Monthly Archives: December 2024

(I am sharing an article Ellen wrote 16 years ago for the TRBC Times, along with a present-day update, for the final “You and God” column of the year as we enter 2025): “My goal in school was to always get 100% on all tests. I expected my children to get straight A’s on theirContinue reading “Still My Goal”

The public ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ was meteor-like: brief but brilliant. His public preaching began only after his forerunner and cousin, John the Baptist, declared that “He must increase, I must decrease,”—introducing to the world “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 3:30; 1:29) John, the “voiceContinue reading “When Fishermen Became Fishers of Men”

Listen to Jesus, give Him an ear; Listen At Christmas and all through the year;Open your heart to His wonderful Word, Listen and transforming truth will be heard.Learn from Him lessons, spoken of old— Writ in the Bible, as first they were told—Lessons that deal with Heaven and Hell, Lessons that only the Savior couldContinue reading “Listen at Christmas!”

What’s the nicest gift you have ever received from another person? Was it an expensive jewel or keepsake? Or perhaps something that someone painted or built for you on which you could not put a price? Maybe it was a gift of inestimable sentimental value. That first baby doll, or your first bike, or aContinue reading “God’s Unspeakable Gift”

Any pastor who has shepherded a flock of His lambs will experience some incidents that border on the bizarre over the course of time. I was a senior pastor for 48 years, 40 of them in the same church, and I can testify that I had my share of events that belong in the “TruthContinue reading “All in a Day’s Work”

It was the earliest days of the Church that Jesus founded. Peter, on the notable Day of Pentecost, had preached a message to thousands of pilgrim peoples from all over the world, gathered there for this annual Jewish holy day. What made this day diametrically different than all those preceding it was that the long-promisedContinue reading ““They Had Been With Jesus””

A friend, Ken Turner of Benson, IL, established High Impact Ministries in 2008 after serving as a a youth pastor for 20 years. High Impact is a “frontline outreach to high-risk and fatherless youth and families.” This past weekend, Ken posted a jaw-dropping article that he allowed me to share with “You and God” readers:Continue reading “If I Were the Devil (updated version)”

Lots of names are given to him in scripture—Devil, Satan, Deceiver, Murderer, Liar and the father of lies, “god” of this world, and many more; but concerning each of us personally, probably the most significant appellation is “your adversary, the devil.” (I Pet. 5:8)  He is a person older than time itself, and he willContinue reading “Your Adversary”

If you were living during the Vietnam War, it is quite possible that you remember a picture of Kim Phuc, a nine year-old Vietnamese girl who, in the horror of war, was almost killed when napalm started falling on her village from a plane flown reportedly by a South Vietnamese pilot. The picture that wasContinue reading ““Forgive us our debts””