Author: admin

Steve Thompson: More than a Super Bowl Winner

While not a New York Jets fan, I was saddened by their late-season collapse that once again doomed their chances of making the upcoming National Football League playoffs. The reason: I had hoped the team’s success would spark the New York media’s attention to a most unusual ministry to Wall Street financiers, led by former…
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‘The Chosen’ for a Better New Year

While its crowd-sourced funding and modest production budgets have made The Chosen a quiet success until now, its recent “blow out the doors” performance in theaters have given this TV series new visibility. In case you missed it, the first two episodes of season 3 were packaged for theaters and ranked third nationally in box…
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If You’re Not Dead Great Read

If you are searching for a last-minute Christmas gift, I recommend Jim Watkins’s amusing book, If You’re Not Dead, You’re Not Done: Live with Purpose at Any Age. One thing I have learned about passing traditional retirement age and still working is that life’s challenges continue. Whoever thinks that things get easier as the miles…
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Learning Lessons of History at Harpers Ferry

Since it has only a few hundred year-round residents, Harpers Ferry has had a rather outsized impact on U.S. history. It was the site of abolitionist John Brown’s ill-fated attempt in 1859 to free slaves in western Virginia. What we learned on a recent trip there is that Brown’s efforts were not necessarily in vain.…
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A Time to Give Thanks

Together again. A great theme for Thanksgiving 2022, as we gather to give thanks. It expresses how we have conquered an irrational fear of sickness and each other as we emerge from the pandemic panic that erupted in early 2020. For me, that became clear in mid-October when I took a friend to a spiritual…
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Satire Always Upsets Someone

As a nation, we are dangerously close to losing the ability to laugh at ourselves. We have forgotten the purpose of satire. That is sad, for when we can’t find amusement in human foibles, we become serious scolds. Exhibit A is the politically correct trolls on the internet, seeking grievances for which to grind their…
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God Searches for Us – Part 6: Baptism = New Life

Sixth in a series. Read part five. When the deacon and his wife came to our house to counsel me about salvation through Christ, the youth pastor and his wife (who remain friends to this day) came along to talk with my wife. Unsure about this “Christian thing,” my wife held out. Meanwhile, the deacon…
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God Searches for Us – Part 5: A Mysterious Force

Fifth in a series. Read Part Four. As much as we liked the church we were visiting, we only went every two or three weeks. Providentially, we skipped services the Sunday morning my stepson called. I listened as my wife talked. As clueless and insensitive as I can be, I could still tell from her…
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God Searches for Us – Part 4: The Search for Peace

Fourth in a series. Read Part Three. A couple of months after my meltdown over my stepson sassing his mother, we encountered more problems. Three weeks into the school year, the principal’s office called my wife to let her know her son had never been to class. To make sure he did, she started driving…
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Tribulation – Part 3: The Illusion of Self-Control

Third in a series. Read Part Two. Life is filled with disappointments and aggravations. As Jesus put it in John 16:33: “In the world you will have tribulation ” (MEV). Despite that promise, after the move to Colorado I related in my two previous blogs, I had never bargained for the maddening frustrations I encountered…
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