Glory in the Face

I began my previous post (November 17) by saying that " Glory in the Face " explains that we can be strengthened to face adversity of every kind—strengthened with the joy of the Lord, and with the peace of God.

I still do believe that that joy and that peace are real. These days, my day-to-day life is again and again confirming it all to...

In my little book, " Glory in the Face ," I said that by knowing Christ, we can face adversity of every kind—-with the joy of the Lord, which is our strength, and with the peace of God that guards our hearts and minds. In Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia, both peace and joy are listed, along with seven other character traits,...

I continue to love my reading of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “ Letters and Papers from Prison, ” so here’s another DB-focussed post.

By January of 1943, Bonhoeffer had been in prison for nine months. He had been certain that he would be released before Christmas, but in this he was mistaken.

To his best friend Eberhard Bethge,...

In the second Scene of Act II of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” the Prince himself says to two minor bad guys, “Denmark's a prison.” What a thing for the Crown Prince of Denmark to say about the Scandinavian country he was in line to inherit.

A moment later, to respond to the reactions of the bad guys,...

As readers of my book may remember, since the days I was a guy in his twenties who longed to have a church and a pulpit “of my own,” I have kept a select group of godly pastors, preachers and writers of the past, as my DEAD MEN, that is, my self-chosen role models. In the book, I referred to some of them as MY FINAL FIVE.

This week,...

Last week, a big guy hit me once on the top of my head with a sledgehammer. Thankfully, I had just put on my bicycle helmet. The experience hurt quite a bit at the time. And five days later, it still hurts. Not my head, but my neck, my chest (especially my collar bones), and my spine.

Of course, I knew what to do. The instructions are...

“ Note then the kindness and the severity of God, ” wrote the Apostle Paul in one of his “God-breathed” letters [Romans 11:22]. Kindness. Severity. Paul was not the only servant of God who saw those two contrasting character traits in the heart of God.

There was also Nahum, an Old Testament prophet who served...

The ancient concept of “justice” has, for the most part, been swallowed whole by the modern notion of “fairness.” The word “justice’ seems only to live on in the phrase “social justice,” which generally means equal amounts of money for everyone, just to be "fair." The commonly-held concept of how...

Sometimes a very unlikely person, a duly-elected prime minister or premier or president, for example, can effect a very unlikely change to many lives.

I note, with some degree of self-approval, that I am not talking about politicians as much as I have been accustomed to. That’s because it has recently occurred to me that as I speak (and write) about “the strength to face anything,” I must include politics—and politicians—as a part of the “anything” that God gives us strength to face. “Anything” MUST include more than trusting God about personal trials and challenges related to health and family, careers and finances, friends and acquaintances, and apparently random events.