We know in our heads that we cannot take life for granted because the Bible says so, but we learn it in our hearts through experience on the ground. During the past three days, I have received three reminders that our earthly life at its best is both fragile and brief. Two reminders took the form of emails, bringing word of friends who have received devastating diagnoses. The other was a phone call reporting the death of a relative. It is evidence of godly wisdom for us to pause at such news and to reflect with sober mind on the lessons it has to teach. The first word came as a prayer … [Read more...]
GRATITUDE AND PERSPECTIVE
I am writing this on Sunday afternoon, September 25, 2005 from our son Jeremy's home in Dallas where the four generations of our family in Houston came last Thursday to escape Hurricane Rita's expected arrival there on Friday/Saturday. We did not anticipate that three million other pilgrims would be travelling west and north from Houston that same day! The trip from our homes in Houston to Jeremy & Kristy's home in north Dallas normally takes about five hours. This time our daughter Melanie, son-in-law Michael and their two little ones left at 4:00 a.m. and got to Dallas 14 hours later. … [Read more...]
SECULAR SACRAMENTS
If we are very fortunate, every now and then our senses encounter a moment of beauty so transcendently marvelous that the experience becomes for us a portal or gate to the eternal. Wordsworth saw in such moments an "intimation of immortality," a memory of the soul's eternal existence before our birth, when "trailing clouds of glory, we comef we are very fortunate, every now and then our senses encounter a moment of beauty so transcendently marvelous that the experience becomes for us a portal or gate to the eternal. Wordsworth saw in such moments an "intimation of immortality," a memory of the … [Read more...]
ASHES — OR JUST ‘A-FIB’
Feb. 26, 2009 -- This past Wednesday in many Christian traditions was Ash Wednesday. It is the first day of Lent, a 40-day period (not counting Sundays) of repentance and prayer that ends in the victorious climax of Easter Sunday. Some churches ignore, avoid or even oppose the liturgical church calendar because it is not mentioned in the New Testament. However, a person would be hard pressed to object to the traditional themes and details those special days incorporate -- words and actions that are solidly biblical and spiritually strengthening as well, when celebrated with faith resting on … [Read more...]
THROUGH A PERSONAL STORM (2)
It was Sunday, September 7 (2008) and the aftermath of Hurricane Hanna had blown through New York the night before. The afternoon sun shone brightly as the Caribbean Princess glided through New York Harbor, past the Statue of Liberty into the Atlantic Ocean. For a year we had anticipated this seven-day cruise with our friends Mark & Phyllis Whitt, to Halifax, Nova Scotia and back to New York, with stops at St. John (New Brunswick), Bar Harbor (Maine), Boston (Mass.) and Newport (R.I.) along the way. By midweek, I became increasingly short of breath but pressed on. After a severe asthma … [Read more...]
THROUGH A PERSONAL STORM (1)
As you know, Hurricane Ike unleashed its wrath on South Texas last week (September 2008), with disastrous consequences on states as far removed as Indiana and Ohio. The storm took precious lives, destroyed billions of dollars in property and still leaves millions of people without electrical or other basic services. So today I pray for every victim of Ike, and give thanks for protection of my own and others' homes, an undeserved mercy which has no rational explanation in view of losses suffered by many faithful servants of God. I also give thanks for deliverance through a personal storm … [Read more...]
IN OUR OWN GENERATION
Sara Faye and I married in June 1967 and this year we mark 40 years of wedded life. We celebrated last weekend by splurging on a first-time, Friday-Monday getaway to New York City. It was a delightful surprise to the primary honoree (who, unlike me, loves surprises) and she first discovered our destination when she saw the "LaGuardia" sign above our boarding gate at Houston's Intercontinental Airport. (I derived special pleasure in dropping confusing hints for two weeks before the trip.) Like millions of other visitors to America's largest city, we were awed by the concentration of … [Read more...]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEMORIES
Today -- April 5, 2007 -- brings special memories of my father, Benjamin ("Bennie") Lee Fudge. This would be his 93rd birthday . . . had he not died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 57 in February 1972. It's an amazing thought. I cannot imagine him old. Nor is it easy to think that I have already outlived him by nearly six years. His photo faces me atop my small home office desk as I type these words. He is wearing a suit and tie as he always did, even at home, until he was ready to go to bed. His expression is friendly but serious. He loved life and was full of humor but he was never … [Read more...]
PEPPERDINE, HOSPITAL AND HOME
Last week (May 2-5, 2006) I attended the Pepperdine Bible Lectures as I have done every year but one since 1991. This year I was among an estimated 6,000 pilgrims drawn from 42 states and 22 countries to the picturesque mountainside campus of Pepperdine University, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Malibu, California. I taught two well-received classes on the purpose and duration of spiritual gifts (about which more details later). Besides 250+ classes throughout the week, there were two worship assemblies each day in the university Fieldhouse with soul-stirring congregational singing and … [Read more...]
LIFE NOW AND FOREVER
This final week of 2004 has seen what is perhaps the largest natural disaster in the world's history, following an earthquake under the Indian Ocean more than 740 miles long and having the force of a million atomic bombs. The quake, which jolted the earth's rotation, spawned monster waves called tsunamis which swept across the Indian Ocean, killing (says the Associated Press) more than 44,000 people in eleven countries from Thailand to Somalia. Human life is fragile and precious, in the big picture and in our individual cases. Immortality is Christ's accomplishment and the Christian's hope. … [Read more...]
