Stories and other stuff

I just watched the President speak on TV.  It looks like the doctors prevailed today and we're gonna stay away from each other for thirty more days, at least, and maybe look at June 1 for some things to get back to kinda normal. I don't know what our new normal is going to look like.  I never know what's going to happen in the next five minutes, let alone tomorrow.  But I got reminded in a whisper that we're playing "The Long Game." There's a passage in Scripture that speaks about this; it's Galatians 6:7-9 and it reads like this from the NIV:  Do not be deceived:  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life.  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gang, we're paying the long game here.  The better we play it, the less people get dead....

This is a message I gave at the Rescue Mission last year. It's just some stories from the Bible and how they relate to us today. Hope it's a blessing to you.... Anybody wanna hear some stories tonight?  I thought it might be a change of pace to just listen to some stories before dinner instead of bringing a more traditional message.  It’s Saturday night, it’s spring, and we’re in the middle of a big celebration that remembers a story that came to its end in the middle of the west desert in a little place called Promontory Point.  That story when it was finished, ushered in a new chapter for our country, and tied our country together from coast to coast. Stories are important ways to remember things that happened in the past.  If you’ve ever spent time with veterans, they love to tell war stories. Older people love to tell stories about the good old days.  And some of us have stories that have some dark chapters that we’d just as soon never tell. ...

I keep a prayer list.  Most of the time I write it down, pray for the people on it, and then add it to a growing pile on my desk.  I keep the lists because when God answers the prayers, I circle them.  It's a reminder to me that God is faithful and He does hear, and answer those prayers. I wrote a really good blog post you didn't get to read the other day about the house adventure.  I talked about how God was faithful and answered every prayer about it, one way or the other.  I didn't publish it, because I think there's more to that story; not for me getting that house though, but far more to the story, so it remains on my list. I read a book a while back called "The prayer circle".  I prayed pretty hard for that thing I circled in prayer.  I pray pretty much every day for that thing.  Because that thing involves a person and it hasn't come to fruition yet, I haven't forgotten God's still working that situation and I pray for it.  I'm pra...

Mission Essential.  Those two words sound really important, do they not?  They imply some sort of critical need an organization or a society has.  I've been on the receiving end of that moniker more than once in my life.  A couple of times it meant I got to go to work without any guarantees that I'd be paid for the time I got to go.  I always was, but I never got any extra vacation time for the time I worked and others were furloughed and got paid for being off work.  I don't say that in a mean way.  It's just part and parcel of the gig I have been blessed to have for a very long time. I saw a disturbing set of comments from the Lt. Governor of the Republic of Texas.  I have a co-worker who is from Ft. Worth and he's reminded all of us that, technically, Texas is still a Republic, but that's a rabbit trail for another day.  Anyway, he seems to be concerned that we're going to break the economy so bad that it won't recover by staying home, s...

Prophesy is a real thing, and I know for a fact that sometimes God tells me what He's going to do in my life before He does it.  I don't have the gift of prophesy.  I want to be clear about that but sometimes God uses others to speak a prophetic word into our lives.  My dream died at 1130 this morning.  Well that's probably not an accurate statement.  My dream died a couple of weeks ago.  I knew.  I saw something someone who God uses to speak into my life shared a post on Facebook that said that sometimes it's more about the ask from God than it is about the results.  That and another post that talked about how sometimes God lets the worst thing happen to bring us closer to him.  I saw them back to back, and it's when I knew that the possibility of me losing that dream was real. Shortly after that, and one of the few times I know for sure that I heard from Him, it was a word in season for me:  It's necessary. That word came with a ...

Hey everyone, I hope Sunday finds you well. As I said yesterday on Facebook, right now, there's a real need for the Church to be the Church. It's never ever been about the building; the building is just where we meet to worship together, and God willing, we will be able to do that again, soon. In my effort to "be the church", I wanted to share this with you today Below you will find a message I gave in April of 2019 at the chapel service at the Rescue Mission. I thought it was fitting for the day and I hope it's a blessing to you. Good evening, and on behalf of the staff of the Ogden Rescue Mission, I’d like to welcome you to tonight’s chapel service.  The chapel service is a chance to stop for a few minutes and worship the God who provides; God knows our needs, and one of the many ways he chooses to meet them is through the services provided by the Ogden Rescue Mission. God knows and meets the physical needs of His children, but He also knows that...