Dan Glick For many of us, criticism comes all too easily, and I confess that I am no exception. While we indeed need to develop critical thinking skills, we do well to be on guard against becoming a critic who is constantly pointing out the wrong while we do little to build up the right. Someone has said that a critic is a person who never actually goes to the battle yet who afterward comes out shooting the wounded. Criticism that is not constructive has the power to create untold...

John Wesley Christian Perfection implies that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, treating all men with equity, charity, benevolence, and affection. Forgive them, bear with their weakness and errors, rejoice in their prosperity, lament their adversity, and in all possible ways contribute to their improvement and happiness to the extent of our knowledge and ability, and in consonancy with obligations to God and ourselves. It therefore excludes envy, for this regrets another’s talents,...

Rick Jones Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” (John 3:5,6)  Jesus invited those who were thirsting, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit which they that...

Curtis Going The scientific experts of the day had declared it to be impossible, but Wilbur and Orville Wright made history on December 17, 1903 when they successfully flew their homemade flying machine several hundred feet along the Atlantic coast in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina—defying the odds and setting in motion a chain of events that would forever change the way we travel the world. After the fact, the newspapers largely ignored their accomplishment, and the neighbors didn’t believe it...

Duane Quesenberry It’s amazing! We pay our doctor to…well…insult us.  Think about it.  The first thing to happen when you visit is—the doctor’s accomplice (a.k.a. the office nurse) gathers evidence against you at the “weigh in.”  She then writes it down and passes on the incriminating information to the person in the longest white coat.  Meanwhile, you are led to a small room and instructed to remove your clothes as, “The doctor will be in shortly.” And soon, a polite knock, followed by an...

Curtis Going Several months ago, I was sitting in a restaurant when two women sat down not far away, and I could not help but overhear their conversation. It soon became apparent that the two women were both United Methodist pastors’ wives, and eventually their discussion turned to the recent disaffiliation of many churches from their denomination because of its broad acceptance of homosexuality. One of the pastor’s wives said, “We’ve decided to stay in for now and just see what happens.” The...