The wrapping paper’s on the floor. That moment of giving is no more. This year’s Christmas is now gone past. What now remains is the gift that lasts. The movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” became a classic Christmas film.  Christmastime is the setting at the beginning and...

“In Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” - Jesus Last week, I gained a new appreciation for Christmas and all it means.  It happened in the middle of the night.  I had traveled to another state, and...

Joy is a theme of Christmas.  “Joy to the World” the carol proclaims!  But why is it that joy can seem so elusive? We pine for happier times.  The COVID virus and the economic shutdown have affected so many families.  Some are avoiding traditional family gatherings...

That year, I felt bold enough to make a trip to Santa’s chair – on my own.  Under the watchful eye of my parents I had already presented Santa my predetermined list.  But as I roamed the department store, my eyes landed on a battery powered airplane.  I powered my way...

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isa. 40:31). Michael Suderman, a minister in Washington D.C. has occasion to chat with and encourage elected...

Gratitude is good for you.  So says Amy Morin, author and therapist.  In a Forbes magazine article, she cites scientific research to make her point. Morin reports that gratitude isn’t just good manners.  Gratitude shows you value the contributions of others, and that...

What do I do now?  How shall I live the rest of my life?  Those are the questions that can arise when something changes your life circumstances. Culture and politics can suddenly change things, leaving you feeling like an exile in a foreign land.  That literally...

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. – Jesus Are you too emotionally staked to the outcome of this election?  However you feel about it, don’t lose focus.  Politics is downstream of culture, and culture is the collective thoughts and actions of...

“The Lord has spoken, and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting” (Psa. 50:1). May cancer be forever wiped from the face of the earth.  And it will be in time, either by the wisdom God gives, or by His promise of a new heaven and a new earth. ...

In a podcast, author Michael Lewis explains the extra coaching he arranged for his daughter who wanted to be a better high school softball player.  But the coaching wasn’t about her technique, it was about her mind. She was great in practice.  But during games, she...

I’m an Auburn man, so I have to be an Auburn fan, win or lose.  But I have to admit, the way our football team won over Arkansas this year was a gift from the referees.  Our quarterback tried to down the ball, but it should have been judged a fumble.  Auburn retained...

J.C. Watts found success as a college and pro football quarterback, and in politics as a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma.  In between those seasons of his life, he made a startling discovery about himself. Watts left pro football to become a youth minister.  It was...

People put their lamp on a high lampstand last month by gathering in Washington DC for “The Return.”  The purpose of the event was to call for individual soul-searching and pray for a return to God. What a counter-cultural thing to do.  This cultural moment has no...

Who can you trust these days?  What lies behind that question is the basic human need to rely on people and information.  Without trust, things fall apart. It is a delight to have people you can trust in your life.  They are honest, dependable, and...

I long to hear just one politician begin a sentence with, “My honorable opponent and I disagree…” Political discourse rarely rises above acrimony and invective. But it helps me show you something. The usual political topics are crime (riots, mandatory sentencing), the...

Let’s talk politics.  Sorta.  The people in elected offices and we electors who put them there need wisdom in a huge way, and soon. Here are some vexing topics of late.  #MeToo. Kneeling for the flag. Injustice. Racial unrest. Antifa.  Murders.  American cities...

Drew Brees (NFL quarterback) appeared on television earlier this year, but people didn’t know who he was.  Until the reveal. He filmed an episode of “Undercover Boss” as an owner of Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux.  In disguise, he worked as a dishwasher.  After...

Whoever says the Bible is boring never read the dramatic events recounted in the book of Esther.  It’s about loyalty and royalty, love and hate, life and death.  The plot twists as a man asserts his will against God’s.  It doesn’t turn out well for him. Haman was king...

An act of courage is admirable.  The habit of courage is a virtue. WWII hero and conscientious objector Desmond Doss pulled 75 wounded men off Hacksaw Ridge in 1945.  John Lewis demanded equal voting rights in 1965 by walking into the nightsticks across the Edmond...

Sitting on the porch in the cool of the morning, they pondered what the day might bring.  Theirs was a typical porch for those days, near enough to the road to overhear the travelers’ talk, and to chat with them. As the morning stirs to life, the travelers...

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ (Col. 2:8). This warning could not be more applicable to movements...

What happens when two professors who have little in common other than that title, decide to write about what our country needs right now?  Attack and acrimony?  Cat fights and dog whistles?  Nope. Robert George is a white, conservative, capitalist professor at...

Roger Stone is not going to prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing an official proceeding.  By Stone’s testimony, he has received a pardon far beyond what President Trump could give. Stone has a libertine and provocative past to put it...

“No one is good except God alone.” – Jesus Every day we are bombarded with what’s wrong in the world.  I just saw a photo of a post-riot street in an American city showing destroyed buildings, burned out automobile hulks, dangling utility lines, and smoky haze. ...

Former Sen. Zell Miller resisted the term “hillbilly” as derogatory.  But J.D. Vance claims to be one, and writes from that perspective in Hillbilly Elegy. The short version of Vance’s story is that his grandparents were dirt poor and in love.  They married and moved...

You can tell much about your view of work by what you think about retirement.  The modern notion of retirement as a permanent vacation creates a bias against the virtue of work.  Consider some examples. In 2018, an investment services company ran a Super Bowl ad in...

This is starting to look like a cultural revolution to some degree.  Be careful what you ask for, America. Cultural values are expressed in its monuments to the past.  When time comes for change, what happens to those monuments is a declaration to the present.  Iraqis...

If you have yet to believe God exists or the Christian gospel is true, I want to reveal something to you.  When a Christian says or writes something that challenges you at the point of faith, it is an expression of love. You matter. George W. Truett (1867-1944)...

“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus (500 BC) In a city near you, people have been using both peaceful and violent means to accelerate change.  The daily news compels you to form an opinion on the methods or the goal of that change.  Some plead for...

Chuck Colson wrote, “If we fail to stand for Christ at that place where the world is denying His Lordship, we are missing the mark.” The death of George Floyd and the following violent events are such a denial. Christ is Lord over how we treat one another. You won’t...

Ravi Zacharias passed into eternity recently. Since 1971, he crisscrossed the globe carrying the message of Christ to the high class and low castes, to national leaders and religious followers, to prisoners and questioners. He spoke at universities and the United...

Evidence of facts leads to an understanding of truth.  (At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work!)  God created us with senses and common sense so that we can gain knowledge. I know the coronavirus exists even though I’ve never seen it in a microscope.  Somebody...

Americans set aside Memorial Day to remember and honor soldiers who died while defending our country and freedom.  It is a worthy cause. From what I read, several streams of practice and thought contributed to the formalizing of this national holiday in...

The government tells churches not to meet when officials determine such assemblies to be non-essential during the pandemic.  Most churches would comply without threats of enforcement, but some challenged the authorities.  It’s no surprise that one man’s “stay home!”...

She never married.  She never bore a child.  Yet she was a mother to over a thousand children.  Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) is remembered for her work in India rescuing orphans in the name of Jesus. Following Jesus’ example of a sacrificial life was the outcome of...

“Life is hard – but God is good, and heaven is real” – Billy Graham.  Heaven is as real as life is hard. Isn’t it possible that God might allow eyewitnesses of heaven?  Rev. Graham was at the bedside of the famed preacher, R. G. Lee, who was in and out of...

During this coronavirus season, two basic human desires emerge.  We do not want to be alone and we do not want to die. The retired Army colonel and infectious disease expert Dr. Deborah Birx tells us that these two concerns are working against each other.  If we...

The Resurrection account is trustworthy in part because it reveals Jesus’ disciples acting very humanly as they waited to understand what it all meant. They argued about who would sit by Him when He began his rule. They couldn’t grasp where or why He was going “to...

Amidst all the scientific inquiry into the coronavirus, we now know who to blame for the pandemic. Evangelical Christians, per the New York Times. I wonder if the NYT is aware that China, Iran, and Italy do not have large evangelical populations, yet they led the...

Avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people. Avoid restaurants except for pickup options.  Avoid discretionary travel.  So says the President’s coronavirus guidelines. Most churches complied, and pushed some of the faithful out of their comfort zones. Whether your...

The headlines are dire. “Coronavirus outbreak.” “Dow drops triggering another trading pause.” “Travel ban.” “Medical supply shortage.” “State of Emergency.” While the world’s leaders and medical experts mount a defense to this growing plague, believers can turn to...

“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and...

You cannot step into the same river twice – Heraclitus (500 BCE). Why is that? Because the river is different, and so are you. At no point in the future will both you and the river be the same. You might imagine you stay the same, but then you remember what you wrote,...

Dr. Arthur Brooks spoke at the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. His message was not well received by some, but it is a message we need to hear. America is facing a crisis. Scorched earth politics, demands to “fundamentally change” our country, and...

Kris Kristofferson had reason to ask such a profound question. Packed into it is the sense that he found a treasure that rightfully belongs to someone else. He came from a military family and became an Army officer himself, a helicopter pilot. In 1965 after achieving...

The new elastic case came from Amazon.  Dreading the tedium of setting up the new phone, I figured at least slipping on the case would feel like progress.  I removed it from the package and began to stretch it over the phone.  I failed.  I rededicated myself to trying...

The great contradiction of our technological age is that so much information can be gathered about us, yet that does not satisfy our basic need to be known. The slogan in George Orwell’s fictional Oceania is “big brother is watching you.” That phrase has become a...

“Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting.” So begins each session with a call to listen carefully to important words...

The purpose of the Museum of the Bible, opened in 2017 in Washington D.C., is not just to display relics. It shows how the Bible has impacted human history, individual people, and every area of life. What a timely message, since modern voices claim Biblical teachings...

Julie Andrews famously sang about “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.” Her favorite things included “girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes.” The lyrics work because we never tire of beauty. C.S. Lewis...