Truth be told, the only compelling reason we pray is for the glory of God. Interesting thought to ponder. He knows what we need before we ask so we don’t pray to inform Him. We ask to concede our need and He is glorified. We pray to acknowledge our helplessness. Jesus said, Without Him we […]

My sister-in-law, Hazel, believes they do. Her phone rang about 2:30 one morning. A call at that hour is seldom good news and this one certainly wasn’t. It was Jan, a teen who had called often before, desperate. Usually Hazel could reason with the girl and convince her to go home from wherever she was. […]

During the recent assault on the Bahamas by hurricane Dorian, there was this lady in Miami who felt the horror that most of us were feeling. The weather channel was using words like catastrophic, disastrous, nightmarish, devastating. Joan Finkel, a Floridian, knew that meant people were hurting. Many were losing everything they owned. There would […]

This morning I dropped Ruthie off at the store so she could pick up a gift for a new niece who just arrived in our family. She suggested that while I waited I might run down the street to the market and pick up a couple of items for lunch. Good plan. In the market […]

Years ago I had the privilege of kneeling at the grave of Abram LaRue in a cemetery in Hong Kong. (To give you an idea of how long ago it was, I took a picture – a slide – on Kodachrome film.) I felt like taking off my shoes…holy ground. LaRue was the first American […]

Martin Strel once swam the entire length of the Mississippi River. Oh, and I should mention the Yangtze. And the Danube. No kidding. Martin Strel just has this fascination with swimming big rivers. A pastor I know about jumped into a cab in New York City recently and as it pulled into traffic he struck […]

Ruthie and I have driven east-to-west and west-to-east across North America more than once, but being pretty much westerners (in the US) by heritage we had never ventured very deep into the eastern provinces of Canada. So several years ago when we received an invitation to speak for a conference in Newfoundland and Labrador (though […]

You probably noticed that I spelled the title incorrectly. You knew it should be family altar. Actually, I did that on purpose to make a point: When families pray together, it alters them. A recent report by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement tells us that when couples regularly pray together it almost divorce-proofs their […]

It is our Scripture-based practice to come into the Lord’s presence with praise. Somewhere early in the worship service each week we often sing The Doxology…Praise God from whom all blessings flow… And that’s as it should be. Generally the “hymn of praise” or the “morning hymn” is a powerful anthem rather than a gospel […]

I remember when “show and tell” was a big deal in the lower grades of our school. Your family went to the beach where you got sunburned, tracked sand into the car, and picked up some sea shells. After the weekend the teacher had you come up front and tell your class about the adventure […]