By Deborah H. Rabern Four-letter words offend me and arouse my anger or disdain. Sometimes they shock me. However, one four-letter word frightens me. It rears up out of the biblical text as soul-stopping as a spitting cobra. Holy - a word almost framed in neon, unavoidable. The narrative of ...

By J. Merritt Johnston
I really love to eat. And even when I'm not eating, I often find myself flipping to the Food Network to see what's cookin'. Although the celebrity chefs on TV often cook with ingredients I've never heard of and will likely never cook with, I'm intrigued by the creativity ...

By Dr. Darrell Horn
"Literary theft." Simply stated, "Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit ...

By Darlene Stern
While shopping at a thrift store, my son spotted a hat that shouted volumes. It has become one of his prize acquisitions. The hat is white with red embroidery. A little red pig sits above the motto: "The Sty is the Limit."
One's first thought upon seeing the hat is that this is a ...

By Carrie Bevell Partridge
As I was brushing my five-year-old daughter's hair the other day, I was teasing her and acting like I didn't know her name, which made her giggle. Finally I hugged her and said, "I know your name. Your name is Katie." And then it struck me. The first verse of Isaiah 43, ...

By Merritt Johnston
In the last six months, the plumber has been to our house three times, the last of which was for an overflowing water heater. The AC guys have been out twice, and two roofers stopped by to give estimates after we woke up a few Saturdays ago to find a puddle in our living room ...

By Deborah H. Rabern
Cicero believed moral commitment compels the action of self-sacrifice. He said, "We are not born for ourselves alone." He believed responsibility grows out of our humanity, our character, our place or position in life, and our self-image. These four characteristics drive our ...

By Ed Chinn
Note: This is a continuation of last month's article "Someone to Watch Over Me"
After a long season of house hunting, Joanne and I found a house out on Sugar Ridge Road that we liked. Log construction, sitting beside a duck pond, on five mountainside acres. When we stood very still, ...

By James Castellano
The pursuit of sustainable leadership concepts has been the passion of many. This quest remains fertile ground for new ideas and philosophies because leadership is a personal venture. Leadership is something we are, more than something we do. Concepts, which work well for some, ...

By Ed Chinn
Do you realize that you have never seen yourself?
You've only seen a flat image of your likeness in a mirror, photograph, or video. But, apart from those human inventions, you would have no idea what you even look like.
Surely our Creator could have given us the capacity to see ...

By Susan Briggs
This is the unedited, unrestrained glimpse into the mind of a girl who just "lost everything."
WHAT I HAVE: one outfit, my gray sweats (seriously...who would leave those behind?), a few toiletries, one picture album, one journal, a few photos, my pocket Bible, a few books, two ...

By James L. Castellano A common factor of many successful businesses is their mission statement. Mission Statement.com defines these as follows: A mission statement defines in a paragraph or so any entity's reason for existence. It embodies its philosophies, goals, and ambitions. These ...

By J. Merritt Johnston
Change is hard. Really hard. It pushes us out of our comfort zones. It alters our plans. It proves that we just can't control everything. But change is one of the only constants in this life. Some changes we choose for ourselves...others are dictated by others. But like it ...

By Deborah Rabern
Fatal outbreaks of E. coli and salmonella have turned ordinary moms like me into suspicious, spray-wielding, scrubbing maniacs. With the advent of contaminated tomatoes, lettuce, and peanut butter, not to mention mercury in fish, recalled pistachios, and mad cow disease, my ...

By Mitch Chase
Christians can't reason unbelievers into faith in Jesus. There is no argument, no perfect set of syllogisms, which conquers the ultimate barrier in the sinner's heart: depravity - the reality that sin affects our whole being and all its capacities. In Romans 1 Paul describes how sin ...

By Darlene D. Stern
I have always had a special place in my heart for "... every nation, tribe and tongue..." For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to travel the world. In the past several years, I've had several opportunities to travel overseas on short-term ministry trips that only whetted ...

By James L. Castellano
This expression gets tossed around with no regard for the destructive power it contains. In my opinion, those who use it do so to validate missing out on something or because they procrastinate.
This can be compared to the phrase, "Money is the root of all evil," which is ...

By Barb Winters
To keep up with my teenagers (I‘m really spying on them), I joined facebook. I promptly found the games. Even if you aren't on facebook, you've probably heard of the never-ending search for fences, homes, cows, and mafia paraphernalia. I chose my virtual world game and began my ...

By Darlene D. Stern
If I would have had to apply for motherhood, I would never have gotten the job. I would never have been asked to come in for an interview for the position, and my application would have hit the circular file immediately upon receipt.
No one in his or her right mind would have ...

By Ed Chinn
In November of 2005 - courtesy of the US Navy's "Tiger Cruise" program - I rode the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz, from Honolulu to San Diego.
From the moment you step aboard the ship, you quickly become immersed in the environment of that nautical city. The 23-story, ...

By Jennifer Crouse Hospitality: another favorite topic of mine. I've probably said every chapter of Lauren Winner's Mudhouse Sabbath is my favorite so far. Let the pattern continue. The Hebrew word is "hachassat orchim" and literally means "the bringing in of guests" (Winner 44). My mom has ...

By Justin Hyde
Many people ask me, "What do 'family devotions' look like at your house?" or, "How do you pastor your family?" or even more simply, "Do you pray or read the Bible with your wife and children?" Here is one attempt to answer those questions.
Routine: Our family works best with a ...

By Deborah H. Rabern
The philosopher, Diogenes, was famous for his antics in Athens. He carried a lamp in the daytime in his search for an honest man, and skewered those spouting exalted theories about virtue. He was a fan of action, not talk. Like us, he wanted to see people live out unwavering ...

By Merritt Johnston
Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying, "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of ...