Archive | Devotionals

I’ve been surprised how many people have asked me to teach them how to pray. Actually, it’s an honor, I suppose, that they think I might know. His disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and He gave them what we often call “The Lord’s Prayer.” (Luke 11:1-4) Many have memorized it and recited […]

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 […]

What have you done lately for your opponents? Have you prayed for them…to lose or to do something to hurt their own cause? Or, have you helped them in some way, perhaps even loved them by desiring what is best for them? Jesus set the bar extremely high when He said, “Love your enemies and […]

How many variations of Jesus’ story of the lost son can be told! Many of us can tell our own versions, sometimes as the lost child, sometimes as the welcoming parent, amazing ourselves at what we learn about ourselves in both roles and at what we learn about God’s love. What might be regarded as […]

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 […]

Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount with what we call the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-12. Some call them “the essence of the essence.” If you want to know and honor Jesus, you must understand and live by these. For this devotional message, I’ve chosen the words of my 89-year-old friend Leroy Garrett on one beatitude, Matthew […]

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved dogs. For most of my life, I’ve owned and cared for one, but I’ve never expected one of mine ever to do anything heroic. And, they haven’t, except to put up with me and try to please me, even when I’ve been hard to please. In […]

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 […]

The words of this title are in bold on the back cover of a 2007 book by Michael P. Schutt. I agree with them. Do you? I’ve often referred to CTLA as “a support network for those who are swimming upstream.” On the front cover, the title is Redeeming Law, and the subtitle, Christian Calling and […]

I was among those who received an email message asking me to pray for the outstanding Christian author Philip Yancey. He was in a serious auto accident on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007, in New Mexico. Driving home to Denver after speaking in Los Alamos, his Ford Explorer rolled several times when he entered a curve with too much […]