disobedient doubt
What do these famous men have in common: Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Karl Marx, Pablo Picasso, and Aldous Huxley? They all declared that they did not believe in God, and all were sexually promiscuous. Coincidence?
In The Making of an Atheist, James Spiegel explains that many modern thinkers expressed doubts about God, at least in part, because it made…
tailor-made
The red carpet at any awards show features celebrities adorned in designer gowns and distinguished attire. Reporters always ask "What are you wearing?" They proudly respond with Givenchy . . . Dior . . .Versace, Luis Vitton, and so on—custom made clothing that has been tailored specifically for them.
I’ve never had the experience of wearing a tailor-made suit, but…
never forgotten
One day, a taxi dropped world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma off at New York City’s Peninsula Hotel. But as the cab drove off, Yo-Yo realized he had left his cello in its backseat. It was worth 2.5 million dollars! The hotel staff jumped to action. As one reporter put it, they “put on their own virtuoso performance, contacting officials all over…
in times of trouble
Hebrews 13:5: Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness by the Devil, He quoted the Word. He said, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the…
big toe lack of belief
A co-worker was having a conversation with her son about spiritual things. Striving to express his present lack of both belief and commitment to Jesus, the young man said, “God isn’t in my life right now; He’s just in my big toe.”
Have you ever felt that way? Has doubt or lack of commitment left you with a serious dearth…
the doubter’s prayer
Over the centuries, some biblical prayers have become particularly loved by Christians. The Lord’s Prayer is one of them (Matthew 6:9-13). The Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner”), based on Luke 18:13, is highly regarded by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Today I give you my favorite. Let’s call it “the Doubter’s Prayer.”
Doubt and dimness surround…
seeing with your heart
"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be…
wilderness experiences
God sometimes works in strange ways. Jesus is baptized, and the next thing He experiences is temptation. Led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, He’s tempted by Satan—His adversary. Such is the nature of our own wilderness experiences.
The wilderness stirred many emotions for the Jews of Jesus’ day, evoking memories of their 40-year journey out of Egypt. To…
when God ignores
Michael felt as if his prayers were simply bouncing off the ceiling. He couldn’t understand God’s silence. Day after day he pleaded with Him to deal with the injustice in his workplace. But evil persisted, and God seemed absent.
Can you identify with Michael? Habakkuk could. He lived during the final dark days of Judah—just before the captivity of her…
remember our manna
We’ve been gone from South Carolina only for a year, but our boys have already begun to forget. A couple of weeks ago, we took a trip to our old town. We drove through our neighborhood and saw the steep hill where they rode their bikes, screaming all the way down. We saw the spot where we always stopped on…
watching your wait
A Fitness magazine poll of 1,000 women found that women are willing to take drastic steps to reach their ideal weight: Twenty-three percent said they would spend a week in jail. Twenty-three percent would shave their head. Twenty-two percent would wear a bikini on TV. Twenty-one percent would trade 10 years of their life to lose some pounds.
It’s apparent that…
the Lord is king
The systems of our world are appearing more and more vulnerable. Mortgage and bank crises have undercut consumer confidence. Terrorist attacks around the world have sparked new fears. Corrupt politicians and religious leaders have continued to breed cynicism. And the struggling economy around the globe has caused many to become fearful and stressed. These feelings of vulnerability and doubt have…
God and a goose
Like many in our culture, he’s spiritual. At 17, he’s rejected the organized religion of his parents and grandparents as stodgy, stuffy—stifling. He attends church because that’s what his girlfriend does.
The limitations of science compel him to believe in a god. But the evil, the unfairness, and the hypocrisy he observes force him to conclude that this god is…
