Biblical Strength
I have never found body building competitions compelling. To me, it is a practice that takes the beauty of the human form and twists it into something grotesque and unattractive. By contrast, however, I’m fascinated by contests like The World’s Strongest Man competitions. There we observe feats of tremendous human strength and endurance. Men are…
Read MoreTrusting When Trusting is Hard
It’s been a tough week in the Gray home. I was supposed to have rotator cuff repair surgery on Thursday of last week. I dreaded the surgery, knowing it is a brutally painful procedure, but I also wanted it done because I need this shoulder fixed. (I cannot recall if I shared with you that…
Read MoreTruth Matters
I love the small group Bible study I am a part of. The discussions are so rich and thought-provoking. With each meeting, we have a “chunk” of scripture we are trying to plow through but rarely make it past one or two verses. This week we got stuck for two hours on “the perfect bond…
Read MorePreparing to Meet God
Be Prepared In the 1960s and 70s I was proudly a part of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of America. This was long before the 2010 embrace of homosexuality that led to the implosion of the organization as I knew it, with bankruptcy, dwindling membership, and billions of dollars in ongoing lawsuits and compensations.…
Read MoreIs Knowing Possible?
Knowing There is an unsettling sensation tied to being in a context where it is important to know, yet we do not know. When faced with a significant business decision, when deciding whether to make that long journey, when needing to know how to address that delicate relationship issue, we want to have certainty, yet all…
Read MoreThe Source of Wisdom
When I worked with university students as a Campus Minister, I was engaged with an wide array of souls at a multiplicity of maturity levels, and yes, I mean maturity spiritually and emotionally. Some were tremendously mature adults while quite young in their faith. Others had been (nominally) in the body for many years but…
Read MoreAll You Need is Love?
Stay in Ephesus Writing to Timothy, his son in the faith, the apostle Paul urged him to stay in the city of Ephesus for the express purpose of charging certain persons not to corrupt the pure doctrine that had been delivered, or to get lost in complex genealogies and wild speculations.1 Then Paul explained the reason…
Read MoreInside or Outside
I have a habit of noticing repetition in scripture. For example, shortly after becoming a Christ follower in January of 1983, I started noticing the repeated phrase and concept, “in Christ,” where this thing is in Christ, that thing happens in Christ, or a certain blessing is found in Christ. So, I started keeping track…
Read MoreGuard the Deposit
When speaking with a student, a protégé, a child, or anyone we are attempting to impact or influence, it is common to employ repetition as a tool of instruction. If I tell my child “It is dangerous to play in the street, so don’t do that,” I am likely to tell them that more than…
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