Jim Novell

I would like to begin this post with a series of questions that are not meant to be judgmental, but diagnostic. # 1 – What is it or who is it that gives your life meaning and purpose, value and significance? # 2 – In what or whom do you pursue and find your greatest […]

Hi. My name is Jim and I am an idolater. My idols of choice have been me, as evidenced by my pride, selfishness and self-centeredness.  They have at one time or another in my life included the idols of sports and athletics, the idol of money/financial security, the idols of physical comfort and ease, the

Jesus Christ matters as the One who is preeminent among all mankind because: He is the One who Joseph was instructed by an angel to give Him the name of Jesus, for He would   save His people (those who believe and entrust their lives to Him), from the eternal consequences of their sin (Matthew 1:20-21).

In my previous post I noted that it is right and good to believe and say that all lives matter, that every person is equal in dignity and value as a being made in the image of God for the glory of God.  Yet there is one whose life matters more than that of any

It is right and good to believe and say that all lives matter, that every person is equal in dignity and value as a being made in the image of God for the glory of God. However, there is one person, one man, whose life matters more than that of any other man, infinitely more,

I continue on this dark, dreaded and scornful topic of sin, not because I find it fascinating or take some perverse delight in doing so, but because I believe that until we begin to comprehend the breadth, length and depth of our sin; how vile and detestable it is in the eyes of God and

(I am taking a break from the topic of sin, to encourage you with the following.) In a time of non-stop fear mongering and government overreach regarding COVID 19, civil unrest and violent demonstrations, along with mean spirited/divisive political maneuvering, we look to the prophet Isaiah who encourages God’s people with the following: “You will

In Luke 10:25-28 we have an interchange between Jesus and one of the religious leaders of His day who questions Jesus as to what he must do to inherit eternal life, referring to the glorious life with God for which mankind was created in the beginning; the life that was lost, forfeited because of Adam’s

Almost 50 years ago, a world-renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger, founder of the famed Menninger Clinic and Menninger Foundation, wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin?  In it he expressed concern that the concept of sin, of moral culpability for our actions to God and neighbor, was being eliminated in an increasingly secularized culture

Anna and Simeon lived 2000 years ago as aging members of an oppressed people under the rule of Rome, the most powerful and brutal nation in the world. The world at that time was, as it is today, a broken world; a world where conflict and violence, suffering and death were the norm; a world