Glimpsing Eternal Glory Arriving at Book V of the Psalms is like reaching the top of a mountain, only to discover a whole new mountain range beyond this summit. With Zion at last in view, we nevertheless realize that we are not yet home: this magnificent new height of victory is but the prelude to eternity. With renewed humility, we look down to realize that we would have dropped to our death in this breathtaking climb, had the Lord not given us feet like hinds' feet and

The Lord, Our Dwelling Place Anyone who loves Psalm 23 is going to love Book IV of the Psalms. Comprising  Psalms 90-106 , Book IV shows Israel emerging from the valley of the shadow of death to dwell instead under the Shadow of the Almighty. Those who witnessed the catastrophic destruction of Solomon's Temple as seen in Book III are now brought back to the words of Moses in Psalm 90, believed to be the oldest Psalm in the Bible: "LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place

Notre Dame guarding the Seine River Introduction Would you and I be willing to take part in a building project that would never be finished in our lifetime? Notre Dame de Paris, the most famous and iconic Gothic cathedral in the world, took over 200 years to build and yet faced the threat of total destruction in 2019 from a fire that took 15 hours to quench. We cannot assume that saving this cathedral would have been a priority even two hundred years ago. On the contrar

It was April 15, 2019. Some last-minute tax-filers might have had their thoughts fixated on finishing their returns. But most of the world was watching in horror and grief as Notre Dame Cathedral was burning. I remember where I was standing in Doris Henderson Newcomers School in Greensboro, North Carolina, when my teacher-friend Vanessa told me in her endearing Australian accent that Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire. I looked at her dumbfounded as chills of disbelief an

Introduction A chunky white King James Bible with yellow-orange edges might not seem like an appropriate gift to place in the hands of a small child today, but this Bible not only set the course of a lifetime journey for me; it fed my natural childhood's curiosity. I felt from my earliest days the sacred weight of both duty and wonder in reading God's Word. The difficulty of doing so in itself spoke eloquently to the thrill of knowing God. I knew in my spirit that I neede

Only a boy named David; only a rippling brook; only a boy named David, but five little stones he took! In his best-selling book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell supports the intriguing thesis that misfits and underdogs turn the course of history. The viewpoint that has been rejected is, after all, frequently the right one, and the misfit who leans into his impending failure often reaps the reward of staking his all.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind dri

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind dri

That one sweet Day of Rest when my mother and I explored   Her parents’ big heirloom Bible, We had no idea what we would find, Except God’s Words in German, Gothic “S’s” like swords stabbing with Shakespearean flair, Pages brittle with age.  The first few stories of Genesis lay only half-told, pages rippled away like sand.    There was no “in the beginning,”  No record of heaven’s birth, No registry of family deaths below.  Tenderly, we searched on.  I enjoyed voici