“For  the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God  is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (KJV) I was sitting in church preparing to hear the sermon when  a church friend  sneaked  up beside my pew and left a gift bag. Later when I opened it,  I found a lovely shawl. It was a gift.  She wanted me to have it since I had once  admired it on her. Early on Sunday morning following the crucifixion of Jesus,  Mary Magdalene   quietly went  to the tomb where she had seen  men lay  Jesus’s  body. There she  encountered a white-robed being who told her, “He is…

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten  Son that whosoever believeth  in Him should not perish but have  everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world  to condemn the world, but that the world through Him  might be saved.”  John 3:16, 17  (KJV) We’re looking forward to celebrating Easter in a few days, and  Easter means different things  to different people.  When I was a child in the island, it meant delicious  Easter bun, eaten with  imported  cheese (a rare treat)  on Good Friday. It meant a new dress, usually white, and it meant an area garden party.  In my adult years, …

“For as the  soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make  righteousness  and praise spring up before all nations.” Isaiah 61:11  (NKJV) Each season of the year has its  attraction, but there  is  something special about spring. One of my favorite poets wrote in his usual exuberance, “Nothing is as beautiful as spring.”  Those words by Gerard Manley Hopkins  may seem like an exaggeration, but they come  very close to the truth. Spring is an incredibly  beautiful time of the year,  and its arrival is  much anticipated.  The world feels wonderful with all the new growth and aliveness around…

“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…