Amazing Grace and Appalling Ingratitude

Amazing Grace and Appalling Ingratitude

Though I fervently believe them, I am very leery of ‘Bible stories.’  Like ‘bedtime stories,’ the term suggests make-believe, the stuff of legends, tall tales, and fables—in a word, fiction.  In the case of the Bible however, the taint of unreality is wholly undeserved. The following is not a fairytale, but an eyewitness account, set down within the same generation, recounting real events that actually transpired.  The fact that it is recorded in the Bible points to, rather than detracts from, its veracity.  It is not,…

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Celebration of Life

Celebration of Life

“I’d like to welcome all of you—relatives, friends, and co-workers of the deceased—to this celebration of life.  So glad you could be with us today!  I think we’re all familiar with the etiquette for these occasions, but out of an abundance of caution, here are a few gentle reminders of socially acceptable conduct. This is a very special time in which we consent together to avoid mention of anything that may remind us of the honoree’s moral shortcomings and ethical failings—the better…

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Failure To Yield

Failure To Yield

Many serious traffic accidents are caused by failure to yield the right-of-way to other drivers.  Such failures may result from factors such as inattention, distracted or impaired driving, and willfulness.  Willfulness is stubborn insistence on selfish priorities—a “me first” mentality. This mindset may lead some motorists to deliberately ignore signs and signals directing them to yield.  In so doing, they cast aside law, custom, the well-being of others and even, personal safety.  They drive rudely, often recklessly, in a narcissistic bid to emphasize their…

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Sin—A Synopsis

Sin—A Synopsis

Sin is a word with which few are or ever have been comfortable.  Sinners, being sinners, do not like to think of themselves as wrongdoers (especially after expending a lot of energy on moral relativism, rationalizing, excusing, and explaining away their guilt).  Want proof?  Bring up sin sometime and watch the speed with which conversation dies and the formerly chatty scatter. For some, the problem is not clarity but confusion.  ‘If I admit that I’m a sinner, is that like saying I’m a bad…

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Classified Ad

Classified Ad

If God could be frustrated, consider how He might feel that the take up rate for His offer of salvation and eternal life remains chronically low (when, by all rights, it should be 100%).  And suppose, just for fun, that the Almighty opted to address the problem by placing an ad in the classified section of the newspaper (or internet bulletin board or social media platform…)? He would not place it under “Help Wanted,” because, God being God, needs no help…

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Do You Noah Lot?

Do You Noah Lot?

There is no doubt whatever that we live in perilous times.  Many confess to a palpable sense that humanity is daily drifting deeper into uncharted waters.  Some say that ominous signs of an impending apocalypse are all around us.  But stay tuned—I’m not planning on discussing or even listing these signs today.  Nor will I cite the latest opinion polls gauging public sentiment on where this world is headed.  Neither will I enumerate the challenges confronting crisis managers around the globe or ask how many…

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Peace Of The Best Kind

Peace Of The Best Kind

In a small municipal park opposite the Manhattan headquarters of the United Nations is a staircase on the wall of which the following is inscribed: “…they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”  The site has been called, “the Isaiah Wall” because the inscription is excerpted from the writings of the Biblical Prophet of that name (Isaiah 2 v. 4). Although the…

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The Ultimate Reality

The Ultimate Reality

This column is written as a reminder of what everyone knows will happen on a particular day in the future.  I’m not talking about Armageddon or the end of the world as we know it.  I’m not speaking of the last judgment or the second coming of Jesus Christ.  I am not referring to your death or mine (though some of these events may be related). I’m talking about the day that few have bothered to conceive, that even fewer have pondered and…

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No Greater Love

No Greater Love

Three people were having breakfast early one morning, having been awakened by a beeping noise, as insistent as it was annoying.  The fourth member of the group, somehow still asleep, had not yet arisen.  What was that sound, they wondered. “It’s getting light outside,” one observed, buttering a half-slice of toast.  “But not here in the kitchen,” muttered another.  “Why don’t you open the curtains?” The person nearest the window obliged.  The sunlight just admitted into the room illuminated a light haze hanging in the air,…

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Brace For Impact

Brace For Impact

The discovery of a previously unknown mass in deep space, whose long, erratic, elliptical orbit seemed all but certain to intersect earth’s own, triggered immediate and loud alarms.  Almost overnight it officially became an NEO (near earth object), tracked by astronomers, scientists, and governments around the world.  NASA (the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was monitoring it, as was the fledgling U.S. Space Force.  But what was it? The profile and behavior of the phenomenon bore some resemblance to a comet, and some to…

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