Worthy Words

Have you ever noticed how many of the superheroes put on masks when it’s time to do their “superhero jobs”? Batman and Robin, Spiderman, the Green Lantern, Captain America and Wonder Dog all wear the mask to fight against evil. There they are, with their colored masks hiding their true identity. My personal favorite is Superman. When he’s fighting back evil, it is full disclosure time. He is being who he truly is, when he takes OFF his mask — those oversized black-framed glasses. When he’s doing what he was made to do, doing it fully revealed, he’s more himself than at any other time. In today’s world, there is a crying-out by the public at large for genuineness. We’ve been disappointed over and over by those who, after it’s too late, aren’t who they said they were. If we’re honest, maybe it’s true in our own relationships with other believers. If we’re even more honest, maybe we’ve been the cause of someone else’s disappointment. And perhaps that disappointment was...

I’ve noticed how my three young grandsons have become professional questioners? At some point in their development when everything is normal, life is humming along quite nicely, a shift took place. “Grandad, why is the sky blue? How did it get to be blue anyway? Is there something behind it?” “Grandawn, why is yellow called ‘yellow’?” This how they roll now. I remember Art Linkletter, long ago, back in the 1960’s had a very popular daily variety show with a segment titled, “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” took this childlike questioning routine and reversed it to get laughs. Many times the endless questions children ask parents is no laughing matter and can sometimes be a source of irritation and nuisance because kids ask the darndest things. The reason, kids ask their parents questions, is because they believe their parents truly know the answers. In a strange sort of way, it is the asking of the question that shows their greatest sense of faith. This has all kinds of impli...

In Luke 7:44-47 we find these words: Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn't offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn't greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47 I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." This text is a story of two people and their interaction with Jesus. One is the dinner host, and the other was uninvited. One was called a teacher; the other called a sinner. These two people both had access to forgiveness. One was a religious leader, the other a person with a sordid reputation. This event ...