Just in time for Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began Monday at sundown, I came across this online clip from the movie Schindler’s List, probably my favorite (yet most haunting) movie clip of all time.
I constantly live with the tension between the concept that “whoever saves one life has saved the entire world” and our Lord’s admonition that to whom much is given, much is required. I know that we could have saved so many more lives (or, more properly stated, we could have allowed God to use us to save many more lives). Our own selfishness and stubbornness is often our biggest obstacle. Continue reading →
Monthly Archives: April 2009
The power to destroy
We did not take part in a “Tea Party” tax protest on Wednesday, though perhaps we should have done so. During the Bakersfield protest, I was one block away at the bank trying to keep the ministry and family afloat.
Tax time hit us very hard this year, both personally and in the ministry, and our survival seems unlikely if you’re looking at the facts on a piece of paper. Some would say we only have ourselves to blame. Perhaps they are right.
Continue reading →
Delighting in God’s Law
A few weeks ago, while spending hours waiting to meet with a pastor, I decided to fill the time with prayer and meditation on God’s Word. God immediately led me to Psalm 119, which just happens to be the longest chapter in the Bible (maybe God was trying to give me a hint that I needed to spend more time in Bible reading)!
Meditating on this chapter, verse by verse, one verse stood out as I read it, as if it had been highlighted and underlined:
If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
(Psalm 119:92)
For many years, I have been told that focusing on God’s Law can be dangerous for Christians. “What gets your attention, gets you,” I was warned. I had been taught that if I try to make myself think about not committing a particular sin, I may instead be leading myself to commit the very sin I am trying to avoid. “If I tell you not to think about a pink elephant,” this teacher suggested, “won’t you automatically think about a pink elephant?”
But Psalm 119:92 seems to suggest (along with the thrust of this entire chapter) that God will bless us if we not only think about God’s Law, but delight in it! Continue reading →