On our last trip to Israel, my wife and I joined a Jewish family for their weekly Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem. I’ll never forget the emotional moment during the Shabbat meal when the father and mother took turns taking each of their children’s faces in their hands, looking into their eyes, and blessed them with…
The moment a newborn cries out a collective sigh of relief echoes through the delivery room. The baby is alive and breathing. Air can be life-giving. On the other hand, air can be life-taking. When air moves at speeds over two hundred miles per hour in a killer-tornado, air becomes a horrific, destructive force. Our…
Who Is On Your Mean-the-Most List? Some people picture God as the super-policeman of the universe who keeps his supernatural eye on his human creatures, hoping to catch them doing something wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over thousands of years, the many authors of the Bible observed God’s acts and attitude towards…
We artists try to create beauty. We see beauty all around us and work hard to translate what we see onto a canvas so we can share with others what we see and feel. Even the best artists confess that they are fall short of the ultimate beauty created by our Heavenly Creator. As lovely as human art is, our…
Does One Light Really Make Any Difference? I love the Christmas Eve candlelight service in our church. All the lights in sanctuary are slowly turned off until the room is pitch black symbolizing the world’s condition before Jesus was born. About the time our eyes get adjusted to the darkness, our pastor lights the…
Dreams Can Come True. Sometimes we think and act like narcissistic babies. We wish hard. Dream big. And, think “I’ll get God to make my dream come true.” The Bible says, “God can do anything—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” Ephesians 3:20 MSG. Notice God’s word…
Can you find the face of Jesus in my painting of the Texas Hill Country? He IS very much present watching over what I like to call “The Misty Morning..” If you don’t see him at first, focus and concentrate. He will suddenly appear. If you don’t see him in a few minutes, I give…
Earth’s Oldest Running Car Teaches Us a Great Lesson. The oldest running car on earth is the 1884 De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Steam Runabout. Recently, that first-step vehicle sold at an auction for $4.62 million making it the world’s most valuable automobile. Young Comte de Dion and his friends built it in an old…
Buried up to her neck and stoned The radical Islamic terrorists dug a hole, buried Monica up to her neck, and stoned her to death. Her father is a Nigerian pastor who was proud of his young daughter’s spiritual courage. He said, “To die for the sake of Christ, that’s the happiest thing for me.…
Test 1 of 7 Signs of a Healthy Faith “Is your faith EVIDENCE-BASED, or is it based on wishful thinking?” Sarah broke her parents’ heart. When Sarah came home from college and told her parents she could no longer believe in God, she explained, “I wanted to believe but there was just no…