Truth can be so annoying. If annoying truth was a Jeopardy category it might look like this… “I’ll take Annoying Truths for $100, Alex.”This famous preacher said,  “Give me five minutes with a person’s checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.”“Who is Billy Graham? I’ll take Annoying Truths for $200, Alex.”This missionary to India said, “You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving.” “Who was Amy Carmichael, Alex. I am getting very uncomfortable with this topic so let’s take “Sins that make you worse than me for $100.” Money is an uncomfortable topic for followers of Jesus. One anonymous writer noted that a lot of people are willing to give God the credit, but not too many are willing to give Him the cash. Twenty-nine years ago a man in Kansas City made a choice to give away the cash. It was a choice that changed his life and the lives of thousands more. For the next 27 years until his
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There were a couple of odd twists in the daily walk with dog friend Hannah. The first odd occurrence was the absence of squirrels in the park. That is the second straight day that Hannah has not enjoyed a good rodent chase. Perhaps the ESWS (Early Squirrel Warning System) is now operational. The other odd occurrence was that the same song came up twice on the random shuffle feature of my iPod. The song does occur twice on my iPod but there are 917 songs and the shuffle selected both occurrences of that song in one thirty minute period. Does God’s sovereignty extend to the shuffle feature on MP3 devices? Fortunately the song was one of my favorites tunes and it was from one of my favorite composer/singers. Rich Mullins released the song in 1993. Well, sometimes my lifeJust don’t make sense at allWhen the mountains look so bigAnd my faith just seems so small Right now I am in a pretty good place in my life and
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Dog friend Hannah loves the morning walk. When she sees me grab the walking shoes she begins to vibrate with excitement. If T.Boone Pickens wants to find an untapped energy source we should harness Labrador tails. Got to think Hannah could power a small apartment building when she gets excited and that tail starts going. I love the morning walk as well. It is a time to meditate, pray, listen to messages and good music and enjoy God’s company. The walk is pretty much the same each day for Hannah. She checks for new messages left by other dog friends on her social network. Sometimes she leaves a reply. She gets excited when she sees another person or dog or, to be honest, anything breathing. Hannah loves life. But I noticed something about my canine friend today that caused me to reflect on my own faith journey. Hannah is happy to just be get out and go walking. The fact that she is on a
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I love thoughtful questions and graceful challenges. Reader Barbara asked a really good question in response to my recent article about the marketing campaign by Washington DC atheists. Here is her note to me. Help me out here, Dave. I, too, believe we shouldn’t spew hate and should “proceed cautiously and with grace” but am not always sure what that looks like in being Christian living in a secular world.. e.g. As I remember, last year, the city of Ft. Lauderdale was reportedly going to deny Christians the right to place Christmas trees or mangers in a city park but said it was ok to install other religious symbols like a Jewish menorah. Because of a public (Christian) outcry, the city fathers backed down. Should the Christians not have spoken up? Should there not have been a public outcry? If that was all true, and we know there are similar happenings all over the country, how do we proceed cautiously
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In our last humble rambling we looked at a hard hitting bus advertising campaign in the United Kingdom that boldly proclaimed there “probably” is no God. The humanists in the good ole US of A are ratcheting up the faith advertising campaigns with a new series of ads in Washington D.C. This story ran on Foxnews.com (just lost some readers right there) recently. Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday. In lifting lyrics from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas. “We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you,” said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the
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A recent advertising campaign in the United Kingdom caught my attention. A comedy writer in London noticed that the local buses often carried messages for faith in God. Ariane Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell. I wrote about that very topic in my most recent post. I was first exposed to a faith that created fear of damnation instead of grace and relationship. Ms.Sherine continues: “I thought it would be a really positive thing to counter that by putting forward a much happier and more upbeat advert, saying ‘Don’t worry, you’re not going to hell,’” said Sherine, 28. “Atheists believe this is the only life we have, and we should enjoy it.” First of all, with all due respect to Ms Sherine’s intellect I cannot fully trust her assurance
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