Creating Opportunities

By Virginia Smith

I collect Christian tee shirts. Some of them have catchy phrases like, “Know Jesus Know Peace—No Jesus No Peace.” One has a big smiley face with the caption “Psalm 92:4.” And one of my favorites displays those universally recognized letters, “WWJD.”

I was wearing that shirt on the London tube during a trip with my mother. We had remarked earlier that everyone in London seemed to wear nothing but black, especially the young people. So I stood out in my white tee shirt with those letters embroidered in shiny gold thread across my chest. In fact, one black-clad young man wearing more jewelry on his face than I had packed for my entire vacation caught me in a direct gaze across the aisle and nodded at my shirt.

“You one of those religious nuts?” he asked.

Read more

A Well Of Our Own

By Cynthia Ruchti

This morning, did you have other clothes to change into besides the ones you wore yesterday? More than one choice for shoes? Even if you chose to skip breakfast, was there something in the cupboard or the fridge you could have had?

How many people in the world ache for something as simple as clean drinking water?

We have so much more than we realize. My husband and I are among those who have one well for the two of us. What extravagance! It’s an old country well, but it has more than enough good, clean water to meet our needs. My ice cube maker probably uses more water in a day than some Third World villages see. Decadence.

Read more

Pointing Fingers

By Cheri Cowell

Have you ever spent time with someone who finds fault with everything and everyone? These people drain us. It’s easy if we just chime in, but tiring if we’re working hard not to join them. While walking by someone dressed inappropriately a negative comment slips, then the conversation quickly turns to the loose morals of society and how our mother never would have let us out of the house dressed that way. How easily we use our superior yardstick to judge others.

In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders were the keepers of the moral codes, and thus arbiters of who was acceptable to God. If anyone had studied the codes they would have discovered no one followed them and thus no one deserved acceptance. In order to cover this weakness, the elite created more difficult-to-track rules. Following rules—and pointing fingers when they were broken—consumed them.

Jesus came along and said, “I am setting up a new kingdom with a new way.” He knew we couldn’t keep all the rules, and that keeping rules was not the point. He wanted us to simply love others as we have been loved, and to give grace as we’ve been given grace. That doesn’t leave us much room for pointing fingers, does it?

Read more

Fake Prayer and Real Prayer

By Peter Lundell

Jesus would have had a great time with this one: a website offers to have a computer with text-to-speech capability say your prayers for you, so you don’t have to. They “voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to a typical person praying. Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.” You may choose from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Unaffiliated prayers. For Muslim prayers they even face the speakers toward Mecca. Isn’t that thoughtful?

Don’t laugh; these guys are serious—about making money at least. I clicked on “Protestant” and found I could have a computer say the Lord’s Prayer for me each day for only $3.95 a month. Or I could choose prayers for peace, health, financial help, my children, or get a package deal. Catholics pay 7 cents for each Hail Mary. That adds up, you know.

Read more

24

By Gina Stinson

My last 24 hours have been CRAZY! My friend from out of town came to stay with us for two days while in the area working. While here, she had a horrible reaction to some medication she is on and we ended up spending four hours in the ER. When I got home, my son, who had been sick for three days, was worse than ever—fever, vomiting, coughing, stuffy nose…YUCK! We had a pretty sleepless night.

Isn’t it funny how much can change in 24 short hours? The house was clean, we had company over, we were talking about a staff dinner we were to host that night, and we were making PLANS. Needless to say….all those plans…and the clean house changed pretty quickly.

Somehow, in the chaos that transpired, I imagined how it must have been 24 hours before Christ was born. My mind had been dwelling on the nativity story lately so I pondered there for a while. What was Mary thinking? Knowing the Savior of the World was on His way in just hours. What about Joseph? Do you think he felt the weight most fathers feel when they are about to become a parent? I also thought about Mary’s parents. How do you think they felt knowing their daughter was soon to deliver and was heading out of town? (I know my mom wouldn’t have been happy!)

Read more

Next Page »