Maybe the most often-quoted Chinese proverb is, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Nearly every time I have heard that proverb used, it has been in an encouraging way, but have we ever stopped to consider that the same statement is true in a negative sense, as well. If we ever start down a sinful path, we could find ourselves lost and without hope in some addiction or massive life upheaval due to that sin. In the mid-1400s, the nation of Portugal was sending out explorers to nearby islands to try to find land to take over and resources to use. One island was named…

Recently, I was reading a review of a book written by a man who, apparently, was basically recounting some of his childhood memories. Specifically, the memories dealt with a family tradition of loading up in a station wagon and taking off for a vacation destination. A combination of the high cost of flying, the size of the family, and the family’s financial status made traveling by road more economical and sensible than traveling by air.  That changed as the years went by. According to the review I read, “Flying became so cheap that eventually even [the father] springs for a vacation by air.” What I found most interesting about the review was a…

The little book of Habakkuk is one that is rarely studied, but that I greatly enjoy. The message of the book is one that is timeless. I am preparing to teach for several weeks on this book, and so I’ve been trying to do some reading and studying. Though I have taught the book before, there is still more preparation to do, because this book contains so many nuggets of truth. One of those is something that you may have noticed and found quite obvious before, but that my brain just had not registered. It is at the very end of the book, as the prophet Habakkuk writes his beautiful…

I was sitting and contemplating what I could write for my post this week. All I could think about was the studying I needed to be doing for the lessons I am presenting at Polishing the Pulpit. Then it hit me – why not just write about PtP! I’m sure most of you know what this gathering is, but if you haven’t had the privilege of attending, or even if you have attended, I would like to share some of my thoughts with you about this great event. 1.  PtP is a gathering of people of “like, precious faith” — lots of people.  We tend to call it “a little taste of heaven” in…

A group in Germany was close to a new Guinness world record, when it all came tumbling down. Literally. The group of 20 people was attempting to break the record for toppling the most mini-dominoes. These dominoes are about the size of a fingernail and, as such, take a great deal of care to set up in those long lines. Over the course of about two weeks, the group had set up over 600,000 of these tiny dominoes and were very close to their record-breaking attempt. When a fly landed on one of the dominoes, toppling virtually the entirety of their work. [Source] A fly! Can you imagine the frustration? There…

Maybe you remember a hymn in the songbook in the back of the pew in front of you entitled “Church in the Wildwood.” If you do recall it, this means right at this very moment your brain is streaming, “oh-oh, come…come…come…come…” Yes, that’s the song! I remember thinking there is absolutely nothing biblical about this hymn. It’s about going down to a little brown church in the dale. Haven’t we preached over and over again that the church is the people and not a place? And aren’t we supposed to keep ourselves from being tied to a building? That being said, this article is actually a tribute to the churches…

I know that we live in the digital age. I understand that we can communicate much more quickly with a lot more people via email, social media, etc. than we could just a few years ago. At the same time, I am just old-fashioned enough to believe that there is something to be said for taking the time and making the effort to actually write a note, card, or letter and put it in the mail.  There may be some who are reading this who believe I may have another reason to prefer the old-fashioned way. They may think that I get some sort of perverse pleasure from knowing that the recipients…