What Do You Know?

Few things are touted more enthusiastically in our society than "knowledge." Modern technology, which seems to rule the world, is based ultimately on sophisticated mathematics and science.  Millions of people spend or borrow untold billions of dollars to gain an understanding of those things in universities.  Governments spend billions more to finance medical and other scientific research, so that the knowledge acquired can be applied to improve our material lives or, at the extreme, to comb the universe in search of other worlds...

Damaging Words

Matthew 19:14 (NIV)  - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." I am always amazed at how an event can bring back a memory with vivid clarity. Last week, something I heard caused me to remember a most unfortunate event I witnessed many decades ago. When I was a teenager, I went to a department store with my parents. As soon as we entered the store, I left my parents and went directly to the sporting goods department. As a teenage boy, this was one of the few areas of the store in which I had much interest....

Parts of the Plan

Jeremiah 29:11 (NET) -  ‘For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the LORD. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not harm you. I plan to give you a future filled with hope.’ I will always be grateful for the mother God gave me. Her story was not an easy one. Her first pregnancy was extremely difficult and the child she delivered, my brother, died in infancy. Her second pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Heartbroken, she and my father must have concluded that having a child they could raise to adulthood was just not meant to be. God’s plan was different. Shortly after my mother turned...