Worthy Words

Fulton J. Sheen wrote:   "An interesting phenomenon in children is that gratitude or thankfulness comes relatively late in their young lives. They almost have to be taught it; if not, they grow up thinking that the world owes them a living." A friend once told me that she didn't want to force her son to say "Thank you" unless he really felt like it saying it. "If I teach him to say 'thank you' when he doesn't feel thankful, I'm teaching him that it's OK to be a hypocrite." That's not even close to what gratitude is. Our feelings have nothing to do with why we express it. Gratitude is not an emotion, it's an action. The act of saying "thank you" is for the benefit of the other person. It's about their feelings, not yours. The same is true when it comes to say "Thank you" to God. Thankfulness is the proper response to the goodness of God. We say "thank you" because ...

If truth be told, I’m reasonably sure, no one knows what it is like to serve a “Lord” these days. The true meaning of the word originates form an earlier time back in history. From generation to generation the expanse of time makes it difficult for our contemporary culture to fully appreciate the depth of its significance.   We have elected local, state, and national officials along with others in our society to whom we “give” authority. By contrast, in those by-gone days, “lords” had complete and sovereign control over everything within their territory. They had unrestricted control over everyone and everything under their authority. To acknowledge someone as “lord” meant that you obeyed their ownership and authority over your life without hesitation.   Using the focal lens of history, stop and think for a moment about the following question:   Is Jesus the Lord of your life?   Really?   I confess there are times when Jesus is NOT Lord of my life in...

The Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus late one night. He, like many others, had seen and heard Jesus teaching. He had witnessed the miracles. He began to realize something was acutely different about this man, and he had to know. Who was he? Who was he really? In the course of the conversation that night Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again.” To understand the strength of this statement, you need to put yourself in the place of Nicodemus. You see, for us on this side of the cross, the term “born again” has all kinds of images and theological meaning tied to it. For Nicodemus, he had never heard of that concept before. What could this mean? What on earth is Jesus talking about? What Christ-followers often forget about this exchange is that Jesus is not finished after telling Nicodemus that he needs to be “born again.” Jesus offers a glimpse of the mystery of what He is talking about. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you c...