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I still remember that difficult guy in my congregation when I was a pastor. He wanted nothing to do with God. Then he got sick. After serious complications during his operation, he fell into a deep coma. The doctor said there is nothing that could be done for him. His wife was inconsolable because she [...]

James Twitchell tells in his book about the world’s never-ending love affair with luxuries, that owning luxury items apparently brings beauty into our lives. According to him, these luxuries even brings together people from different social groupings. How sad that people try to justify their insatiable hunger for possessions in such tragic ways! Still, Twitchell [...]

A few years ago, Arnold Swarzenegger — well-known film star and governor of California — said something that is even more amazing than those “big” expressions that’s he’s known for… Things like “I’ll be back!” or the evergreen “Hasta la vista, baby!” I’m referring to a strange remark he used to try and convince people [...]

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen, tells how he once stayed in Rome for five months. What stuck with him, was not all the spiritual “lion tamers and trapeze artists” as he refers to the important church leaders in Rome, but the Christian “clowns” in Rome who silently told the true story of Christianity [...]

In Prince Caspian, the second book in the popular Narnia series of the larger-than-life Christian author, C.S. Lewis, there is an encounter between Aslan the Lion (who resembles Christ) and one of the little girls. When seeing him for the first time in a while, she tells him that he is bigger. To this Aslan [...]

“My life is completely unremarkable,” someone said recently. “Bleak days, bleak clothes, bleak happenings — that’s more or less the story of my life,” she continued. Ouch! How many bleak days are slipping lifelessly through the fingers of thousands of people? Maybe that is why Shirley Valentine writes somewhere: “I got lost in unused time.” [...]

Peoples’ nerves are at breaking point nowadays — due to dissatisfaction. At least, so it seems to me. Recently, when cash registers at a certain shop was not functioning, and that on the first Saturday of the month, there was lots of dissatisfaction. The poor personnel got some very stern attention from some sharp tongues. [...]

“I give at my church.” Have you said these words to beggars or those people that collect money on the street for welfare organizations? May I ask an uncomfortable question? Is your responsibility suddenly dealt with because you make a monthly contribution at your congregation? Is the reach of your calling inside God’s kingdom only [...]

“Everyone is entitled to their idea of the truth,” someone said to me the other day. “Yes, but does that mean that all opinions are at the same level? Is every opinion valid?” I immediately wanted to know. Danger lights are flashing when every opinion is considered to have merit. Of course we can look [...]

There’s a very important difference between a machine and a living organism. Machines are impressive, but machines can’t grow. Machines become more powerful, but never more alive. Machines are clones of one another. They work and function exactly the same. Unfortunately, some people think and live like machines, even in the church. You soon realize [...]