Making Life Work

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

 

    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

 

"What our civilization continues to forget is that we have souls, and when souls are not fed, they distort and warp themselves. And souls today go largely unfed. Every day they must soak up the desolation of the contemporary landscape" – Edward Oakes.

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

 

“There are two kinds of people in the world,” intoned the preacher, “the saved and the lost. There is no middle ground with God.”

    Now there is a sobering thought. If indeed there are only two kinds of people in the world, and if I am “people,” I must be either saved or lost. And if I’m not consciously aware of having been saved, then I must be lost. And if I’m lost...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    In a recent article about George Schultz National Review’s  Jay Nordingler describes a snippet of his interview with this former Secretary of State:

    "At Schultz’s side is an illuminated globe, and this prompts me to ask him about a test he would give to new U.S. Ambassadors.  ‘They’d been through all kinds of exams and so on – confirmation – and I’d say to them, "Well, there’s just one more test you have to pass. … You have to walk over to that globe and demonstrate to me that you can identify your country."  And, inevitably, they would point to the country to which they had been assigned’

    "The correct answer of, of course, was the United States – that was their country.  And Schultz’s moral was, ‘Never...

By: Lenny Cacchio

"It’s a different Greek word," my friend said.  "This is a different word for ‘ministry’ than the one most commonly used."

I looked it up, and he’s right.  The Greek word is leitourgeo, and it means something different than the more common diakonia, which implies service in general.   According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, leitourgeo is "a public office which a citizen undertakes to administer at his own expense."

It’s a noble thing to perform acts of service with no motive for financial gain.  The New Testament speaks of such sacrificial service, and more than that, Paul calls himself a bond slave for Christ (Philippians 1:1, Titus 1:1), admitting not only that he serves, but that he also feels bound as a slave to a life...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Puritanism, according to H.L. Mencken is “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.”  The old boy had a point, I’m afraid, and lately we seem to have entered the era of the New Puritans, though not the religious kind.

    In every newspaper I read I find dire warnings about everything I enjoy in life, and I have concluded that if it appeals to me, it can’t be good for me.  One day I read that coffee is filled with antioxidants, and the next that coffee can kill you.

    A juicy filet will give me heart disease, but tofu and bean sprouts are proper penance paid to the goddess of the earth.

    Comfortable cars are destroying the planet, and dirty, dingy buses are the recommended mode of transportation...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn's fictional One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich chronicles just one day in the life of an inmate of a Siberian Gulag.  At the end of the day, as the central character prepares for his rest, he reflects on all the day had brought.

    “Shukov went to sleep, and he was very happy.  He’d had a lot of luck today.  They hadn’t put him in the cooler.  The gang hadn’t been chased out to work in the Socialist Community Development.  He’d finagled an extra bowl of mush at noon.  The boss had gotten them good rates for their work.  He’d felt good making that wall.  They hadn’t found that piece of steel in the frisk.  Caesar had paid him off in the evening.  He’d bought some tobacco.  And he’d gotten over...

By: Cynthia Saladin  

    Sometimes raising children seems like an uphill struggle - a constant testing of limits, rules, and authority. “I don’t want to go to bed right now.” “Why do I have to wear my hat?” “I don’t like green beans.” “I don’t want to share with Christopher.” “Why, Mommy, why?” “Please can I do it one more time? Please.” And sometimes I get very weary and worn down. Sometimes I give in to the entreaties because I’m so tired of the battle. I make a deal; I hear myself saying, “O.K., one more time, and then it’s time for bed.” Sometimes it works; sometimes it just prolongs the battle. Later, as I am thinking about the struggle, whichever of the many daily contests of wills, I start second-guessing myself. Should I have given in? Was...