What We Refuse to Know

  So they answered Jesus, “We do not know” (Mark 11:33). Sometimes we don’t know things because we don’t know them. Sometimes we don’t know things because we don’t want to know them. Sometimes we trifle with the things that we should take most seriously. The Pharisees ask...
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Engaging an Abortion-Hardened World

Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).   I am always amazed that, having committed adultery with Bathsheba and killing Uriah (2 Samuel 11), the Lord had to send Nathan the prophet to convict David of his sin. If ever a sin was obvious, it was David’s....
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Prayer and Perseverance

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and...
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God Sees Her

  “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (Genesis 16:13). Recently, I was speaking to a friend over lunch, a woman who has given herself to what we might call the issues of life, particularly abortion and euthanasia/assisted suicide. Speaking of our culture’s...
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Grand Bargaining No, Rethinking Yes

What We Say, What We Mean

You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue (Psalm 52:4). A failed abortion. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, our language betrays what we really mean. The term for this is parapraxis, also known as a Freudian slip. Dictionary.com defines parapraxis as “a slip of the...
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The Cost of Independence: A Christmas Meditation

  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12). Why does the Church make so much of the birth of Jesus? We don’t know anything about, for instance, the young life of Elijah or Noah or Abraham, all of whom...
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An Open Hand

  “For [the kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five...
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Grieving with Hope

  But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1...
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Hope or Joy or Crown of Boasting

1 Thessalonians 2:9-20 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). I serve on the board of a pregnancy care center, which means I am familiar with the work that goes...
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Walking in a Wide Place

I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts (Psalm 119:45). When children are young, it is unusual for parents to give reasons for their rules. What youngsters need is to hear the command and readily comply. A child must learn to stay away from electrical...
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