“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6) I was recently asked to nominate a friend of mine for a very prestigious award. I considered it an honor to have been asked to prepare a nomination letter and went into painstaking detail to make a strong argument for his selection. Frankly, I was surprised by my own research, and when I read the other letters of nomination that had been prepared on his behalf, […]

“For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Romans 11:29, 4:8) My sister sent me a poem entitled, “Heavens Grocery Store”, by Ron DeMarco. The moment that I read it, I knew that it belonged on our refrigerators or in our Bibles to remind us of God’s love for us. When I first received the poem, I wasn’t sure who wrote it. Even Mr. Demarco, who wrote it in the 1950’s, admits he had a […]

“But you, O Sovereign Lord, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.” (Psalms 109:21) We have a friend who had a near-fatal accident several years ago. She was returning home from a church outing in moderate rain when her mini-van began to hydroplane. The vehicle plummeted down a steep embankment, turning over several times. She, and the teenagers who were with her, escaped serious injury in spite of the circumstances. She knew she was more than lucky and […]

“He sighed deeply and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it’.” (Mark 8:12) When I was in graduate school, I took a course in organization theory. In the early weeks of the semester, I realized that I did not have so much as a clue as to what that course was about. The readings made no sense and the lectures were even more confusing. Finally, I worked up the courage to go see […]