At the Intersection of Theology, Nature, and the Arts
Psalm 42; Philippians 4 Max Lucado, in the Anxious for Nothing Bible Study, offers two words that served as the inspiration for the following message. "Contingent Contentment" is the kind of thinking that starts with the "I'll be happy when...," "I'll be happy if..." I'll be content when I marry. I'll be happy when I …
Continue reading "Contingent Contentment or Contentment in Christ?"
Today marks the fifth Sunday since I last gathered with others for in-person worship in the sanctuary of the Cape Neddick Baptist Church in Maine. It is very strange for our building to stand empty, but the church is its people, and the people continue to be the church outside of the building’s walls. We …
Continue reading "He Knows No Fear; Fear Nothing While He is With You"
On this Easter, so often celebrated with delicate bunnies and fragile eggs, I want to speak instead of Resurrection Day and the powerful, power-filled Jesus, the Risen Prophet-King, the Roaring Lion, the Holy Lord of Lords. My dear friend, Tom Graffagnino, in his brilliant—and all too timely—treatise on the troubled No Border Land that is …
Continue reading "Reflections on Resurrection in the Time of COVID-19"
Here is a devotional message from Streams in the Desert that speaks to how the Lord may "shut us up to something divine" wherein He can show us the "utterly new and unexpected." Praying, as you look to Him, you may be opened on to the miraculous! “Then go inside and shut the door”—2 Kings …
At the head of this page, you will find a Part One and Part Two of a message entitled, "The Reset Button." I was having trouble uploading one file, so I made the division. I didn't quite manage to trim the end of the first file, so—if you keep listening to the end of that—you'll …
Over the course of my days, my life has intersected again and again with the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham and ministries to which he was connected and/or had founded. In 1982, my marriage was falling apart and I was falling apart. Friends, who'd been praying for me for some time, invited me to attend the …
A couple of days ago, I was so incensed over the barbaric conduct of some Philadelphia Eagles' fans that I posted an article I have since taken down. I regret having shared it. The team shouldn't be smeared by the brutish and boorish behavior of the few. Far better to focus on the gentlemen who …
He withdrew... to a solitary place (Matthew 14:13). There is no music during a musical rest, but the rest is part of the making of the music. In the melody of our life, the music is separated here and there by rests. During those rests, we foolishly believe we have come to the end of …
Continue reading "The Rest is Part of the Making of the Music"
In today's entry in Streams in the Desert, I was reminded of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were thrown into an enormous fiery furnace when they refused to abandon their allegiance to the living God. Here was an apparent victory for the enemy. It looked as if God's people were going to suffer a terrible …
Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God (Isaiah 40:1). God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. --John Henry Jowett Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and to make you sufficient for this lofty ministry, you must be trained. And …
DFG Hailson 