RSS FeedTHE PROBLEM OF EVIL
“Evil is one of the deepest and most central problems of human existence.” Peter Vardy and Julie Arliss in The Thinker’s Guide to Evil, analyze various sources of evil. They focus on three areas of concern. The freedom of human beings to choose to be selfish,...
SURVIVING HURRICANES
On the evening of September 5, 2004, my wife and I were watching the progress of Hurricane Frances on the television in our home when the power failed. Left in the darkness we listened to the wind roaring over us, the trees thudding against the roof, and the crack of...
ECCLESIASTES 4 – TIME
In 1977 I attended a two day Managing Your Time conference led by Ted Engstrom and Ed Dayton of World Vision. It was one of the most effective seminars I have ever participated in teaching me how to set objectives, goals and to measure my time and life. Ephesians 5:16...
ECCLESIASTES 3 – WORK
Work? You either love it or you hate it. For Ecclesiastes there is an ambivalence (read 2:17 and 24). You can either dread it or find satisfaction in it. I grew up in a family whose life was their work. We lived in the business and we worked from the time we got up in...
ECCLESIASTES 2 – PLEASURE
Hedonism is the belief that pleasure is the chief good in life. Hedone is the Greek word for pleasure. Hedonist imagination turns to reality in Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:16. This passage describes the different ways people try to experience pleasure. The writer is seeking...
ECCLESIASTES 1 – THE MEANING OF LIFE
As I enter into a new year I plan to do a study of the book of Ecclesiastes. Along with the book of Job, Ecclesiastes reminds us that God is bigger, and our life in this world more unpredictable, than we might think. The book invites us to take a realistic tour of...
THE NEW YEAR
A Prayer for the Commencement of a New Year. Almighty and immortal God, whose mercies are like your years, unnumbered, we your dependent creatures, humbly adore you for your manifold goodness to us and to all your children. Awaken in our hearts a thankful sense of...
DEALING WITH DEPRESSION AND LONELINESS
A primary symptom of depression is sadness. Freud, a sadly depressed man all through his life, admitted, “we are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly unhappy as when we have lost our loved object or its love.” Our aging...
A GREETING TO MY READERS
It is always interesting to me to discover where my readers of this blog live. The statistics of locations for the past year are illuminating. At the top of the list in the thousands are from the United States (3,823) and in their hundreds from the United...
INSPIRATIONAL READING FOR THE NEW YEAR
This past year I have been reading a number of books on aging to gain some wisdom on this stage of my life. Some are personal memoirs and others are somewhat academic. Many are representatives of their eras and some are dated. However the most accessible and...
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