I vividly recall on one of my first trips to India, I was traveling alone, in the back of a taxi, on my way to meet people I did not know, being driven by a Hindu who spoke very little English, inhaling the incense he was burning in the taxi, in a city I had never been in before.It occurred to me that I may be headed down a dark alley somewhere where my friendly taxi drive...

The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. John Emmons said, "Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the fl...

Author Max Lucado reminds us in his book, Traveling Light, that the prefix, "dis", D-I-S, changes everything. "With dis, obey becomes disobey. Respect is changed to disrespect. Regard is suddenly disregard. What was an ability becomes a disability. Engage is now disengage, and grace is transformed into disgrace. All because of dis. We would be hard pressed find a more pot...

Beginning on Thursday, October 1, I will be taking a two-month sabbatical.I want to thank the elders of LowCountry Community Church for not only making this break possible, but strongly encouraging it. As a person with workaholic tendencies, it would be my style to just keep pressing on. But there are good reasons for God's command to regularly practice the princ...

My guess is that things have not always gone as you have planned. Sometimes life is anything but easy and your walk with Jesus has more worries than victories. In Philippians chapter one, Paul addresses some of his personal challenges then quickly moves to the problems facing the Philippians believers. He's told them that he will win either way, that his circumstances will...

Early in his career, Thomas Edison invented a vote-recording machine for use in legislative chambers. By moving a switch to the right or left, an official could votefororagainsta proposal without leaving his desk. The machine would replace the tedious business of marking ballots, counting them, etc. Elated with the prospects, Edison obtained a patenthis firstand headed fo...

Disorientation can be humorous. I mean, how many jokes get told on men because they become lost, but refuse to stop and ask for directions? Disorientation, however, can be much more serious than that. Airplane pilots are trained to deal with something in the aviation world called spatial disorientation. A pilot will tell you that it begins when a queasy knot settles in th...

"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." So goes the sage advice from president Harry Truman. I have books filling cabinets, nightstands, and bookshelves.I have full shelves in my office, home, and my study. My wife, Darlene, has always been incredibly patient with all of this and doesn't ask me too often to clean things out and get rid of some books. S...

C.S. Lewis, in his bookMere Christianitywrote,"Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. That is why children's games are so important. They are always pretending to be grown-upsplaying soldiers, playing shop. But all the time, they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits, so that the pretense of being ...

Embracing Forgiveness and Reconciliation Lessons from the Life of Joseph, Part Three Genesis 50:20 "To err is human, to forgive, divine." When Alexander Pope wrote those immortal words many years ago, he stated a truth that still resonates in our own hearts. Forgiving others seems to be one of the hardest things some of us ever have to do. Why? At times it is difficu...