Doves On Distant Oaks (Book) https://www.Writing.Com/main/books.php/item_id/2079713 My first name is Eric, derived from a pagan name. It's from Old Norse meaning "ruler forever," from EirÃkr (ei meaning "ever, always" and rÃkr meaning "ruler"). I'm the farthest thing from a ruler, but the only way to change my name is to go to court. On earth, that is. The Lord knows I'm a follower of His and one day He will give me a new name in Heaven. Daniel had a name too. His ...[Read Full Post] Sat, 20 Sep 2025 11:16:21 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1097652 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1097652 Last week was Groundhog Day, one of my favorite Christian holidays. What? Most everyone knows that February 2nd is a day celebrated in Canada and the United States as Groundhog Day. What most people don't realize is that it started as a Christian holiday called Candlemas, which celebrated an important day in Christ's lifeâthe day that he, as a baby, was brought to the Temple to be dedicated to the Lord. How do we know the exac...[Read Full Post] Tue, 11 Feb 2025 14:37:17 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1083709 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1083709 One of the more controversial things that Jesus spoke about had to do with our attitude toward sin. He said: "Now if your right eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell (Matthew 5:29-30)." That's serious stuff. Non-believers latch onto this as proof that Jesus wasn't all about love as He...[Read Full Post] Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:46:38 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1081231 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1081231 In Christ's instructions that St. Augustine labeled "The Sermon on Mount," the first thing Christ told His followers that would bless them was to be poor in spirit. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)." Being poor in spirit can be misleading for those who don't understand what that means. After all, doesn't poor in spirit mean to be depressed, and so isn't ric...[Read Full Post] Fri, 13 Dec 2024 01:31:08 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1081079 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1081079 There are two ways Christians let the light of the God shine, by what they say and what they do. Unfortunately, a lot of the words spoken by Christians today, and often what they do, can be summed up with a time-worn phrase: hitting people over the head with the Bible. We must always remember everything that comes out of our mouths, every action we perform with hands and feet, must come with a stipulation—it should come with gentlenes...[Read Full Post] Sat, 20 Sep 2025 11:23:14 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1080450 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1080450 Focus is a hard thing to achieve, and even harder to maintain. Just when we think we have everything under control, our focus slips away. As my father was fond of saying: "Its like trying to nail jello to a tree." The problem is something we call distractions. We may be in the middle of a prayer, when out of nowhere we remember we need to get the oil changed in our car. We may be in the middle of reading our Bible, when all of a ...[Read Full Post] Sun, 24 Nov 2024 21:09:42 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1080353 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1080353 Much has been written about the armor that the apostle Paul suggests we wear to face our enemy, the spiritual Evil ones {Ephesians 6:14-18}. Paul uses the metaphor of a Roman soldier because, of course, that's what a soldier wore during the times in which he lived. However, we can compare it to the modern soldier as well. All soldiers wear combat gear and equipment depending on their need. Some carry the barest of essentials, designed...[Read Full Post] Thu, 02 May 2024 16:30:47 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1070425 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1070425 Many years ago, I saw a Christian rock band in concert. The band has since split up because the lead singer decided there was missionary work he felt God was calling him to do. Before he left, though they played wonderful music. They played some softer ballads, but the bulk of their music got the audience jumping with loud rock songs. That's not really my style, through I appreciate the niche they filled by appealing to younger people. ...[Read Full Post] Thu, 12 Dec 2024 22:59:22 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1070227 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1070227 It's not often I turn to the secular world for insight, but every now and then I find justification for God's will in the writing of mankind. In terms of purity of heart, something that's always on my mind, one of the finest discussions was written by SÃren Kierkegaard in Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing: Spiritual Preparation for the Office of Confession. What he suggested was that the heart cannot be dividedâthat a pu...[Read Full Post] Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:37:56 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1069018 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1069018 In Matthew 14:22-33, we find another famous story, the story of Jesus walking on water. There are so many lessons we can learn from this event in the life of Jesus. There's constantly looking toward Jesus in times of trouble, obeying Jesus when He commands, taking the first step in faith, unleashing the power of faith, faltering with fear will sink you, and knowing Jesus will always come when you call out in distress. ...[Read Full Post] Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:44:43 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068940 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068940 The Parable of the farmer sowing seeds is a well-known parable taught by Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15). Its meaning is clear because Jesus took the time to explain it to his apostles. There is, however, a verse in all three Gospels that is often forgotten in favor of the more powerful meaning that Jesus was teaching. Still, it is important to the Christian walk. It has to do with yield from seeds planted on good ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:20:51 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068872 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068872 The 23rd Psalm is perhaps one of the most well known Psalms, certainly the most quoted from the Old Testament. The author, King David, presents a vivid picture of how God takes care of those who love Him. Often we hear the same analogy repeated throughout the New Testament by Jesus in his teachings. In them, Jesus becomes the good shepherd watching over His flock, searching out those who have left the fold, and responding to their needs. Ce...[Read Full Post] Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:55:35 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068771 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068771 I wonder what it must have been like to be rebuked by Jesus? He did so at times to his disciples and I don't think it was a simple, "Now, now, boys. You know that's not right." If Jesus rebuked them like he rebuked the Pharisees, they probably felt about as small as a baby ant. Funny how one simple word like "rebuke" can conjure up such powerful imagery. Two disciples, James and John, in particular had a propensi...[Read Full Post] Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:57:57 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/879259 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/879259 We often think the first sin was committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden, which was disobedience, coupled with their failure to ask forgiveness. But their sin was strictly how sin entered the world. There was a sin that preceded themâthe real first sin. It was the sin of pride by Lucifer when he felt he was equal to God. Perhaps it was pride and not disobedience that Adam and Eve first committed as well. If we consider that Satan convinc...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:25:45 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068637 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068637 As followers of Christ, we are called to forfeit our self-centered desires in favor of serving others. This is called the sacrificial life, but what does that really mean? How much, and when, are we supposed to sacrifice? Are we to be like the rich young ruler that told Jesus he had led an exemplary life, and asked what more he needed to do. "Jesus said to him, âIf you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:34:52 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068516 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1068516 What is faith? The dictionary definition of faith would be the complete trust in someone or something based on expectation rather than proof. The writer of the Book of Hebrews, however, states that faith is complete trust in someone as proof of expectation: "Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In other words, our faith is based on a trust that knows, beyond any doubt, that God wil...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:29:18 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1066633 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1066633 One of the joys of living in the Philadelphia PA region for a number of years was traveling into the city to watch Phillies baseball games with my family. This was at the old Veterans Stadium that has since been torn down. Other than a number of timely home runs and stunning fielding plays, made by some memorable players like Schmidt and Carlton, one of my favorite memories was being part of the first ever Veterans Stadium wave. You don'...[Read Full Post] Sat, 20 Apr 2024 15:49:02 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1063746 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1063746 I love studying the interesting array of real-life people in the Bible, especially the obscure ones. The Bible is full of such characters, some good and some bad. At times we get so caught up in the famous people that we forget that they all, no matter how little-known, have something to teach us. And in terms of the followers of Jesus, the one that I find most interesting is Simon the Zealot. He is the most obscure of all of the apostles and h...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:34:05 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1063530 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1063530 When I worked in Washington State, I took a trip to see a geologic formation called the Dry Falls. Today, they are just 400-foot cliffs in the scab-lands of central Washington, but twenty thousand years ago, a giant waterfall five times the width of Niagara Falls spilled over them. Ice sheets from melting glaciers that had dammed rivers suddenly broke free and catastrophic flooding caused parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon to be under hundr...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:38:24 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1063124 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1063124 When I was younger, I owned a motorcycle. It was a cheap mode of transportation for a poor college student, even though everyone warned me I was driving a two-wheeled coffin. For safety, I always wore a helmet and kept my headlight on (this was before mandatory helmets). One day, that might have been the difference between life and death. I was coming home from classes, driving down a narrow street and approached an intersection. Though ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:39:50 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1062215 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1062215 We all try to avoid going to the hospital, but one time I got so sick I had to go for an extended stay. When they finally released me, I was so happy to be leaving that I could think of little else. Most of us are like thatâso glad to be headed home from the hospital that our focus is only on ourselves. But as we were leaving, my wife suggested we stop and pray for those who weren't headed home, who remained in sickness. In the midst of our...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:40:38 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1062069 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1062069 As a history enthusiast, I recall a story I once read about Hannibal's invasion of Italy during the Punic Wars. He had surrounded a city called Casilinum and refused to offer any terms of surrender for them. Since a portion of their food supply grew outside the city walls, Hannibal plowed up all the vegetable and other herbage plants that grew thereâa sort-of scorched earth policy. As the wait to starve them out drug on, one day he not...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:41:27 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1059782 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1059782 I tend to jump around from one version to another when I study passages from the Bible. That's because I understand the difficulties of translating from archaic texts. Sometimes it's difficult to translate a Hebrew or Greek word or phrase exactly into Englishâthere may be no word that fits it. So, I like to see how different translations express it. In doing so, I sometimes come upon words that jump out at me and touch me in a specia...[Read Full Post] Thu, 02 May 2024 16:15:24 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1059523 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1059523 When I was learning my profession at a university, I was fortunate to have been educated under some prominent professors in my field of study. They were not so well-known that the general public would have heard of them, but in their professions, they were giants. Often, years later when I would make a statement, someone would say, "You must have studied under so-and-so, you sound just like them." I never took that as an affront or ins...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:43:45 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1059047 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1059047 At one point in Jesus' ministry, the Pharisees came before him and challenged Him with questions, hoping to trip Him up. One pressed Him on which of the commandments was the greatest, testing not so much his knowledge, but his judgment. Jesus showed these religious leaders that the entire Law and the writings of the prophets could be summed up in a few simple sentences: "Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:44:39 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1058068 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1058068