Ecclesiastes 12:10

Right after we moved to Arkansas, the kids succeed in there campaign to get a dog.  For several years, every birthday request and letter to Santa contained the request for a dog.  We had been resistant to the idea since we felt we didn’t have enough space in our backyard.  Once we moved however that excuse was gone and soon we found ourselves at the animal shelter picking out a dog.  She is a good dog but like most puppies she loves to chew, on everything!  At first I thought it would go away as she grew up but little by little everything in our back yard has been chewed up. I tried everything I could think of to discourage this habit. The last straw came a week ago when she managed to chew the electric wires to our air conditioning unit (I don’t know how she managed that without killing herself). So now she is in dog training to get it under control.  The dog was unaware of the danger she faced. Until she is trained, she will continue to put herself ...

In these gloomy finical times, many are looking to find ways to help booster the struggling economy.  A pair of Harvard researchers recently discovered a link that you may not suspect; hell.  Religion has a measurable effect on developing economies and the most powerful influence relates to how strongly people believe in hell.  Religious beliefs and practices, like belief in heaven and church attendance, had positive effects on economic factors but none were as pronounced as a belief in hell.  Researches postulate that that strong belief that God will punish those that do wrong, lead people to be less likely to engage in deceitful practices and more likely to practice self-discipline and thrift. These findings seem to me to somewhat ironic given that our ever greedier culture is moving further away from a belief in hell.  A 2008 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life , said just 59 percent of 35,000 respondents said they believe in a hell...

In Mark 13:1-2 we read, “ As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down."  A very bold and specific prediction.  It didn’t seem very likely.  Even if the temple was destroyed, who would go to all that effort? Some of the stones used weight over 400 tons.  However, it turn out Jesus was exactly right.             Four decades after Jesus death, Roman soldiers under General Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. Even though the General had given orders to not destroy the temple, during the battle a fire was started that engulfed the structure. The fire caused the gold and silver that was in the temple to melt and flow between the cracks in the stone.  When the soldiers captured the temple area, i...