked when I would fix the training wheels on his bicycle. I turned to look at him, saying I would fix them when we got home. Then I added, "But they will be different than what you are used to." With that…

Happiness In Matthew 5, Jesus begins a sentence with the same words, “Blessed are...” eight different times. What does it mean to be blessed? It is a religious sounding word, isn’t it? It is pregnant with virtue–a stained glass sort of a word. The truth is, the Greek word simply means happy. In English,…

Make it Happen "Above anything else, I hate to lose." (Jackie Robinson) On April 15, 1947, Robinson made it to the "show." He became the first black man to wear a Major League uniform, destroying the color barrier in professional sports. In his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he hit .297, sent…

EVANGELISM "Bruce" walks through the church door out into the warm Columbian evening and begins panning the horizon to see if he can see the missing person from his party. Bruce doesn't get shook easily. Back home, he's a tough negotiator, a leader in his church and community. But the guerillas in the…

TONGUE, SPEECH A Malaysian court has ruled that using derogatory and vulgar language about your superiors at work is acceptable, as long as you do it behind their backs. The Industrial Court ruled in the case of a secretary who was fired because she sent e-mail from the office computer to several friends,…

In the early 1960s, the Lincoln Futura concept car created for a 1955 auto show was not worth much. It was used a 1959 movie and then sold to automobile designer George Barris for one dollar. Since it was untitled and could not be insured, the car was had little value and was relegated to a back parking…

FEAR "In The Diary of Anne Frank young Anne describes the fear she and her family felt as they hid, huddled in a small attic, from the Nazis. Every scream of Gestapo sirens sent chills of fear down their spines. They lost their breath at every knock on the front door. They lived in constant horror behind…

The Four Gifts of Three Wise Men "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." (Matthew 2:11) As we celebrate God's…

MISSIONAL In his new book titled American Buffalo, Steven Rinella says that hunting a buffalo in an enclosed pen isn’t hunting. Neither can a video game player call himself a car thief because he plays the popular video game Grand Theft Auto. In a similar way the Christian life is not authentic until…

CONTROL The motion picture Kung Fu Panda offers a unique snapshot of the one part of life that troubles most people, the illusion of control. A panda named Po comes from a family of noodle merchants. Though his family hopes that he will sell many noodles, Po dreams of becoming a Kung Fu Master. Through…

The motion picture “Faith Like Potatoes” tells the true story of Angus Buchan, a South African farmer who learns what true faith really is. Angus comes to South Africa in the middle of racial turmoil and economic disruption to begin a new life for himself and his family. The hard work of reclaiming an…

Passion In his 84 years, Thomas Edison patented over a thousand inventions. He is most famous for inventing the light bulb, but made more money off the alkaline battery. Edison was a bulldog, unwilling to accept failure as a final outcome to his efforts. Before he successfully invented the alkaline battery,…

The Passover When a Jewish boy turned twelve, He was "a son of the law," taking on the full obligations of the law. If Jesus had lived within 20 miles of Jerusalem, it would have been His obligation to attend the Passover feast, but He didn't, He lived in Nazareth, about 60 miles from Jerusalem. But…

GRATITUDE/THANKSGIVING Gratitude springs out of our faith. We can only be grateful when we know that we do not deserve our blessings and we did not create them. And to some degree, gratitude is a suspension of cynicism—a faith in the person doing the good deed. As gratitude relates to our relationship…

Leftovers There is some food that I like piping hot straight from the oven. Every now and then I catch the line at Chipotle just right where they pour fresh chicken into the pan right as it is time to make my burrito. Now I like their burritos no matter how long that chicken has been in the pan, but…

The movie Titanic reveals something about human nature, some people follow the natural tendency to be selfish and others rise above it and are selfless. For example, as the ship was sinking, Cal Hockley, Rose’s selfish fiancé lied to her saying that he would make sure him and Jack, the boy she really…

FAITH The world is looking for a safe place to put their faith. Greed, power, the love of money and doubt destroy lives. The resulting hurt keeps people from trusting each other, and more importantly from trusting in God. The motion picture, “Miracle on 34th Street is a call to come back to a simple…

In the motion picture “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” Flint Lockwood is a young man who wants to change the world. When he was a young boy, Flint’s mother encouraged him to pursue his scientific endeavors rather than go into the family business. The budding scientist proudly presented spray on shoes,…