Archive | Devotionals

Justin John Boudin is a 27-year-old in St. Paul, Minnesota, who lost his temper at a bus stop in August 2007. According to witnesses, he harassed a 59-year-old woman, yelling, “Why don’t you show me some respect?” When she took out her cell phone to call police, he punched her in the face. A 63-year-old […]

You have probably heard of Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford as they are being accused of fraudulent financial schemes, involving billions of dollars. You know what the headlines have revealed about their luxurious lifestyles while deceiving many investors and their advisors into trusting them. What you probably haven’t heard is the story of one of […]

Jim O’Neil was flying a small Cessna aircraft from Scotland to southeastern England in the fall of 2008. He was alone and flying at 5,500 feet, when, 40 minutes into his flight, he suddenly went blind. He initially believed he’d been dazzled by bright sunlight, but he soon realized something more serious had happened. Later […]

The aftermath of Hurricane Ike preoccupied the minds and lives of many of us near the Texas coast, after he came ashore on September 13, 2008. Most endured many days without electricity and we found out how very dependent we are on that quiet kind of power. Ike’s “math” did much more than subtract electricity from […]

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing certainly illustrated “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” as well as any competition, perhaps better. Even those who were not usually sports fans watched and cheered for their country’s athletes, but there were two events that were especially hard for USA fans to watch. In the men’s […]

In November 2007, Finley Crampton was born a healthy boy in London, 3 weeks premature, at 6 lb. 3 oz. Nothing too unusual about that, until you hear the odds he beat. His mother Jodie decided to abort him at 8 weeks because she carries a gene which triggers multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) which is […]

What do you do when you don’t like the way things are going? If you’re in charge, you may be able to make a change, but what if you’re not in charge? What if the situation is totally out of your hands, as it often is? Eder Rojas, 19, was a flight attendant for Compass […]

When I visited the Christian school where both my grandsons attend, I got to visit with the high school boys’ Bible teacher in his classroom.  He is John Wetteland, best known as MVP in the 1996 World Series as closing pitcher for the Yankees, who pitched for the Rangers through 2000.  He told my daughter […]

The fifth book of the New Testament does more than record the “Acts of the Apostles.”  Luke’s spotlight really only shines on two of the apostles, Peter and Paul, but he focuses more on the Holy Spirit and His actions in the early church.  A recent reading of the book brought several lessons to my […]

R.C. Rivera joined CTLA in October 2006, one of only about a dozen members who are not attorneys.  A former pastor, he was then owner/operator of Atlas Pro Serve & Associates, with a powerful testimony, which he shared with me over lunch.  He was enthusiastic to be one of our 2007 seminar sponsors and gave me his […]