In our Sunday School class this past week, our very excellent teacher confessed that she was going to struggle to present the assigned lesson. The reason it was going to be difficult for her she said, was because the lesson was covering the Book of Psalms, and there are no stories in Psalms. All of…
Author: Emil Hanson
On The Seven Deadly Sins
This very day, the day that I am writing this thought, is the Fourth of July, 2015. It is approximately 239 years from the time we officially declared our independence from British rule in the United States. As I was collecting my thoughts, jets flew over our town from a nearby Air Force base. That…
On Johnny Lingo
Johnny lingo was the name of a short film shown in Sunday School classes many years ago. Now a new version has been made on video. The new version was recently played again for us during a church meeting. I don’t believe that I will ever forget that very important message of being an eight…
On Change
It has been said that “change is inevitable.” Kathy Hall stated that “Change never hurt anyone except when it was thrown from the Empire State Building.” Looking back at my life, it would appear that I have believed that and, in fact, it has been a catalyst for change most all of my life. My…
On Bad Guys In the Bible
There have always been bad guys, and there always will be bad guys, and if we were to carefully evaluate each of our lives, we may bring to remembrance a time when we might have qualified as a bad guy ourselves. Bad guys were probably not always bad guys or were not considered bad guys…
On The Sweet Words We Never Would Say
There are several nationalities where the customs are such that it is very unusual for people to express love and show tenderness. Whether that is supposed to be a sign of weakness or they may believe their children will grow up to be more independent if less affection is shown, I don’t know. I do…
On Comprehension
There is an interesting story about a young boy vacationing with his parents on a Lake Michigan beach near a sand dune called Mount Baldy. That young boy and a friend were racing to the top of the sand dune when he, all of a sudden, disappeared into the sand. People and rescue crews came…
On Perfection vs. Natural Man
I was contemplating some things this morning and had a couple bursts of thoughts. We sometimes accept our inability to ever be perfect in this life as an excuse to not obey all of the commandments. This is a falsehood. We are expected to be strictly obedient to all the commandments. Our imperfection is a…
On Coming To Oneself
I have heard that statement, “Coming to oneself,” several times in the last few months, and prior to that, I seldom remember hearing it. Yet, the other day, someone quoted from the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:17): “And when he came to himself…” When I heard that quote, then I remembered the parable,…
On A Yes Face
We all have a face, a unique face, “like” as well as “unlike” everybody else’s face. That may sound a great deal like double talk. But it’s true. Our face is unique and different from all other faces. That is a scientific fact. Every face has pretty much the same general features: eyes, nose, mouth,…