Lilies of the Field

“Raised” Methodist, my family rarely went to church except for Christmas Eve, Easter, those few times when my sister and I were singing in the youth choir, or some other special occasion. I had absolutely no interest in spiritual things during my childhood even though, as I look back, seeds were being planted in my heart by my paternal grandmother. My real search for the truth began in 1979 when my childhood sweetheart was killed on the eve of our high school graduation. My charismatic mother-in-law stood up at her son’s funeral in a red dress speaking about the Holy Spirit. The Lord got my attention. It was then that I was exposed to the Word of Faith movement when she invited a charismatic preacher for a come-to-Jesus meeting at her home. I went forward at the invitation. I began to faithfully read my New Living Translation Bible and began attending charismatic Catholic prayer meetings in the crypt of a large local Roman Catholic Church with my mother-in-law and her oldest son, Greg....

Dictionary.com defines tolerance as: (1) a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry . (2) a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from one’s own. (3) interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one’s own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint . (4) the act or capacity of enduring; endurance.   According to these definitions, was Jesus tolerant? What percentage of those who profess to follow the biblical Jesus would say this is an apt definition of Jesus’ character? What percentage of those who profess to follow the biblical Jesus actually know who He is or what they profess to believe?   Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019. In a 2015 survey, 75% of adults in the Unite...

  Ostentatious or pretentious…or both? When I was thinking of one word that would characterize religious hypocrites who are obvious, I first thought of the word ostentatious . The definition I found was “to be characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice.” Pretentious is “characterized by assumption of dignity or importance, especially when exaggerated or undeserved. It is to make an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious, full of pretense; having no factual basis; false.” Then there is the word pompous that means excessively elevated or ornate, having or exhibiting self-importance, arrogant, relating to or suggestive of pomp or splendor.   It would cut deep if someone were to call me a religious hypocrite. I would do a soul-searching examination before the Lord that hopefully would lead to repentance if the Lord exposed my heart as hypocritical. I might consider the source of the accusation to discern whether the name-caller knows wh...

Is this person for real? That’s a question I might ask myself when someone has just done or said something very surprising. I might actually say aloud: Man, are you for real? meaning, “Wow, you’re not all there!” This person standing in front of me is not an illusion. He really exists in flesh and bones. I can see him, hear him, or reach out and touch him. We sometimes say things like, “Can you get serious? This is for real.” In other words—this is the real deal, genuine, or actually the case.   How many times in my life have I thought: Christianity would be easy if I didn’t have to deal with people. Maybe you’ve thought the same. There’s a reason God told His children that not only are we to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind, but what? We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves proves our love for Him. We are to love our neighbor as we already are born loving ourselves. Many people in our world today will throw the yellow flag o...