“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) I had a friend at my church that I had grown to admire. His love for Christ was deep and his passion to witness for the Lord was unmatched. In short, he was on fire for Jesus. Unfortunately, his born-again attitude made him the brunt of a lot of jokes where he worked. He asked me to pray for him, and several weeks later I had […]

“When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” (Proverbs 10:19) When my son was a teenager, he confided in me that he had become the victim of some pretty hurtful name-calling. “Mark, you need to remember that people often resort to insults in order to distract attention from their own faults,” I told him. “It’s an ego defense, and you’re going to see it the rest of your life.” While that was true, it wasn’t much help at the time […]

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) The late Art Linkletter’s 1957 book, Kids Say the Darndest Things, still reminds us that kids not only say those things that sometimes embarrass their parents, but they also blurt out occasional pearls of wisdom that help us to realize we’re doing some right things with them. My wife, Robbie, recounted a conversation she had several years ago with her niece and nephew that reminded […]

“And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:30) I read the above verse the other day and thought about a cornflakes commercial I remembered seeing on television several years ago. Three men are seated in a waiting room, each with a bushel basket, flooded with ears of corn, waiting to see the cornflake inspector. All were very proud of their harvest, at least until the first man went in to see the inspector and within seconds comes […]