Recently I opted to watch the in-flight movie to help pass the time. The movie being offered was called The Bucket List and it featured two of my favorite actors, Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. The storyline is that two men of very different financial stratas are both dying within months. The create a “bucket list” of things that they decide to cross off as a team.  Things they wanted to accomplish before they “kick the bucket”. One of those things was to visit the Pyramids and that scene was of particular interest. Morgan Freeman’s character Carter tells Jack Nicholson’s character Edward about a belief of the Egyptian people. “You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death.  When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions.  Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not.  ‘Have you found joy in your life?’  ‘Has your life brought joy to others?’” I don’t know enough about the beliefs
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I have have been blessed to hear that occasionally the humble ramblings help one of my readers as they journey with Jesus. My mission for this blog is clear. Helping tens of readers feel superior in their Christian walk for over forty months. It is a burden that I am willing to carry. But I recognize that you are always looking for authentic Christian writers who get it. May I suggest that you check out a weekly offering from my friend Ed Underwood. I wrote an earlier article about Ed, his journey through the trial of cancer and his ministry to Joni as she faced cancer.  His weekly musings are called the Tipping Point. Here is an excerpt from Ed’s most recent offering. Why is it that we’re so careful when we read the Bible’s instruction on marriage, family, morality, culture, creation, and church but so sloppy when we interpret Jesus’ lessons on money. We explain away His hard sayings with complicated interpretations and excuse our
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A Peanuts comic strip features Charlie Brown’s sister Sally struggling to spread frozen butter on her toast. Finally she exclaims, “Nobody told me life was going to be this hard!” I can understand Sally’s frustration. Life is hard. Sometimes even more difficult than frozen butter. Things happen that were not in the brochure. Or at least that is what I once believed. In fact that very information is in the brochure. The Bible is very clear that life will be a journey of struggling to spread frozen butter and worse (that is a paraphrase). Much worse. The “frozen butter times” are part of the journey. God has given us a wonderful gift that we too often leave unwrapped. Even if we have unwrapped this gift we too often leave it unused. The gift is laughter. The following excerpt is from my sporadically selling book “Bring’em Back Alive – A Healing Plan for those Wounded by the Church.”  I believe a sense of humor is one of God’s gifts to help get
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I remember hearing the late entertainer Merv Griffin joke that he was going to put these words on his tombstone. “I will not be right back after this message” I happened upon a story recently about humorous tombstone messages and I found out that Merv kept his word. There have been some brave souls over the years when it came to tombstone epitaphs. Like this apparently long suffering husband who paid less than his respects to his departed bride. John Dryden (1631-1700): Here lies my wife: here let her lie!Now she’s at rest, and so am I. On Margaret Daniels’ grave at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia: She always said her feet were killing her but nobody believed her. On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in East Dalhousie Cemetery, Nova Scotia: Here liesEzekial AikleAge 102The GoodDie Young And he had so much to live for! From a cemetery in Ruidoso, New Mexico: Here liesJohnny YeastPardon meFor not rising. I started
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Warning: The following post may contain humor. This blog was produced in a program where irony and satire are processed. May contain sarcasm fragments. If you have negative reactions to sarcasm or satire please avoid this product. Thank you.   If you read When Bad Christians Happen to Good People  you know that I am not a fan of “Jesus Junk”. That is a term for the often tacky, sometimes offensive and generally puzzling ways that we try to merge Christianity and our culture. The products range from the Jesus bobble head dolls to Christian breath mints. I had never considered bad breath to be a spiritual battle but I am still learning in my journey.   People now send me links to this stuff just to annoy me. I found out about a new Talking Jesus action figure. Herobuilders.com of Connecticut, USA, added a new hero to their ranks of action dolls – “the ONLY real hero,” in fact. Standing fully 12″ tall, the Jesus Christ
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The opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics were truly spectacular. The creative genius of the program and disciplined performers left me awestruck. But a news story the next day left me a little angry. The beautiful little girl singing during the telecast was actually lip syncing. Was it because she was too nervous or too young to perform live in such a pressure packed environment? Nope. It was because the actual voice belonged to a singer dubbed not “cute” enough to represent the country. The Los Angeles Times reported the story. The child in question was 9-year-old Lin Miaoke, who was seen belting out “Ode to the Motherland” as the Chinese flag entered the National Stadium. She became an instant celebrity and was quickly christened a “smiling angel.” The image of her in a pretty red dress appeared around the world. But it wasn’t Miaoke who was singing. Chen Qigang, the ceremony’s music director, told state broadcaster Beijing Radio that the
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Today I took a walk through Boston. The Boston Common is a beautiful and peaceful oasis to walk and pray. On my way back to the hotel I noticed a man on a motorized scooter. He was severely physically challenged. It appeared he was dealing with advanced Cerebral Palsy. The man was unable to communicate beyond noises and grunts. I have learned a lot about dealing with physically challenged people from my wife’s years of serving special needs kids. She has taught me to just treat them like anyone else. No need to look with pity or speak louder. The man was selling water and soft drinks from his scooter. He had a little cooler and a money box with a slot. There was a sign that listed the prices. Another sign noted a box to make change because he was unable to execute even that simple task. So I went up to the man, smiled at him, told him I wanted a
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