There’s a powerful passage of scripture that sings its way into our hearts like an angelic chorus.  Handel’s Messiah has engraved it musically upon our imaginations.    Isaiah 60:1-3 announces: Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the

In Jesus’ famous parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) a lawyer, an expert on interpreting religious law, pointedly asked Jesus a question, “Who is my neighbor?” Between the lines he was seeking to know, “Who — before God — am I responsible for? Who do I have to care

It was the worst day in Judah’s history.  Their capital city, Jerusalem, was destroyed, their Temple demolished, their population decimated by the armies of Babylon.  All their leaders — civic and religious — were carried away captive, leaving only a remnant of peasant farmers to occupy the land.  The Lord

Dr. Theodor Reik, famed psychoanalyst and prize student of Sigmund Freud, wrote an intriguing autobiography entitled “Listening with the Third Ear”.  In this impactful book, he transparently revealed many of his own personal struggles.  I found one passage to be especially riveting.  Listen, with your own “third ear”, to what

One day I spent some time reflecting on my legacy. What was it that I wanted to leave behind? After all, many of us want to leave something of value to the next generation. My wife Julie and I have occasionally examined the little “treasures” that we’ve managed, intentionally or

I was working as a camp counselor in a children’s camp one summer, shepherding (or herding) a crowd of kids in 1st through 3rd grade. Late one night, probably about 9 p.m., our Program Director, Rev. Tim Heitz, gathered all of our children together in preparation for a very unique adventure.