Here in Big Ten country, Missouri Valley Conference schools don’t get much respect. Not since 1979, when Larry Bird led Indiana State to the NCAA championship game against Michigan State and Magic Johnson, has a Valley team made it this far.

But now they are in the Big Dance, the Final Four. The Shockers took out 1 and 2 seeds Gonzaga and Ohio State.  The Hoosiers are out.  My favorite, the Kansas Jayhawks were embarrassed by Michigan when they had the game won and let it get away.

But the Shockers are going to Atlanta. Continue reading “48 Years Later – Wheat Shockers in the Final Four” →

We all know the joy or relief of completing a task; shoveling snow off the drive, mowing the lawn, finishing the laundry or the dishes, finishing a major project at work; or in my case, completing the preparation of a sermon.

The problem with all these things is that the job is finished only to cycle back around and needs to be done all over again.  Wouldn’t it be great to say, “It’s done,” and it really was?  Jesus could truly say that about His work.

After six hours of hanging on the cross, and shortly before Jesus died, He uttered what was translated into Greek as just one word, Τετέλεσται.  The common English translation, It is finished! or It is accomplished! Continue reading “Τετέλεσται” →

What are the consequences of America’s obsession with college basketball?  Most noted is the economic cost of billions of dollars of lost productivity last week during daytime games in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament as workers steal time from their employers to check on the game; or the inordinate number of those calling in sick because of a higher priority called basketball. The 8th Commandment comes to mind, You shall not steal Exodus 20:15 Continue reading “March Madness and the First Commandment” →

It is breathtaking to realize the vast amount of activity and teaching that took place in the few days before Jesus was crucified. The Last Week was my Palm Sunday sermon at Faith Church as I traced daily events from coming to the Jerusalem suburb, Bethany, to entering the city on Palm Sunday and all that followed the next week. Continue reading “What if?” →

So, I admit it.  When I get to Exodus 25-31, I get a little weary of the detailed description of the Tabernacle and all its furnishings, the priesthood regalia and the ceremonial dressing of the priests for service. Forty days of Moses on the mountain receiving the law from God proved too much for the short memory Israelites, and I’m not entirely without sympathy. I read a little faster through that section… well, quite a bit faster…it’s called skimming. Continue reading “Making Our Own Gods” →

And God spoke all these words:

Yes, it snowed last night in Indianapolis; two hour delay for Carmel schools, trees and bushes covered with clinging wet snow.  On my way to work, my 8 year old granddaughter, on her way to school, called from her mom’s iPhone with the excitement of a great discovery, “it looks like Narnia out here.”  Continue reading “It looks like Narnia out here!” →

The American holiday of Thanksgiving has a long tradition commonly connected to the early Pilgrims in 1621, a three day feast with their guests, Massasoit and ninety of his men.  The Continental Congress issued several annual Thanksgiving proclamations beginning in 1777.  George Washington issued the first presidential proclamation in 1789.  Among our early presidents, only John Adams and James Madison followed suit, leaving a gap between 1815 and 1862 with no Thanksgiving proclamations. Thomas Jefferson openly opposed the idea of a national day of Thanksgiving. When the practice was begun again in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln, he followed the example of CSA president Jefferson Davis in which the focus was on thanks for battles in the Civil War.

Our current celebration is thought to be the fruit of forty years of letter writing pressure by Sarah Josepha Hale. It was in the fall of 1863 that Abraham Lincoln picked up the practice that has been continued annually by every president since to call our nation to a day of national Thanksgiving. However, it wasn’t until 1941 that federal legislation established Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated on the 4^th Thursday of November.

I commend particularly the proclamations of Washington in 1789 and Lincoln in 1863 linked above.  Read them and share them in the midst of your Thanksgiving Day activities.

And don’t forget the main focus – “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1 ESV

The Tale of Two Robertsons

In one corner is Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network.Well known for reckless comments, I shouldn’t be surprised, but I heard he actually justified divorce and remarriage because one’s spouse has Alzheimer’s.If he really said such a thing, surely it would have been removed from the CBN website with a retraction in its place.So I checked it out on the website and sure enough, there it was on the show of Tuesday, September 13. Continue reading “In Sickness and in health… except for Alzheimer’s ??” →

Quite different from the other respondents in the 9/11 article in the September issue of Christianity Today, Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham and sister to Franklin Graham, declared, “All I know with certainty was that God was trying to get the attention of his people including me… Like Isaiah, I also saw a humiliating vision of my own sin” with “immediate impact…in my relationship with God, an increased fervency in prayer, clearer insight into God’s Word, and a sharpened focus in ministry.” What a great model of starting with personal self-examination and going before the Lord, much as Daniel does in Daniel 9. Continue reading ““How I have Changed since 9/11” – Anne Graham Lotz” →