“The beginning is near!”

As we round the holiday corner and steam toward Christmas, our thoughts are centered on the story surrounding our Lord’s birth. Often times we focus on different characters in the Biblical narrative, from the holy to the horrible.

My father worked for more than 45 years as a manufacturing engineer. I always assumed that he enjoyed the work. It seemed to come naturally to him.

The story of Ruth is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

There is a well-known story told about a church that invited a famous guest preacher one Sunday. When the congregation gathered Sunday morning, many important people attended and dressed in their finest.

Lately, startling news erupted from what some would call Biblical scholarship. Apparently, a piece of manuscript has been translated as Jesus making reference to His so-called human wife.

Last month, I wrote of home. Our geographical homes, the homes of our heart, the homes of our faith.

Photography is one of my hobbies. I bought my first 35 mm camera about a year after I started my first real job – when I finally had a little money of my own.

“There’s no place like home.” If we don’t all know the source of that quote (Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz,) we certainly all know the sentiment.

I once saw a coat of arms (I believe it was that of Gen. Robert E. Lee) which depicted a squirrel planting an acorn. The idea being that before there can be a mighty towering oak there must first be the small, unassuming planting of an acorn.

If God’s people had the view of sin that some have of snakes, I believe there would be much less heartache and consequences of sinful living.

In the Old Testament book of Joshua, the people of Israel cross over the dry bed of the Jordan River into the Promised Land. This is the fulfillment of a promise made by God almost 1,000 years before when God led Abraham from his father’s house and commanded him to go to a new land. Then the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and promised that Abraham would have descendents as numerous as the stars and that the land on which he stood would one day belong to his children’s children.

Thank a teacher! Let them know that you appreciate their fulfilling their calling.

What ability or skill or attitude is God developing in you right now in that struggling situation that you have been thinking of as a decided disadvantage? Maybe you need to look at the other side of your problems.

As we live the Christian life, we are reminded throughout scripture that we face battles and we are soldiers.