Faith And Doubt
To be honest, I frequently wonder about the blessings of God I might have missed because of lingering doubts. I don’t spend a lot of time beating myself up over it, but it definitely crosses my mind. Would more people…
Can I Trust the Old Testament?
Several years ago, a nephew of mine was attending a large Christian University in the southeast of the USA. During a Thanksgiving break, he asked me, “Uncle Alec, do you believe everything in the Old Testament?” I was shocked even…
Answers Aren’t Always the Answer
Just read an article that when disaffected young people were given the opportunity to explain, in their own words, why they left the church, they claimed it was because the church wasn’t offering cogent responses to the criticisms of science…
A Rose By Any Other Name…
...would smell as sweet. That line may sound romantic, from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but it just doesn’t work when applied to the religions of the world. I sat in my very first doctoral class years ago and listened to…
7 Sure Fire Ways to Kill Almost All Benefits of Devotions
I say, "almost all benefits," because if God can speak through a donkey, He doesn't need your or my devotions to communicate with us...and He did it millennia before Disney came up with the idea of talking animals. But He…
Burning Jealousy
Think of a lover spurned. Or deep envy over someone else's position or possession. Not the kind of emotion you would normally ascribe to God. We think of jealousy mostly in a negative sense. It shows up in several of…
So Swings the Pendulum
I was a young man back in the '60's. My father pastored a church in South Africa that, at the time, was associated with the holiness movement. The holiness movement began in the late 1800's, influenced by the renewal of…
Don’t Despise Small Things
We tend to despise small things in our culture...except maybe diamonds. We think small things are less exciting than the big things. Less impacting. Less effective. Less worthwhile. Until we run into stories like this. The young man was nineteen…
It Won’t Stick
I have an old beater truck that I use for hauling yard waste and junk to the dump...and furniture for family and friends. It has a rearview mirror attached to the windshield that keeps falling off. I have tried all…
Steeled To Do Wrong
I was fortunate enough to have been raised in a home with equal parts love, affirmation and discipline. That didn’t stop me from being a willful child. But I did learn that any determination I had for doing the wrong…