In one of his plays, William Shakespeare wrote, "There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." What the great poet of England was saying is that the hand of God guides us, and, at times, His guidance overrides the human will.
January 10, 2019
Michael Fortino is a time-management specialist. He is one of those capable individuals who analyzes businesses and tells management how to be more productive and efficient, but Fortino has changed his mind about some things. In the 1980s the personal computer was born. Now we have the Internet, e-mail, cell phones, instant messaging. What we thought would be labor saving devices end up eating up more and more of our time.
January 9, 2019
You will never have to convince Josh Dennis that angels are real. He learned that fact, first-hand. It all started when he got separated from the Boy Scouts that were exploring Hidden Treasure Mine. When he got lost, people expected that he would be found in a matter of hours. But long hours soon turned into days. What rescuers had not counted on was the treachery of the drop-offs and the hidden pockets of darkness with floors of deep water.
January 8, 2019
The headlines of the newspaper read, "GUNSHOT BLAST KILLS HEMINGWAY!" It was dated Monday, July 3, 1961. One of my literary heroes lay dead of a self-inflicted wound, bringing his life to a tragic end. Hemingway was a man's man. I admired his style of writing, and I admit I was rather fascinated by the way he seemed to stare life in the face and go after it. He wrote about wars, bullfighting, big game hunting, physical adventure as man was pitted against his environment--things that were of interest to a young man in his mid-20s.
January 7, 2019
Ernest Hemingway once said that "courage is fear that has prayed!" If he's right, then a man in Zamboanga has that kind of stuff. In the event that the city of Zamboanga doesn't register with you, allow me to explain that this is one of the principal cities in Mindanao, southern Philippines, an area which has been torn by strife.
January 4, 2019
In a tribal area in Northern Luzon in the Philippines, a witch doctor sprinkles chicken blood on the door posts of a new house and chants a prayer asking that the spirits bless the residents. In Yangon merchants step out of their sandals and walk barefooted up the steps to the great Shedagon Pagoda and sit in contemplation before a golden Buddha. Half-way around the world, families fill parking lots, then with Bibles under their arms stream into churches looking more like modern shopping centers than traditional ones with spires and organs. While their paths to God may be as divergent as the distance between the three groups I mentioned, all of them, right or wrong, are reaching out to God as they conceive him to be.
January 3, 2019
He hated being a celebrity, but he was always in the news. He longed for a simple life yet his was often complex and confusing. He was a young and inexperienced speaker, yet he spent his life confronting world leaders. His name: Jeremiah. If you check that name out in a dictionary, you’ll find a definition, taken from the life of this seventh century prophet, which tells you that a Jeremiah is “one who is pessimistic about the present and foresees a calamitous future.”
January 2, 2019
Suppose you had awakened at the stroke of 12:01 a.m. on January 1, and there, standing before you, was an individual in shining clothing which you immediately recognized as an angel, and you then heard these words: “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:8). Would you be afraid to tackle the New Year?
January 1, 2019
Today is the first day of the year, and to be honest with you, it’s almost a bit scary staring another year in the face. Looking behind we think, “What happened to the good intentions and resolutions we made a year ago—ones which we have not only failed in attaining but can’t even remember what they were?”
December 31, 2018
It’s an old story but one worth repeating. A man rushed into the railroad station and breathlessly asked, “When does the 8:01 leave?” “At 8:01,” replied the railroad clerk, not bothering to look up from his newspaper. “Well,” said the man, “it’s only 7:55 by my watch,” but, somewhat worried, added, “it’s 8:04 by the station clock. Which one should I go by?” Sardonically the railroad clerk replied, “You can go by any clock you wish, but you won’t be going on the 8:01 because it has already left.”
December 28, 2018