Have you ever been asked a question that left you puzzled? I had that experience today when I went to give blood. The American Red Cross has been modifying the questions it asks donors, becoming more gender-neutral. Their website states, "Under the FDA’s individual donor assessment eligibility criteria, the donor history questionnaire is gender-neutral and all donors will answer the same questions regardless of gender or sexual orientation."
In the past, there were questions specific to women, but now men are required to answer them. There are two questions regarding pregnancy, "Are you pregnant now?" and "Have you ever been pregnant." The choices are "Yes, No, or Skip." I quickly answered the questions, so I checked "no" to the first one, but then on the second, I checked "Skip." In the past, they would make clear that some questions are for females, but now all questions are required without any distinction. The only logical and rational response to the question is...
November is a busy month of celebrations in America: Thanksgiving (eating), Black Friday & and Small Business Saturday (spending), and Giving Tuesday (donating). Donating in November has been associated with the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, called "Giving Tuesday." It started in 2012 and was founded by the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. The day was created as a global generosity movement to encourage and celebrate charitable giving and philanthropy. Since its inception, it has grown into a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring acts of kindness and charitable donations across various countries and causes.
Americans gave almost $500 billion to charities in 2022 ($3.1 billion was donated on Giving Tuesday). Why do people give to charity, especially on Giving Tuesday? What inspires people to give? I asked my friend (ChatGPT) why it thinks people should give during Giving Tuesday. The response was:
Participating in Giving Tuesday can offer several benefits and reasons to get involved:
Supporting Causes: It...
There are some books that I wish I had come across sooner in my life. A friend recommended the book “Serving without Sinking” by John Hindley. I had not heard of this book, which was written in 2013, but the subtitle captured my attention, “How to Serve Christ and Keep Your Joy.” I immediately connected with the author. He admitted that, at times, he had lost his joy. Serving Jesus was now something he resented and a duty to fulfill. The busyness of life had sucked out the joy. The current season of life has challenged my joy, so this book came at the right time.
The central theme of Hindley’s book is that Jesus did not come to be served by us but came to serve us. We read in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He said, “The...
Fall has arrived in Southern California with a heat wave, pumpkin spice everything, and conferences. I enjoy attending one or two conferences each year since they help me grow professionally, both for my day job as an accountant and helping with ministry in the church. Last week, I attended the ACBC Annual Conference at Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita, CA. ACBC stands for the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, and each year, they put on a conference to help biblical counselors grow in their skills and ability to help people.
This year's conference topic was Living and Active, "Biblical Counseling and the Sufficiency of Scripture." The conference included six plenary sessions and many breakout sessions. The speakers for the plenary sessions were Dale Johnson, Ernie Baker, Abner Chou, H.B. Charles, Terry Enns, and Rick Holland. Dale Johnson started the conference with the topic of "The Folly of Fig Leaves." He stated that ACBC was drawing a line in the sand...
My brother and I went on our annual hiking trip the last few days. We decided to visit Glacier National Park in Montana. We arrived at different times, so we both had some time for solo hikes and hikes we enjoyed together. A couple of things that made hiking in Glacier different from hiking in Southern California are Huckleberries and Bears.
What is a huckleberry? The first time I saw it, I thought it looked like a blueberry. These small dark purple berries were on many of the trails that I hiked. I saw moose and deer grazing on them. I tried it myself right off the plant and could understand why the animals liked their sweet taste. I later learned that these berries were native to this area and other areas in the Pacific Northwest. They put these berries in everything, from chocolate to jam. There is always something new to learn and experience.
Another fun aspect of this trip was...
I recently read a book on poverty with some of my coworkers. I work at Children's Hunger Fund, a nonprofit organization that addresses poverty. The mission of Children's Hunger Fund is "Delivering hope to suffering children by equipping local churches for gospel-centered mercy ministry." We read and discussed the book "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor...And Yourself" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. The book was first released in 2009 and has influenced many on how to address poverty. The title of the book is intriguing because it poses a question that I had not thought about, can helping those in poverty hurt others and oneself?
The book begins with a story from one of the authors, Brian. Brian traveled with his family to do mission work in Uganda. While in Uganda, he taught a biblically based small-business curriculum at St. Luke's Church. He met Elizabeth, the women's ministries director for one of the local denominations....
Yesterday, I completed another hike on my bucket list, Mt. San Jacinto. The peak is 10,834 ft above sea level and is the second-highest mountain range in Southern California. From the top, you can see the highest peak in Southern California, Mt. San Gorgonio, along with another famous peak, Mt. Baldy. You can hike this mountain from a handful of different trails. One of the more popular starting points is from the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The tramway takes you from 2,643 to 8,516 ft, a gain of almost 6,000 ft of elevation in ten minutes. The hike from the tramway is then 11 miles, with an elevation gain of approximately 2,300 ft.
I hiked this peak alone, although I am never alone (Psalm 139:9-10). Two thoughts came to my mind during this hike.
My brain has too many tabs open
The wilderness is good for the soul. It allows me time to think without the daily distractions of life, closing the tabs...
I have a confession; I did not want to read another book on anger. I bought the book "The Heart of Anger: How the Bible Transforms Anger in Our Understanding and Experience" by Christopher Ash and Steve Midgley on Kindle and hesitated to read it. My resistance was that I had read many books on anger and thought, how can another book help me? Eventually, I decided it was time to start reading this book, and I was pleasantly surprised (and humbled) at how much I had to learn about anger.
The book is broken up into four parts. First, the authors look at the biblical portraits of human anger. Second, they look at the characteristic of God's anger, and thirdly, they talk about how to defuse human anger. Lastly, they address finding joy in the peace of Christ.
If you have read a biblical counseling book, you will recognize the focus of this book on the heart. The heart represents...
There are endless books that I want to read, but limited time each day. Often, I want to escape the rat race of life to sit for an extended period of time, getting lost in a book. In the meantime, I find that I need to use the margins of time to get some reading done. There is an interesting verse in the Bible regarding books. Ecclesiastes 12:12 "My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." Solomon, who penned these words, was an interesting character. He was known as the wisest man ever to live, yet, even with all that wisdom, he pursued the desires of his flesh and married many wives along with a harem of concubines. Wisdom and foolishness can exist alongside each other in the same person. Regardless, Solomon wrote these words at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, one...
When I was in seminary many years ago, there was often a critique of churches that taught "cheap grace" or "easy believism." The claim was that some were teaching that the only thing people had to do was to make a "profession of faith," ignoring a life of discipleship which included obedience and holiness. Although God's grace is freely given to the one who trusts Jesus, Christians are called to respond to a life of obedience and holiness.
Is there a cost in following Jesus? Steve Lawson attempts to answer this question in his book "It Will Cost You Everything: What it Takes to Follow Jesus." The primary focus of this book is to walk through Luke 14:25-35 which he calls a "hard saying of Christ." In this text, Lawson wants to distinguish between true and false believers.
Lawson began this book with an analogy of his life when he received an offer of a scholarship to play college football. The scholarship...
