In the Long Run If you wish to be happy for one hour, get intoxicated. If you wish to be happy for three days, get married. If you wish to be happy for eight days, kill your pig and eat it. If you wish to be happy forever, learn to fish. –Chinese proverb Limits A…
Author: Alan Holden
Handicaps
Handicap’s Triumph John Bartel was a healthy, athletic, twenty-year-old young man who was gradually taking full charge of the family dairy farm with all its multiple duties. It was a beautiful spring day in the lusciously green Fraser Valley, British Columbia. The grass was just right for filling the huge silos for winter feed. John…
Habit
Rush, Rush I heard recently about a man who prided himself on being exceedingly punctual. He followed a very precise routine every morning. His alarm went off at 6:30. He rose briskly, shaved, showered, ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth, picked up his briefcase, got into his car, drove to the nearby ferry landing, parked…
Guidance
Searching for the Right Way Once a Hasidic teacher told this parable: A man had been wandering about in a forest for several days, unable to find the way out. Finally, he saw a man approaching him in the distance. His heart was filled with joy. “Now I shall surely find out which is the…
Grief
Creating Something New Out of Ashes Some years ago, Alexander Woolcott described a scene in a New York hospital where a grief-stricken mother sat in the hospital lounge in stunned silence, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had just lost her only child, and she was gazing blindly into space while the head nurse talked…
Grace
The Way Grace Works Grace does not make everything right. Grace’s trick is to show us that it is right for us to live; that it is truly good, wonderful even, for us to be breathing and feeling at the same time that everything clustering around us is wholly wretched. Grace is not a ticket…
‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
Louisa Stead stood on the beach with her four-year-old daughter and watched her husband drown as he tried to rescue a child in the waters off Long Island, New York. The loss of her husband and persistent health problems brought a testing time in her life. Out of these experiences came the writing of “‘Tis…
The Lord’s Supper:
Its Meaning in the Present, Past, and Future 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 & 11:23-29 The Present Meaning of the Lord’s Supper A. Eucharistia = thankfulness, gratitude, thanksgiving B. Koinonia = communion, fellowship, close relationship The Past Meaning of the Lord’s Supper A. Covenant In the Ancient Near East, covenants regulated the relationship between a great king…
Christ Is Our Passover
Exodus 12:3-13 and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Introduction Thesis: The Passover prefigures Christ’s saving sacrifice. The Lord Was Without Fault. A. The lamb was tested by separation, Exodus 12:5-6. B. The Lamb was tested by Pilate, who declared Him innocent, John 18:38. The Lord Was Slain, Exodus 12:7, 13. A. The blood propitiates sin. B. The…
What Does Revival Look Like?
Jonathan Edwards urged believers to “take the Scriptures as their guide.” Pointing them to the First Epistle of John, he outlined five essential principles of genuine revival. Esteem for Christ rather than esteem for self. “No man, speaking by the Spirit of God will show an ill or mean esteem of Christ.” –Jonathan Edwards Eternal…