Archive for 2013

            I watched the bright morning sun set the red- orange- and golden-leafed trees ablaze against a Hoosier sky of crystal blue.  There was little or no wind and the drive was quiet.  Time seemed to have stopped in order to create a series of picture-perfect postcard scenes—an illusion.   For time never stops and the evidence of its ravages lay beside me in the form of my mother tied to a gurney in an ambulance on the way to a nursing home. Read the rest of this entry »

            Off and on for over two years I had my morning devotions in the Psalms.  I would read a psalm or a portion of one out loud, study it, and write notes on it.  I want to share with you some of what God taught me, and the first lesson is this:  There is a general overall structure to the entire Book of the Psalms and that structure says something crucial to us about our walk with God. Read the rest of this entry »

            A couple of nights ago I was tired, and The Hunger Games was on television. Since I had heard so much about the story from the high school students that I teach, I decided to watch it.  The movie has several good features but commits an enormous error by comparing itself to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Read the rest of this entry »

            One of the major mistakes in the history of philosophy and theology is to define man primarily as a being consisting of compartments such as reason, will and desires.  This error leaves us with the pleasing illusion that our reason can grasp objective truth with some effort on our part to free it from our desires.  The Bible will have none of this, Read the rest of this entry »

            Psalm 1 introduces the Psalter, the Hebrew book of worship.  It is a wisdom psalm and describes the nature and consequences of two different lifestyles—the choice between wisdom and folly.   Therefore Psalm 1 asks us as we enter into worship what kind of person we are.  There is no more important question that we can ask, and it deserves to be pondered deeply and at length. Read the rest of this entry »