“I am the  door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:9  (NKJV) We live in an age of gadgets, and there’s a gadget to suit every fancy. One that I’m getting to  be familiar with is the  talking doorbell that can “see” you and let the people inside the house know whether or not they want to bother with  you. I guess it cuts down on having to respond to a lot of nuisance people ringing your doorbell. At  Christmastime last year,  I went to a neighbor’s  door with a gift for the small child I had…

“Now by chance  a certain priest  came down that road. And when  he saw him, he passed  by on the other side.” Luke 10:31  (NKJV) Do you get a lot of mail pleading for help for one cause or another? I have heard  complaints about such “junk mail,” which  is straightaway  tossed into the reclycling bin. And almost daily  by the roadside we see the man or woman  holding a sign saying, HOMELESS, HELP!  On these occasions, how do we respond?  Sometimes as I sit  waiting for the light to change,  I get that  uncomfortable feeling, and  try not to  make eye contact with the  person asking for help.  At…

“Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ ”  John 6:67 (NKJV) In our Bible class,   we’ve been  studying  about God’s love and  justice, and the  problem of evil gets woven into the conversation.  We have many questions that  elicit animated and productive  dialogue. As it happens  sometimes,  people  look at a world ruled by a loving God,  they’re told, but  see  the evil and injustice in it. They have questions  as a result and  place religion on the back seat in their lives. A much admired and  celebrated Holocaust survivor  has acknowledged his difficulty  continuing to believe in a God  who allowed the atrocities…

“And He said to them, ‘Take heed and beware  of covetousness, for one’s life  does not consist in the abundance  of the things he possesses.’ ” Luke 12:15  (NKJV) Sometime ago I saw online the title of  an article that asked the question, “How much do you need to retire comfortably?”   I was curious, but I didn’t click on the link  to find the answer that would fit my situation. If  I did,  I would  very  likely be disccouraged.   Planning for retirement is important,  and it consumes a lot of people, including those  who give  the advice  about how to plan. What drives the planning? True, we  want to be…

“Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”  Psalm 19:12 (KJV) Everyone of us, you’ll agree,  is prone to making mistakes, some of them more glaring than others, and when we   mess up, we feel bad and wonder how  such a thing could have happened. Sometimes our error  crosses the boundary into sin, but many  times, what we’re guilty of is a social faux pas, a mere mistake. Of course, we have  a problem when we  pretend that we didn’t make a mistake, refusing to   own up.  Knowing that we are frail human beings, we are much better off  recognizing our mistake as soon as we realize…

“When the Lord brought back the captives  to Zion,  we were like men  who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of  joy.”  Psalm 126:1, 2  (NIV) A reunion— whether of family or of high school  or  college  classmates—is an exciting event. It’s usually a time of shouts of surprise and glee  upon  recognizing  familiar faces  not seen after a long time. And, yes, it’s a time of much laughter. As the Jews  returned to  their  homeland from captivity,  their  happiness  bubbled over, and they couldn’t stop laughing. We laugh when good things happen to us, but it’s not only good things that make us laugh.…

“But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 The wise man Solomon declared that there is a time to love, and at this time dedicated to love, it’s a pleasing sight to watch  the men—young ones and older ones alike—as they walk out of the grocery store,  carrying long-stem roses and dainty posies.  Some of the fellows  look a little self-conscious; others wear a telling smile. They’re participating in an annual ritual  built on a day  devoted to love.  No matter what the private motivation may be for these men, the sentiment is a welcome one even if it’s only  for  one day each year. None of us…

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.”  Matthew 6:33, 34 (NKJV) In one of my older Bibles, I found written next to our focus text for today the words “Do not worry.”  I’m sure that I needed to hear the message for that day and wrote the words to remind me not to worry about anything. Perhaps  you don’t worry, but I do,  even when I don’t have any reason to.  Someone who worries like this is called a “worry wart.”  I don’t remember…

. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation, he hath covered me  with the robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61:10 I receive a monthly mission magazine that features people from different cultures, including African. I always pause to admire the clothing of the African women in their  attractive  outfits  in  rich, diverse patterns   and  vibrant colors. Do clothes matter today?  Yes, they do;  people put a lot of emphasis on what they wear. In a sense, we still believe in the adage, “Clothes make the man.”  Or the woman. A new group has…

“These things I have spoken to you,  that My joy may remain in you and that your joy  may be full.”  John 15:11 (NKJV). On January 1, I began reading a new devotional  book for this year, and it is a blessed addition  to my quiet time each morning.   In  two of the  entries, the writers  mentioned that they always choose a word at the beginning of a year as the word that they will make their theme for living during that  year. That’s a great idea,  I thought.  Something I had never tried before, even though I am a lover of words. I decided to join the two women…