One of the most beautiful structures in the world, the Notre Dame Cathedral, stands on the banks of the Seine River in the heart of modern Paris. This beautiful building dating from the Middle Ages gains elegance and uniqueness partially from the lovely flying buttresses or arches which gracefully support the walls.
March 27, 2023
God made you in such a way that you can survive tremendous ordeals--illness, imprisonment, persecution, and privation. You can live without food and water--far longer than you might think. You can handle a tremendous amount of stress, but there is one thing with which you cannot do without. Apart from this you quickly despair. It is hope! You can rebuild when illness has ravished your body. You can put your finances together again, and you can pick up the broken pieces of your world when the bottom drops out, and go on, but when you are overcome by the despair of hope, you give up and die!
March 23, 2023
You may have seen the headline yourself: "Rouge executioner a born-again Christian." The Reuters news story began, "The chief executioner of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, who ordered thousands of people killed in the 1970's, is a born-again Christian ready to face justice, the Far Eastern Economic Review said."
March 22, 2023
"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord,'" wrote the Apostle Paul, "except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). Thousands of men and women today do recognize Jesus as their Savior, but they are still struggling to run their own lives and have never discovered the Lordship of Christ. "We are not our own bosses to live or die as we ourselves might choose" wrote Paul to the Romans. Many sincere, well-intentioned believers are really afraid to turn loose, not certain that God can handle their lives. They remind me of the legend involving the Greek philosopher, Diogenes.
March 21, 2023
He was once a trusted friend, but something happened. His friendship became treachery, and the man who had been a companion, a family friend, and confidant became an enemy. Have you ever had it happen? Painful, isn't it? The person that you thought would have gone to the wall with you slowly begins to drift away. Your phone doesn't ring. It's a one-way friendship. When you call or drop by, you get the connection but it's cold, routine, and your friend gives you the impression that he's outgrown your friendship.
March 20, 2023
The English poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow captured an age-abiding truth when he wrote, "Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time." He's right, and one man who left footprints stretching across 2000 miles of time was an unlikely candidate for success—a fisherman by trade. He was scarcely qualified to do more than perhaps organize the union of fisherman on Galilee until the day that Jesus walked by and said, "Follow me!" Then Peter got up, left his nets and followed Jesus Christ.
March 17, 2023
While the cross is unquestionably the universal symbol of redemption, Albrecht Dürer's praying hands have become the symbol of prayer. The story, though, behind his creation of those praying hands, makes it even more poignant. Dürer was a German painter who had a friend who also was a painter, and though his friend worked hard, he never became famous. One day Dürer, looking at the hands of his obscure friend, saw in his folded hands the embodiment of what prayer is about. Common, ordinary, unfulfilled men and women who are needy and poor in spirit, fold their hands in reverence and surrender and lift their hearts to God.
March 16, 2023
When the British expositor and teacher, Joseph Parker, saw the suffering his wife endured as she lay dying with cancer, he was perplexed. Yes, he prayed and cried out to the Lord, but day by day, her suffering increased, and finally she lay still. When she died, for a week Parker, according to his own testimony, wallowed in the dark despair of atheism. He said that if he had had a dog who suffered as did the one he loved, he would have put the animal out of its misery.
March 15, 2023
"Jesus is Lord" says the words of the song, but what do you really mean when you say those words? It is certain that believers of the first century had some understanding of those words and their implication, for the Roman Emperor Domitian proclaimed himself a god and demanded that the subjects of the empire recognize him as such. It was really a pledge of political loyalty, but believers in Christ saw far more in that act of commitment than a pledge of allegiance to an emperor. All that was necessary would be to go to the temple and offer a pinch of incense saying, "Kaisar estin Kurios," which means "Caesar is Lord." Then they could go anywhere and worship as they pleased. Believers, however, refused to say that Caesar was Lord, for they believed that there was only one Lord for them--Jesus Christ.
March 14, 2023