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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

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Okay, laugh if you will, but when I was in high school, I sang in the chorus. I did! Today, I'm just a backup singer; when I sing, people back up. But back in high school, we had some good times learning our parts, mastering our songs, and performing our concerts. Sometimes, if I was late for our chorus class, I could hear them warming up as I approached the chorus room. And this one warm-up was particularly monotonous: "mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi." Don't change stations. I'm done. I'm not going to do any more singing. But...

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

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Their name calls up some of the most breathtaking spectacles in circus history - the Great Wallendas! This world famous circus troupe has amazed circus-goers with their high wire act, well, for about three generations. I was interested to read in Decision Magazine a while ago about Tino Wallenda's commitment to Jesus Christ. Tino described what he's done for a living - walking on a cable that is 5/8" thick, suspended between 30 to 100 feet in the air, at times suspended over dens of lions, or between buildings, or even over a pool of sharks! Not what I want to be when I grow up! Well, Tino said about his grandfather, Karl Wallenda, who started him out on a wire just two feet off the ground. He said he taught Tino how to hold his body rigid and how to place his feet on the wire and how to hold the pole with his elbows close to his body. But this great performer writes that "the most important thing that my grandfather taught me was that I needed to focus my attention on a point at the other end of the wire; a point that was unmoving and would not shift."

Monday, April 2, 2018

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It was home improvement time at our house, and I have a chronic sense of 'uncoordinitis', so we obviously needed some help. And our friend Tim, he was the man for the job for two reasons. First, he's good at designing and building and problem-solving. Of course, there are a lot of people who are craftsmen like that. The second reason is what really made Tim the man for the job. Sometimes we were gone when he was going to be at our house working. And since he was working in every part of the house, he needed keys to everything, and there was no place in our home he couldn't go. That meant we needed not only someone who could do the job, but right, you got it. We needed someone we could totally trust. And we had someone like that.

Friday, March 30, 2018

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OK, backpacks are basically a good thing. They make it possible for you to carry some essentials while you keep your hands free, right? But backpacks are not always a good thing, especially when you forget you're wearing one! I've seen a lot of the dangerous side of backpacks in airports and airplanes. See, you get used to your body ending at a certain point, and you navigate through a crowd knowing where the "oops, I bumped you" point is. Now you add a backpack and suddenly you have enlarged what is commonly known as your space, but you continue to navigate crowds and narrow places as if you had the same old parameters. So you turn around and "aahh, Oh no!", you clobber someone behind you or next to you with your backpack! I mean, its one thing to carry your load, it's another thing to hit someone else with it!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

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I think it was our older son's first official date with a girl; actually, just a couple of hours at the mall really. The next day he ran into some of the guys from school who just wanted to know one thing about his Friday night. "So how much did you get off her?" They weren't talking about money. They were talking about conquest. Our son actually came home pretty disgusted, frankly. He said, "Man, those guys; they're messed up!" 

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

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In the fall I really got exercise in our yard. We had lots of trees in that yard, and lots of leaves. Our sons were gone, and I got to do just about all the raking. There was this one corner of the yard that was kind of nice to rake because it smelled nice. I'd be raking away and suddenly I'd smell the strong aroma of spearmint. Now, I don't chew gum and I don't wear spearmint scented deodorant usually. So, it had to be coming from what I was raking - and it was! That was my wife's herb garden, and when some of the spearmint plants got bruised by my rake that spearmint scent started to fill the air. My wife told me that's the way it is with lots of herbs, like with lemon balm, for example. If you take a little piece of that plant and you crush it between your fingers, the air will suddenly be sweetened by this scent of lemon. So I learned, crushing a plant releases its scent.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

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Pam was a young woman who was active in a Campus Life Club I ran some years ago, and she was very lonely. She used to call different ones of us leaders two or three times a week. Pam felt like she was unattractive. She had never had a date, and she had problems at home. And she usually called to talk about her problems and how depressed she was. Until that week she called me and I said to her, "Pam, don't call me again until you've carried out an assignment I'd like to give you." Well, I encouraged her to go to the local senior citizens' facility and volunteer for one night. She was hesitant, but she did it. 

Monday, March 26, 2018

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People who know me know that I'm a very focused person when I'm working on something. Except when it comes to the most distracting people I know-my grandchildren. I remember when my granddaughter was pretty little. She was just one-plus-year-old, there was just no way to resist her when she came my way. She'd pull herself up by my pant leg, she'd stretch her arms my direction, and then she'd make these cute little noises and irresistible faces-virtually begging me to pick her up. I'm not the only one who's gotten nothing done when she was around. No, she was that way with other family members; reaching out to be held. And I'll tell you this: our arms were always open.

Friday, March 23, 2018

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On the September 11th we'll never forget, she was the last person brought out alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Fleeing down the stairs from her office on the 64th floor of the north tower, Genelle Guzman got as far as the thirteenth floor when the building collapsed around her. Suddenly, she was in total darkness, she was buried alive and she was unable to move much of her body. Well, Genelle cried out to God for help. And that help came in the person of a rescuer breaking through the rubble and grabbing her hand. In her darkest moments, Genelle Guzman promised her life to Jesus Christ. Her emotional miracle was the total peace she has had every day since then; a peace that her psychiatrist, who's worked with many nightmare-plagued survivors, simply couldn't understand. In his book "Breakthrough Prayer," Jim Cymbala quotes Genelle's bottom line on what happened to her and as she told it to her amazed psychiatrist. She said, "The tragedy I suffered was something I needed to go through in order to know Him."

Thursday, March 22, 2018

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Well, we've been wrong. Yeah, our science books tell us that there are 100 billion galaxies. We look at our Milky Way, and we see the one galaxy we're in. We're all excited because we've been able to get an unmanned spacecraft to the edge of our solar system! Hey, Hey!!! Our solar system is just one small part of our one galaxy, and they're still counting galaxies. They did say there were 100 billion. Now, with the Hubble telescope, they're saying there may be as many as two trillion galaxies. Don't even try to comprehend what God has put out there.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

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Just when you think little kids are pretty much all about their toys, TV, and what’s to eat, they amaze you again. Our daughter had one of those times when our grandson was puttering around the house in his jammies one early morning, and he wandered over to an East window. He stared out at the brightening early morning sky for a few moments and then he suddenly launched a question Mommy’s way, "Mommy, who painted the sky?" Before his mother could answer, our grandson answered his own question, "Jesus did."

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

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There's a stretch of nights in the fall when the moon is absolutely incredible! It's usually in October - harvest time for farmers. And when it's full moon time, you can see this huge, brilliant, yellowish moon rising in the eastern sky. It just makes you stop and almost catch your breath. I think it was in the days before electricity that farmers started calling it a "harvest moon." With so much depending on the harvest and so little time to bring it in, every hour had to count. And the days never seemed quite long enough to get it all in. So a bright full moon was more than just a beautiful view...it meant something much more important. With that extra light, God was giving them a little more time to harvest!

Monday, March 19, 2018

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I was watching the History Channel one day, and I was reminded of something I had heard about one of World War II's most dramatic confrontations. British General Montgomery went face-to-face with Hitler's best, General Rommel. They called him "The Desert Fox." He was a brilliant strategist in his campaign to take and then to keep North Africa for the Fuehrer. Well, Montgomery finally defeated the Desert Fox at the Battle of El Alamein. But history also tells us one reason why he did. See, General Montgomery had a picture hanging in his command tent where he could see it every day. No, it wasn't Winston Churchill. It wasn't the King of England. It was a picture of General Rommel. Montgomery said he didn't ever want to forget who he was fighting.

Friday, March 16, 2018

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For years, the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien's "Middle-Earth" were contained in his "Lord of the Rings" book trilogy and enjoyed by a relatively small number of people who loved those stories passionately. But since the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy exploded from books to blockbuster Hollywood movies, millions became enthusiastic fans. The engaging fantasy world of Tolkien's "Middle-Earth," the unique characters, the epic battles, and the spiritual themes that run through the stories; there are many layers that have blended into an experience that has magnetized millions of people. It's a great story, but for many, this is a story that seems to say something - something important. Tolkien, the author of the "Lord of the Rings," was a man with a deep Christian faith, and that faith helped to shape the provocative spiritual themes that many find in "Return of the King," the finale of the trilogy. There is this ring. There is this king. And there, somewhere tied to both, are many of us.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

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Some years ago when three American soldiers were held as prisoners in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis, their loved ones in the United States tied yellow ribbons around the trees in front of their homes. We've seen yellow ribbons before when loved ones are being held prisoner. I think my first recollection of seeing them was during the Iran hostage crisis yeas ago when the American embassy staff in Iran was held hostage for many months. Now, the people who loved those being held hostage tied these yellow ribbons around the trees in their yards and they wouldn't take them down. The yellow ribbons were a symbol of their hope that the one they loved would be back home. And when those hostages finally did come home, man, there were yellow ribbons everywhere!

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

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Some years ago our family was vacationing on the eastern end of Long Island near a little village called Sag Harbor. It was amazing how much that village changed, though, over a period of just 24 hours. One day it was a sleepy little town of tourists kind of strolling from store to store. The next day it was a chaotic beehive with snarled traffic and anxious people rushing from store to store. Do you know what made the difference? A hurricane warning! Yes, a powerful storm was moving up the East Coast and it was expected to hit that part of Long Island. So people were rushing everywhere to get prepared. Batteries and candles suddenly appeared by every cash register in every store. And they quickly disappeared. People were suddenly living differently when there was a major storm.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

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Sometimes when I'm speaking at a youth conference, I show up on the platform with a pie and a can of whipped cream. Sometimes it makes the front row a little nervous. But not to fear - it's only an illustration, not a weapon. I have my pie cut into six slices. I cover one of those slices with a generous serving of whipped cream. Then the big question to the audience, "How many slices are going to taste like whipped cream?" There's no trick question here. One slice will. Then I spray the whipped cream all over that pie and then there's whipped cream everywhere. And then I repeat the question. This is not hard. Every slice of the pie now will taste like whipped cream. Which, whether you realize it or not, could have a lot to do with how God feels about you as a Christian!

Monday, March 12, 2018

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Marathon man! Yeah, that's me. When we're driving a long trip, I want to get there. I like to drive. Oh, guess what? We just keep barreling. You can ask my kids when they were
little. They knew we only stopped when the gas tank was nearly empty. Sometimes when our other tanks were really full I guess. But they might say, "No, he wasn't marathon man.
He was psycho man!" Well, I have to wonder if I would stop at all if the car didn't have to. You know, cars are like that. They just have to stop for refueling. Cars don't run
forever. Neither do we.

Friday, March 9, 2018

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Fasten your seat belt, science fans. These days it seems as if there's a blockbuster discovery almost every day in the rapidly expanding world of science. But few things have amazed me more than some of the discoveries that came out of the mapping of human genes, human cells, and the stuff of human life that we call DNA. You've lived in your body so many years you probably don't think much about it. Well, think about it for a minute. Your body has, according to the research, ten trillion cells. Each of those ten trillion cells contains a strand of DNA that, if you uncoiled it, would be about six feet long. Now, here's what they're telling us. If you were to place each of those ten trillion strands in your body end to end - ready for your mind to be blown? Your DNA would span the solar system! Go take another look in the mirror.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

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It was a scene that was re-enacted a number of times when our daughter was a little girl. Okay, here's Daddy, in his chair in the living room, immersed in his newspaper. In comes daughter, asking for a little attention from Dad. Dad says, "Uh, in a while, honey." The request is repeated, and the same response. Then, after a few minutes, a little girl comes crashing through the newspaper onto her father's lap. Before I could say anything, she would wrap her arms around my neck and just say, "Daddy, it's cuddle time!"Oh, boy! Melted Daddy, all over the floor.

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