"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." -- Genesis 2:9 "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the t

I don't believe we ever seriously grappled with the question, "why OUR son?" as opposed to someone else's boy. We have wrestled with "why Levi?" when he had such an evident love for the Lord, such spiritual depth and such potential for impacting others for Christ. And we've struggled with "why our son?" in view of how careful we thought we had been to assure each of our four children how beloved they are, and in light of the fact that NO ONE saw it coming; no one I've talk

"The grave could not hold Him that was alive. Neither can it hold the quickened sinner. The grave of sin is no place for a saint. An evangelist said in a meeting, "We shall never be anything but sinners saved by grace, with one foot in sin and one foot in grace." Never, oh! Never, according to Ephesians. If Ephesians 2:1-10 teaches anything, it is the exact opposite of such a statement! True, the sinner is saved by grace, and by grace ALONE, and this fact should ever be k

Before we go further into what the Bible says on attachments, and how this all fits with the theme of this series, it's imperative we consider one vital question: What exactly do we want to take away from all this? What do we hope to gain from learning of, and taking hold of, our PRESENT Heavenly Residence? Jedi and Jesuit shun all natural attachments (see post 10A). What they're striving for is the highest, unhindered effectiveness in attaining the objectives of their knight

I think I've been guilty of idolatry. I believe I made an idol of my family. It's been over fourteen months now, and I still can't look at a picture of him without that horrible, sick, gnawing ache in the pit of my stomach. Elliot fell and cut open his lip. His smeared blood on my pants nearly did me in. My mind quickly filled with the recent memory of wiping my son's smeared blood from the door of that room. From there, all the way back to when Levi would fall and hurt himse

"ATTACHMENT AND THE DREAD EFFECTS OF LOSS" "Fear of loss is a path to the dark side," said Yoda to young Anakin Skywalker. "REJOICE for those around you who transform into the force" (in terms more down to earth, THOSE WHO DIE) the ancient Jedi master counseled. "Mourn them, do not. MISS them, DO NOT. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. TRAIN YOURSELF TO LET GO OF EVERYTHING YOU FEAR TO LOSE." The mentoring moment is from George Lucas' "Star Wars III