By all accounts, Richard and Cynthia Murphy were living the American dream in suburban Montclair, New Jersey. They and their two daughters had been residing for twenty years in a two-story colonial home that backed up to a wildlife preserve. According to their neighbors, Richard and Cynthia lived nondescript, ordinary […]
Herb Reese
670 posts
Ever since Erasmus decided that divorce could be a good thing, Christians and humanists have been dancing a five hundred year long intellectual, spiritual, and cultural tango. Often it looks more like a tangle than a tango, but for better or for worse, we are stuck with each other. Now […]
As I’ve mentioned in a recent post, Patti and I love watching the home remodeling channel, HGTV. One of our favorite shows is Good Bones, where Mina Starsiak and her mom, Karen Lane, remodel dilapidated homes in the southeastern suburbs of Indianapolis. At the beginning of each show Mina’s husky […]
Restructure your church governance so that your deacons do only what the first deacons did.
“Thy lovingkindness is better than life.” Psalm 66:3 They didn’t know it, but when Tom Cook and Joseph Feeny promised with a handshake nearly three decades ago that if one of them ever won the Powerball lottery they would split the winnings, they were engaging in a thousands year old […]
Pastors, how long has it been since you preached that dreaded sermon on widows?
“Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29 A couple of weeks ago, as I was rummaging through some of my father’s […]
I love daily naps and long walks. No, I am not a sloth. I get up around 5 am, often earlier. But while I work hard, naps and walks have been a part of my regular schedule for thirty years. Besides the obvious health benefits, the reasons I have napped […]
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:3 One of Satan’s strategies with us Christians is to get us to stop thinking about and longing for heaven. Some […]
The New Testament is full of debates. Some of them are very passionate. In the New Testament you will find debates such as whether circumcision is a requirement for salvation (Acts 15), whether Jesus rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15), how to care for both Jewish and Hellenistic widowed […]