Jim Novell

In Matthew 2:1-12 we have the story of wise men from the East coming to Jerusalem sometime after Jesus’ birth, bringing with them ultra-valuable gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and inquiring, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship […]

It is the time of the year when movies with a Christmas theme fill the TV schedule, and one of the most beloved is It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.  Stewart plays the character of George Baily, who as a child and young man had great ambitions to get out of

What was the most wonderful gift you received as a kid?  Mine was a Lionel Satellite Train I received for Christmas when I was about ten or eleven years old.  It was an electric train having five cars, one of which was a satellite launcher that when the train started up, air blowing up from

Mankind’s prideful and many times violent attempts to conquer, to defeat, to vanquish, to rule over, even annihilate one another has been prevalent throughout human history. Wars and insurrections, crime and rioting, racial prejudice and governmental injustice are at the far extreme. However, similar efforts are seen in political races, marital conflicts, sibling rivalry and

Glory, I noted in a previous post, is a term representing the extreme brightness, weightiness or value of a person or object; the outshining or expression of their greatness, magnificence, beauty and splendor. When we are greatly attracted to the extraordinary beauty, excellence or magnificence of a person, object or event, we are attracted to

I begin with three (somewhat) interesting facts. Fact 1: 17.5 million Americans spend 16.5 billion dollars on cosmetic (plastic) surgery each year.  Fact 2: 2.75 million Americans have cosmetic dental surgery each year.  Fact 3:  382 Billion dollars a year is spent annually in the world on cosmetics, make-up as it is most commonly referred

No cartoon scared me more as a child than Walt Disney’s adaptation of Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.  The main character is Ichabod Crane, a school master who had a strong belief in the supernatural, including the legend of a headless horseman. Ichabod begins courting a wealthy heiress but has a

Why did God_____ (you fill in the blank)?  This is a question typically asked by both those of us trying to understand God’s actions in the Bible that we find disturbing or perplexing, such as why He commanded King Saul to wipe out all the tribe of the Amalekites including infants and children (1 Samuel

It would have been rare in ancient times, or even today, to have a king or ruler of a nation proclaiming the greatness, the goodness and the glory of another.  In our fallen condition, we tend to have very high thoughts/opinions of ourselves and very low thoughts of those in authority, particularly of God, whom

One of my favorite movies is a fictional Revolutionary War film, The Patriot.  It stars Mel Gibson as Captain Benjamin Martin, a veteran war hero of the French and Indian War. He is now a civilian, and a member of the South Carolina General Assembly that is debating support for the Continental Army to go