Focus on Eternity

    What a blessing we experience when new insights emerge in the reading of a familiar passage of Scripture.  For the past several weeks, I’ve been enjoying the gospel of John.  As I was reading the 20th chapter, John provides his reason for writing this gospel.  He says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  (John 20:30-31, ESV). You might think those are the concluding remarks, and John is ready to call his publisher, yet the book continues to chapter 21.     Addendum or Continuation?        Is this next story a continuation from the last, or an afterthought and added as an addendum?  John begins by recounting the story of Jesus third appearance to the disciples following his resurrection.  Jesus is pre...

     Why is it that in our society we cover our bodies, but uncover our undergarments to expose them to the outside world?  It is something that has troubled me for some time, especially as I have young daughters who see this fad and wish to follow it with their brassieres.  Backless and shoulder-less shirts have been the craze for some time.  It wasn’t all that long ago when low rise pants revealed the whale-tail created from the thong that rose above the waistband or the boxers that were exposed because young men wore their pants as low as they would go.  Yes, today I will talk about underwear.      Reading in the book of Jeremiah, I uncovered the parable of the loincloth.  This little parable is only about eleven verses long and at first reading didn’t seem to bare much content.  Okay, I couldn’t help but include a few puns to lighten the embarrassment of discussion.  Jeremiah was a young prophet when h...

      This morning as I studied the passage found in the eighth chapter of John,  I was intrigued by the phrase, ‘no ifs ands, or buts.’  We typically think of this phrase in the context of making no excuses.  So I wanted to see whether it had relevance to this gospel writing.  In looking up the etymology for this phrase, ‘no ifs, ands, or buts,’ I learned that this idiom means to do something precisely as instructed, without modification, limitation, or addendum. 1   As this was described, I thought of the phrase, ‘written in stone.’  This phrase means that something is unchangeable or permanently fixed in nature.  This second phrase dates back to the time of King Hammurabi (1795-1750 B.C.) king of Babylon, who had chiseled 282 laws into stone. 2  One may also consider the ten commandments which were also written in stone, giving the Israelites instructions on how to conduct themselves to be pleasing to God.  ...