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Reflections by the Pond 2015 2014 2010 2013 2008 2009 2011 2012 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Read Devotionals Bible Studies The Journey 2004 2005 2006 2007 Sample Issue Listening 2007 2008 Inaugural Issue Aspects 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Booklets Archives Reflections by the Pond (Original) In Unison An Intimate Dialogue: the Psalms Devotional Booklets Joyful Thanksgiving The Spirit of Christmas They Need a Savior Reflections by the Pond READ MORE Bible Studies VISIT His Company, Christian drama VISIT Our Daily Journey Jesus Christ, the one who has already expressed toward us the entirety of human and divine love, stands waiting with arms outstretched. With tender patience He invites each of us to join Him in the Dance. His deepest desire is that we will do whatever is necessary to know Him to the full. This we will know only when we summon the courage to get up from our place of safe ignorance, to throw off the leaden, earth-bound weights that deaden our feet, and with holy abandon enter into His embrace... in the Dance! #840: Friend and Brother PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing April 2020 Language is, admittedly, fluid. Words, their spelling and meaning, have always evolved over time. For example, the words "calculator" and "computer" originally referred not to a device held in the hand or a binary machine but to persons, and the term "making love" used to be all about romance and the spoken word, not sex. Nevertheless, in a fallen world and plasticized society the trajectory of this fluidity of language is invariably in descent. Certain words in our vocabulary have traditionally carried greater weight than others, but now these bright and shining exceptions are being demoted, and thus being rendered meaningless—and unexceptional. For some time now one has been able to click on a screen icon and instantly become a "friend" of a total stranger. But the word "friend" is to mean more than that. It once did. Read more about #840: Friend and Brother #839: All of Grace PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing April 2020 The Bible, and especially the New Testament, has a reputation among people who never read it for being anti-woman. The apostle Paul regularly comes under attack for teaching this position. Except that he is innocent of the charge. Far from being anti-woman, God's word is replete with examples of strong, vibrant women of faith. And, like their male counterparts, they were, for the most part, far from perfect. They did not sport halos, nor did they glow in the dark with holy unction. They were just regular people who found their hope in the Lord God of heaven. Why? Because just as with the Hebrew patriarchs and Christian forefathers, the Lord chose them to serve in His name. And an unlikely, unexpected woman chosen by God was Rahab, a prostitute from Jericho. This obscure woman would be chosen by God not just to give aid to Israel, but for inclusion in the royal line that would culminate in the birth of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Read more about #839: All of Grace #838: Stealing from God PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing February 2020 The ancient story of Achan stands in dramatic contrast to our time. We live in a world of sloppy religion and sloppy faith. Church pulpits and public airwaves alike have become corrupted by this culture's philosophy of "Well, that's all right." Some things are not "all right," and even under the sacrificial blood of Christ God still hates sin. One man stole an armload of forbidden goods, and as a result thirty-six men died outside of Ai, the entire Israelite nation was threatened, and Achan's family and household were executed and burned. Any one man's sin is never an island unto itself. Corruption, like cancer, spreads. Others are inevitably hurt. Read more about #838: Stealing from God #837: Angel of Light PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing January 2020 Biographies are not only interesting and informative from an historical standpoint, filled with hitherto undiscovered details and facts, they can (and very often do) reveal character traits from which the attentive reader may draw inspiration for his or her own life—either in the form of positive reinforcement or negative alarm. God's word is filled, overflowing with characters from which we can learn either beneficial character traits to write into our own lives, or destructive traits we are to avoid—or unlearn. For this the tenth and final year of the present decade, Reflections by the Pond will be offering a series of twelve character studies from Scripture, each a colorful story of God working in, through, or against a life. And in this first issue of the year we present perhaps the most colorful—and disturbing—character of all. dsl Read more about #837: Angel of Light #836: Thoughts on the Incarnation PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing December 2019 God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit—always "is." There has never been a time when there was not God, and more than that, God spans all time: He "is" always past, present, and future. He cannot be contained spatially or chronologically; He is never at just one place, and never at just one moment. Regardless the time or place along the span of prehistory and human history, God—with Christ—always "is." But at one predetermined point in man's history, the eternal Son of God willingly "became" flesh for the salvation of man. Read more about #836: Thoughts on the Incarnation #835: Reasons for Our Thanksgiving PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing November 2019 As with most secular remembrances, the follower of Christ enjoys the privilege of added depth and meaning behind the Thanksgiving holiday. For the believer, Thanksgiving is a time to remember that God is the one who has supplied the bounty, the richness of life, the filled belly, the roof over our respective heads. Americans may celebrate that indomitable, pioneer spirit of our forefathers, but Christians understand that none of the blessings of our land would have been those pioneers' reward without the gracious hand of Providence. If the more than 300 million citizens of the United States have sufficient reasons to be thankful, believers draw blessings from an even deeper well. As bountiful and rich as the land may be, it is yet finite: it is capable of feeding only so many. More than that, drought, pestilence, economic or moral ruin remain very real possibilities. But the bounty and riches of Christ—available to all who have taken His name—are without limit, for they are drawn not from earth's finite resources, but from the bottomless springs of heaven itself. Read more about #835: Reasons for Our Thanksgiving #834: Ruminations PDF Versions Suitable for printing Suitable for on-screen viewing October 2019 Gentle Reader, For many years I have kept in my files an old yellowed clipping, from 1978, of the Shoe comic strip by Jeff MacNelly, about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds. In this strip, a young gofer steps into the office of a wizened old journalist who is gazing out his office window. The youngster remarks, "You're staring out the window again. A writer should be pounding the keyboard..." The old newspaperman turns back from the window and replies, "Wrong. Typists pound keyboards... Writers stare out windows." This writer spends probably too much time staring out his window, gazing out over the pond and the surrounding stretch of timber as his mind wanders thither and yon, contemplating and meditating, cogitating upon the many vagaries of life in Christ. Especially during these early days of autumnal bliss, when the trees are changing their apparel and time itself seems to slow, ruminations percolate lazily. Some thoughts collected in such moments grow into multi-page articles for this monthly journal, while some thoughts barely fill ...