Stories and other stuff

One of the most important things I've learned about being a Christian is that it's not about religion, but about a personal relationship with the Risen Lord.  And part of that relationship that we can have with God because of Jesus is one where we're listening for God's voice. I do that.  Sometimes I hear it through His word, and last week I could kind of understand some things that God would have me do.  I've been waiting for something and I may be waiting for a little while longer.  It's not an answer I wanted to prayer, but that answer was more than one that involves just waiting. God reminded me through some things that I need to be living my life. I know these verses from Jeremiah 29, but this premise was explained to me in a couple of different ways.  These are from Jeremiah 29:4-7   4  This is what the  Lord  Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried  into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:   5  “Bu...

I have long ago abandoned any idea that I have control over my life.  I surrendered that long ago when it became abundantly clear that fighting for control from God was akin to spitting in the wind.  I'm surrendered and plan on staying that way. Yesterday at church, one of my fellow church members shared this thought with me:  You're always so busy doing this or that.  You really need to take ten minutes out just to have coffee and a chat.  I can always make time for that; there's always time for making time for important things like that.  The problem is that I work nights and he's retired, so his idea of me making ten minutes typically looks like a Tuesday morning at far earlier than I want to get up. My week looks like this: Monday:  Bible Study. Tuesday:  Mow the lawn at the church.  I like to do this on Tuesdays because every other Tuesday is hot dog day. Wednesday:  Whatever gets thrown at me Thursday:  This is the da...

One of the things that interests me these days is the argument people make about how they don't believe the Bible because it was written by man.  That's true, and the argument I would make is that it was inspired by God and written by man. I had a lesson in that today while preparing a sermon for tomorrow night's chapel service at the Rescue Mission.  I still can't believe I get to do this once a month and as usual, I never have any idea what I'm going to write about, past an idea.  My idea was to talk about peace.  I know I need God's peace in my life and I try to chase the peace.  When I have it, it's a huge indicator to me that I'm where I should be and looking up instead of anywhere else tends to invite that peace into my life.  That's another story, though. I googled some Bible verses about God's peace which led me to Isaiah 55 which is an invitation from God.  A sermon that was supposed to be about peace turned into an invitation from ...