1. Free As Sons
   
2. Does "Go Ye" Mean "Go Me?"
   
3. Are We Really Born Again?
   
4. The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel
   
5. Silence Says Something
   
6. Body Language
   
7. Repentance Before Faith
   
8. I Wonder
   
9. Can I Know?
   
10. Ultimate Logical Conclusions
    
11. Errors in Peter's Sermon
    
12. Did Timothy Need Admonition?
    
13. Jesus' Youth Sermon For Adults
    
14. Why Didn't Paul Reform?
    
15. Christmas
    
16. Let The Unmarried Marry
    
17. A Dialect of Division
    
18. Our Traditions
    
19. Adding Our Safeguards
    
20. According To The Pattern
    
21. A Creed In The Deed
    
22. Samuel Did Not Know The Lord!
    
23. Response From Our Readers
    
24. Cries Of A Troubled Church
    
25. Sharing Without Fellowship
    
26. I Joined A Church
    
27. Open Membership
    
28. Another Last Will And Testament
    
29. Sad Thoughts About Church Growth
    
30. My Four Retirement Homes
    
31. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

I WONDER

I wonder if you and I wonder about the same things. Let's compare. Here are some things that I wonder about as my mind wanders.

I wonder why that, in Bible class art work for children, we never see any dinosaurs entering the ark with the other animals.

I wonder why we have no interview with Lazarus after his being raised from the dead.

I wonder if a preacher would still be qualified after a sex change operation.

I wonder why a woman can write out an announcement for a man to read in the assembly but cannot read it herself.

I wonder how all that fossil fuel could have gotten underground in the Middle East without disturbing the topography with which the Garden of Eden is identified.

I wonder why the Spirit would say "about twenty-five or thirty furlongs." Didn't he know the exact distance? (John 6:19)

I wonder how the kangaroos got from the ark to Australia and why they suppressed their reproductive instincts till they got there, leaving no progeny in other parts of the route.

I wonder, if man had been six­fingered, would we have arrived at six steps of salvation and six acts of worship?

I wonder why instead of asking God to give the preacher "a ready recollection of the things he has prepared," we don't pray rather that God would give him something of depth and relevance to say, even if he has to depend upon his own memory and notes in delivering it.

I wonder if, presuming that it is sinful for a woman to teach a man, when a woman prophesied by the Spirit, she sinned if she ever revealed to men what she prophesied.

I wonder why we have no biography of Jesus written by Mary.

I wonder if a person can really think of nothing, for, if he thinks of it, it must be something.

I wonder why the old folk who wish they could go ahead and die so as to be with the Lord are usually so careful that they hardly give the Lord a chance to take them.

I wonder if humming of spiritual songs is singing or playing, or is it neither, being a separate "act of worship." And, is it the tune that is spiritual, or the words, or is it the thoughts and feelings which they nurture that are spiritual worship?

I wonder if ancient people ordinarily talked in poetic form like Job and the other characters in Job did. Or, were they all inspired by the Spirit to speak poetically? If so, were not all their expressions inspired messages from God rather than their own thoughts?

I wonder where Adam got the tools with which to dress the Garden of Eden. Would "necessary inference" demand either that God made them for him, that Adam invented tools, or that they had hardware stores then? And I wonder, if the father of the race had tools, how do we account for the fact that certain tribes of his descendants did not have them later?

I wonder if a faithful disciple who lost his identity through amnesia and lived a sinful life in his new identity would be saved or lost.

I wonder why God did not lead man to develop better paper and invent printing and better methods of preserving records before giving us the Scriptures.

I wonder why God made such an incomprehensibly vast universe when such an infinitesimal part of it would be inhabited by man or serve his needs.

I wonder what we mean when we sing, "My life will end in deathless sleep where the soul of man never dies.

I wonder why undenominational churches always become undenominational denominations.

I wonder if there were any women Pharisees.

I wonder why the Holy Spirit did not organize his material better when giving it to men.

I wonder why the Holy Spirit did not give us one "book" on each of the subjects of worship, elders, women, marriage, divorce, etc. Listing all applicable rules, regulations, specifications, and restrictions.

I wonder why God made some snakes to be poisonous and others not.

I wonder why our super­scrupulous people will include a song in our hymnals which has no spiritual connotation in it "Precious Memories."

I have wondered also why a spiritual reformer is a saintly prophet, if I agree with him, but he is a fanatical heretic, if I disagree with him. I wonder why God does not reveal his will to each of us individually so that we may all have equal opportunity and a common understanding.

As we sing of our God being "beyond the azure blue," I wonder if we are really trusting that he is in, with, and about us at all times.

I wonder why the Israelites and the prophets never spoke of Adam and Eve.

I wonder why preachers are seldom invited back for guest appearances in the congregations with which they formerly worked.

I wonder why the Lord does not always put the desire to preach and the ability to do so in the same men.

I wonder why the Lord lets us do our most energetic work while we know the least and then lets maturity be taken away by old age.

I wonder what the carnivorous animals ate on the ark.

I wonder that God would let most people be born into this life through natural instincts or lust instead of purposeful desire by parents.

I wonder if Carpus' wife had already cleaned house and given Paul's coat to Goodwill by the time Titus went by to pick it up (2 Tim. 4: 13).

I wonder when I shall meet that person who is "satisfied with just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold."

I wonder if God overlooks our conduct which results from our bad genetic inheritance, or is that the iniquity of the fathers visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation?

You have been psychoanalyzing me by noting the things that cause me to wonder. I wonder what your diagnosis is!