At the start of a new year, your next 12 months are always unknown. That’s why your next 12 months can be an adventure. As well as scary. Will you win the lottery? Or will your house burn down? You don’t know. So what do you do? You plan. You leap boldly. You keep going forward. And you buy insurance. Even then, with all your best planning efforts, the future is always unknown. Anything can... Read more
As a new year dawns it is a perfect opportunity to have a fresh slate and become the kind of person we want to be. But our past and our self-destructive behavior are frequently our own worst enemy. One of the challenges I notice many people face is the lack of mental self-discipline. This often surfaces in the form of allowing our emotions to rule our thought process. For instance, one trait I’ve observed is when someone is angry about... Read more
Since today is the day after Christmas, I thought I’d do something a little different for today’s blog post. For almost 35 years, I’ve been a performance chalk artist. The video below is from a program I did this past Sunday, at Fellowship Bible Church in Greenville, Texas. The title of the drawing is “A Christmas Celebration.” Be sure and watch for the black light surprise near the end of the drawing. It’s a day late, but I hope you... Read more
It is my great wish and prayer that each of you and your families will be blessed with a peace that surpasses all understanding, and that you will have an abundance of life heaped upon you that goes even beyond your most treasured dreams. May God bless you, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!! Read more
“So, Dad,” said my young daughter, Addy. “What are you going to get me for Christmas?” “A stick, a cardboard box, and an old potato,” I said with an absolutely straight face. “Hmm,” she said. “That doesn’t sound like much fun—except for the cardboard box.” Addy grinned in seriousness. The child can transform a box into anything. Her life is presently immersed in Barbies, and over the past season, for her collection of dolls, she’s constructed a... Read more
If God decided to humble himself, become man, and enter the world today… I wonder who He would appear to first? A Wall Mart greeter named Betty? A welder named Sam? A dog groomer named Margo? Phil, the guy who cleans gutters? Jimmy, the mall cop? Yeah. Those jobs probably aren’t included in any list of the top 10 coveted jobs in America, yet these jobs are filled by people that God loves deeply… so deeply, they might just be... Read more
Just about a week ago, our nation experienced another unspeakable tragedy when a disturbed young man entered an elementary school and gunned down 26 people–most of them small children. These horrific events test us in many ways, but perhaps the most difficult is when we try to explain to our children something even we can’t understand. About four and a half years ago, I had to tell my daughter that her best friend’s family had been brutally murdered. Later I... Read more
“Love your enemies.” —Jesus Nope, not going to do it. It makes a ton of sense to love friends, sure. To love our neighbors as ourselves. Even to love people from whom we might gain something. But to love our enemies? Nah, we hate these folks! At very least, we dislike them powerfully. On December 20, 1943, in the skies above war-torn Europe, two bitter enemies—an American B-17 bomber pilot and a veteran German fighter ace—met in... Read more
A number of years ago there was a problem with the elephant herds on a game preserve in Africa. Because they were protected, the herds were growing to such a size that they were destroying the countryside and even farm crops in a search for food. The local experts decided that the way to control the size of the herds was to “cull” them; to kill the adult bull elephants so that they could not breed. Elephant herds are matriarchal... Read more
Sometime a man’s stomach defines him. Take the other night, for example, when I ordered a pizza in a Cincinnati hotel after a weekend of speaking. My wife and I talked on the phone. “What are you doing?” “I just ordered a Dominos pizza, and I’m eating it here on the bed, watching Battleship.” “How’s the pizza?” “Terrible.” “So what are you gonna eat?” I paused. “The pizza.” “I thought you said it was terrible.” “It is. Probably one of... Read more
A Few Grown Men
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In