While Sooley is John Grisham’s first basketball novel, it is his fourth sports themed novel, and the most recent one. I actually picked up a copy at a good bookstore in Izmir, Turkey while leading a tour, and of the sports novels this is best of the bunch. It is first rate beach reading, and it has a social conscience as well about what has been and continues to be happening in south Sudan, with millions starving, partly due to... Read more
9/21/1975– On Sin In considering the question of sin, we are faced with two startling facts. The first fact is that human beings make so little of sin. To some it’s an illusion, a religious mirage, or the invention of some fanatic. it is denied, joked about, and laughed at by many. Many who believe sin to be a fact, continue to sin with little thought of its penalty. The second fact is that God makes so much of sin.... Read more
9/14/1975— On Faith The statement ‘the just shall live by faith’, is a statement of Christian principle. It is found four times in Scripture. In Habakkuk we see the difference between the lives of the just and the unjust. The unjust are puffed up and live by their own self-sufficiency, but the just live by faith. Their confidence is in their God. To them, faith is more than a philosophy of life, it is the very principle of life. The... Read more
Well the Thor saga has taken another strange turn I never saw in the Marvel comics, but that’s o.k. We get to see our full money’s worth of Hemsworth, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster (Thor’s former girlfriend), some cameos (all too short and not funny enough) of the Guardians of the Galaxy, another cameo, this time by Matt Damon as an Asgaardian actor, and another primo performance by an almost unrecognizable Christian Bale (he must have been in makeup for... Read more
9/7/1975— On Prayer Prayer is as old as humankind, as universal as religion, and as instinctive as breathing. It is practiced in some form by people of all faiths. prayer springs from the heart with a need, a need greater than human ability to cope with. Prayer is our acknowledgment of a being higher than ourselves. Most people try to pray, yet so few know how. There are two kinds of prayer, the prayer that does not reach God and... Read more
8/31/1975 The New Birth It is of utmost importance that we have a clear understanding of what Jesus meant when he said to Nicodemus (John 3), ‘you must be born again’. The new birth is a spiritual birth. It is as much a birth as the natural birth. It is not just a figure of speech. The first birth is of the seed of a human being, the second of the seed of God. Therefore, you cannot become a child... Read more
8/24/1975 God the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is God, and is equal to the Father and the Son. He is set forth in the Bible as being distinct from the Father and the Son. In the Old Testament he came upon people to empower them for service or revelation. But when they were disobedient, the Spirit departed from them. David sinned against the Lord and rightly prayed ‘take not your Holy Spirit from me’. In the New Testament after... Read more
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