God of Hope

Forgetting If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much. (Soren Kierkegaard, 19th century Danish philosopher) Another unknown writer put it this way, “It is sometimes expedient to forget what you know.” Our memory of past events or hurts may make it difficult...

Life and Living Life is not about living the safer option. Life is about living a life worth living. (Robert Their, German historian) Safety is an important issue in 21st century life. Whether you live in a bustling, overcrowded urban area or a more isolated rural...

Character Conduct flows out of character. (Linda Brumbaugh, blog writer) The Bible teaches that “We are each responsible for our own conduct (Galatians 6:5) and that “Even children are known by the way they act, whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right...

Aging II Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength. (Betty Friedan, late writer and activist) The condition of so many elderly people is really sad to see. For some, it’s simply unmanageable issues related to health. For others, it seems to...

Aging I Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. (Mark Twain) For almost all of our adult life, we never felt our age. We always thought we looked and acted younger than the calendar said we were. That all changed after a bout with...

A Legacy To live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy. (Stephen R. Covey, late businessman and author) Those four ideas might be a good summary of living a good life. Living is more than just existing, of course; it’s active, productive involvement in life. Loving...

Love All life-changing love is inconvenient. (Tim Keller, current popular author) Words used too often, too often lose their basic meaning. Love is such a word. For many people it’s merely a sentimental feeling—like spooning under the moon by the lagoon in June. For...

Blessings What I’m looking for is a blessing that’s not in disguise. (Jerome K. Jerome, 19th-20th century English writer) Sometimes we hear people talk about “a blessing in disguise,” something that seems bad or unlucky at first, but results in something good...

Helping When you help someone up a hill, you find yourself much closer to the top. (Brownie Wise, 20th century saleswoman) It is a great pleasure to help someone, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s at a disadvantage to us in the loss of time or opportunity, but we do it because...

Living Now I will live in the past, the present, and the future. (Charles Dickens, 19th century British writer) Dickens’ statement seems contrary to a lot of current advice to suggest that we must live in the present. We can’t go back to the past, and we can’t project...

Temptation God provides the armor to withstand temptation, but we must put it on. (David C. Egner, Our Daily Bread writer) The old joke was “The devil made me do it.” We always seem to be finding excuses for our sins and failure. And yet God has provided adequate...