Dr. Harold McNabb

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melissaOn December 1, 1997, Missy Jenkins was one of seven students gunned down at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, following a school prayer meeting. A bullet damaged her spinal cord, leaving Missy dependent upon braces and a walker in order to move around.

At the time of the shooting, Jenkins was 15-years-old and described herself as "without direction." During her convalescence, she not only found the will to stay alive, but the determination to go forward in a positive direction with her life.
"I realized I did not die that morning. I'm all here. I'm alive," said Missy in a recent interview.

On December 18, 2004, carried by that resolve, Missy received a bachelor's degree in . . .

Read more: Don't Be A Victim

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Recently I was officiating at a funeral where I did not know many of the family particularly well. As it was near Christmas, I decided to us the idea of Advent as a departure point. I said that Christmas was the occasion for the God of the ages to come into the world in a unique way. That way was by becoming one of us. This is God's way of showing us His true nature.

When we contemplate our own deaths I wonder how each of us thinks about the time when we will face the God of eternity. Some face that day with faith. Others face it with fear. But when you think of meeting Jesus at the end of your life, I think it is a different matter, if you know who Jesus is.

At the internment, a family member said to me, "its comforting to know that the urn with the ashes is not my uncle. That is just an earthly body. His spirit lives on." I know this person well and could say, "yes that is true, but it is only through an earthly body that we know a person, and his earthly presence will be missed."

We can conceive of God in terms of many abstract . . .

Read more: The Whole In One

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In the spring of 2003 a young man named Aaron Ralston was hiking alone in the canyons of Utah when an 800 pound boulder shifted and pinned his arm to the canyon wall. He struggled for five days to free his arm, but was unable. He had left no itinerary for anyone to come searching in case he went missing. Knowing this was a life or death decision, he first broke the bones of his forearm then proceeded to amputate his arm below the elbow with a dull pocket knife.1

When we find ourselves pinned between a rock and a hard place, the choices may not be as dramatic, but sometimes the solution can be life changing. Sometimes the changes can even be liberating.

Jacob and his family are headed home to Caanan and an encounter with Esau.
The reason they are headed home is because Jacob's relationship with his father in law, Laban had taken a turn for the worse.
Through a bit of very curious trickery, Jacob had ended up with the majority of . . .

Read more: Between The Rock and a Hard Place

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One of the bothersome details about the life of Jacob is his character. He is a schemer and deceiver, and yet God makes a covenant with him, just as he had with his grandfather, Abraham.
We know that the covenant of God has nothing to do with how good or how special we are, and has everything to do with how good God is; but the fact that the charade which Jacob and Rebekah pull on Isaac and Esau seems to be honored by God, leaves us with some serious questions. It does me, anyway.

It bothers me because we read in scripture that we are to love justice because God does. Scripture is filled with examples of God meting out punishment to the unjust and wicked.
But here we read how Jacob deceives his father and brother and seems to be rewarded. It's not hard to understand that God loves Jacob as much as anyone, but his behavior seems to be tolerated too.
At no point does God seem to intervene saying, "Jacob, stop that!"

But what goes around comes around, and Jacob ends up . . .

Read more: What Goes Around, Comes Around

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One of the underlying goals of space research is the search for life beyond ourselves.
When any of the building blocks of life, primarily water, carbon and nitrogen are found there is considerable excitement. The same is true for new suns with planets orbiting them. The thought is the same...maybe there is someone else out there.

Various geographic locations have led to speculation about them being doorways to other worlds. The pyramids of Egypt and Central America as well as Machu Pichu in South America have become fuel for people looking for celestial doorways.
Apparently even Sri Lanka is considered a doorway to other worlds.

History is full of sacred shrines where people have reported divine experiences such as Lourdes in France, Delphi in ancient Greece and Bethel of Genesis. People have considered the places holy and come to worship and seek guidance and healing.

The story in Genesis 28 describes the background to the town of Bethel which was . . .

Read more: Surely God is in This Place

  1. A Husband for Rebekah
  2. The Years of the Locust
  3. End-Run
  4. David's Grief Observed

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