This morning I write from Israel after a time of meditation in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The thick gnarled trunks of this ancient grove of olive trees resemble rugged hands firmly clasped together with finger-like branches curving loosely upwards as if to mirror those of supplicants throughout the centuries who have postured themselves in prayer beneath their welcoming shade.

It is not difficult to imagine why this garden spot was a customary place of prayer ...

When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. (Acts 18:5 NIV).

Effective team work allows each team player to utilize their strengths towards the achievement of the common objective.

The Apostle Paul had an influence that went further than he could have ever imagined. His encounter with the resurrected Christ and his dramatic turn from being the feared persecutor of ...

"..Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter." These words describe the perils of a society that leaves its moral moorings, denies the existence of Truth as an absolute, and sets sail only to drown in the sea of relativism (Isaiah 59:14).

Truth has stumbled in the streets. It did not fall on its own accord. Truth only stumbles when thos ...

There are 366 admonitions to "fear not" in the Bible. You might say there is one for every day of the year, with an extra one thrown in for leap year.

The admonition to "Be not afraid" would not be so prevalent if fear were not so common. Many pretend they are not afraid yet have adopted behaviors that are controlled by fears. They fear failure, fear poverty, fear the disapproval or rejection of others. We fear unpleasant circumstances. Some fear intimacy. Ot ...

A life without conflict would be a life where there is little growth. A life without struggle would lead to a life of mediocrity. Life without challenges in our personal relationships would be a life without the development of the important aspects of love known as the fruit of the Spirit. These qualities of character are not developed in isolation. They are perfected in the rough and tumble of our ongoing struggles in human relationships. It is here that we grow in humility, forbearance, patience, ...

An article appearing in the August 17th 1999 edition of The New York Times featured the results of a study from Duke University indicating that active involvement in a community of faith may be as big a factor in increasing longevity as refraining from smoking cigarettes. Dr. Harold Koenig reports that "Persons attending religious services once a week or more were physically and mentally healthier, had larger support networks and more confidants, and lived healthier lifestyles."

It has been said that motivation is what gets you started and habit is what keeps you going. Habitual actions, or customary practices, can either promote or undermine our progress towards reaching our lifetime goals.

The life of Jesus of Nazareth puts our thoughts about human life in proper perspective. Jesus stands as the paragon of what is best about humanity. His example and influence are without equal. His life and teaching revealed the truth about both humanity and deity. J ...

In this issue:

• An Update on "T.G.I.M."
• The Walden Woods Ministry Center Project
& ...

The largest timber framed building in the USA is a 31,000 square foot church in Powell Ohio. It was constructed under the supervision of the Amish master barn-builder Josie Miller and was the 500th barn-like structure built by Josie and his crew. The joints of each beam were cut by hand.

As Josie and his sons looked over the designs for the new building and explained the construction process to the workers they would refer to the beams as 'fellows' and 'guys'. They'd say things ...

I've been told that there was a problem with the early designs of ejection seats for military aircraft. When pilots needed to ditch their crippled planes in mid-air, they would eject from the cockpit while still remaining comfortably strapped in their seats. Many rode their falling armchairs to their peril, never breaking away to pull the ripcord and activate their parachute. Pilots preferred the comfort of riding the chair to their deaths than taking the necessary risk to break away into a freefal ...

"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." (Acts 10:15 NIV).

Our standards of whether or not something is pure and acceptable are not always the same as God's.

It is a subtle temptation to measure a person's spirituality by their outward conformity to a certain code of behavior. For example, the Apostle Peter took pride in the fact that he had never eaten anyth ...

Not long after his conversion, Augustine was walking down the streets of Milan when a prostitute with whom he once had intimate acquaintance beckoned him: "Augustine! It is I!" He slowed down and with the newfound assurance of Christ's Spirit living in his heart, turned to her and replied: "Yes, but it is no longer I!"

The Apostle Paul put it this way: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I li ...

If you look up 'caterpillar' in an encyclopedia or dictionary, you will find it defined in terms of its future as a butterfly: "A caterpillar is the wormlike, often brightly colored, hairy or spiny larva of a butterfly or moth."

Prior to its metamorphosis into a butterfly, the caterpillar's visual perception may be so limited that it is unlikely that it can recognize the existence of the colorful winged butterfly in flight, much less make the connection with that it ha ...

When it comes to speaking about our final departure we are often lost for words. We are heavily influenced by our culture which either denies or fears the reality of the 'D' word.

Woody Allen says, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Men who delighted in their earthly riches, such as Louis XIV or William Randolph Hearst, forbade the mention of the word 'death' in their presence.

The young do ...

Why is it that happiness eludes some people? It very well could be that they are clueless as to what it means to be 'blessed'.

The Book of Psalms gives us seven specific ways to be blessed. The word 'blessed' ('esher' in the Hebrew) is derived from a word meaning 'to be level, right, happy and make progress'. 'To be blessed' is to be spiritually prosperous and happy as a result of a right relationship with God and others. A relationship flourishes when you are in loving 'on the ...

The voice of Darrell Scott, the father of two victims of the tragic Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, rises above the cacophony of commentary about the increase of violence in our nation. He courageously directs us to the spiritual nature of a problem that calls for a spiritual solution.

TESTIMONY OF DARRELL SCOTT FATHER OF TWO VICTIMS OF THE COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS LITTLETON, COLORADO BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE UNITE ...

A recent study published in a popular business magazine revealed that the three qualities that distinguished 'champion' Chief Executive Officers from the many who fumble in leadership were: Integrity, maturity and energy. (Fortune Magazine, June 21 Issue, 1999)

What comes to your mind when you hear these words? Integrity. Maturity. Energy.

'Integrity' comes from the word 'integer' which means 'complete', or 'sound'; It is the state of being 'a whole', in cont ...

"For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance (a place of rich fulfillment)." (Psalms 66:10-12).

God wants us to be prosperous in the truest sense (See Jeremiah 29:11). But the way to prosperity is often fraught with dif ...

How would you like to be known as a "Dispeller of Shame"? There is one character in the Bible who bore the name, "Dispeller of Shame". His personal story gives us insight as to how shame, the emotional consequence of one's true guilt and one's fall from a good standing, can be forever dispelled.

Jonathan, the son of King Saul, had a son who was lame in both feet. His name was Mephibosheth (literally 'Dispeller of shame'). According to the Bible, Mephibosheth ...

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV).

In Jay Tolson's thought-provoking article* of May 10, 1999 published in US News and World Report, he observes that our nation's vast 'explanation' industry is failing to come to grips with incidents of horrific violence, such as the recent Littleton shootings, because it has lost a vocabulary ...

"Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations." (Proverbs 27:23-24 NIV).

In his book, "Leadership is an Art", Max Depree confesses that one of the most challenging jobs of a leader is "the interception of entropy". Things that have worked well in the past, ...

The masked gunman confronted the Christian teenager in the high school library where he found her studying her Bible. He raised his gun to her head and asked, "Do you believe in God?" The shy seventeen year old took a breath that she knew might be her last and then spoke up in a voice loud enough to be heard by her classmates who were taking cover under nearby desks and tables, "Yes, I believe in God."

"Why?" the gunman responded mockingly. Before C ...

Winds of spiritual deception can quickly blow us off course. When we least suspect it we can find ourselves down dead-end tributaries, in perilous waters or marooned on some island of isolation. As John Bunyan reminds us in his "Pilgrim's Progress" it is easy to turn off the correct path to the Celestial City because we are tempted by a promised shortcut through an attractive "Bypass Meadow".

Not all visions are created equal. If our personally 'envisioned fu ...

It was meant to be a criticism. The apostle Paul said "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual...Are you not acting like mere men?" (1Corinthians 3:1,3).

The humanist celebrates the virtues, values and capacities of the human being as if they were 'the ultimate'. Paul argues that such vision is short-sighted. Left to itself the human race is bound to a course of self-destruction. Envying, strife and divisions sabotage its progress on every fro ...

In Lewis Carroll's childhood classic "Alice in Wonderland", when Alice comes to a crossroads and does not know which road to take, she turns to the Cheshire cat for advice.  The cat asks, "Where are you going?" Alice replies, "I don't know." The cat responds, "Well if you don't know where you are going, any road will do very nicely."

How is your sense of direction in life? Do you know where you are going? Or will 'any road' suffic ...

The front page article in the Easter Sunday edition of The Boston Globe began with a compelling lead: "The resurrection is not for sissies. It is either an unproveable murder mystery story or the most profound miracle of the Christian faith." ¹

Most legal and historical experts would dispute the claim that the case surrounding the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is anything similar to an 'unproveable' murder mystery. There is an overwhelming am ...

Columbia University's Melvin Mencher, author of the classic journalism textbook, "News Reporting and Writing", 'news' as reports containing:

1. Information about an important interruption or change in the usual or expected unfolding of events and
2. Information people need to make intelligent decisions about their lives.

He also cites 7 other factors to determine 'newsworthiness':

I thought I could avoid it. The hoopla and hosannas. I'm talking about the Academy Award Celebration in Hollywood. I could just as well be talking about the college basketball championships. America's religious involvement with sport and entertainment is near its zenith. In fact, this year the Hollywood ritual of bequeathing the golden statuette, the Oscar, moved to what most seem to believe is its proper place - the Sabbath.

I was especially hopeful that I might miss the ubiqui ...

"I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." (Ephesians 4:1 NIV).

In his book titled "The Odyssey", John Sculley tells how Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, challenged him when he was then the 38 year old president of Pepsi-Cola: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?"

The twentieth century was supposed to be the 'humanitarian' century where respect and compassion would be shown towards all human life. Instead it has been a century of 'human genocide'. Over 100 million innocent people have been exterminated through systematic policies of mass murder in this century. Millions of Armenians, Jews, Chinese, Russians, Cambodians, Sudanese, the peoples of Rwanda, Croatia and elsewhere, not to mention the unborn children of the womb, were victims of the murderous polici ...

In the book titled "Working", author Studs Terkel interviewed ordinary people, asking them how they felt about their jobs.

A 28 year old woman writing health care literature responded, "Jobs are not big enough for people. It's not just the assembly line worker whose job is too small for his spirit, you know. A job like mine, if you really put your spirit into it, you would sabotage immediately. You don't dare. So you absent your spirit from it. My mind has been so ...

One of the things that distinguishes the Christian in the workplace is the redefinition of what is the 'bottom line'. The bottom line is not merely the line on a financial report showing the net income or loss. The most important issue for the believer is not just the maintenance of a profit margin, increase in sales, or customer satisfaction. It is more than the pursuit of excellence or realizing a productivity goal. The bottom line is ultimately to please God. Jesus said "Make the k ...

How can we make good decisions?

We are where we are today to a great extent because of the decisions that we have made in the past. Where we will be in the future will largely be the result of the decisions that we make today.

If the outcome of our lives is based upon our ability to make good decisions, it is of primary importance that we have wisdom.

Solomon asked for wisdom, above wealth, r ...

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalms 90:12 NIV).

A fable is told of a man who was walking home along a river's shore in the dark. He stumbled upon a bag of stones which he picked up. As a pastime he threw the stones one by one into the river, enjoying the 'ker-plunk' of each stone breaking the water's surface. When he arrived home he had only two st ...

On the second day of our vacation trip to California, my wife and I had just entered the hotel room when we noticed the flashing red light on the telephone indicating that an incoming voicemail message was waiting for us. When we entered the code numbers required for its retrieval, we heard a recording of our oldest son, Jonathan, more than three thousand miles away on the east coast, asking us to call home as soon as possible. He calmly said it was important and he wanted to speak with us personal ...

Over three years ago I launched a Monday morning meditation to remind 'on-the-job agents' of the Kingdom that they can actually ENJOY and MAXIMIZE their strategic assignments in the workplace. Last Monday was the first in three years that I missed writing a T.G.I.M. meditation. I must admit that I was happily away from any laptop or modem, skiing the snowy slopes of New England, enjoying an extended weekend skiing with my son and good friends from our faith community.

Whereas th ...

January 7 1999. It was not an ordinary day in Washington. The image broadcasted from the Senate Chamber was unforgettable. The usually vociferous group of politicians was suddenly silenced. A solemnity fell over the House that has sometimes been called "The Cave of Winds" because it is the home of those who are fond of hearing their own voices in rowdy debate. Two student pages opened the French doors at the rear of the Chamber and the Chief Justice appeared in a black gown with gold stri ...

In 1998 both Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire fulfilled their goals in breaking the previous records for home run hits in a single baseball season. Roger Maris beat Babe Ruth's record and held it for 37 years with 61 home runs. Last year Sosa topped that by 5, with 66, and McGwire, by 9 with an astounding 70.

All the articles and interviews with McGwire's coaches and teammates seem to indicate three dominant factors contributing to his success in accomplishing his goal: a dauntless d ...

"A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?' He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?' They were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? ...

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." (Psalms 127:1 NIV).

The Scriptures remind us that we must be both disciplined and dependent in God's work. The psalmist envisions God's people at work building His house and the watchmen actively watching over His concerns. He is also seeing that it is ultima ...

The Discipline of Grace sounds like an oxymoron- the linking together of contradicting terms (e.g.., deafening silence, solemn celebration, jumbo shrimp). We associate 'grace' with the free gift of God's love, the full pardon and acceptance we find when we bow in recognition of Christ's sacrifice for us. The word 'discipline' reminds us of demands that stretch us, rules that constrain us and rigorous regimens that challenge us out of our comfort zone. We tend to equate 'grace' with a 'freedom of al ...

(Look and Live)

For five years, I lived a block away from a little chapel tucked away on a side street in Colchester, England, that has its special claim to fame. On a snowy day in 1850, a young teen named Charles Spurgeon walked up Hythe Hill alone and came out of the wintry cold and sat in a back pew. The worship service was late getting started. Because of the adverse weather conditions, the scheduled itinerant Methodist preache ...

Through the centuries, believers have questioned: "Which is the way that leads to holiness?" Is holiness obtained through rigorous routines of self-discipline or is it automatically ours if we passively 'let go and let God'? Is the truth found somewhere in-between? What is our response to Jesus' command to "Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect?" Is not such perfectionism cruel when we know that "all have sinned and are all presently fal ...

The Mystery of a Well Tuned Biosphere

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalms 19:1 NIV).

According to writer Paul Johnson "The most extraordinary thing about the 20th century was the failure of God to die. The collapse of mass religious belief, especially among the educated and prosperous, had been widely and confidently predicte ...

"With great ('mega' in the Greek) power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much ('mega') grace was upon them all." (Acts 4:33 NIV)
"It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace." (Hebrews 13:9 KJV)

To be 'disgraced' is to experience the loss of affirmation, acceptance, honor, favor, and respect. It i ...

After World War II, Robert Woodruff declared his vision: "In my generation it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca Cola!" An outrageous goal for an enterprising soft drink enthusiast? Today Coca Cola is known from the deserts of Africa to the interior of China, in every major country of the world. Woodruff was able to motivate his colleagues to reach their generation for Coke.

Nearly two thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth left his small band o ...

Wholesome Thoughts About Your Life

The Scriptures give us reminders that stimulate us to wholesome thinking (2Peter 3:1). The apostle Peter reminds us that all the pressures and problems of life should not alter our life-focus. We who are born of the Spirit have a capacity to recognize and participate in what God is doing. When facing life's many demands and uncertainties, it is important that we see the big picture. History does n ...

"There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden." (Proverbs 30:18-19 NIV)

All four are distinctively marvelous as they take their natural courses: The eagle in relationship to the sky, the snake in relationship to the rock, the ...

#5 - How Not to Sabotage a Relationship (Part 4)

(continued from last week)

9. PRACTICE RECONCILIATION AND FORGIVENESS.

In His original plan God never intended for anyone to have a broken heart. But we live in a fallen world where relationships are frail and vulnerable. Relationships are easily put out of joint.

There is a way to heal fracture ...

#4 - How Not to Sabotage a Relationship (Part 3)

(continued from last week)

7. BECOME A GOOD LISTENER.

The ability to listen well can be an invitation to enter the inner world of another person. Those who listen well elicit intimacy. They are able to journey with another person and discover the secret riches of their inner life. "The purposes of a ma ...

#3 - How Not to Sabotage a Relationship (Part 2)

(continued from last week)

HOW NOT TO SABOTAGE GOOD RELATIONSHIPS

Good inter-personal relationships are fundamental for successful living, yet we assume that they will automatically come our way. Little do we realize how our own human depravity and poor social programming have jeopardized our potential to establish ...

#2 - How Not to Sabotage a Relationship

The Book of Proverbs contains numerous practical nuggets of wisdom. A proverb a day can keep many troubles away. Within this collection of short rhyming couplets (distichs) and quatrains, we have a treasury of insights on what is true, right and lasting. Each proverb is an encapsulation of the mind of God on how we are to conduct ourselves in life. Together they unveil some vital principles a ...

#1 - "A righteous man is cautious in friendship." (Proverbs 12:26 NIV).

Relationships require care and nurture. They also require wisdom. Every one of our relationships will reflect our character. Our words and deeds either build or erode the loyalty and trust people voluntarily put in us. We must be careful as we choose and cultivate our friendships.

Within each of our hearts there is a desire for 'u ...

True leadership inspires 'followship'. We follow leaders who demonstrate qualities we admire. True Leaders lead by example rather than the persuasive powers of personality and promises. Character and competence are more important than charisma.

When Daniel was in his eighties and in line to be the prime minister of the Median-Persian Empire under King Darius, he was heavily scrutinized by his opponents. The result of the commission was that they could find no corruption in him. ...

"For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).

Why is it that the human heart so easily utters contempt for the holy? Why is it that even the atheist, who professes not to believe in God, continually insists that "God damn it"? Why is it that people's reflex reactions to surprising situations are to vocalize their lack of submission to the Divine by saying ...