I don’t know about you but I hate going to the doctor. First of all, I don’t like being poked and prodded. Secondly, I don’t like taking up half of the day traveling to the location, waiting in the lobby, waiting in the room, and then finally spending what seems like 3 minutes of the last 4 hours getting some help. Did I mention the germs and coughs and the war zone atmosphere of the waiting area? If you weren’t already sick you always think that you need to put on a gas mask or bathe in acid or antibacterial fluids once you have been exposed to all of that.…

Sometime ago, I became aware of a book with an intriguing title. It is also, at least to me, a somewhat confusing title. I think that it was, in some measure, designed to be that way in order to “grab” the attention of the prospective reader.   The title of the book is Reading the Bible Again For the First Time. If something is done again, how can it be the case that it can also be done for the first time?  Apparently, this catchy title is intended to encourage people to read the Bible from an entirely new perspective. We are to read it as though we are reading it for the first…

In 1957, a student at North Canton Middle School in Ohio laid down a purse. How or why it was done, there is no way to know now. But the purse was put between a small gap between a set of lockers and a wall in the hallway of the school. So far, the story is boring. A purse was set down, like so many others. What makes the story interesting is that the purse was picked up. Last month. January of 2020. A janitor was replacing a piece of stripping between the lockers and wall just last month when he saw a purse in the small gap. It was…

Imagine that you were a person in the world who knew nothing about God or Jesus or the Bible. But you had an inclination towards belief in God and you wanted to know more and you understood that religious institutions existed for a reason and perhaps they could help. So you decide to visit a local church. How do you even begin to know if you are in the right place? It seems that all churches should exist for the same reason. And you would expect to receive some direction from the people who attend there. When you arrived you would want to feel welcomed. You would want people to…

I recently learned that somebody referred to the people with whom I have worshiped for over nineteen years as “the misfit church.” Not only am I a member of this church, but I served for sixteen years as a minister and have, for sixteen years served as one of the elders. (Many of those years overlapped.) As you might imagine, the description I heard caught my attention. I’m only guessing (but I’ve got a pretty good idea that I may be guessing correctly) that calling a group of people “misfits” was not meant as a high compliment. It could be that we “earned” that label in somebody’s mind because of what we choose…

Along with the masses, I began my year with a renewed attempt to be healthier and went back to the gym. Anyone who knows me well knows that exercise is not my “activity of choice,” but I do believe it is beneficial to our health and general well-being. I will have to admit that I feel better and have a sense of accomplishment when I get to the gym on a regular basis. Even the Bible gives credit to bodily exercise being of “some value” in 1 Timothy 4 (ESV). However, this article is not about debating exercise. It was inspired by something I saw while at the gym. There…