January 26th, 2011
Have you ever experienced despair, a feeling of utter hopelessness? Depression is a natural companion to despair, and most of us have felt it one or more times in our lives. I’ve felt depressed before, but I’m not sure that it reached a point of despair.
Sometimes specific circumstances can trigger depression and despair, but there are other times when it just comes over you, and you don’t know why? Oddly enough, many people, including celebrities, can sink to despair, when they have absolutely no problems with security (job, food, home, etc) or pleasure (clothes, jewelry, cars, etc.).
What does our spirit need to deliver us from this valley of fear and doubt? The Apostle Paul writes that his trust in God’s power and the fact that Jesus lives in his heart keeps him from falling into despair. (2 Corinthians 4:7) But plenty of Christians are on anti-depressants, or are receiving counseling for depression. Where is their victory in Christ? Why doesn’t joy come in the morning? (Psalm 30:5)
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October 11th, 2010
On June 2, 1897 Mark Twain wrote, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
The Bible says, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.”
No matter where we look death is in the air. Many people have experienced the death of someone close to them. The rest of mankind are reminded of death in the news or when passing by an accident or cemetery. With death facing us on all sides, one would wonder why we fear it so. Perhaps it can be summed up in the fact that, while we think we know, or we hope we know, what really happens after death, we just don’t know.
My wife and I are volunteers at the hospice center of our local hospital. Hospice is the palliative care of patients who have been given less than six months to live. Lois provides patient care and maintains the kitchen at the Hospice House, and I work on the computer to set up bereavement care. This particular hospice program extends 12 months of follow-up care after the death of a loved one.
By the time they are brought into the facility, most patients are at a point where they are accepting of their upcoming passage from this life. In our training we were told of many interesting encounters where the patient would see someone who wasn’t in the room just before their death. Lois witnessed this with my own father when she was at his bedside when he died (I was working in another state at the time). The clinical explanation is that the neurotransmitters are shutting down, and the brain is preparing us for the end. But you couldn’t sell that line to most hospice nurses.
We all witness death as it is.
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March 1st, 2010
What if … the world really is 4.5 billion years old and has been populated by humans for 6.5 million years? Does that mean that God doesn’t exist?
What if … Jesus isn’t really the son of God? What if he was just a man who may, or may not, have had a special relationship with an unseen Being?
What if … the Bible isn’t the certified, authentic word of God? What if it’s just a collection of writings by men whose minds wandered beyond the cosmos? Is there any hope for us?
What if … some of us got the plan of salvation wrong and end up in fiery eternal torment? Just because we didn’t say the magic words or believe the right stuff?
What if … it turns out that doctrine isn’t important and God just wanted us all to get along and help one another?
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May 25th, 2009
My conviction is, that, near or far off, in ourselves, or in our ancestors — say Adam and Eve, for comprehension’s sake — all our ailments have a moral cause. I think that if we were all good, disease would, in the course of generations, disappear utterly from the face of the earth.
What a remarkable concept! I had read this story several times and obviously overlooked this gem. All of Christianity is pretty much in agreement that disease and death were a result of the “fall” in the Garden of Eden. But what if Adam and Eve weren’t kicked out of the garden because they had sinned, but rather because they continued to sin? And this started the pattern of sinning that they passed on to future generations.
Disease, then, is directly connected to practiced sin — whether outward or hidden. Does that mean that a person’s sickness is an indicator of personal sin? The greater the sickness, the more sin present?
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April 25th, 2009
To travel hopefully is better than to arrive.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Hope is a state of mind. It sets the course of our day or days to come. It embraces the anticipation of things ahead. Hope sets the desire that something good will happen (I hope I get that raise.) or that something bad won’t happen (I hope it’s not cancer.).
The antithesis of hope is despair. The killer of hope is apathy. I don’t care what tomorrow brings. Or I have no hope, just the monotony of my pitiful life.
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January 8th, 2009
How true. But as I drove past that particular church, seeing the sign, and knowing something of the doctrine of that particular denomination, I could only shake my head and say, “But they don’t really believe it.”
How could I possibly make that claim? Because their reference to “no one” is, at best, limited, and, at worst, conditional. No one applies only to those who are living in this world. Does God still love any who have rejected him? Sure, they say; God will continue to love them, up until they draw their last breath. But, what happens when they die with rejection still on their lips and unbelief still in their hearts?
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December 7th, 2008
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
From my youth, and for several years after, John 3:16 has been the cornerstone verse for all of Christianity. However, today, if you ask an acknowledged Christian to recite it, many can’t. It still is a foundational verse for me, and I would like to share some thoughts about it. To do so, let’s break it down:
For God so loved the world … Year after year, throughout the ages, human beings have wondered about the existence of God, let alone whether or not he cared for them. What makes John 3:16 so special is that it was spoken by someone who knew firsthand about God’s love. Jesus was well aware that his Father loved all that he had created. But they weren’t getting it. At this point in history the only people left who believed in the one true God were being oppressed by the government, and their own religious leaders were making matters worse.
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