RaMbLeS
Welcome to RaMbLeS, a collection of weekly musings on life and Scripture. It all began in 2005 on Google’s blogspot as the aBeLOG (a name now recycled), a semi-autobiographical devotional that attempted to keep well-wishers abreast of my activities as I relocated to Scotland for a few years. Since my return, I’ve continued my RaMbLeS, and here’s its most recent incarnation on Homiletix, as random reflections usually based on current news articles and travel experiences and whatever else takes my fancy!
Heart!
Emotions? Utterly untrustworthy.
Or so they said.
I remember a popular gospel tract that pictured the sequence as a train: “Fact” was the engine; “Faith” was the rest of the train; “Feeling” made up the caboose, the last car. In other words, don’t worry about the Feelings. As long as you got the Facts and you have Faith in the Facts, the Feelings will automatically follow.
Or so they said.
We humans, however, have always had the suspicion that this neat order
Squared!
Ever thought of the existence of square wheels? That would be the ultimate flat tire. And they would give you a pretty jarring ride on your usual flat road, if you put a couple of those wheels on your bicycle.
But apparently a mathematician—yes, a mathematician!—has created a bicycle (actually a tricycle) with square wheels. And, it gives a perfectly smooth ride.
Provided you ride it on a special road.
This trike with square wheels rolls quite smoothly, keeping its axle
Talk!
Despite all the advances we’ve made towards equality of the sexes, in one area girls are better off than boys: language skills—they acquire it faster and employ it with greater ease and complexity than boys of the same age. It’s often been said women talk more than men. Well, now we may have scientific proof of these facts. There is apparently a biological explanation for the discrepancy between a woman’s 20,000 words/day and a man’s 7,000.
For many years, scientists
No!
Apparently Warren Buffet has a little black date book that he carries around. If you flip through it, you’ll find that the pages are practically empty.
“You’ve gotta keep control of your time,” Buffett says, “and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”
Saying “No!”
When writer Eugene Peterson was a pastor, he made a discipline of writing “FD” into his appointment calendar three days a week. If someone
Venus!
On permanent display in the Musée du Louvre in Paris is what is perhaps the most well-known sculpture of the world, Venus de Milo. The marble statue is otherwise known as Aphrodite of Milos (Aphrodite is the Greek name for the goddess labeled Venus by the Romans). The work is likely to have been created in the 2nd century BC, and probably by Alexandros of Antioch, as an inscription on the plinth of statue (now lost) apparently asserted.
The image of the lady is renowned
Home!
Dallas Seminary “lost” another one of its own last week.
Dr. Steve Strauss, Department Chair and Professor of World Missions and Intercultural Studies, went home to be with his Lord on Tuesday, after a year-long bout with cancer.
Steve once said: “Be prepared to pray any time, preach any time, and die any time.”
Here’s what Steve wrote to the Seminary community in April 2012, soon after his diagnosis:
God has already ministered powerfully to our family through this.
Giver!
Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) was the wife of Louis XVI and Queen of France. She, rightly or wrongly (probably wrongly, say modern scholars), symbolized everything that was wrong with the French monarchy, and helped focus public hatred upon that institution.
Her husband, the King, was deposed and the royal family imprisoned. Soon Marie Antoinette was herself tried—accused of everything from immorality and incest to corruption and treason—and finally found guilty for
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. 