A Two-Dog Parable

Did you hear the story of the man who owned two dogs that always seemed to be fighting?  Invariably, the older one, Jack, would put down Mack, the younger one.  It all started one day a year or so ago when the owner brought home Mack, a new puppy.  Now, he also really loved Jack, had always spent lots of time with him over the years and enjoyed his faithful companionship.

What's Your Discontentment Index?

What was Adam’s sin?  Was it simply eating a tempting piece of forbidden fruit, or something deeper? Whatever you may think about the different roles Adam and Eve may have had in the process of yielding to the temptation, one thing is abundantly clear: they were both held equally accountable and came under the same curse of sin and death that has been inherited by all of us.  

What Good Is Suffering?

This past week I had the rare opportunity to sit down over lunch with a pastor friend and talk about the Lord and what He is doing in our lives.  What a great time of encouragement and blessing that was. 

One topic that was bound to come up was my progress health-wise, but more deeply, the progress of my relationship with the Lord through my illness and resulting disability.  He was especially interested in knowing anything that I might suggest from my experience that could be of value in ministering as a pastor to others who are suffering.  In my slow, introspective manner, and not wanting to give a swallow answer, I asked for some time to think about it.  This is what I ultimately decided would be my response.

Telling The Story

As I lay hours on end in my hospital bed unable to speak because of my breathing tube and too weak and exhausted to write or read much, I had a lot of time to think about what I call my “parallel journey.”

If you’ve read much of the early days of my blog, you know that my “journey” was an experience that arose from my being physically near death over a period of several days.  Though in a medically induced coma, I was none the less vividly aware of a different state of being and given insight into the reality of the spiritual realm of darkness that exists around us.