Daly Focus Blog
The murder of Robert Godwin, Sr., on Easter Sunday shocked the nation. The 74-year-old Ohio resident was walking home from a holiday meal with his family when he was shot and killed by a complete stranger.
The murderer recorded the killing on his phone and later uploaded it to Facebook where it was watched thousands of times.
After a two-day manhunt, the man who pulled the trigger took his own life as police moved in to arrest him.
Many women who have been sexually assaulted endure a similar struggle: “God, where were you?”
That’s a gut-wrenching question with no easy answers, but it deserves a heart-felt response. Few people can offer hope and healing in the wake of sexual assault better than our guests on today’s and tomorrow’s programs, Leila Sommerfield and Kathleen Terrill.
They understand sexual assault as only survivors can, and they’ll be sharing exactly where they believe God was in the midst of some of their deepest suffering.
Humorist Erma Bombeck once said, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain.”
Chonda Pierce has been tip-toeing that line for a long time. She’s been doing stand-up comedy for 25 years and is the top-selling female comic in history. She has a unique ability to describe life’s most challenging moments all while making you laugh out loud with her humor.
Focus on the Family was privileged to have Chonda as a guest speaker at a recent chapel service here at the ministry.
Today is Good Friday, and many of us will be spending a portion of the day in church or at home, thinking reflectively about the sacrifice our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ made when He gave His life for us on Calvary.
It’s something American Christians can do without worry or concern, because we live in a nation where, despite some cultural opposition, we can worship freely and without persecution.
But around the world, there are fellow believers who are risking their lives every time they meet for corporate worship – especially during holidays like Holy Week.
Today is Maundy Thursday, the date marking the end of Lent and the beginning of the Easter Triduum—the three-day period leading up to Easter Sunday. The term “Maundy” stems from the Latin word “mandatum”—which means “commandment” and alludes to Jesus’ words as recorded in the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
When you think about it, this is the essence of who Jesus is and why He came to earth, isn’t it?
Tomorrow is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter. Those holidays don’t mean much for a lot of families. It’s just another routine Friday followed by a warm spring day where kids get all the candy they want and hunt for colorful eggs.
There’s a deeper significance to those days that many people overlook. I remember years ago, back when video stores were still around. My wife and I went looking for a well-known film that told the story of Easter.
Laura Story and her husband Martin Elvington have often told people that their marriage went from the honeymoon straight to the E.R.! That wasn’t just a metaphor.
Barely two years into their lives together, they thought the world was open to them. They could do anything they wanted to do, and they were happily anticipating all that God may have had in store.
Within a few months of a big move to Atlanta for Martin to attend grad school, he began experiencing physical symptoms that went undiagnosed for nearly a year.
“How much is enough?”
Somebody asked John D. Rockefeller that once. His answer?
“Just a little bit more.”
I wonder if most of us secretly agree with him. We try to be content, but it’s hard with so many shiny things to choose from and advertisers convincing us of needs we didn’t know we even had. We’re easily lulled into believing that we could be happy if we had just a little bit more.
But how much is enough?
As author and speaker Lee Strobel tells it, someone once came between him and his wife, Leslie, that almost destroyed their marriage. It wasn’t a co-worker or an old boyfriend.
It was Jesus Christ.
Leslie had become a Christian. Lee remained a staunch atheist.
Their worldviews were diametrically opposed to one another. The friction that created is why God gave us the sort of wisdom found in 2 Corinthians 6:14, which says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”
Yokes were heavy wooden implements that were fitted over the necks of two animals, so they could pull a plow together.
Ask a 20-something a few generations back what their religious affiliation was, and chances were the answer would fall within predictable lines: Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Jewish, for example.
Ask the same question of today’s young adults, otherwise known as “Millennials,” and you might hear something new.
“I’m spiritual,” they might say, or “I believe in a higher power, but I’m not religious.”
That’s because Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are more comfortable than any other generation in identifying their religious affiliation as “none of the above.”
In fact, about 35 percent of adult Millennials are religiously unaffiliated, according to Pew Research Center.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
