Delightsome Land

  “Did you know that Peter Pan could ask Jesus into his heart and be saved from his sins and live in heaven forever?” I asked as she played with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell dolls. “He can?” she asked. “Yes, he can. And then Jesus will live in him forever, and he when he dies, he will go to Heaven.” She was in awe, and this began the conversation in which she asked Jesus into her own heart. It was a precious moment, and one that probably would not have happened if I had not approached the subject using her toys. Play is powerful for children. Incredible amounts of learning happen through play from birth until about age 6 (even later according to some experts. While kids do need time to play alone and with other kids without adult interference, research shows that playtime with parents is also important. We all know that our kids crave time with us; it makes them feel special. It’s so important to find time to spend playing with them on a regular basis – sometimes one-on-one with ea...

Jesus saw the woman caught in adultery as a beloved daughter, His creation, someone to be nurtured and enabled, someone for whom He was willing to die, someone for whom He had a vital purpose and destiny. He entered a male-dominated culture that devalued women, and to the consternation of the powerful men around Him, He talked to women, addressed their concerns, healed them, forgave them their sins, and treated them with respect. Imagine the impact this had on women treated as slaves for so long! Jesus engaged with women throughout His ministry. At a time when Jewish men — and especially rabbis — had nothing to do with women in public, even their own wives, Jesus esteemed women, touched women, spoke to women, taught women, and as we saw in John 8, interceded for and protected women. He welcomed women to minister to Him. Physically touching Him, washing His feet, anointing Him with oil. Rather than rebuke them, as the Pharisees wanted, He affirmed them. And to top it all off, women mi...

Every Day Is Like an Airline Emergency Have you ever noticed the severe discrepancy behind the very few verses in the Bible that discuss the “how-to” of parenting and the hundreds of Christian books that confidently proclaim “God’s plan for parenting” (or something similar)? If the “how-to” is so important, why can’t we point to more than just a few passages? If we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, we have to wonder, I s the “how-to” the most important part of parenting when God is relatively silent about it? On the other hand, the Bible is decidedly not silent about the need for adults (and by extension, parents) to consistently grow in their faith. Jesus (Matthew 5:48), Paul (2 Corinthians 7:1), Peter (2 Peter 1:5-9), James (James 1:4), and John (1 John 3:2-3) — every major New Testament writer, in fact — urge us to earnestly pursue spiritual growth. I could list dozens of passages, but the above constitute just a small representative sample. The silence of the Bible on the p...

Prayer involves an odd paradox in our day. Almost everyone talks to God. Newsweek magazine noted that in a recent survey more the guided life Americans said they pray in a given week than work, exercise, or have sexual relations. Of the 13 percent of Americans who claim to be atheist or agnostic, one in five prays daily. So why are we so often ambivalent about the notion of God talking to us? One recalls Lily Tomlin’s line in the play  The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe: Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying, but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic? If I am to have a relationship with God that is in any sense personal, I must be open to the possibility that sometimes God does speak directly to me. Why should God’s end of the line be equipped with a receiver but no mouthpiece? In fact, being open and receptive to the leadings of the Holy Spirit is a non-optional part of transformation. Richard Foster makes this po...

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. —  Isaiah 55:1-2   It is not uncommon for people to turn to food when emotions run high. Whether we are experiencing sadness, stress, loneliness, or even celebratory excitement, we can often find ourselves in the kitchen. This emotional eating — eating prompted by emotions rather than physical hunger — usually involves foods that aren’t good for our bodies, as well as excessive amounts of that less-than-healthy food. So what steps do we take to stop running to food? Jesus called Himself “the bread of life” (John 6:35), and He taught that He gives us “living water” (John 4:10). In other words, we have all been created with a void that can be filled only by Hi...

Disaster was as close as the press of a red button. Four Russian submarines patrolled the Florida coast. US warships had dropped depth charges. The Russian captain was stressed, trigger-happy, and ready to destroy a few American cities. Each sub was armed with a nuclear warhead. Each warhead had the potential to repeat a Hiroshima-level calamity. Had it not been for the contagious calm of a clear-thinking officer, World War III might have begun in 1962. His name was Vasili Arkhipov. He was the thirty-six-year-old chief of staff for a clandestine fleet of Russian submarines. The crew members assumed they were being sent on a training mission off the Siberian coast. They came to learn that they had been commissioned to travel five thousand miles to the southwest to set up a spearhead for a base near Havana, Cuba. The subs went south, and so did their mission. In order to move quickly, the submarines traveled on the surface of the water, where they ran head-on into Hurricane Daisy. The ...

We are in a spiritual battle. The enemy does not want us to fulfill our destiny. When you say yes to God and join His cause, overnight you may go from running with the wind to running against the wind and not even know how or when the wind changed. Knowing that we have an enemy is one thing. Finding yourself face-to-face with that enemy’s work is another. I won’t sugarcoat it. Trials and storms will come to you. Obstacles will rise up. Challenges will multiply. There is always a fight in the exchange zone. The enemy comes at us hard. His goal is to stop us! Why? Because he has so much to lose. If he can persuade us to drop our batons, to stop running, imagine all the future handoffs and releases he would prevent. If he can tempt us to walk out of the race, not only will our spiritual lives grow stagnant but our influence in this world will diminish as well. If he can make us regret receiving one baton, he hopes we may not accept the next. If he can weaken one part of the body of Chris...

Forgiveness Brings Hope If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them. —  Mark 11:25 Rocks piled into long, low walls dot a countryside. They keep cows from crossing but are not high or strong enough for much else. Each spring neighbors mend the walls that storms have toppled. The walls enhance the beauty of the country scene. However, the walls we sometimes build have a different purpose. We build walls that keep friends away from us. These walls go up because of misunderstandings, hurtful words and actions, or neglect. These grievances are reflected in the thoughts of Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall.” In it the speaker asks the reader to consider whether building a wall keeps something in or keeps something out. The speaker says, “‘Good fences make good neighbors.’” Sometimes these walls are built because of offenses made against one another. The Bible clearly provides instruction on how you should respond to another’s wrongdoing against you — forgive. Ask yourself whether...