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Things to remember
When David stepped out in the Valley of Elah that day, he wasn’t afraid. If you don’t know the story told in 1 Samuel 17: The Israelites drew up their battle lines against the Philistines. Goliath, the 9-foot-tall champion from the Philistine army, came out and taunted them for 40 mornings and evenings. He spewed
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Jesus is coming to my house
Jesus is coming to my house today. That sounds like Zacchaeus. His story is in Luke 19. A wee little man, he climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Jesus reached the spot and yelled—maybe He just whispered, “Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today.” But Jesus really is coming to
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The secret disciples
When Jesus died, it would have been more than mere mortals could wrap their minds around. Men and women from all walks of life had heard Him. They believed Him and in Him. They felt His love, saw it in action. He changed their lives, and they followed Him. In John 8:12, He told them,
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What they are learning
Kelly* just got her license and was so excited. I asked who had been teaching her to drive. Both of her parents, she replied. Then I asked which was the better driver, her mother or her father. (It’s not a terrible question. The truth’s the truth. And, of course, I wasn’t going to tell them.)
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Dixie and Mary Magdalene
Our dog Dixie was rescued last year and she knows it. It was at the end of summer and to be quite honest she was on the brink of death, close to dying. She had been on the side of a bridge for four days, according to a lady who was trying to feed her.
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The gardens of Easter
One smell of hyacinth moves me. For eons, just a whiff of the beautiful spring flowers brought an immediate smile to my face and stirred my heart with something almost like yearning. It’s hard to describe and may make no sense at all to anyone else. For a long time, I couldn’t understand what it
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A rusty skillet
When my mother-in-law in Alabama moved to a nursing home here in eastern Kentucky, we had to go through her stuff. Her two sons, two stepdaughters, plus some other family members had to decide what went where. We found she was a collector of many things. Three storage sheds were filled to the brim. She
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Good things at the jail
Makayla came out of the cell first. With purpose. Last Sunday at 7 a.m., female inmates at the county jail milled into the multi-purpose room for Bible study. It was coffee day, so they made a line for freshly brewed coffee with flavored creamer. There were also Little Debbie cakes. (They know I want to
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Not a failure
I cried at work the other day. Jordan*, one of my favorite patients, was having a cavity filled. (She used to get super nervous but has conquered that fear.) As she smelled laughing gas, we caught up. I asked how her current activity at school was going. It had just ended, and she was glad
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Through the Red Sea
It’s a spectacular true story. When we step into the Israelite’s sandals, applying it to our lives, we gain insight and encouragement from the book of Exodus. The people of Israel came out of Egypt after 430 years of slavery. Their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers, and so on and so on for centuries had all
