   I heard this story from another Lutheran pastor.  I will tell it as I remember it, filling in the conversation a bit as I go– but this was the gist of it.    A middle-aged woman was dying of cancer in a big city hospital.  She received no visitors, and she was […]
2699) Deathbed Confession (a) Read More »
By Scott Hubbard, posted July 3, 2019, at: http://www.desiringgod.org    Very few of us fail to learn, at some point in our growing-up years, the fine art of the fake apology.    We have spoken a careless word to a friend, for example. Conscience lays a millstone of guilt upon our shoulders, but
2029) God Does Not Forgive ‘Buts’ Read More »
By Chloe Langr, posted July 6, 2017, at: http://www.epicpew.com    On June 24, 1950, Pope Pius XII stood before 500,000 people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for the canonization of a new saint, the youngest ever.    “Young people,” the Pope asked the crowd, “are you determined to resist any attack on your
1986) A ‘Patron Saint’ for Sex Offenders? Read More »
   Maria Teresa Goretti was born in Corinaldo, Italy, on October 16, 1890.  Her father Luigi was a farmer, but when Maria was six the family fell on hard times.  Luigi was forced to give up his farm and work for other farmers.  The family moved to Ferrier di Conca, near Anzio.  When Maria
1985) The ‘Patron Saint’ of #MeToo Movement Read More »
By Joshua Rogers, at http://www.joshuarogers.com, March 3, 2017. Rogers is a writer, speaker, and attorney who lives in Washington, D.C. ——————————-    I did not enjoy going to church last Sunday.    I took my three kids the service by myself because my wife wasn’t feeling well. The journey started out well enough — we
1727) Painful Apologies by Imperfect Parents Read More »
“Truth, Grace, and My Father’s Conversion at Age 84,” by Randy Alcorn, posted August 1, 2012 at: http://www.epm.org    My father was the most resistant person to the gospel I’ve ever known. He warned me never to talk to him again about “that religious stuff.”    At age eighty-four, Dad was diagnosed with terminal
1708) The Whole Truth Read More »
Above: Josh and Jeff ——————– Posted by Joshua Rogers, February 6, 2017, at:  www.joshuarogers.com ——————-    I didn’t have many friends in middle school, but I had Jeffrey Mitchell, and I needed him.    Some of the popular boys had started making fun of me, so I was growing increasingly uncomfortable in my
1399) Friends No More Read More »
From A Diary of Private Prayer, 1949, by John Baillie, Church of Scotland pastor and theologian, (1886-1960); containing a morning and evening prayer for thirty-one days (adapted). ———————— MORNING PRAYER  (Twenty-ninth day) Almighty and most merciful Father, whose power and love eternally work together for the protection of your children, give me grace this day to put
1284) Morning and Evening Prayer (jb8) Read More »
   (…continued)  What about you?  Have you always understood all of your own actions?  Or do you perhaps sometimes say to yourself, “I wonder whatever made me do that?” or, “I wonder what got into me to say that?”  Did you ever say anything stupid or mean or sinful or immoral or unkind, and
1217) Beyond Cure (part two of two) Read More »
By Randy Alcorn (pictured above with his daughter Angela), November 6, 2015 blog at:  www.epm.org    Some years ago, I sat with my daughters at a father/daughter banquet at our church.  Someone at the table asked my youngest daughter, Angela, what I’d done that made the biggest impression on her.  I had no idea
941) A Father’s Biggest Impression Read More »
