Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
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This being a week of Thanksgiving, I’d like to propose that Christians give thanks that God has allowed us to participate in supernatural work He is doing in this world. There is great privilege and honor in being called to do His work. When I was a kid, we had a 1949 John Deere Model A. I was pretty young when I was taught to drive it. That was a great feeling. Being a little, skinny kid, there were things too big for me to lift, and I had to leave that to dad until I grew. But I could drive the tractor. Jesus said in Matthew 5:7, ...
In Jesus’ day, food was not as plentiful as what we are used to here in the Cove. Good drinking water wasn’t either. An individual might eat meat once a week. When Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6), His audience could well relate to the idea of hunger and thirst. In the last article we considered the righteousness that God supplies for His people through Jesus’ perfect life, His sacrifice on a cross for the sins of believers, and His resurrection and ascension...
In recent months, both of our sons have been infected with whatever illness has gone through the Cove that included fever, congestion and coughing. Included also was lack of appetite. They each were sick for a while, and it was a relief to see them eating again. A body needs calories, minerals, vitamins, fats, fiber, etc. The fourth Beatitude talks about appetite. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). This is referring to what nourishes and strengthens our souls. Jes...
How have you been doing at meekness? Sometimes when we are squeezed, meekness goes out the window. Our doggie is dying of cancer. Presently, he is stable. We knew he had been losing weight. But the situation began to become serious when a couple of months ago he lost the ability to walk for a day. The veterinarian did not believe it was necessary to euthanize him, and that he would regain his strength in a day or so. The week that this occurred was a very busy week, and I was really drained. We couldn’t find a store that had a hind end h...
When returning from a mission trip recently, our family was eager to get home. It had been well over twenty-four hours since we set out on the journey. At Dulles there was a lot of waiting in lines for shuttles, immigration, customs and baggage. On our flight were perhaps twenty passengers who were ill, so there was a fleet of wheelchairs waiting at the terminal. While waiting for a shuttle, we kept hearing from behind “Excuse, please!” We would shift and allow skillful airport personnel, many of whom were managing two wheelchairs single han...
Recently I finished listening to a biography of Elon Musk. He emerged from a troubled childhood and became the cofounder of PayPal and the founder of Tesla and SpaceX. If we could poll society as to what constitutes success, I believe Mr. Musk could check nearly all the boxes. He has made lots of money, is regarded as making a real difference in the world, has evident giftedness, has been the partner of numerous celebrated women, is able to spend time with wealthy and important and powerful people, and is able to throw exotic parties in exotic...
When I was in middle school or early high school, I remember that, for a time, my two closest friends and I would greet each other by punching each other in the arm really hard. Then we would laugh hard. Why did we do that? I don’t know. Why do boys that age do the things they do? I’m sure it was painful and we probably left some bruises a time or two. Just like combining laughter and pain doesn’t make sense to me, so Matthew 5:4 can sound absurd. It says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It doesn’t seem right to pu...
Change doesn’t come easy for me. My sons have at times enlightened me with new technology. I didn’t think I needed the Apple watch they got me some years ago. I didn’t want to change. What was wrong with my old watch? But now I use it all the time. I tried to sound interested when one of them bought me bone conduction headphones, but deep down I was thinking, “what is wrong with my old listening devices?” At the time it seemed like too much change. Now I use them all the time. I suppose change is possible. There are those who want to bring abo...
If you’re applying for a job, you would be ready to explain what you bring to the table – what skills, what experience, or willingness to learn or character that shows a high level of commitment, etc. Last week when we began to think about the first of the Beatitudes (derived from a Latin word for blessing) which is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), we noted that being poor in spirit is a basic characteristic of all who follow Jesus because we admit we are not good enough the way we are nat...
Could Jesus get elected to office today? Frankly, I don’t think so. He just wouldn’t fit into the crowd of little would-be saviors who run around seeking votes, promoting themselves as the solution to all ills in society, boasting of their achievements or intelligence while at the same time discrediting any opponent. There just doesn’t seem to be much room in present-day contests for a humble person. Jesus came as a suffering Servant. He made Himself of no reputation. Isaiah 53 says that He would not be remarkable in the eyes of those around Hi...
I read that Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist for the rock band Nirvana committed suicide in 1994. But I have since learned that the exact nature of his death is contested. The album Nevermind by Nirvana sold ten million copies, surpassing Michael Jackson on the charts back in the day. Nirvana is a Buddhist term for salvation through a person’s extinction, losing all individuality into nothingness or emptiness. This sounds to me like a flight from the fact that God has spoken. God spoke and the world came into existence. God spoke and r...
When I was seventeen, my parents took me 750 miles from home to a Bible college I had chosen but had never visited. I knew one person on campus and knew of another person among the five thousand students enrolled there. God cared for me and supplied new friends for me quickly. I met some of them in orientation. I can’t say I remember much about orientation except the friends I met. I’m sure in orientation we learned about the meal passes, how to register for classes, about the prayer meetings in the dorms, where the bookstore was, rules for dat...
How does a person determine his/her identity? It is popular to identify ourselves by the type of work we do or by our family relations. And in recent history, there have been new and creative ways of expressing a sense of identity that never would have occurred to our parents. Is society’s understanding of identity evolving? King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 24:21-22, “My son, fear the Lord and the king; do not associate with those given to change; for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring.” What is his p...
Last week I mentioned that early this summer our Sunday sermons examined what the Bible has to say about gender. This is a sensitive subject, able to invoke passionate and emotional responses. Ninety-five percent of women and 90% of men at some time in their lives are troubled about body image, fearing they do not measure up to cultural molds. Among those who wrestle with gender identity, 98% of boys and 88% of girls accept their biological sex after puberty. In last week’s article I mentioned our goal is to attempt to understand what Bible p...
This summer, some sermons in our Sunday morning worship were devoted to attempting to sort out an issue which can be confusing and frightening for many – transgenderism. As followers of Jesus we want to be loyal to the Bible and to interpret it accurately, doing our best to honor what it meant to the original audience, and not trying to read new meanings into the words on the page. And we also know we want to love people and show compassion without compromising the positions represented in Holy Scripture. Psalm 119:105 says to God, “Your Wor...
Our congregation recently paused to recognize God’s goodness to us. The occasion was the retirement of our assistant pastor. His story is worth sharing in the hopes that it will inspire people of retirement age to be involved in ministry. If you fall into that age category, you have compiled life experience and skills and some mature perspectives on how to apply Biblical passages. The Bible pictures Christ’s followers as servants, and there is no retirement age for service in the Scriptures. That doesn’t mean that you will serve as a senio...
Among the most sobering places I have visited was a specialized neuro-ICU. The lights were dimmed. Everyone spoke in whispers. Patients lay mostly motionless. You got the impression that the ward was filled with intense suffering. I did not want to imagine what life was like for the patients. No wonder when Jesus launched His ministry in Galilee with healing that He drew international attention. Matthew 4:23 says, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of s...
Some years ago when our sons were much smaller, I was outside and began to step into the flowerbed to access the water faucet. Something made me hesitate before putting my foot down. By God’s mercy, I paused and looked down. There I saw a crawling creature of a venomous type with rattles on its tail. I would have stepped directly on top of it. I did not want to let it out of my sight. I began knocking on the window above me until one of my boys appeared, looking at me as if he questioned whether I had lost my mind. I gave him explicit i...
During some of my schooling I worked for a small printing company. We took in more work on any given week than we could handle, and the pressure forged strong bonds and rewarding relationships. Regardless of differences, we all worked with great commitment out of loyalty to the owner whom we all admired. This bonded us tightly in solid relationships, and we spent time together outside of work. We all helped each other to get contracts fulfilled which we were assigned. And the store was successful during that time. On other jobs occasionally I...
My wife and I have enjoyed a little grove of pansies in one of our flowerbeds. This spring they greeted everyone who came to the door with their very happy, colorful faces. They appeared to be intentionally facing the walkway into the house in a friendly way. Truth be told, I believe they were facing that direction because that’s where they got the most light. Without any light, plants eventually die. So it makes sense that our pansy grove was programmed to face the light. But that makes me think that sometimes pansies are more intelligent than...
A woman named Amanda who had suffered a miscarriage wrote an article in which she described the dark time in her life that resulted from that loss. As the article unfolded, it became clear that it was not really about darkness, but about the light that she found as she dealt with the heavy grief that overtook her. Here are some of the things she shared. From Genesis 1 she was reminded that God creates, and that what He made on each day of creation was good. This basic truth seemed to serve as ballast for her as she was tossed about by powerful...
Independence is a tricky concept. It conjures the idea of being free to do whatever you want to do. But if your imagination and desires are tainted in a way which keep you from pursuing what is truly good and beautiful and true – specifically what is good and beautiful and true and of a quality that can satisfy a person forever, then the freedom to do whatever you want, to chase whatever deep impulses well up inside of you, would actually be a form of slavery since you are not able to grasp what is good, beautiful and true when measured on a...
Recently I was reading through the book of Judges and came across the story of Samson, one of the people God raised up to deliver His covenant people from oppressors in turbulent times. Samson was an unprincipled fellow. His parents were informed before his birth that he had a special calling and were given principles by which Samson was to live. Instead of reserving himself for God’s calling, he chased after what his eyes found attractive but did not fit within God’s principles, and he brought terrible ruin on himself. Have you ever heard of t...
Can you recall watching a toddler absolutely wreck a room while the parents laughed at how “cute” the behavior was? You might have been highly irritated, feeling sure you would not allow such wild behavior in your own child. The child could grow up to be an undisciplined, out-of-control monster! That scenario seems like a fitting analogy for what Satan was enticing Jesus to become in the second of the temptations recorded in Matthew 4. Satan wanted Jesus to pull off a wild stunt, jumping off the highest pinnacle of the temple in front of cro...
People have written some difficult and challenging prayers over the years. For example, a British fellow in the 1800’s named Thomas Arnold prayed – “Gracious Father, be pleased to touch our hearts in time with trouble, with sorrow, with sickness, with disappointment, with anything that may hinder them from being hard to the end, and leading us to eternal ruin.” And John Wesley from the 1700’s prayed “Lord God . . . let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you . . . .” Why do I classify these prayers...
Months ago in Kenya our van driver told us there was a lion laying in the tall grass along the road. We couldn’t see it. It took help from the guide, but then its face became clear. Someone on foot would have walked right up on it. 1 Peter 5:8 warns Christians, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Satan is out to destroy the faith of God’s people and mar as much as possible the reflection of God’s glory in us who were made in His image, murdering souls. Matthew 4:...
When our family returned from a trip to Kenya and presented our report to our church family and friends, the part where we described the neediness of children caused an audible, collective groan. We spoke briefly of the lack of food and medicine and clothing, and those facts really grabbed some people, to the point they wanted to contribute to meeting at least the needs of one or two children. Driving through the Cove in the weeks immediately after our return I didn’t see women carrying sticks to take home in order to make a little fire and c...
Our congregation supports a pastor in a country where being a Christian can prove dangerous. He was recently imprisoned because of hatred from enemies of Jesus. The reports were amazing to hear that even while in prison he was loving people and sharing the good news of forgiveness and new life through the Savior named Jesus. I can’t think of another religion where God gives what He commands. We are commanded by God to be holy, and He gives us Christ who was holy in our place and then died to make us holy. This is the message the pastor p...
When our family was in Kenya, I counseled our teenager to forget whatever he may have learned about driving there. I could never have imagined my wife being calm if she were riding in a vehicle where there seems to be no rules. One day she looked at us with a calm smile and said with a tone of voice that exuded peace, “This is really amazing. It looks like we are going to hit those cars head on.” God gave her peace. From my vantage point the only explanation was that she was surrendered to God’s plans. Have you ever heard someone say somet...
One Monday at one of the jobs I worked during college, a supervisor showed up for work, and she looked awful. She looked like she had been in a terrible accident. She was limping and could hardly walk. Her face had terrible bruising and was swollen. She could barely move one of her arms. We crowded around her, wanting to know what happened over the weekend. Here’s the story that explains what we saw that Monday morning. She had a new little puppy. It was time to take the puppy outside. This w...
Grunting, I suppose, is famous from caricatures of what “cave men” were like or from Tim the Toolman Taylor from the decades-old show “Home Improvement.” But grunting is actually a useful tool for men in 2024. It has proven useful for me when my wife is asking my opinion on something for which I can find no personal opinion no matter how deeply I look within myself. Sometimes, a grunt can serve to show that I am listening and give acknowledgment, but at the same time it is completely non-committal to any of the options in play in the convers...
Our family recently returned from a trip to Africa with a stop in Dubai along the way. We are blessed in many ways, but one blessing that stands out to me is that of my wife and all the research she did. She researched things like what type of bug spray could help ward off the dangerous malaria-bearing mosquitoes but not harm us at the same time, where to obtain the metro pass in Dubai (as well as how to use it), what documents are necessary to enter Kenya these days, and the best neck pillow, etc. Maybe you’re a person who takes a relaxed a...
