Jim Novell

The Book of Psalms in the Old Testament served as the songbook or hymnal of God’s people Israel.  The Psalms represent the heart cries of God’s covenant people then as well as today.  They are cries to Him of praise and thanksgiving, cries of exultation in His law, cries for help in time of trouble, […]

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, …   Proverbs 13:12 Over the past couple of years there has been significant attention given in the media to an alarming increase of what are referred to as “deaths of despair”, which are defined as deaths by suicide or those associated with reckless alcohol or drug abuse.  Nearly 182,000

At the 2004 Democratic Party convention, a little know candidate for the Senate named Barak Obama delivered the keynote address which he titled The Audacity of Hope, a speech which later became a book titled The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, which in 2006 became a New York Times best seller.

I love spell check.  If a word is not spelt (spelled) correctly or is a made-up word, you can just hit “add to dictionary” and voila, a new word is born. Just what is a coronavirusing, social justiceing, God ignoring world?  From a Biblical perspective, it is a world in which every person knows that

The term glory is a term rarely used or understood in our modern society. Its dictionary definition is that of effulgence (brightness or outshining of an object such as a star); the weightiness or value of an object, event or person; the measure of someone or something’s greatness, magnificence, beauty and splendor. When we greatly

“O that a new man would rise up within me and conquer the man that I am.”   Author Unknown    The above is a quote I heard or read a number of years ago.  I don’t remember the context in which I heard or read it and have been unable to find it again in any

In my previous two posts I wrote on the beauty and magnificence, the dignity and significance with which God created mankind, male and female, for His glory (Isaiah 43:7); so that the infinite perfections of His being would be seen, known, praised, enjoyed and rejoiced in within man’s relationship with God and one another, with

I have noted in previous posts that the Bible is God’s gracious self-revelation of His infinitely glorious person and purposes in creation.  It is given to us by God to present to our hearts and minds God as the most glorious, most desirable, most excellent, most essential, most valuable being in all the universe –

In my previous post I presented man (mankind) as he sees – defines himself, apart from God, which is as purely a physical being, essentially a cosmic accident, a product of complex impersonal evolutionary processes; what Pastor Brian Borgman colorfully refers to as “sophisticated slime” or “well dressed matter in motion.” As such, man’s significance,

Does your life matter?  Does any life matter?  When I ask this question, I am using the word matter as a verb, to inquire if your life has any intrinsic or inherent significance and importance, any meaning and purpose, any ultimate dignity or value.  If you say yes, my next question of course will be,