Inspired!
They think he was high. Stoned. William Shakespeare (1564?–1616).
That’s what they claim in “Shakespeare, Plants, and Chemical Analysis of Early 17th-century Clay ‘Tobacco’ Pipes from Europe,” published recently in the South African Journal of Science, by Francis Thackeray and his cohorts (including a police inspector from a narcotics lab).
Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh introduced tobacco into Elizabethan England in the days of Shakespeare. However,
Called!
Ten whole years have passed. And quickly at that. I was ordained at Plano Bible Chapel (PBC) on Aug 7, 2005.
[Here’s a piece I wrote for RaMbLeS on my one-year ordination anniversary.]
I am grateful to Pastor Larry of PBC and the rest of the terrific men who sat on my Ordination Committee (pictured here). I am grateful to them and to the church for the faith and trust reposed in me. For that is what is signified in the laying of hands upon the ordinand. An expression
Genesis 20:1−21:34
The complications of past sin do not preclude God’s work and his blessing, though sin may incur discipline.
The wife/sister episode with which Genesis 20 begins is similar to the incident in Genesis 12. Abraham seeks recourse in deception—again!—to save his own skin (20:11). Even after the two-fold promise that Isaac would be born to Abraham and Sarah (17:16; 18:10–14), Sarah is given away… into the harem of a local ruler. Abraham’s conduct is reprehensible
Trees!
It appears, scientists claim, that climbing a tree helps your working memory.
In a recent study in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, researchers from the University of North Florida investigated “proprioceptively dynamic activities,” i.e., behaviors that require one to be keenly aware of the spatial position and location of one’s different body parts, so that the action can be carefully coordinated. It seems that such activities improve one’s working
Control!
Maybe you’ve had late nights that stretched into early mornings that found you fast asleep during your work hours. Pulling an all-nighter that knocked you out for the rest of the day.
For Philip “P.J.” Maschek it was worse.
This 50-year-old dude was passed out next morning in his chair wearing a black robe and slippers; no shirt (maybe that’s why he’s called “P.J.”?). The police was called.
Why, you ask?
Our man was (yes, was) an air traffic controller
Scott Wenig: How I Preach
Scott Wenig: And this is How I Preach …
[Scott, like several of those portrayed in this series, is a fellow Evangelical Homiletics Society (EHS) member, and a fellow teacher of preaching (at Denver Seminary). Thoughtful scholar on all matters homiletical and pastoral, he brings to the pulpit a wealth of experience in leading churches. He has been at Denver for over two decades, and including this stint has been pastoring both in full-time and interim capacities for the
Praying!
That’s me, praying at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Western Wall is the small portion of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount, where the Jewish Temple stood till it was destroyed in the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E.
After an extensive expansion of the plateau of the Temple Mount in the first century, conducted by Herod the Great, the guy who killed babies at the birth of Jesus (reigned 37–4 B.C.E.), this obsessive builder of edifices
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.