Kingdomtales

What does it take to make you believe something?  Do you have friends who, if they tell you what they saw, you would believe them, or do you have to see it for yourself?  If a friend had proven themselves over and over to you, would you believe them when they tell you they are going to do something spectacular?  These are the issues that are discussed in John 20:24-31 – the story of Doubting Thomas! As you undoubtedly recall, Jesus appeared to a number of the disciples.  Thomas, however, was not one of them.  When the others told Thomas that they had  “seen the Lord,”  he responded by saying,  “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”   A week or so later Thomas was with the disciples when Jesus came to them again, and He told Thomas to reach out his finger and hand and get the proof he had earlier demanded. The key here is that Th...

When it comes to  Rebuild Sacred Walls , the premier “contractor” has to be Nehemiah.  After convincing King Artaxerxes to allow him to return to Judah and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he was able to accomplish this monumental task – - not, however, without ridicule and danger! There are several important aspects of the story of Nehemiah that we must keep in mind.  First, as he was asking the King for his permission to do that which he desired he was in constant prayer to God.  There is a lesson there that we need to learn – - once God gives us the task to  Rebuild Sacred Walls that Protect  we must  not  lose contact with Him. In Chapter 2 of Nehemiah that once he arrives in the City of Jerusalem he takes time to examine the magnitude of his task.  He goes out at night, alone, to evaluate the situation.  Only after he has accomplished this does he share with others the task at hand.  We, too, should not be hasty in revealing tha...

When we contemplate the ministry of Apostle Paul we see a man who was a zealot from the very moment we are introduced to him.  Though playing for “the wrong team” at the time, he pursued the Christians all over Jerusalem, and  then  made arrangements to go to Damascus and pursue them! After being converted on the road to Damascus his zeal, if anything, grew in intensity.  It caused him to be stoned.  It caused him to be imprisoned.  And, it caused him to be ingenious!  That’s why Paul was the first one who was able to  Reference the Culture to Share God’s Love! You probably remember the story.  Paul is hanging out in Athens when his spirit is terribly troubled by all of the idolatry that was taking place.  Acts 17:16-34 tells us that members of a number of different philosophies were gathered there, Epicureans and Stoics to name a few.  “Pleasure” was one of their main life goals, and one of the things that pleased them the most was...

I was talking with a good friend one day and he said, “You know, I struggle with making sure I am doing God things and not just good things.”  I nodded that I understood, but, since then, I have pondered that statement a lot.  Since it is accepted that “Christian” means to be “Christ like,” it is important to see if Christ did differentiate between the two to help us determine if we should  Stay Spiritually Connected and Directed . In Mark 1:29-39, we find that Jesus does make this distinction and that He did, in fact,  Stay Spiritually Connected and Directed .  After raising Peter’s mother-in-law from a bad fever and healing a host of others and casting out demons, Jesus retires for the evening.  Rising before daylight the next morning, He goes off to pray.  When His disciples come and tell Him that folks are looking for Him, he advises them that they need to go to other towns in the area for,  “this is the purpose I have come forth.” We all know...

I believe that when most of us think about Daniel our mind and memory immediately go to him and the Lion’s Den!  Yet, there is so much more about Daniel that we need to know!  In fact, the story that first introduces him to us is one that allows us to see how Daniel was able to  Stay Alert to Self-diminishing Compromises . Daniel 1:1-20 tells us that he was taken captive from his homeland and wound up in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar.  While there, he and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, along with the other young men who were taken, were to be fed the king’s delicacies preparatory to serving in the king’s palace.  You, I am sure, remember that they choose to eat veggies and water instead and, when they were examined, were in as good, if not better, health than those who had chosen to eat what the king provided. Daniel and his three friends recognized that eating the delicacies would have been detrimental in the long run, making it beneficial that they were ab...

Biblically speaking, there were, perhaps, no two groups who disliked each other more than the Jews and the Samaritans.  Geographical neighbors, the disdain felt by the Jews can best be summed up by the fact that they placed Samaritans below the Edomites and Philistines in esteem and termed them a “foolish people.” Where, you might wonder, did all of this animosity come from? Some believe that it goes all the way back to the Patriarchs. Before his death, Jacob (aka Israel) blessed Joseph (his favorite son) by calling him “a fruitful bough by a well” (Genesis 49:22).  When the Promised Land was divided up, the fertile land that became Samaria was given to the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh.  This, of course, led to resentment of the Samaritans just as the Coat of Many Colors led to resentment in the time of Joseph’s youth. “Modern” Biblical discord, if you would, probably began when the Jews returned back to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.  It escalated whe...

There are very few people who will argue the fact that the story of Ruth is one of the greatest love stories in all of the Bible.  As we are told in Ruth, chapter 1, Ruth is a Moabite who marries one of the sons of Naomi.  When all the menfolk in Naomi’s life die, she makes arrangements to return to her homeland, to the city of Bethlehem.  Preparing to depart, she tries to convince her daughters-in-law to return to the house of their mothers and stay there in Moab.  After much weeping, Orpah agrees to do so, but Ruth refuses, saying,  “Wherever you go, I go”  (Ruth 1:16a KJV). In today’s world of super-sonic travel, transient families, and limited extended family connections, it may be difficult to understand the degree of sacrifice Ruth was making.  She was going to a strange city in a strange land where she knew but one person – - Naomi.  Yet, she risked her life, both socially and physically, to take care of Naomi – - one of God’s people. I’m s...

Who do you feel most comfortable being around?  Who do you feel most comfortable having at your church?  Who do you feel most comfortable witnessing to?  Now, let’s look at the “reciprocal” of these questions:  Who do you feel uncomfortable being around?  Who do you feel uncomfortable having at your church?  Who do you feel uncomfortable witnessing to?  You may find this to be a little bit of introspection that you don’t enjoy conducting, but it is necessary if you are going to  Like People and Draw Out the Best in Them ! If we truly are going to be Christ-like, we do need to  Like People and Draw Out the Best in Them .  For, as Matthew 9:9-13 shows us, He not only ministered to the dregs of society but actually befriended them.  As you undoubtedly already know, tax collectors in Jerusalem were the very bane of society in the time of Christ.  They were working for the Romans as part of the “occupation,” helping to collect the v...

Have you ever stood mesmerized by a speech being delivered in a foreign language – - one that you don’t understand?  You know what is being said must be important, because of the speaker’s fervent delivery, but, unfortunately, you have no idea what they said.  You may remember that the speech was delivered, but you obviously cannot respond to it because you didn’t understand it.  That, my friend, is what can happen if we witness using “Christianeese” rather than words the world can understand.  That’s why it is imperative that we  Speak God’s Truth in Everyday Language . More and more, the world is not familiar with the  Word of God  and its terminology.  It doesn’t know about the “goats and the sheep,” or even the wise man who built his house upon the rock.  If you are going to emulate Christ and preach as He did, you must  Speak God’s Truth in Everyday Language . That is, after all, the only way we are going to reach the hurting world ...

I am often amazed at how absolutely  certain  many people are about what is yet to come in God’s plan for this world and that, at the same time, there are so many others with divergent opinions who claim to be just as certain. There are things that are clearly spoken of in Scripture that will happen. The real confusion comes with trying to understand when and how events will unfold. The result is that many Christians are  uncertain  about the future and God’s  remarkable revelation  to us. People are curious by nature, so some spend their time focusing on studying prophecy, as if knowing how things will unfold will satisfy that innate curiosity.  The reality is that it will never satisfy.  Rather, it will always draw our attention away from the basic and most essential truths that God has for us. Everybody knows that the last book of the Bible is Revelation, but very few read the remarkable revelation in the context of its very first words,  ...

Urbana is the tri-yearly student missions conference that InterVarsity has sponsored for over fifty years. Various sources estimate that of all missionary candidates for overseas service, some 70-85% have experienced a spiritual call or nudge while attending Urbana. Because I served as a trustee on the InterVarsity board for eight years and as its first woman chair for two years, I am regularly invited to return. This year a personal invitation from the staff director who heads the InterVarsity Arts division (and the fact that I was in town) encouraged me to attend. During my years on the board, we established a multi-cultural ad-hoc committee, browned the board, made sure that vocal women, not hesitant to speak at a table surrounded by powerful men, were invited to serve, sent out regular documents between each of the three yearly board meetings on issues relating to ethnicity, then slotted regular times for reaction and discussion in each agenda. It was estimated that by the year 201...

Lungwort  (Pulmonaria) Over the last two summers, lungwort   (pulmonaria)   has taken over my garden. Lungwort is the little spring plant with the spotted leaves and pink, blue and white flowers that bloom in the spring. As a specimen plant, this early bloomer is delightful, but as a ground cover—all over the ground—it has taken residence where I did not plant it and do not want it. However, I have let it grow—partly by intent and partly due to the fact that I have been physically under the weather for the last six months—and grow it has. My intent has been to dig out the lungwort (so named because previous generations thought the spots on the leaves looked like lungs and treated lung discomforts and diseases with this plant) and fill the wooden pathway down to the marsh at my son-in-law and daughter’s home named Turtle Creek Acres. Neglect sometimes is an expedient strategy. In the case, the more lungwort that sprouted each year, the more lungwort took root each summer. ...

When Mainstay Ministries produced six broadcasts per week (for twenty years), taped one television show per day (for six years), mounted 137 pastor’s conferences per year, we also had our own publishing arm. Teams of pastors came into our offices to help us put together an annual  50-Day Spiritual Adventure  (which some 350,000 people used yearly), and because ministers asked for it, an annual Advent preaching series. The Christmas season is one of the busiest times of the year for the professional minister and his family, so we were pleased to be able to serve. The month before Advent began, it was not unusual to see two to four USPS delivery trucks backed up to the warehouse loading dock. You can imagine how satisfactory it was to have them take off, completely filled with our product. I’m the author of some 23-or-so books, and publishing being what it was, I rarely had the final say on a title, on a book cover, and sometimes had to negotiate about some content between the f...

  One of the modern activities that irritates me some, but alarms me considerably, is that even in a restaurant, sitting around a table, a group of diners will be looking down at their mobile phone screens. Isn’t one of the pleasures of dining out to enjoy the luxury of uninterrupted conversation? On the street, people walk in crowds, step off curbs into traffic flow, and a majority of heads are bent as folks use their thumbs to scroll down their emails. I’ve kept thinking these past years, watching all these bent necks,  We are reverting to a hunched stance much like the Neanderthal man scientists tell us has been our evolutionary forbear! In the chiropractor’s office, where I have just started treatments to correct a backward curve in my upper neck (it should be curving inward, but it is curving outward—the result of hours spent writing at my computer without hours of compensating exercises), I noticed a poster on his wall showing that the average human head weighs approxima...

Travel files—a treasure trove of memories Our deadline to be out of the Mainstay Ministries offices is April 1st of this year. This means books have been packed, files have to be cleaned, out-of-date storage records need to be shredded, boxes need to be taken to Goodwill, good metal desks need to find a home, the office kitchen needs to be broken down. My daughter, Melissa, has swooped up the white cabinets and the screen and the microwave and the hot plate for the little apartment in her basement. Our son, Joel, is taking the half-size refrigerator for his basement bar area (serving sodas and fruit juices). And, we are wondering, in the middle of all this dislocation, if we are going to make it on time. The goal is to clear out our finished basement, move the furniture from there to our daughter’s home, settle what is left from the office down there. This requires changing phone lines, setting up computers, deciding on printers, and overseeing the general planning that goes on with th...

We are turning the little downstairs bedroom (which two sons have inhabited, in addition to various live-ins, my brother-in-law’s gardener—a long story—and boyfriends of one granddaughter). This space also served as my “fabric studio,” which had been set up with a sewing table, a sewing machine, a fabric art library, and an upholstered chair to settle into for comfortable hand-hemming or mending. The rough cut siding of the room had been stained a rich wine color, the cement floor covered with red concrete paint and the long wall, which held cutouts where fish tanks once perched, had been almost covered with five signed prints given to me by a student artist when David and I were pastoring Circle Church in the heart of the inner city of Chicago. They are a little rough and unformed in their artistry, but I love them—mostly because they illustrate, from small to large, the cry of the human heart for a God to embrace, receive, overtake, and infill it. The artist, Charis Hathaway, titled ...