Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

     This summer, Mom and I did some cleaning around the house. One of the things we found was an old CCM magazine talking about the upcoming book and CD set chronicling the 100 greatest songs in Christian music. While the article hinted at some of the songs featured in the countdown, we were really curious to see the entire list. While we could find the track list for some of the CDs, we couldn't see the entire list without reading the book. We had to use an inter-library loan to get it, but it was worth it to be able to uncover the mystery of which songs made the list.     My parents and I really enjoyed reading the book and seeing the choices that the editors made. Some of the songs on the list came as no surprise. (Among the top five were " Awesome God " by Rich Mullins, " Jesus Freak " by DC Talk, and " I Can Only Imagine " by MercyMe.) Some of the songs I knew well, but not their original versions. (I've sung " Soon and Very Soon " ...

It has now been over a month since my life was normal. For some of you, it may be longer, and for some, it may not be as long. Unfortunately, this global pandemic has left few unscathed throughout the world, even if no one they know was affected by the virus itself. This past month has brought some good things, and some not so good. I was reminded a couple of weeks ago of a youth group tradition at my church of sharing pows and wows (bad things and good things), and so here in no particular order are the pows and wows of this last month, starting with a few things that were a bit of both. Pow/Wow- The news:  While it's been good to get information about what's going on, the constant updates get to be a bit much. A few of my friends have decided to not watch the news at all, but I think that's a bit extreme. I have decided to still watch and read some news but limit how much I watch and read. That often means reading only part of long articles and occasionally muting the T...

"I hate what I've become The nightmare's just begun I must confess that I feel like a monster"~Skillet, " Monster " Today is Halloween, a day when ghosts, goblins, and monsters come out of the shadows and freely roam the Earth. Well, sort of. The origins of the holiday as we know it stemmed from that belief, but in reality, it's more of a day to dress up and have fun. However, there is a type of monster that we need to watch out for, one that, unfortunately, can show up at any time and in any place: the monster that lives within our own hearts. In some people, this monstrous version of themselves is quite obvious. Just in the last week, those of us in America heard about at least two of them: one who sent bombs to politicians and one who murdered 11 people as they worshiped in a synagogue. Those were just the ones who made the national news. In big cities, there are even more of these monstrous people wandering about. Where I live, I hear about at ...