You can find almost anything on the streets of New York, including scams. One is the shell game. A guy stands at a makeshift table with three cups, and he puts a ball under one cup. You pay money to bet that you can follow the ball as he moves that cup around. You follow very closely, and you’re sure you know which cup the ball is under. And you did follow it. But he had replaced the ball by... Read more
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” So begins C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. When Eustace discovers he has been turned into a dragon, he is more than dismayed. He tries to peel off the scaly skin, and he does. But he finds another skin underneath. Again he removes it, and again he finds yet another skin. How long will this go on? Yet a third time he scratches off his... Read more
Four days ago, my daughter Annie’s apartment building in Brooklyn was decimated by Sandy. She was safely at a friend’s, and her stuff was safely in her fourth floor apartment. But her building and the surrounding area may be uninhabitable for quite some time. Two days ago, my daughter Hannah underwent surgery to repair her torn ACL. Surgery is always a risk, especially with general anesthesia, so I was relieved that everything went beautifully and she is now recuperating at... Read more
It’s Halloween. Time for Hannibal Lecter and the guy in the hockey mask from Friday the 13th. Ax murderers. Serial killers. Torturers. Where in the world do these crazies come from? From real life, from real people perpetrating evils against real people. I don’t like to admit the depth of man’s depravity. I’d prefer it weren’t so. I visited a torture exhibit in California—a brutal study of man’s inhumanity to man. Hanging a victim upside down and slowly sawing him... Read more
Just a quick word to all my blog followers… the new book is in! It’s here, it’s here. Yea! You can order it just by clicking on the photo of the book. Thanks to everyone! “From a sea of parenting advice emerges How Not to Lose Your Teen, a breakthrough, intelligent look at parents and teens. Intimate and relatable, Susan shows parents how to decrease their teens’ dependence on them and increase their dependence on Christ. You will be relieved... Read more
We have valet trash where we live. I’m never lived anywhere that you just put your trash outside the door and it disappears! How easy is that? This magic happens three days a week, and I had just put the trash out when I said to Rob, “I love how the trash just disappears. We put it out and it’s gone!” He said, “It’s the same way with our sin. It just disappears.” Hm, didn’t think of that! Psalm 103:12... Read more
“Before you knew Me, you expressed your longing for Me in hurtful ways. You were ever so vulnerable…” Jesus Calling by Sarah Young Oh my gosh, how true this is. Like an infant who screams to be fed, we seek out many ways to meet our own needs… even after we come to Him, if we are not abiding in Him. Jesus has been exposing the depth of my own hurtful ways — my self-effort, self-focus, selfishness. Oh Lord, help... Read more
“What gets your focus gets you.” Mike Wells http://abidinglife.com/2009/ Mike Wells, a beautiful servant of Christ, died one year ago today. Mike taught me what it means to abide in Christ. He illuminated Colossians 1:27: “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” He lived his ministry tagline: “There’s nothing the nearness of Christ cannot overcome.” Mike taught me so much in the twelve years I knew him, directly and in his books and teachings. “Focus on sin increases sin.” “Christian... Read more
When Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho came out, it was a shocker! I was in college the first time I saw it, and I screamed! Anthony Perkins appears as his dead mother, “carrying out her wishes” to please her. But it was all in his head. What kind of a sicko—or psycho—is this? Well, that is the point. He is a psycho. He’s “responding” to the wishes and desires of someone who’s long since dead. We are shocked because we see it... Read more
Freedhearts Ministries is on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/TcONFs) and Twitter (http://bit.ly/SZMCVQ) now. Be sure to Like & Follow us! Read more
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