Firstly, I apologize. I thought for sure I had already posted these videos. Here are two new ones from our friends in Australia, albeit in a different organization (do I really have to put these disclaimers?). Jesus, the Lamb of God The Straight and the Crooked ..read more

Little Johnny was learning in Bible class about sin, prayer and forgiveness. When the teacher finished the lesson, she asked, “What do we have to do before we ask the Lord for forgiveness?” Little Johnny raised his hand. No one else raised their hand, so the teacher reluctantly called on him to answer what we must do before asking for forgiveness. Little Johnny confidently said, “Sin.” Jesus came to earth and shed His blood that our sins might be forgiven. Forgiveness is the Passover theme. Sin is what we concentrate upon putting out of our lives this time of year. I think a lot of our Protes ..read more

Children of Israel journey in the wilderness (CC-attrib by Vridar) Let me ask you: Where are you now? Have you taken your bearings lately? A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a blonde woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.” The blonde below replied, “You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.” “You must ..read more

Free Happy Woman, Photo 49157481 © Martinmark | Dreamstime.com I hope everyone in the United States had a meaningful Independence Day, a day where freedom is the main theme. Let me ask you, though, can you handle freedom? Can humanity handle freedom? Recent events and trends suggest otherwise. What is the problem? For all the talk about freedom, what does it really mean, though? It appears many believe freedom is the ability to say and do what you want when you want without any consequences. However, that simply is not possible. I may have the ability to flap my arms ..read more

Foot washing, public domain, Photo by Travel Coffee Book on StockSnap Looks like spring and warmer weather has finally arrived for the most part. As a public service, I want to remind everyone to reverse the cables on their car batteries so that the air conditioning comes on instead of the heat. OK, you don’t believe that. I suppose it means that you are a discerning bunch. The Corinthian church had an issue with discernment. In Paul’s letter to them, he called them out for divisions, for being carnal, for boasting and being puffed up, for tolerating sin in their midst, and a few other things ..read more

Our friends from down under have produced a video online course about the Plagues of Egypt. I’m sure it will be interesting to all. The Exodus Plagues Course by Common Faith Academy Standard disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Common Faith Academy, and this is not to be considered a wholehearted endorsement of all beliefs represented (and indeed it has many partners) but rather as an additional resource for your studies ..read more

Image by Sapphire Dream Photography I understand that a lot of employers are having trouble hiring these days. It is tough to get good help. However, even before the pandemic, it was difficult to get good people into the priesthood, I’ve been told. Every profession has its challenges, to be sure, but I can see where that might especially be true for a Catholic priest. An old priest overheard a new priest’s comments in the confessional and called him in to talk about improvement. The old priest said, “You need to learn to be gracious. People coming in for confessionals need grace and mercy. “ H ..read more

Aloha! We are having a wonderful Feast of Tabernacles here in a pretty exotic location. Travel restrictions made the journey… well… interesting. Made it we did, though, and in no small part because of the grace of God interfering with the plans of our common foe. Tom from “down under” (someday, I should write about why I love that term) also sends greetings. When I get home, I will try to upload it here so as to not tax his account so much, so I recommend you download it if you want to share it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GaDiv-3M9dHLyyhNiHC738ercqqS6KdQ/view?usp=drivesdk ..read more

A man dreams about the number 7 all night long. He wakes up, and the clock says 7:07. He is ready to dismiss it as coincidence but then looks at his phone and realizes it is July 7th. “It must be a sign!” he says out loud. So, he gets dressed, wearing a football jersey with the number 7 on it, gets on bus number 77 and goes to the race track. He then bets $777 on the 7th horse in the 7th race called “Lucky Universe”. The horse came in 7th. If we aren’t careful, we can be a lot like this man. Numbers often have great significance in the Bible, and they definitely have a role to play in bibli ..read more

In the Soviet Union, there were newspapers named Pravda and Izvestia. Pravda is Russian for ‘truth’, and Izvestia is Russian for ‘news’. There was an old Russian joke that in Truth there was no news, and in News there was no truth. Until recently, that joke rarely was applied to American news sources, but we do live in interesting times. But, what is truth? In the sci-fi series Babylon 5, Ambassador Kosh famously said, “Understanding is a three-edged sword.” This was meant to represent that there is “my side”, “your side” and the truth. Understanding is where these meet in the middle. Understa ..read more