The Word of God is the Bread of Life
“Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”—Deuteronomy 8:3 This past Wednesday night we hosted a “hands-only” CPR class sponsored by the Clackamas fire district. As a part of the training we learned that when someone goes into cardiac arrest, for every minute that they go without breathing, without their heart pumping blood to their brain and other vital organs, their chance of surviving the cardiac arrest decreases by 10%. But, really, no one has to tell us how vital oxygen and blood flow are to life. Life must be sustained, not...
Read MoreThe Fame of His Name
Mention the name Wayne Gretzky north of the 49th parallel (and to be fair, in some places south of the 49th parallel as well) and everybody knows immediately who you are talking about. Even after his retirement from professional hockey over a decade ago he is still a household name in many places. To many adoring fans he is known simply as “The Great One”. Wayne Gretzky is a person of renown; a person of acclaim. He is famous. And why is he is famous? He is famous because of the feats that he performed on the ice; in his day, owning almost every scoring record there was to own, and winning...
Read MoreGazing on the Beauty of the Lord
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” —Psalm 27:4 One of the things we like to do when we go back to Florida to visit Geni’s family is to go to the beach. Our favorite spot is Bowman beach on Sanibel Island. In recent years we have taken to going later in the afternoon. We do this for two reasons. The first is to escape the peak temperatures that make sitting on the beach like camping out next to a blast furnace. The second reason is in...
Read MoreThe Immeasurable Glory of God
This last Wednesday morning I was walking through the neighborhood behind the church. As I wound my way through the streets I came upon some trees planted along the sidewalk next to the street. Now, I have no idea what kind of trees these were. They were deciduous trees and the leaves were just beginning to turn. They were about six, or so, feet tall. Trees not unlike a lot of other trees around. But they caught my eye. They caught my eye because hidden within the leafy heads of these trees hung these “fruit”. They were about the size and color of a crab apple, but rather than being smooth...
Read MoreBuilding on a Good Foundation
When I was working in construction, building houses, I had an interesting experience that illustrates the importance of a good foundation for building a house that is straight and true. Typically, when our crew built a house, we would put in the foundation ourselves. But on one project, (in fact it was the house of the lady with the perfume, see September 28), my boss decided to have another crew do the foundation instead. So, after the foundation was in, we arrived to frame the house. It was essentially L-shaped with the garage forming one leg that extended perpendicularly toward the...
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