Jul 16, 2024 | Pondering and Kindling
O.J. Simpson, the Juice, died on April 10, at age 76. One news columnist opened his story with these words, “It marked the end of a long and turbulent life marked by poverty. survival, riches, violence, and stardom.”The centerpiece of the television reporting was a...
May 23, 2024 | Pondering and Kindling
The article had a bold-face title: Methodists Keep Up With the Times. My friend had saved it from The Wall Street Journal (May 10) because he knew I would be interested. Just reading the title, had I not known what the article was about, I would have pronounced...
Apr 3, 2024 | Pondering and Kindling
Years ago I came across a phrase that grabbed my attention. It was a season of my life when I was paying close attention to my own “spiritual state,” and as a result, seeking to develop particular spiritual disciplines. The phrase, a long obedience in the same...
Mar 27, 2024 | Pondering and Kindling
There is no if about death. The question is more accurately put, “When a person dies, shall he or she live again?” Not one line of the New Testament was written… not one sentence was penned apart from the conviction that He of whom these things were being written had...
Mar 19, 2024 | Pondering and Kindling
The preaching must have been powerful. In a recent cartoon, as he leads his parents from worship, Dennis the Menace confronts the preacher. “What happens when everyone stops sinning? What will you do?” While we are not strangers to sin, Dennis stuns us with his ...
Mar 12, 2024 | Pondering and Kindling
I recently heard this story of a boy who desperately wanted a car for his sixteenth birthday. He didn’t hesitate in making that desire known. When that day finally arrived, he looked out the window, hopefully thinking that surely his new car would be there. But to his...
