Ed Chinn

The city council of a Midwestern town announced the date for the long-awaited and controversial meeting. The council would consider the constitutionality of beginning its sessions with prayer. When that night arrived, the chamber was packed with politi …

Instead of sweeping them away into the little room on the third floor for “Senior Saints” activities, maybe we could honor and celebrate them as true repositories of wisdom.

If we accept the natural beauty and appropriateness of all life seasons, we will discover that abounding life never diminishes. It burns bright even as we cross over from this life into the next.

I can think of no greater pattern or encouragement for those in midlife. The abounding life continues. It started in heaven, came here for a while and ascends right on into a glorious future.

Too often, we see the church or other Christian environments as the only place we can serve. We forget how much God loves the world.

Despite the dishonest “surround-sound” of our culture, we can walk into the afternoon of life with abounding grace, peace, love, rest and joy.

We are all tempted to believe that deadly tsunamis, bone-chilling temperatures or collapsing stock markets mean things are out of control. That is simply not true.

They clearly saw that – contrary to the modern consumerist culture – life did not belong to them. They had to pour it all out. A certain destiny was absorbing them into something larger than their own family and their own grief.

Once upon a time, people measured their lives in relationship to God, family and other human beings. Today, many of us use things to calculate the value and significance of life.

In fact, the Bible tells many stories of people caught in storms – political, financial, military and meteorological – who were directed into specific actions that saved their own and many other lives.

His words remind us (again) that, by His death, He rescued us from the fear of our death. Therefore we are released from having to “cower through life, scared to death of death.”

Let’s face it: human beings are messy and hurtful. We don’t mean to be that way, but most of us have caused and received many relational injuries.

It could be said that forgiveness is the remission of debt. But, what happens when the one to whom it is owed chooses to forgive it?

Our life has been shaped in part by people, groups and ideologies which we will never see or understand.

Forgiveness is not holding our nose, squeezing our eyes shut, uttering a prayer and then jumping into a new reality because we believe that is what the Bible commands.

The raging narcissism in American society tends to see every human as property. The prevailing cultural view teaches me to measure every person according to their value or their threat to me.

The messages flowing from many churches tend to suggest that after 40 our gifts and capacities shrivel up and blow away.

God’s revelation brings a new way of seeing in everyday life.

For the first time, I could see her generosity and great kindness reflected in Christ. What kind of jerk would dismiss that?

Some people love stories as long as they belong to someone else. They are simply too scandalized by their own life and heritage.

In the book, “Same Kind of Different as Me,” a wealthy and beautiful Texan named Deborah Hall is drawn into a magnificent obsession of helping Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth. Her husband recalls that the first time they visited the rundown facility …

My mother was rushed to the hospital in labor and seriously ill. Her doctor told Dad that the baby, their first, was already dead and that Mom might not survive. And, just as he predicted, after delivery a nurse came out and confirmed that I was indeed …

When I read the stories of Jesus’ life on earth, He so often comes across as walking in clear and simple vision.

Is “righteous anger” ever justified? Know the difference between selfish and selfless anger.

Instead of ignoring our tendencies to show anger, honestly examine your priorities, repent of it, reject it and walk away from it.

Do we have the tools, the skills, and the patience to help build a renaissance of fatherhood? Read on to discover what this wife, mother — and family court judge — thinks.

When anger grips us, look for ways to re-balance your life; instead of succumbing to its influence, learn to identify clues on how to be a positive and redemptive influence.

Instead of simply managing our anger, we need to transform ourselves.