Bob Dotson, NBC News Correspondent, tells the unusual story of Fred Benson. Born in 1895 in Boston, he was abandoned by his parents at age 8 and was sent to live with Gurd Miliken and his family on Block Island. He died at age 101 and had served as police chief, fire chief, head of […]
Archive | Devotionals
What Are You Fighting For? – James 5:16
Jim and Nell Hamm were about to celebrate their 50th anniversary in February 2007, but that celebration almost got canceled. They were hiking in a north California state park in January when Jim was attacked by a mountain lion. Nell grabbed a log to hit the lion repeatedly, but he wouldn’t let go of Jim’s head. Jim […]
The Cost of Saving Children – Matthew 1-2
Have you read the story of Irena Sadler? Irena saved 2,500 children from the Nazi death camps during WWII. A Catholic nurse in Warsaw, Poland, in 1940, she lived near a neighborhood walled off by the Nazis. They pressed almost 500,000 people into a very small area and 5,000 were dying each month for lack […]
Lying About Steroids or Anything Else – John 8:32,36,44
Marion Jones was arguably the greatest female athlete ever. She won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In the 100-meter race, she pulled away so quickly that her closest pursuer was nearly 3 full strides behind her. No doubt, she could have won great recognition without steroids, but she got […]
Heroism At Its Best – Philippians 2:3
ABC’s Nightline told the story of Wesley Autrey who rescued a total stranger from being killed by a Manhatten subway train in January 2007. Wesley had his two small daughters with him, but when he saw 19-year-old Cameron Hollopeter fall on the tracks because of an apparent seizure, he jumped into action. Cameron was jerking […]
Recovering From A Great Fall – Romans 3:23; 5:8
Alcides Moreno and Humpty Dumpty both had a great fall. Al fell 47 stories while working as a window washer on a Manhatten skyscraper on Dec. 7, 2007. His brother died instantly when their scaffolding fell, but somehow he survived the fall of nearly 500 feet. Guess you might say all the king’s doctors and […]
Find a Better Bed! – James 1:14-16
Maybe you heard the story of Robert Baswell, 44, a homeless man who fell asleep in a trash bin in West Palm Beach on May 6, 2007. It provided escape from the rain and a pretty soft bed because it was filled with brush. But, imagine his rude awakening when he was tossed with the […]
Resolution or Revolution? – Romans 6
We’re usually only a few days into each new year when most of us have already been reminded how hard it is to establish a new good habit or break an old bad one. At the start of 2007 my wife and I outvoted our 10-year-old granddaughter, whom we raise fulltime, with one of our resolutions. It was that we not […]
Finders Keepers? – Matthew 13:44-45
There’s much interest these days in presenting your case as a story to convince the jury. We all like a good story. Jesus liked the idea 2000 years ago and He often used stories to teach powerful lessons. We call them parables and several are clustered in Matthew 13. Two of these are very short […]
Grief is Hard Work – I Thessalonians 4:13
That’s what I told my nephew-in-law at the graveside of his wife, my niece. And, I added that every person does this hard work a little differently. There are no shortcuts and it cannot be programmed to end at a specific time. He and his 14-yr-old daughter and all our family are mourning the death […]