Someone posted on the Herald’s website something along the line that a particular column lacked a “plot” and seemed to be “miscellaneous ideals” that “didn’t stick together.” He is correct and this is precisely what the first paragraph said would be so, as it is for this issue. Although he pleases me by recognizing I succeeded in doing what I said I would do, he disappoints me by not reading what I told him I intended. He seems to lack a general understanding of writing when he demands a plot, which pertains to fiction, in an essay, which is personal opinion. Occasionally I present random thoughts on various subjects, as they have come to mind, to develop later. There is no thesis in such; please don’t expect one.

A man does not purchase a farm and expect the farm to work itself. So, why do so many people marry and expect the marriage to take care of itself? We have to work a marriage to make a marriage work.

Faith must keep our intellect humble. However, the two are not opposed. Intellect must be faithful, and faith must be reasonable.

To assert that things will work out in time is at once silly and irresponsible. Responsible people use time creatively in order themselves to work things out.

To study history is not to live in the past, but to make the past live in the present to prepare us to enter the future.

Most of us know a good deal more than we understand.

When the Apostle Paul enjoined us to “speak the truth in love,” he meant to practice both truth and love. The truth without love cuts without healing, and love without truth comforts without correcting.

The task of maturing is to get over childishness but continue childlike.

Too many of us have grown old without growing up.

God did not make any of us to be super-human, just genuinely human.

We too much blame Satan for our sins and don’t take enough credit ourselves.

People who overcome the most in their lives are those who accomplish the most with their lives. It is not those with great intelligence and talent who win, but those who work hard with whatever intelligence and talent they might have.

There is a world of difference between the social gospel and the gospel for society.

Be as religious as necessary to be as spiritual as possible; be no more religious than necessary lest you be but religious and not yet spiritual.

Faith is not a senseless presumption upon something unreasonable to exempt one from the struggle of ones existential predicament, but a reasoned commitment to something believable that sustains one through the vagaries and betrayals of an evil world and sinful society.

The question is not “Are you prepared to meet your Maker?” but, “Are you paying attention to your Maker now?”

The great problem with political correctness is that it is political when it should be moral and correct when it should be right.

The question is not “Are you sure you will go to heaven when you die?” It is, “Have you started to live now?”

It is, of course, important to distinguish spiritual experience from the mechanics of religion. We must take at least one additional step to distinguish between the spiritual and the moral, i.e., between spiritual posturing and moral behavior. The life of the spirit is not confined to an abstract concept but includes concrete action

The new birth is God’s gift to us, but what we do with the life he gives is our gift to God.

Three basic facts about life and death can make the difference between your death and your life:

— God created the world for his glory, not our convenience.

— Sin is refusal to be human, not failure to become angels.

— Salvation is transformation as a human, not becoming religious.

In the community we enjoy being the persecuted minority as if that wins us greater favor with God. Where we are the majority (i.e., in our churches), we create a minority and then persecute it as if this evens the score.