Mental Musings

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30, NIV) If you had a decent education in America, you should have learned that the educational model of the Western world was based largely on the Ancient Greece educational system of providing intellectual studies, artistic endeavors, and physical activity for all students. Much of our understanding of the educational structure of the ancient Greeks comes from the writings of Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC).  Aristotle was the finale among a dynasty of education: Socrates taught Plato who in turn taught Aristotle. Aristotle then taught one history’s most successful commanders, the undefeated empire builder, Alexander the Great. Aristotle’s writings cover a multitude of subjects: physics, metaphysics, poetry, music, theater, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, ethics, and biology. From these writings, and the importance of the theater and the ...

The past few years have been extremely difficult for my family, specifically with financial and health issues. Some of these issues are behind us and some continue to linger on. It has been and remains a long, hard road, and we cannot always see why God has led us down this winding path overgrown with weeds and thorns that hide the many rocks and potholes. I know that there are some people who think that Christians, especially pastors, should not share so much online because it appears to be self serving, bragging, seeking sympathy, or used as a means to promote yourself. Others belittle any problems that you have by telling you that things could be worse, as if to say that you should keep your problems to yourself. These people apparently believe that Christians should be more like the family in this video: Too many Christians feel the need to hide the reality of their lives. But God has a different perspective about this: His Word teaches us that we are to laugh and cry...