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Whether or not COVID has changed things for you this year, you are likely reading this because you are spending the whole holiday, or part of it, alone.

Some of you are really stressed out. Especially after this year, and maybe every year at this time.

While some of you absolutely love this time of year, others of you dread it. For some, it brings back hurting memories and it feels physically and emotionally draining.

In a few days, marijuana will be legal in Illinois. So…will it be OK for Christians?

Many years ago, my friend, Bob, described to me how he envisioned the perfect Christmas. He said, "I’m sitting on an old fashioned park bench next to my girlfriend, under an old fashion park lamp.

The only reason Christians celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25 was because the Romans had a pagan celebration on that day and Christians took it over. Right?

Here it is….Christmas season! Are you ready? Decorations up? Gift list completed? Shopping started? Plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day settled?

My daughter-in-law and I were traveling by car on a rural road outside of Kozhencherry, Kerala, India, when suddenly in front of us loomed a full-sized adult elephant, munching on greenery on the edge of this jungle road. Our breath was taken away and Nicole squealed, “Aaaah! Oh my goodness! A wild elephant!"He was an impressive sight. But while he appeared at first to us to be roving free and wild, after getting out of the car to have a better look (we kept our distance), we

Most of us are still wrapping presents. Many have a list and are stressed about some things on it. We all have a gift or two waiting to go to someone we are excited about. It’s really fun to give. And it’s a lot more fun than getting.Not that receiving isn’t any fun. It is. But there is something really special about giving. What? Why does giving make us feel so good? Why would there be joy in letting go of something that either, we'd rather keep, or that cost us precious tim

I love Christmas and almost everything about it. I love the lights and decorations. I love the giving of gifts, the tree, the food, the music, and even the hustle and bustle. I loved the school and church programs. I love the Christmas themed TV shows (A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite).But it’s easy to love all of those things and settle for little more than winter solstice, and not really enjoy Christmas. Even with the fun of ugly sweaters, Christmas parties, Santa C

The last few days have been eye-opening. I’m writing this from India. I came to visit a ministry operated by a man who attends our church. We are in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and have been staying in one of the poorest sections of the city...a city that is one of the poorest in the world. We are not far from where Mother Teresa became world renown for her work among orphans and invalids. We visited the convent where she lived and the care center where she worked, and greete

2017 might have been a great year for some, but for others, it was a year to forget. Some of you went through a painful divorce this last year. Some of you lost your job. Others had relationship failures, family drama, personal defeats and health challenges. For some, this was a year that you want to put behind you. But how? The Apostle Paul gives us a hint in his famous words used by many as a motivational speech, “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully

Christmas is supposed to be a wonderful time of the year. So how come you are so stressed?You can be at peace this Christmas and you can find that peace now, so that you actually enjoy Christmas this year. It’s not complicated. I’ve got three simple steps for you. Take these steps seriously, and follow them, and they will give you the strength to not just survive the season, but to thrive in it. List your stressors. Put them down on paper. Don’t just list them in your mind. Y

Did you see on the news the story of the college graduate in Indiana who took to the streets in search of a job? With a jug of water and a folder full of resumes, he stood at busy intersections wearing a sandwich sign that read, “College Grad Looking For A Job.” The headline on the story was, “College Grad Wears Resume.”That shouldn’t be a headline. In truth, we all wear our resumes. No big news in that. If you are applying for a job, your paper resume means only so much. If

The new year is the time many of us take inventory of our lives and evaluate those things that we want to change, or at least, make improvements to. That’s a good thing. I think all of us should regularly examine ourselves and ask The Lord what he wants us to focus on in the near future. As a staff, we’ve been using the following questions within our accountability groups to help us start the new year with Spiritual Goals. I’d like to encourage you to share this list with at

In The Day Christ Was Born, best selling author and journalist, Jim Bishop wrote a reliable and true-to-life analysis of Jesus’ birth. I loved the realism throughout the book, but I’d like to quote for you what he says about young Mary, the soon-to-be mother."She no longer noticed the chafe of the goatskin against her leg, nor the sway of the food bag on the other side of the animal. Her veiled head hung and she saw millions of pebbles on the road moving by her brown eyes in

Several years ago we held a special Veteran’s Day service in our church to honor veterans. Because it was an election year, we also invited politicians to join us, thinking they would, being as they were up for election and wanted to go anywhere with a crowd of potential voters. We were right. We had a big crowd and quite a few candidates from both major parties. It was a nonpolitical service (as everything is here at The Bridge) and we saw it as an opportunity to expand our

Here it is….Christmas season! Are you ready? Decorations up? Gift list completed? Shopping started? Plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day settled?

I’m sure you’ve seen the footage. The 150 lb. guy lugging a 90 lb. pot of gold he found unguarded in back of an armored delivery truck. Obviously, the armored car company and the police have lost the whereabouts of the thief and the gold, or they would not have released the video. This happened back in September! With all the street surveillance in NYC, you’d think they could have followed him. But he’s disappeared with his loot. All the news articles and comments I’ve read h

Timanthes was an aspiring Greek artist in the Roman era. While studying under a well respected tutor, he was nearing completion of a major painting. Upon arriving in the morning, he found the canvas blotted out with paint. Enraged, he confronted his teacher who admitted destroying his work. He said, “You were spending so much time admiring what you had done that you were no longer improving. This was a great painting for some, but not for you. You can do much better.”Timanthe