As our world devolves into more depravity, what amuses us or gives us a thrill not only gets more depraved, it also gets cheaper. (Need proof? Look no further than the explosion of pornography and how it provides that “thrill” for millions.) But there is another cheap thrill that has been around for centuries, and each time it is found, it is awful, destructive, and insidious. Yet…it keeps going. It is the cheap thrill of gossip. Think for a moment. What could be cheaper than tearing down someone who is not present only to make (1) them look worse, and/or (2) you look better? It’s cheap because it is taking…

Who watched the Grammys this past Sunday night? Not me! I have no desire to watch them. I won’t watch the Oscars either, or any other Hollywood award show of any kind for that matter. You know why? Because they aren’t what they were (I’m not saying they were ever wonderful). There was a time in America when we would watch movies or listen to music and then see who won the awards at the end of the year just for fun. The “stars” weren’t ever perfect morally but they at least they weren’t so abrasive and political. Now I can’t watch at all and still feel like I know…

It was an important college football game. The winner of this particular game would play for the national championship. One would think that every imaginable detail would have been addressed by coaches and players and that there would be no room for what some call a “bonehead” incident. However, such an incident did, indeed, occur. Somehow there was enough confusion to cause the team with the ball to take too long between plays.   The referee threw the flag. He made the appropriate signal. He turned his microphone on and announced what everybody already knew. The penalty was for “delay of game.”   The head coach was not happy. That was to be expected. What was not…

As I was worshiping this last Sunday and listening to B.J. Clarke preach from 2 Corinthians, I thought about how one word in a passage of Scripture sometimes makes all the difference. In Paul’s opening remarks to the Corinthians, in the third verse of chapter one in this second letter the apostle writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” Concentrate on that word “all.” Paul did not say that God was the God of comfort. He said God is the God of all comfort. For me personally, that passage means so much more because of that…