KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Kneemail - Christian Living
ANCIENT WRESTLING MATCHES weren't for the squeamish or timid... Hoping to see some clean takedowns, reversals, and figure-four leg locks? Better look elsewhere. During the time of the Roman Empire, little things like kicking, biting, and scratching were perfectly acceptable...
NATIONWIDE, ALMOST FIVE million acres have been torched by wildfires this year... In Montana alone, 2,000 fires have raged over 457,000 acres. The Washington Post called it "a 100 year catastrophe" for the state (Susan Gallagher, "Western Wildfires Show No...
ONE OF THE childhood memories I have of my grandma and granddad's house in Reader, West Virginia was the "slop bucket" they kept by the kitchen sink... Now, for those of you who don't know what a slop bucket is,...
WESLEY BRITT WAS a 6-foot-8-inch, 312-pound lineman for the Crimson Tide (University of Alabama)... He was one of 22 football players nationwide chosen to the Playboy All-American team. With the honor came a free week at the mansion, the opportunity...
IT IS A certain and obvious truth that we reap as we sow... The notion, however, that somehow the consequences can be avoided accompanies every temptation. Satan would have us believe that we need never regret our transgressions. But there...
MICHAEL HODGEN TELLS a rather humorous story about a man dressed in a devil outfit who was on his way to a costume party when suddenly he got caught in a rain storm. Searching for cover from the downpour, the...
GOD INSTRUCTED MOSES to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of bondage (Exo. 3)... The reason given by God for Moses' return to Egypt at this time was that God had "surely seen the oppression of My people...
JESUS TOLD THE twelve to get into a boat on the Sea of Galilee... As they started across the sea, everything was smooth and calm, and Jesus went to sleep. Suddenly a huge wind blasted on the sea and the...
IN ANCIENT TIMES...the finest pottery was thin... It had a clear color, and it brought a high price. Fine pottery was very fragile both before and after firing. And...this pottery would [often] crack in the oven. Cracked pottery should have...
THE STORY IS told of a Bible class teacher who was telling her Bible class the parable of the good Samaritan... She described in great detail how this man was brutally beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side...
MY NEIGHBOR SEEMED upset with me... Apparently I had done something that bothered her. When I asked if I had offended her, she responded with a curt "No!" I told her, "I don't want any bad feelings between us." Since...
WHEN I WAS a boy, I had a bike that I had grown tired of... There wasn't anything wrong with it, I just wanted something better...a 10-speed. So I took my fire-engine red, Huffy bicycle, with a white banana seat,...
I WATCHED SNIPPETS of the World Cup this year for the first time... I got to see the last several minutes of the second overtime and the penalty kicks. However, the big story was not the "action" on the field,...
TELL ME HOW to show love without spending time, energy or money and I will gladly sign up... Tell me that love means sacrifice, however, and I become reluctant to commit myself. Maybe that is why some Christians emphasize the...
"NO ONE CAN serve two masters," declared Jesus to his disciples (Matt. 6:24)... However, Christians have spent the greater portion of the past two millenniums apparently trying to prove Jesus wrong. We have told ourselves that we can indeed have...
WORRY IS WIDESPREAD and is a universal problem... It is not limited to any one class. The poor and rich, the cultured and the unlearned and both the young and old worry. We worry about how to get money, and,...
A REAL CHRISTIAN is an odd number anyway... He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself...
HAVING A BAD day...? This morning you woke up tired and grumpy, and things haven't gone right from that moment. You took the dog out and he wouldn't come back in, so you spent a lot of time coaxing him...
IT IS NOT enough to be willing to listen... Jesus told His disciples to let His words sink down into their ears, i.e., lodge within their minds and take up permanent residence. In John 5, Jesus confronted the Jews who...
SOLOMON IS A disturbing biblical character... He begins his reign wisely, blessed by God with an incredible wisdom. God allows him to build a glorious temple. Wealth and wisdom are his; what more could a man want? But instead of...
THE RUNNERS IN an NCAA cross-country track championship held in Riverside, California, came to a turn that was not well-marked... Mike Delcavo knew the way and waved frantically for the other runners to follow him. Only four did. One hundred...
EVERY 27 MINUTES someone in this country is killed by alcohol... Thirty million families suffer because a father, or a mother, or both are alcoholics. Beverage alcohol kills more than 200,000 Americans each year. 80,000 died at Hiroshima, 35,000 died...
SHORTLY BEFORE HIS death, the Duke of Burgundy was presiding over the Cabinet Council of France... A proposal was made by the ministers that would violate a treaty but would secure important advantages for the country. Many reasons were offered...
GREAT SUCCESS DOES not always come from a single effort... Worthwhile things are always worth trying and striving for, even if we must try again and again. In the year 1917, a tornado destroyed our home, blew it away...
YEARS AGO, A radio station received a letter from a shepherd who lived on an isolated ranch in the western part of the United States... Never before had the station received such an unusual request. It read, "Will you please...
WALKING PAST MY barn one day, I heard a frantic chirping inside, and upon investigation I found a bluejay beating its wings against the glass pane of the window... Had it not cried and squawked, I would not have heard...
ON MARCH 20, 1980, MOUNT St. Helens in Washington, a supposedly dormant volcano, began to quake and rumble... The local population was evacuated to a "safe" distance 8 miles away. Later, the side of the mountain began to bulge. Scientists...
THERE WAS A time when I thought I had to have warm, glowing, intimate feelings toward those who had hurt me in the past and continued to wound me severely... I was frustrated on how to force those feelings. Upon...
THE WARDEN ASKED the man on death row what he would like to eat for his last meal... The inmate said, "I would like a huge piece of watermelon." The warden replied, "You must be kidding! This is December. Watermelons...
SOMETIMES GOD ALLOWS trouble to continue in order to teach us to be patient... Moses seemed to think that the exodus would commence the moment he started obeying God. But godliness does not guarantee immediate results, and God's plans often...
INCREDIBLE AS IT sounds, Alexander Whortley lived in a mini-trailer 3 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 5 feet high until he died at the age of 80... It was made of wood, had a metal roof, and it housed...
A NEWSPAPER OBITUARY caught my eye with this statement: "Services today for affable fix-it man are today..." Instead of focusing on one of the movers and shakers of society, the article told the story of a 79-year-old appliance repairman who...
A PERIODICAL CALLED The War Cry carried a story about a tenant farmer who had worked hard for many years to improve the production of the land he leased... Then something happened that caused him to become very bitter. When...
KIM PEEK WAS running the 50-yard dash in the Olympics - specifically, the 1968 Special Olympics... You see, Kim was severely handicapped and brain-damaged. Kim was racing against two other handicapped athletes; both of them suffered with cerebral palsy and...
THERE'S A WONDERFUL moment in an otherwise mediocre movie that has always stayed with me... It sums up the attitude I think we should all adopt. The film is called The Gumball Rally, and it's about an illegal cross-country road...
EVERY YEAR, ABOUT 1500 "thru-hikers" set out to walk the entire Appalachian Trail in a single season... Only 10 percent complete the 2,160 miles of challenging terrain stretching from Georgia to Maine. One reason some people drop out early is...
OUR SOCIETY IS addicted to "reality..." I guess it started a good while back with crime shows like Cops and Real TV. Then, we made the switch to relationship shows like The Bachelor(ette). It seems that nothing is too sacred...
IN 1845, THE ill-fated Franklin Expedition sailed from England to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean... The crew loaded their two sailing ships with a lot of things they didn't need: a 1,200-volume library, fine china, crystal goblets, and...
BACK IN 1911, a stuntman named Bobby Leach went over Niagara Falls in a specially designed steel drum -- and lived to tell about it... Although he suffered minor injuries, he survived because he recognized the tremendous dangers involved in...
THE LOUVRE IN Paris is perhaps the most famous art museum in the world... It displays originals by such masters as Delacroix, Michelangelo, Rubens, da Vinci, Ingres, Vermeer, and many others. Since 1793, the Louvre has encouraged aspiring artists to...
FLICK "THAT'S TONIGHT at 8 on ABC..." Flick. "A high pressure system is moving in." Flick. "He kicked the ball wide of the goal!" Flick. "I'll take 'World History' for $600, Alex." Flick. "In the news today..." Flick. What's happening?...
CONTRITE IS ONE word that is used in the Old Testament to speak of brokenness... The word suggests something that is crushed into small particles or ground into powder, as a rock is pulverized. What is it that God wants...
A YOUNG NURSE was assisting a surgeon for the first time... As he was completing the operation, she told him he had used 12 sponges, but she could account for only 11. The doctor curtly replied that he had removed...
JAMES DEITZ HAS produced paintings of airplanes and their crews that are so realistic they look like photographs... His works hang in many aviation galleries in the United States, including the Smithsonian Institution. One of the paintings by Deitz, titled...
EVERYONE HAS A point somewhere in the geography of their souls marking the limits of their faith... It is the point at which faith begins to unravel. For younger Christians, that point may be just around the corner; seasoned believers...
I REMEMBER ESPECIALLY one year when, at the invitation of a neighbor, I joined a therapy group at a nearby hospital... This group, called Make Today Count, consisted of people who were dying, and I accompanied my neighbor to their...
BRIG. GEN. NORMAN "Dutch" Cota, assistant division commander of the 29th, came on a group of infantry pinned down by some Germans in a farmhouse... He asked the captain in command why his men were making no effort to take...
ONE OF MY favorite cartoon characters is the Roadrunner... Don't laugh. You can learn a lot about life from the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. For example, when the coyote tries to trap his nemesis, he often piles bird seed...
ONE MORNING WHILE Alfred Nobel was reading the paper, he was shocked to discover his own obituary... Someone at the newspaper had obviously made a great error and falsely reported that he had died. You might say that Nobel was...
IN THE ANCIENT Olympic and Isthmian games, an athlete would begin training ten months before the race... A long-distance runner would submit to rigorous discipline. He would undergo disciplined eating and sleeping habits, an exercise program, and his daily running...
IN THE ANCIENT athletic games, a fragile, leafy crown was awarded the winner... This garland -- called the victor's crown -- was a collection of pine leaves, wild olive leaves, parsley, celery leaves, or ivy. In the Isthmian Games, the...
HE WAS ONE of the most colorful generals of WWII... George Patton swept through Europe like a gale wind with his pearl-handled revolver and his flair for publicity. Someone once asked him, "How do you do it? Where on earth...
DURING A REHEARSAL at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, the renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini offered some constructive criticism to the featured soloist... She was too proud to accept his help, however, and expressed her resentment by exclaiming...
HERE'S A THOUGHT that should give everyone pause: there's no such thing as a private moment... One of Satan's oldest tactics is to weave a phony web of secrecy, casting an illusion of privacy over our sinful choices. He tells...
IN AUGUST OF 1991, I was told I had brain cancer, and my chances of living another five years were, at best, 50-50... When word of this leaked out to my friends, two of them began a letter-and-card-writing campaign, and...
A DONKEY FOUND a lion's skin and put it on... Disguised as a lion, he went into the woods and pastures and threw the flocks and herds into a dreadful fear. At last, he met his owner who saw his...
WHEN THE LEGENDARY Bear Bryant coached the University of Alabama's football team, he had a strict rule against drinking... He also had a star quarterback named Joe Namath. There came a time when Namath admitted that he and some friends...