Jesus said that a good tree can’t produce bad fruit and, conversely, a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. What happens when we feel like bursting with a harvest of red ripe Fuji’s but we are still firmly rooted in a nasty patch of thistles just waiting to draw the blood of our neighbors? At work I find that this duplicity haunts me almost daily. One moment I feel filled with the Holy Spirit as I stand ready to love... Read more
An IT technician is Alaska made a big mistake. While doing some computer maintenance on the Alaska State computer that maintains the permanent royalty fund, he formatted the disk drive during a route maintenance check. He then inadvertently formatted the backup drive. “No worries, we have tape backup, right?” Much to his horror, the backup tapes were unreadable. The fund, which pays about 1,100 yearly to each Alaska citizen, is synonymous with the states biggest perk. It has a worth... Read more
Tomorrow marks the 200th anniversary of William Wilberforce’s triumphant crusade to abolish slavery. Wilberforce was relentless. Each year he argued for truth and righteousness. Each year he was voted down. On Feb. 23, 1807, after two decades of determination by Member of Parliament Wilberforce, the House of Commons voted to abolish the British slave trade,changing the course of history. He could have backed down. He could have quit. 23 years of failure. 23 years of mockery by the elite. But... Read more
Today, I am the bearer of sad news. The Secret of the universe has been discovered and apparently we Christians are not privy to it! Over the past few weeks, the news media has been giving extensive air time to a new phenomenon. “The Secret” is a multimedia sensation – a book, movie and DVD (maybe cartoons, too, but I’m not positive) – created by Rhonda Byrne, a bleached blond, diamond bindi wearing Australian woman. In her seminal work, she... Read more
Some people are pack rats; they keep everything. As for me, I keep virtually nothing – I obsessively purge almost everything that I consider to be clutter. So I was surprised when I found a 5 year old letter in my nearly empty file cabinet. The letter was from the husband of one of my team members. Here’s a portion of the note: “To all of Kathy’s friends and co-workers, I can’t help but tell you when I received your... Read more
We have come to expect television networks to actively exploit our human weaknesses to raise their ratings. In the realm of financial shows, they prey on our greed to keep us tuned in. Now, a star of CNBC is banking on our lustful nature and is pushing both sex and greed in their programming. I read in USA Today that Maria Bartiromo, a Financial Anchor on CNBC, has decided to trademark her nickname – “Money Honey” – presumably to enable... Read more
I was introduced to the band U2 more than 25 years ago and they’ve been my favorite band ever since. Although I don’t listen to them as vigilantly as I did in my younger years, I still love cranking them up to ‘11’ and singing off key as I motor through traffic. A few weeks back I saw an outtake from an interview with Bono and Bill Hybels of Willow Creek. He was talking about how his faith has influenced... Read more
At my men’s group this past week we spent the evening talking about love. I suspect the thought of a bunch of rough and tumble guys sitting around the living room talking about love may leave you with a funny mental image. But it certainly was something to see as those men wrestled with the differences between the Greek words for love, agape and phileo. (It should come as no surprise how quickly the jokes came rolling out when we... Read more
Its the same old routine. You pull yourself out of bed. Bathe. Clothe yourself. Bathe the kids. Clothe the kids. Warm up the car and drive to work, arriving not a minute too late. You start your day by turning on the light, eyeing the work that lies before you, and settling down into the same drudgery. It’s the same, day in and day out. The end is sustenance — the money needed to eat and live and make purchases.... Read more
Even Christians can fall prey to the perils of an unhealthy attitude at work. Consumed by a dislike for the job, we don’t think about wearing the robe of Christ into the workplace. We don’t think about salvation for the person working right next to us. We don’t think about doing all things unto the glory of God. We focus solely on our own needs. We even think about sticking it to the boss, cheating the company, or ruining our... Read more
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