Posts by Truth and Life
True Spirituality
Spiritualties are a big topic which covers a wide range of beliefs, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We even talk now about secular saints; those regardless of beliefs have made what they call “a lasting contribution to the world.” Worldly spiritualties overflow with terms like “soul,” and “spirit” used to mean most anything. True…
Read MoreAbiding in Christ the Truth and Life
Its late summer and the once little seeds have now grown into plants with many vines, some of them producing fruit. If our lives are going to be fruitful to God they must abide in Christ. Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,…
Read MoreSeeds and Weeds
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As…
Read MoreThe Seeds of Faith
There was a panel of four on a major news network who were discussing the pros and cons of a possible drug that might extend one’s youthfulness for a number of years. They were all for that. One of the members speculated, “If they offered a drug that could make you live forever, would you…
Read MoreGod Cares
The year was 1956. While training in Pastoral Care at the Fergus Falls State Hospital, the chaplain asked me to go with him when he conducted a funeral for one of the hospital patients who in those days were called “inmates.” The chaplain asked me to meet him at his office on the day of…
Read MoreThe Worth of Worshipping God
On the average 2.5 million people watch a professional baseball game. That many people see a player make the sign of the cross after he hits a grand slam. The gesture acknowledges the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. About 2 billion of the world’s population call themselves Christian and know what the sign…
Read MorePentecost as Divine Noise
We’re a visual people and the sight of something like “red tongues of fire” grabs our attention. But how do we see “Divine Noise?” Out of the sky came a noise of the wind and filled the whole place where the people were gathered. It was the sound of God’s voice that brought all creation…
Read MoreThe Sin of Forgetfulness
Originally it was called Decoration Day, first observed three years after the end of the Civil War. On May 5, 1868, John Logan, issued a proclamation from his Washington, D.C. office telling Americans to celebrate “Decoration Day” on May 30. He urged them to decorate Civil War graves with the “choicest flowers of springtime.” It…
Read MoreSecular Redemption
According to the latest Gallop poll, from 1937 to 1998, church membership remained relatively constant, hovering at about 70 percent. Over the past two decades, that number has dropped to less than 50 percent, the sharpest recorded decline in American history. Sometimes it takes someone else to hold up a rhetorical mirror to us…
Read MoreChoose Life
God said to Moses This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Deuteronomy 30:19. There never was, since the fall of man, more than one way to heaven. That…
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