Making Life Work

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come, reign over us!’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’ Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come, reign over us!’ But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?’ Finally all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come, reign over us!’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you are anointing me as king over you,...

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: Lenny Cacchio

    "Common Sense" was Thomas Paine’s pamphlet from Revolutionary days written with the intent of convincing reluctant colonists that rebellion against the King was not only permissible, it was also a duty.  Paine’s frequent reference to Scripture is remarkable, especially because, as a Deist, he rejected the inspiration of Scripture as the Word of God.  That’s a lesson about propagandists:  they can be fundamentally dishonest people who will say whatever it takes to get the rest of us to agree with them.       Having said that, propagandists can serve an interesting function for the historian.  Propaganda has a better chance of achieving its desired impact if it repeats back to people what they are already thinking, even though...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    "How do I answer the guy who tells me the law is done away?"  The question came up in our new small group Bible Study.  "He says Galatians 3 says that Jesus has saved us from the curse of the law."

    While the group began to decipher the intricacies of Galatians 3, I reached over, grabbed the inquisitor’s drink, and put it over on my side of the table.  The I took his notebook and put it by my things as if I was going to take it home with me.  His curious glances led me to take his pen, and then as I reached for his wide margin New King James Bible, I commented that really wanted to have it.

    His puzzled and almost aggravated expression broke into a wide grin.  He got the point:  if the law is done away, then...

By: Allie Dart

    Have you ever had the opportunity to be the speaker for a group of teens? By some chance, were you the only person there who wasn’t a teen? Was the situation a little intimidating? As we grow older a challenge such as this may become even more frightening. But why should an adult be frightened to be with a group of youngsters that may only be one-third or even one-quarter of his age? But whether you’re a parent, youth worker, or minister, the more you understand teenagers, the better you will be able to connect with them.

    Jay Kesler in his book, Too Big to Spank, gives four things we adults need to understand when dealing with teens. One of the first things we can do is to put ourselves in their shoes as much as possible...