Making Life Work

By: John Klassek

    We had almost finished dinner at the restaurant when a man in a black suit approached us and asked whether he could perform a few magic tricks for us. I politely declined his offer.

    He then quite happily made his way to the next table. I couldn’t help but to curiously watch him ply his tricks there, and what he did was quite amazing. He threw a red ball into the air and it simply disappeared! The look of surprise and fascination was evident on the faces of everyone seated at that table. “Is seeing believing?” I wondered.

    A friend of mine once lamented that he had never seen any miracles in his life. He implied that our belief in what really matters might be enhanced by being witness to some supernatural...

By: Hugh Buchanan

    It was on a stiflingly hot day in July that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain found himself on a wooded hillside in Southern Pennsylvania. Positioned there by his superior officer with 300 men, the remnant of the 20th Maine Regiment, his task was to defend Little Round Top, a small hill that protected the left flank of the Army of the Potomac. To lose this ground would mean the loss of the battle, loss of the army, the loss of the war, the loss of the Union. It was the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War.

    He took stock of his assets and liabilities. The 20th Maine held the superior position. Chamberlain’s men were experienced war veterans and were committed to their cause. On the other hand,...

From the program notes of Ronald L. Dart

    In the movie, The Ten Commandments, a voice said, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and the inhabitants thereof.” Did you know those words were inscribed on the Liberty Bell in 1753?

    When you think about it, the dominant theme of that movie was liberty—liberty for a people who had just been set free. In the same way, the central idea of what Jesus taught is liberty or freedom. That was intended from the beginning. Jesus wants us to have freedom.

    The purpose of the Law was to guarantee freedom. The whole idea was freedom for man. When at last you are given freedom, you don’t want control to rear its ugly head. The Law and freedom are no problem until man steps in and tries to control...

From Ronald L. Dart’s Born to Win Notes

The Bible is an ancient book. It has stood the test of time, and has survived a few attempts to suppress it, or even get rid of it. This book deserves to be approached with awe and respect, even by people who don’t believe it. And even more by those who do.

A lady called Ron after she had heard a Born to Win program and was very complimentary. She appreciated most his honesty with the Scriptures. He couldn’t help wondering if honesty with the Scriptures was all that unusual. As Ron mused on this, he thought that if there is any cause to be less than honest with the Bible, it probably grows out of church or denominational affiliation. This is not intended as a criticism of church membership or affiliation,...

By: Lenny Cacchio

My oldest daughter first saw the movie, Toy Story 3, while studying abroad. She thoroughly enjoyed the flick, but had to admit that, when viewed in Spanish, some of the humor was lost in translation.

Sometimes I wonder if the same thing doesn’t happen with the Bible. The Bible was composed originally in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and includes almost every genre of literature we know—poetry, history, biography, legal commentary, drama, philosophical treatises, personal correspondence, and just flat-out good storytelling.

But what about humor? Does it get lost in the translation? Or were the biblical authors, a gang of disgruntled prophets, detached journalists, and pious poets who couldn’t be bothered with a bit of...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    “A rabbi and a priest walk into a bar.” Ever hear a story begin like that? If you have, you are probably waiting for a laugh line about now. I wonder what Jesus’ listeners were thinking when he opened his act with, “a rabbi and a tax collector walk into the temple.” I wonder if they were looking for a laugh line too. So let’s put the story into the vernacular and maybe hear what the listeners heard and how they heard it. You’ll find the original version in Luke 18:9-14. A Pharisee and a tax collector walk into the temple. The Pharisee goes right up to God and says, “Hey, Lord! Look at me! Aren’t I a great guy? I don’t steal, I don’t cheat, I don’t run around on my wife. I do all the stuff I’m supposed to do....

By: Lenny Cacchio

    And He’s not a Democrat either. From what I know of the Man, he has better things to do than to align himself with various factions vying for political power. Ultimately, he has all of that in abundance anyway.     It’s instructive that even though Jesus held many positions in common with the Pharisees (resurrection of the dead, acceptance of all the Hebrew Scriptures and not just the Torah, belief in angels), he never once identified himself as a Pharisee. It is also instructive that he socialized with people from all backgrounds and factions, including Pharisees (Luke 11, John 3), Samaritans (John 4), people from Herod’s household (Luke 8), Roman soldiers (Matthew 8), Gentiles (Mark 7), fisherman (Matthew 4), publicans...

By: Ronald L. Dart

By: Ronald L. Dart

    As I sit down to my Thanksgiving dinner this year, one of the things I am thankful for is that we still have Thanksgiving Day. And I find myself mildly surprised that we still do. With the ongoing, systematic drive to eradicate God from public life in this country, it is remarkable that Thanksgiving Day has been left alone.

    Even Christmas has been attacked. You can put Santa and his sleigh on the courthouse lawn, but not a nativity scene. The government can formally acknowledge the birth of Martin Luther King, but can’t acknowledge formally, as a government, on government property, the birth of a man who set more people free than Martin Luther King ever saw. And King knew that as well as anyone. He was a minister of the Christian faith, so he knew.

By: Ronald L. Dart

In the world you will have tribulation;
but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.

    I hope I don’t shock you too much when I say that the Bible is not a particularly comforting book. I know the hope it gives is comforting. I know the relationship with God it offers is comforting. But one night, I was paging through the Bible looking for some comfort and I wasn’t finding much. I wanted to read something to make me feel better, and I wasn’t finding it.

By: Ronald L. Dart

Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5 NKJV)

    It must have been a hard decision for God to make. I don't mean to suggest that anything is really hard for God, but the decision had consequences that even God could not have treated lightly. The decision to put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden had consequences for all of history. By putting that tree there, God effectively created a gate out of the Garden of Eden. He gave man a choice about the kind of a world that he would live in. If Paradise became boring for man, he had an alternative.

By: Ronald L. Dart

Is God everywhere? Is he in every leaf of every tree? Does he permeate the cosmos with his being? Is he in every blade of grass?

    Well, yes and no. God is in every blade of grass in the same way I am in a transceiver I built years ago and later sold. You might even find some of my DNA in that radio, because I got a little careless with my tools. But I am not there. I am here.

    God is in every blade of grass in the same way my wife is in the little painting she did years ago when we were playing with oils. But if you think you can put your foot on God when you walk across the grass, you are badly mistaken.

 

By: Ronald L. Dart

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29). 

    There are things about God that we are never going to understand for the simplest of reasons. They have not been revealed, and theorizing isn’t going to help very much. It is revelation that we need if we are going to understand.

    One of the things that has been revealed, in part, is the work and character of the Spirit of God, and yet even that is not well understood. A troubling set of questions surround the Holy Spirit, and they suggest that we may have taken a wrong turn somewhere and we need to retrace our steps.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    When God gave Abraham his great victory over the King of Elam, he was met on his return by an enigmatic figure, a priest, by the name of Melchizedek. What is of special interest about this encounter is that Abraham gave Melchizedek tithes (a tenth) of all the spoil he had taken from the opposing armies–much of it the property of the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 14:20). Why did Abraham do that?

By: Ronald L. Dart

Was it Jesus’ intent to create a hierarchy of human government over the individual Christian? Does the Christian ministry sit in Moses’ seat for the church? This article explains what you always wanted to know about church government but were afraid to ask!

    Paul stood on the beach staring out to sea. This would be his last time in this place. It would have been good to have visited Ephesus once more, but it was not to be. It was just as well. He would not have been in Ephesus one hour before a coalition of Jews and silversmiths would have been plotting murder. There was no point in putting temptation in their way.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    Was there something wrong with the Ten Commandments? Were they weak legislation in the first place? Or did they somehow become obsolete with the passage of time? If, as some suppose, the time came for the Ten Commandments to be abolished, there must have been a reason for it. The idea of the abolition of law is not foreign to us. We "abolish" or repeal laws often enough. But when we do repeal laws, why do we do it? There are many reasons. The law may be unenforceable. It may be unpopular with the people, and because of massive disobedience ("They can’t put all of us in jail"), the law simply can’t be maintained. The classic example of this was prohibition.

 
By: Ronald L. Dart

    Do you want to live forever? If there were something you could eat that would give you eternal life, would you want it? The search for a magic elixir, a fountain of youth, has preoccupied man ever since Adam was denied access to the tree of life. Legends of the ancient world told of a "Fountain of Youth." Ponce de Leon spent his life searching for it, but all he found was Florida.

    When you think about it, it is all the more strange that when Jesus finally told his disciples that there really was a "bread of life," many of them took that occasion to turn away from Him.

By: Ronald L. Dart

The Second Key

    The best ideas are usually simple and this one is no exception. The idea was conceived long ago and is so simply stated that most of us would read right over it and never grasp its implications. It reads as follows: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).

    I can hear you saying, “That sounds like a good idea, but a little tough to execute. I have enough trouble making ends meet as it is without worrying about the next generation.”

By: Ronald L. Dart

God so often disappoints us.

    No, let’s not kid ourselves, we place our hopes in God and those hopes are all to often disappointed. The fault, however, is not with God. The fault is with our expectations, and with what I call, "the God of our imagination." The only reason we could ever be disappointed with God is if He somehow doesn’t meet our expectations.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    There are no women in heaven," chuckled the preacher. "How do I know this? The Lord revealed it in Revelation 8:1 when He said there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."

    It was all very amusing, and even the ladies enjoyed a little laugh at their own expense. After all, more than one of them had "talked someone’s ear off " sometime in the past 48 hours.

    Still, there was a little hurt in the laughter of some. To them it was just one more "put-down" for women. Only this time it came from an unexpected source, their pastor, from whom they felt they had a right to expect support, not humiliation.

By: Ronald L. Dart

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness (Lamentations 4:1-3).

    The high school graduating class of ‘94 was decimated by a terrible plague and no one paid it much mind. If a bus load of them had been killed on the way to a game, it would have made headlines–at least locally. If a school had blown up and killed a few hundred of them it would have made national, even worldwide, news.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    He is twenty years old, but he looks more like sixteen. In blue jeans and sweater, his hair neatly cut, he looks like he should have books under his arm and be headed for class. The district attorney says he is a cold-blooded killer. It seems he held up a convenience store late one night. The clerk offered no resistance and gave him all the money in the cash register. But as he scooped up the money and stuffed it into his pockets, this “student” calmly raised his pistol and shot the clerk squarely between the eyes just to leave no witnesses. Now the district attorney wants you, the jury, to find him guilty and sentence him to death.

By: Ronald L. Dart

 

    What do you do when you have already done all you can? You are in trouble and there is no way out. You are sick and the doctors have done all they can. You are persecuted and there is no relief. You have made every effort, tried every option, and still see no way out. The matter is out of your hands. What do you do now?

By: Ronald L. Dart

    The Christian faith must seem downright confusing to an onlooker. Even the largest, seemingly the most monolithic Christian denominations are, in reality, composed of many factions. Unless you are an insider, you can remain unaware of the deep divisions that exist among Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans and even Catholics.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    It had been a hard three days. David and the handful of young men with him had left in a hurry and had taken no food. By the time they got to a place called Nob, they were in a bad way. They needed food and there was only one place David thought they might get something to eat. The Tabernacle at Nob.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    Is there really an ever–burning hell where sinners are tormented with fire and brimstone throughout all eternity? Is it only for the very wicked? What about the “unsaved”? The Bible tells us there is only one name given in heaven and earth whereby we must be saved–the name of Jesus. What about all those who have never heard that name? Do they go immediately to the torments of a fiery hell at death? What about babies and little children? Surely they don’t go to hell? Churches have an astonishing variety of answers to these questions, but what does the Bible say? How can we really know the truth?

By: Ronald L. Dart

    
    It is not a frequent question, but sometimes people ask, “Why do you charge for some of your CDs?” The answer is simple enough. We charge for them so we can make them available. But before I elaborate on that, I really should address two scriptures that are sometimes advanced to suggest that one should not sell biblical materials.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    It was the last night of the revival. The congregation was softly singing: "Just as I am," and the preacher was standing in front of the pulpit with both arms raised in invitation. He knew there were people present who needed to make a decision for Christ. "Jesus Christ could come tonight," he urged. "Will you be ready for Him?"

By: Ronald L. Dart

”And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24 ).

    Jennifer's husband was going into the hospital on Monday for open heart surgery. He was a little young to be having heart problems, but the surgeon said that his youth was in his favor. There were risks, of course, but they did this surgery several times a week at this hospital. They were good at it.

By: Ronald L. Dart 

    In the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing, there was one question raised that no one really stopped to answer. Is it wrong for the United States to seek vengeance for the murder of the 5000 innocent people who died on September 11? Should we, as a country, turn the other cheek? There were those who thought the criminals who did this act should be brought to justice, but that it was wrong to merely seek revenge on Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization.

By: Lenny Cacchio  

No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! (Job 12:22 NKJV)      Christians have a problem. We know. And we know that we know. And this knowing can get us into trouble. The Apostle Paul said that “knowledge puffs up” (I Cor. 8:1), and certainly those with lots of knowledge can become arrogant about it.     There was once a Pharisee who went into the temple to pray. Jesus tells us that this man gave a very special prayer of thanks. He said, “God, I thank you.” That’s a noble way to start a prayer. But notice what he thanked God for: “ … that I am not like other men.” (Luke 18:11).     Here was a man who on the outside appeared to be everything God expected him to be. He didn’t cheat people. He didn’t sleep...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    One time Jesus told a strange parable.  It’s often referred to as the Parable of the Unjust Steward.   The parable is about a fellow who is about to lose his job because of a bit of chicanery.  He learns of his imminent termination, but before the pink slip arrives he goes to his boss’s customers and renegotiates the terms of their contracts in a way immensely favorable to the customers and much to the detriment of his boss.   Of all things, instead of condemning the unjust steward, the owner of the business commends him for his shrewdness!  With other people’s money this character was buying himself some favors that he could cash in at a later time.  

    Reasonable people wonder how Jesus could use the metaphor of a...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    A little game of Jeopardy here.  The answer is …. “No.”  The question?  “If Jesus were alive today, would he be a Republican or a Democrat?” In Jesus’ world he could have joined any number of movements or parties.  He even had the opportunity to be the world’s leading political figure (Matthew 4:8-11) that could have brought in, albeit temporarily, a modicum of order and peace. Had he chosen, he could have been a Pharisee.  These theological conservatives were the prominent sect that by and large controlled the synagogues.  They were avid advocates of the law.  They were teachers, scholars, and scribes, believed in the resurrection, and accepted the Scriptures as God’s revelation to his people.  They were more interested in theology...

By: Ernie Klassek

    NO, DO NOT BE SURPRISED—the time is coming when all those who are dead and buried will hear His voice and out they will come— those who have done right will rise again to life, but those who have done wrong will rise to face judgment!

    That is how J. B. Phillips rendered some words of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel.1

    St. John described a similar scenario of people coming back to life in another book: "Then the sea gave up its dead. Death and the world of the dead also gave up the dead they held. And all were judged according to what they had done." 2

    All. When we read that word we think of every human being—past, present, and future—our ancestors, people here and now, and those yet to come.

...

By: Linda G. Gallia

    For most people, the idea of burying someone who is wounded, but still alive, would be repulsive. However, it is a representation of who some people believe should be cared for and tended to and who they are willing to help through tough times. The origin of the metaphor is unclear but there are documented cases where literal burying of wounded people has occurred. Maoists in Nepal have been known to practice the burying of wounded people while still alive. We should certainly take to heart the parallel in how we treat others who are hurting. It could be physical, emotional, financial, or whatever.

    Jesus was often angry with the religious people around him for their superior attitude and for not having compassion...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).  Of course it isn’t.  If it were, we wouldn’t have among other things a protracted and painful presidential election campaign that further exposes the fault lines in our national landscape.

    No candidate is the perfect combination of the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, and the fighting spirit of David.  Nor should we expect such.  The best we can hope for is a government that provides us with security, some basic services, and fair adjudication of laws while not infringing upon our freedom to pursue our God-given purpose and talents.

    Sadly, not everyone sees it that way.  Some theories of government emphasize redistribution of wealth.  Some...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Ideas have consequences, and that’s why doctrine is central to Christianity.  It’s true that Christianity is about behavior and relationships, and those are important things, but doctrine has a special place because it’s the lens through which we define how we act and how we relate

    A great example might be how you view the path to salvation.  If you believe there are many paths to salvation, your approach to evangelizing the Christian message will be radically different than one who believes that Jesus is the only way.

    If you believe salvation comes from keeping a set of rules and rituals, you will make different choices in life than someone who believes that salvation comes from God’s mercy. 

   ...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Lost!  It’s an ongoing saga on network television.  It’s also considered a theological term.  Paul used it to describe those who couldn’t understand the gospel message (II Corinthians 4:3).  Jesus used it to describe the people of Israel (Matthew 10:6, 15:24).  He talked about lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), and the lost coin (15:8-10). 

    Nobody wants to be lost.  Once as a small boy I strayed from my parents in a five and dime store.  I wasn’t being rebellious.  I just wandered off without any thought, and when I looked up and Mom wasn’t there, my stomach knotted up as I frantically searched for the comfort of home.  I was lost, but I wasn’t evil.  

    That’s the way it is with an awful lot of lost sheep, and that’s...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    The Middle East by reason of climate and culture is a dusty place. In Jesus’ day there was little in the way of paved roads, and consequently the feet of the sandal-wearing populous would pick up the common grime of the roads as they walked through life. 

    In addition to the dust that one would normally encounter walking, other sources of filth of a less savory kind were also in the streets of that day’s Jerusalem .  Livestock was abundant, given the contemporary need for transportation, economic necessity, and sacrifice.  Not only would the streets of Jerusalem be covered in dust and mud, Jerusalem would be awash in a mixture of dung and urine.  In a culture where the common footwear was the sandal, imagine how one’s...

By: Lenny Cacchio

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." (John 11:5)

    Jesus had a special relationship with family from Bethany.  We see him teaching in their home.  He dined with them. At Lazarus death he traveled from a long way off to be with the sisters in their grief and to call Lazarus from his tomb.

    We see these sisters and brother only three times in Scripture, and each time the family appears, we notice something unique about Mary.  Every time we see Mary of Bethany, she is at Jesus feet.

In Luke 10 she sits at his feet learning the ways of God.

In John 11 she falls at his feet in honor and worship.

And in John 12 Mary is anointing his feet in an act of service.

To learn,...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    The developing story of the 2008 Presidential election should not be as surprising as many are depicting it.  The fact is, the frontrunners in the two parties have made a point of bringing civility into the political process, and if they succeed, it would be a good thing.   Most of us are tired of the 20 of political discourse consisting of charges and innuendo that are better left to the tabloids.

    If the indications from the campaign are to be taken for what they seem to be, the candidates who are faring the best are those who claim to be above the usual political fray.  The electorate seems to be tired of the fighting and yearns for the rhetoric of unity and mutual respect.

    We’re seeing the beginnings...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Don’t believe every scripture you hear, or perhaps better said, don’t believe every scripture you hear as quoted.

    I’m leafing through a book about money written by someone well-known in the evangelical community.  He quotes lots of good scriptures and makes some telling comments (such as the old line about Scriptures talking more about money than about going to heaven when you die), but the book leaves me with the weird sense about his subtext.

    The book is right in saying the things of this world will all perish, and that a U-Haul won’t follow your hearse to the cemetery.  And it says that your true treasure should be in heaven.   That is all good, biblical stuff. 

    But here is his logic:  Since...

By: Lenny Cacchio

Hold your nose and vote!  I can identify with that sentiment, for I have done it more than I care to remember.  But what are the alternatives?   1.      Don’t vote at all.   2.      Vote for someone who has no chance of winning in order to make a moral statement.   3.      Get involved.  Work on a campaign for someone you can gladly support.   Better, run for office yourself.   I can make an argument for any of those options, but because I have no desire to be active in party politics, nor do I care to forfeit my franchise (and effectively give half a vote to people and causes I reject outright), I go on holding my nose and punching my butterfly ballot for a less than ideal candidate.   I have accepted that this...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    The last time I checked, God’s scorecard doesn’t look too good.  Of the six billion people on the earth today, 4 billion of them adhere to a set of beliefs other than what is broadly termed Christianity (source: http://www.adherents.com/). Even if we assume for a moment that all those who claim the label of "Christian" really are Christians in deed as well as name, it means God isn’t doing very well in the battle for souls.

    Add to this the historical reality that the explosion in the world’s Christian population is a comparatively recent phenomenon (the past 500 years), and we must wonder why God seems impotent, if it so be that Christianity’s traditional truth claims are...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Warning!  This week’s essay could be rightly construed as bad theology.  God does NOT send bad weather for the express purpose of teaching me a lesson.  As I write this, I am hunkered down in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls International Airport, sidelined by an April Nor’Easter that is delaying the onset of spring.  It has shut down airports, cancelled flights from Maine to South Carolina, and has stranded thousands of people like me.  But my slight inconvenience pales against the destruction to life and property that the storm has wrought against the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts.

    Nevertheless, such events are sometimes schoolteachers of life lessons.  I have been frustrated with unavoidable travel delays and will...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    If I were the devil, I would plant a seed of doubt.  That would be easy to do in a skeptical age, for real miracles have an air of plausible deniability about them.  Someone is healed of a disease?  The body’s natural defenses did it.  Someone crosses your path as an answer to prayer?  Time and chance happens to all men.  You’re in need of a few bucks to pay the rent, and the exact amount shows up in the mail?  Somebody heard of your plight and wrote you a check.

    Plausible deniability affects us today as much as it did the people in Jesus day.   In spite of the great miracles Jesus performed, people still wanted a sign.  The very day after he fed a multitude by multiplying a few fishes and loaves, the very same people...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Job had lost it all and he knew it, but one thing he never lost was his faith that God is in charge.  He might not have agreed with the way God was doing things, let alone understand them, but he at least knew that God knew.

    Eventually, God blessed Job for a second time.  But before God restored him, the scripture tells us that first Job did something.  Job 42:10:  “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.”  Listen to what this says:  When Job prayed for his friends, God restored Job’s losses.  And he didn’t restore Job’s losses until he had prayed for his friends. 

    I’m not sure we completely grasp the implications of this, but James in his epistle provides a clue.  In James 5:11...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    They cast their nets all night and failed to catch a single fish.  For men whose livelihoods depended on a decent catch, the lack of one could be financially devastating.  To come ashore with nothing must have been have been a discouraging experience for men used to harvesting the normally abundant waters.  How would they pay their taxes?  What would they tell their families?

    Empty nets happen from time to time, but sometimes it seems as if the nets turn up empty more often than full.  That can be particularly true of churches that can’t seen to grow, though they try with all they know how.  They cast their nets with membership drives, evangelization efforts, media and literature programs, but for reasons it seems...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    It seems to be an anomaly that a loving God as depicted in the Scriptures would condemn the majority of people who have ever lived to an eternity apart from him.  That at least is the idea we get from traditional Christian theology.  Speaking of Jesus, Paul said, "There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12 NIV). Does that imply that billions of Hindus, Buddhists, animists, agnostics, and plain old decent human beings throughout history have no hope, for by dint of birth in time and place they never quite got the Christian message?     Jesus himself once said that "no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:43 NIV), while Peter wrote that God is "not...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Having recently moved from an employer of a dozen people to one of 55,000, I had the normal reservations associated with changes in the corporate culture.  One never knows certain things about a new job until experiencing it, so I was most interested in attending my first major company event, where one of the Heavy Hitters was brought to town to address the area employees. Somewhat expecting a rah-rah stir ‘em up and inspire the salesman presentation, I was surprised to hear such things as: 1.  The people who live under the same roof as you are more important than your job. 2.  Forty nine per cent of Americans do not use all their vacation time.  Don’t be one of them.  Take all the time off that the company gives you....

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Let me tell you about Brother Nelson.  When I first met him, my family and I were "between churches".  We had wrangled an invitation to a church’s potluck, and were enjoying the good food and kind people when I noticed Brother Nelson.  He was a beehive of activity, first making sure the trash barrels had fresh bags in them, hauling out the trash if they were full, then making sure everyone had enough to eat, or seeing if anyone needed another drink, or sweeping up a spill on the floor.  He managed to stop long enough to say a few words with everyone, including me, never once losing the smile from his face.     Finally, after everyone had gone through the line, Brother Nelson picked up a plate and flatware and took his...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    Try this experiment. Walk into your place of employment with a wad of one-dollar bills and try to give them away. See if people take them. I tried it once. "Anybody want this?" It was hard to find a taker. Someone finally took me up on the offer, but then promptly handed it back. "What’s the catch?" she asked. "Are these real? Why are you doing this?"

    Finally, I put a stack of ones in the kitchen with a sign that read: "Free.Take One." When they figured out that there were no strings attached, they got together and decided to use the money to buy donuts for the office. I don’t even like donuts.

    People tend to be suspicious of freebies. No one goes around giving stuff away and expecting nothing in return....

By: Lenny Cacchio

    A few weeks ago I was a victim of a four-car bang-up on the way to work.  The four people involved in this mishap all waited for the presence of a police officer, who courteously and professionally took separate statements from each of us about what had happened.      I haven’t yet seen the police report, but there is one thing I know for certain:  All four of us involved gave different statements, describing different parts of the accident, and each of us told the story differently.  I fully expect that some of the details differ.  I remember one car spinning out in front of me, but now that I think about that split second of chaos, I might have seen her spinning out of control behind me through my rearview mirror.  Regardless,...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    On a recent tour of the internet I was aghast at the revisionist view of the blundering exploits of a certain Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain. Chamberlain was the Prime Minister prior to Winston Churchill, and he believed that Adolph Hitler could be bought off with pieces of someone else’s real estate. He proudly called the policy of putting a slice of Czechoslovakia under the Nazi jackboot “Appeasement”, and he congratulated himself for bringing home “peace in our time.”

    Some well-meaning people actually believe that Chamberlain’s policy failed not because it was based on a flawed theory, but because the evil Winston Churchill sabotaged it. Supposedly, if Chamberlain’s view had prevailed, World War II would have...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    He was wrapped in an enigma, and so he is now. For thousands of years theologians have bandied about how Judas could betray his friend and teacher for the price of a slave. The depth of evil is thankfully unfathomable to most of us, and the why’s and wherefore’s of Judas’ betrayal will be saved for a different discussion.     The question for today is the length to which Jesus went to save Judas from himself. Time and again Jesus both encouraged and warned Judas. Along with the other apostles Judas received power and authority over demons and he cured diseases (Luke 9:1-2). Miracles were performed at his hands! As an example, Jesus washed Judas’ feet in an ordinance of humility and service at the Lord’s Last Supper (John 13:4-5). ...

By: Lenny Cacchio

Things aren’t always as they seem.     General Ulysses S. Grant owned slaves. Robert E. Lee did not. Republican President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency and Affirmative Action. A larger percentage Republicans than Democrats – in both houses of Congress -- voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.     Even the devil can appear as an angel of light, and it’s evident from the Gospels that the disciples failed to see clearly the light of Jesus until some time after his resurrection.     Two of them approached him about sitting on his right hand and his left in the kingdom, showing among other things how little they grasped what the kingdom is all about. To them such a place seemed like a position...

By: Allie Dart

    When you think of kids trekking off to school, one usually thinks of backpacks and lunch boxes. In the last few years, something new has been added. Cell phones are the newest school accessory for teenagers, a tool many think they can’t do without. “Nearly half of US Teens and Tweens have cell phones,” according to NOP World.

    Cell phone ownership among teens and tweens has now topped 16 million nationwide, “with almost half (44%) of 10-18 year-olds in the US owning a cell phone...Teens and tweens are on the cutting edge of cell phone technology and are no longer excited by typical single-function cell phones.” Today’s kids are most interested in multi-functioning cell phones that convert into mp3 players or into digital...

By: Lenny Cacchio

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus taught. “And who is my neighbor,” the lawyer asked. Well, what about it? Who IS my neighbor? For this lawyer in question the simple instruction to love his neighbor as himself wasn’t good enough. If we listen closely, we can hear his lawyerly logic: "If I am to love my neighbor, then I needn’t love someone who is not my neighbor." Hence the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus gave him an answer in the form of a parable (Luke 10:30-35 NKJV): "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he...