The Daily Memo

Listen One of the most remarkable things about human beings is how resilient we can be. The Primal Drive for Life can accomplish impressive things. Saint John took his suffering and brought forth beauty; Nelson Mandela survived twenty-seven years of imprisonment and brought forth forgiveness. Yet one of the most surprising things about human beings is how all that resilience can evaporate in a moment. One day the resources we have to sustain the Primal Drive for Life simply…

Listen In 2019, research exploring the spiritual heritage of believers in Jesus in the United States revealed that mothers and grandmothers have a significant influence on spiritual development. Nearly two-thirds of people who claim a legacy of faith credited their mother, and one-third acknowledged that a grandparent (usually a grandmother) also played a significant role. The report’s editor remarked, “Over and over, this study speaks to the enduring impact of…

Listen William Shatner played Captain Kirk on the television series Star Trek, but he was unprepared for a real trip into space. He called his eleven-minute sub-orbital flight “the most profound experience I can imagine.” He stepped out of his rocket and marveled, “To see the blue color go right by you and now you’re staring into blackness, that’s the thing.” You “look down and there’s the blue down there and the black up there.;…

Listen It stars Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando. Set in the Vietnam War, *Apocalypse Now* is a 1979 epic war film. The use of the word ‘*apocalypse’* is based on the popular misunderstanding of the word as ‘destruction’. The Greek word *apokalupsis*, translated ‘revelation’ (Revelation 1:1), is made up of two Greek words – *apo* (out of) and *kalupsis* (‘hiding’). The word actually means ‘*disclosure’*. In the…

Even as the darkness of death was present in his sickly body, Augustin-Jean Fresnel persisted in working on his powerful light. Finally, in the early 1820s, he tested the first Fresnel lens in France’s Cordouran lighthouse. The lens—a ring of beehive-like prisms—allowed sailors navigating dark, troubled waters to glimpse life-saving beams many, many nautical miles from land. Called “the invention that saved a million ships,” Fresnel’s…

Against the flesh, the traitor within, a warrior uses discipline. We have a two-dimensional version of this now, which we call a "quiet time." But most men have a hard time sustaining any sort of devotional life because it has no vital connection to recovering and protecting their strength; it feels about as important as flossing. But if you saw your life as a great battle and you knew you needed time with God for your very survival, you would do it. Maybe not perfectly&mdash…

When we trust in Christ, we become children of God. By using this language, Scripture indicates the nature of our relationship with Him: He is our Father, and we should respond as His children. This means we must learn to listen, obey, and love Him more and more. The Father speaks clearly to us through Scripture. Many people claim they’re interested in hearing from God yet struggle to find time to read His Word. Then there are those who say, “I don’t…

In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made the first purchase with bitcoin (a digital currency then worth a fraction of a penny each), paying 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas ($25). In 2021, at its highest value during the year, those bitcoins would have been worth well more than $500 million. Back before the value skyrocketed, he kept paying for pizzas with coins, spending 100,000 bitcoins total. If he’d kept those bitcoins, their value would’ve made him a billionaire sixty…

Freedom is good; freedom is what you are made for.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 We have been given the greatest freedom of all: freedom of heart, freedom from sin, a freedom that enables us to live and love as Jesus did. We can be free from: Bondage Sin The fear of man Shame Regret Rage Disappointment Addiction Fear You name it We are not only free from;…