Many years ago I was part of a group from Louisville that made a mission trip to Vermont. There, we started reconstruction work on an old building that later became a retreat center and housing for visiting missionaries. One afternoon during a work break, the host pastor explained why he had become a confirmed New…
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Anniversaries are special, particularly when they arrive in round numbers. They serve as reminders of significant events and celebrations—or in the case of a forthcoming one, overcoming what appeared initially to be a tragedy. In a few weeks, my wife, Janet, and I will observe the 20th anniversary of her bout with breast cancer. It…
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Sometimes the backstory of a book is almost as interesting as the contents. Such is the case with Never Alone: Present from Birth and Beyond. Released in early April by a regional publisher in southern Ohio, this spiritual memoir highlights the ways a good friend, Romey Swanson, has seen God move in miraculous ways in…
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Judging by our telephone’s caller ID, I recently tried to call myself nine or 10 times in one day. Once an hour through most of the workday, and a time or two after I quit for the evening. At least, that was my number appearing on the readout. Since most of the time, I was…
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Sometimes often-told stories can be so familiar we discount their significance. This weekend, the Christian world will celebrate Easter. If we aren’t careful we may treat the earth-shattering significance of Christ’s resurrection as another ho-hum event. Not that there’s anything wrong with sitting down for a dinner of ham and the fixings, or eating some…
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Several months ago I saw a column in a trade publication that caught my eye. The store owner who wrote it opened with the line: “Repeat after me: ‘God is bigger than Amazon.’” She went on to describe how she had been staving off the retail recession that has hit so many stores—but particularly Christian…
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It’s nearly a month since the latest Daylight Savings Time (DST) spring forward, but the way I feel, it may take me until the fall back in November to catch up on my rest. I didn’t use to take such changes so hard, so maybe it’s a sign of advancing age. An alternative explanation comes…
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It’s been 25 years since I first went through Henry Blackaby’s best-selling Bible study, Experiencing God. Despite that passage of time, a particular aspect of it stands out in my mind: the need to establish memorial markers in our spiritual lives. Namely, to recall the highlights of where we have seen God move in unusual…
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Like many churches these days, ours is small, averaging less than 100 in Sunday morning attendance. Since many don’t return on Wednesday evenings for Bible study and sermon discussions, the midweek sessions are indeed a small group. Yet on a recent Wednesday night, when my wife and I were leading the discussion, I was delighted…
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Although my father’s employer transferred him to northern Ohio when I was just one year old, I link my birth in Indiana to my affinity for basketball. The March-flavored hysteria that sparked the creation of the hit film, Hoosiers, just comes naturally to me. So I eagerly await Selection Sunday a few days hence. It…
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