There are times in everyone’s life when we should pray and never lose hope, but somehow, we think we can do everything in our lives without calling on God for help. I say, “Always pray and never, ever, give up hope for the Lord, our God, is giving us the sense of His presence in every moment of our lives. All we need do is open our hearts to Him and all things will become possible. The greatest gift we…..
Will we ever melt our weapons into plow shares and our precious metals into forks, knives, and spoons? Will we be perpetually driven to war for selfish reasons or state dominance? The blood shed by millions throughout history could have been better used to build bridges of peace, hope, and love. On July 3rd, 1863 in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the South charged over fields and across the Emmet Road to reach a small growth of trees where…..
A new song has just come out; its name is “Can One Man Save the World?,” written by John Ondrasik of the Five for Fighting group and accompanied by the Ukrainian Orchestra. The video for the song uses as a backdrop the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world’s largest airplane that was destroyed by the Russians when they bombed the airfield where it was housed. Past fears of conflict with Russia came rushing back to my mind as I listened to…..
Do you ever wonder what your purpose is here on earth? The older I have gotten, the more I keep asking this question of myself. Once you have retired from whatever profession you chose, it’s important to find things that extend that purpose, make it come alive even if only from a different direction. In the purpose God has given us, He never throws us away after we’ve completed out goals in life. He never disqualifies us from those purposes. …..
Today, I watched a movie called “American Sniper.” I’m wondering where my grandson is in this world of unrest and war. You see, he’s a staff sergeant in the army in demolitions. He’s served 5 tours in Afghanistan and has been decorated with a bronze star with valor. I’m not allowed to know where he is stationed or whether he’s in some cave in the mountains, watching with his sniper rifle for undetected movements in the brush. It seems a…..
What do these words have in common: trust and triumph, joy and pain, warmth and wonder, friendship and peace? The answer is our children, and let’s not forget how much our children have gone through in the past three years, with or without their parents. What do a stick-ball playing Jewish boy and a French Jewish girl who saw her father killed by the Nazis in 1944 have in common? Fast forward to 2022 and what do the children of…..
When I watched the movie, “Grace Card,” I thought its main theme was learning how to forgive members of our immediate families, but after a second viewing, I realized that its main theme was about forgiveness among White and Black Americans, racism in its harshest terms. We are all part of humanity, twelve tribes that God created to populate our world. So, upon further reflection, the main theme was more about grace, forgiveness, for all people. Ephesians 2:8 (KJV) states,…..
Ever wonder how much God knows about you with so many people on the planet? He knows you by name, everything about you, even the tiniest hairs on your head. We get anxious about making major decisions that affect our futures but forget that God has a vested interest in getting us home to Him. Psalm 23:3 (KJV) tells us: “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Moses and his people…..
I believe the times we are living in are perhaps the darkest days this country has ever witnessed, even with wars, depressions, economic upheavals, and political divisions. It seems like there is no end to the negativity that has been washing over and through us since COVID began. So many people are bent on revenge, on ways of doing more evil than their neighbors. What most people have forgotten is “that God gives us the ability to return good for…..
On this Memorial weekend, I am profoundly thankful for all who have served in our armed services and for those who paid the ultimate price so that we might have the freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I am also very thankful for the peace that has resulted in the world, but my prayers today center around the lack of respect for the peace of our children. Will they live to take another breath while attending our…..