In a recent Turning Point Daily Devotional, David Jeremiah writes: “A Latin phrase has survived for two millennia: sine qua non. Like many Latin words and phrases, it is rarely translated into English. Instead, it is used in its Latin form. A literal translation explains why: “[that] without which not.” To paraphrase, sine qua non means “something indispensable or essential,” as in anatomy …
On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on …
While on a road trip, an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant and resumed their trip. When leaving, the elderly woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table and she didn’t miss them until they had been driving about twenty minutes. By then, to add to the aggravation, they …
In his sermon “Glamour is not greatness,” Victor Pentz tells of attending commencement ceremonies at Stanford University when Professor David Kennedy was speaking “of the old West, wherein the regions where the railroad had not yet reached, people traveled by stagecoach. Stagecoach lines in those days offered three levels of ticket: first class, second class, and third class. “If you …
“The famous one-time Catholic monk, Martin Luther, was legendary not just for nailing a piece of paper to the door of his home church citing 95 things that needed to be changed about it. He wrote and lectured extensively to his students at the university as well. Some of his students were very good learners, and others were not so …
A cantor, the man who sings the prayers at a synagogue, brags before his congregation in a booming, bellowing voice: “Two years ago I insured my voice with Lloyds of London for $750,000.” There is a hushed and awed silence in the crowded room. Suddenly, from the back of the room, the voice of an elderly woman is heard: “So …
In his Turning Point Daily Devotional for October 12, David Jeremiah writes: “It was hard to watch this year’s French Open without shedding a tear during the tennis match between Juan Martín del Potro and Nicolás Almagro. The score was tied when Almagro’s knee gave out. As Almagro realized what had happened, he broke down, fell backward in defeat, and …
How long would you continue to fly with an airline whose motto was “Safety Standards are Fine for Those Who Are Uptight About It, But Our Engineers Aren’t So Narrow”? How excited would you be about going under the scalpel of a surgeon who told you: “You know, I never bothered much with anatomy in med school, since all medical …
“A family of five was enjoying their day at the beach. The children were playing in the ocean and making sand castles when in the distance a little old lady appeared. Her gray hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes were dirty and ragged. She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach …
In a recent Turning Point Daily Devotional, David Jeremiah writes: “A California newspaper recently published a picture of a note scribbled by a woman named Wanda. She slid it under the front door of her neighbor, whose name she did not even know. The note said: ‘Mrs.? Would you consider to become my friend? I’m 90-years-old—live alone and all my friends …
