Stories and other stuff

 I've been considering for a while now just how amazing God is and how God moves in my life in ways that just leave me gobsmacked.  When I was walking down the street in Chicago by myself a couple of weeks ago, I got a little word from God about something He wanted me to do. This particular thing came to pass today.  He told me what He wanted me to do, and then it came to pass that the opportunity presented itself and I did it. I'm working on a sermon I've had an idea for going on for about a month or so now.  I was concerned that the next opportunity to speak at a church might not be the right venue for the message, so God in his Providence provided me a different audience who this message might work for. You just never know what will happen when you say yes to God.

 Tomorrow is Independence Day.  It's the day we celebrate the birthplace of the idea of the United States of America.  Constitution Day comes later this year.  On the 4th, we celebrate the document signed that signified that Americans wanted to be a free people, under self-rule and free from the tyranny of their king. In the opening salvo of the document, they clearly point out that the rights they believe all men should have are given by their Creator.  According to the law of non-contradiction, the truths they hold to be "self-evident" (great words, are they not?) about how the Creator of the Universe blessed them with being created equal, says that for these words to be actually true, the Creator must be.  He cannot not be and have the Declaration of Independence be a truthful document. Our freedoms in America hinge on that document.  The people then fought a war over it.  We've been fighting wars ever since to keep and protect those freedoms....

I was in Chicago over the weekend where I found myself face to face with a sea of naked people riding bicycles through the heart of the city.  I can't describe it except to say that it's probably the most depraved thing I've seen in a long time. I get protesting.  I get that some people like being naked.  I also think that we used to have morals and community standards which prevented such displays from occurring.  The thing that strikes me about it is the lack of shame.  Some were only partially naked, but the vast majority were exposing things that used to be illegal to do in public. I don't understand but then, again, I do.  The apostle Paul warned us about the world in which we live today in his letter to Timothy where he describes the last days. I had to cross the street the parade of nudity went down to get back to my hotel and after the first glimpse of it, you become desensitized by it.  I wasn't gawking at naked people, but I was in literal sh...

 A lot going on in the world to be sure.  There are wars.  There are rumors of wars.  There is economic turmoil.  It's just getting harder and harder to stay afloat, it seems.  The time just flies, and here we are, over half way through 2023.   Among the distressful things to me this week was news that my favorite baseball team, the Dodgers, caved to some tremendous(/) pressure and decided to invite a group of men, dressed in drag, as nuns, to receive an award from the team over the weekend.  Had they done the right thing in the first place, I wouldn't even be writing this, but some things just go too far and this was one. The LGBTQ+ community is not, by population numbers, a large group in America.  Yet here we are, with June being called "pride month".  And many corporations are on board in what they see is a move that makes "smart business", I suppose.  I guess it is...until it's not anyway. There's backlash for this startin...

 It's interesting to me (I'd use the word funny here but funny only in the "How did you do  that?" kind of way) how God sometimes causes or allows things to happen to get our attention.  I had a little moment like that yesterday.  While the story is a private one, I can, in round-about terms explain the importance of recognizing what God is saying. During the sermon at church, there was a part where I really felt like the pastor was speaking directly to me. It was explaining how two different circumstances involving the same item (in this case, Joseph's robe) were used by God to shape an outcome that affected everything.  God, in His providence worked these circumstances to put Joseph where God wanted Him and twice, his robe (coat of many colors and the robe Potiphar's wife ripped off of him when he fled from her advances) was involved in advancing the story. I have a thing going on in my own life right now where I could glean some things from this part of the...

 Time is just flying by these days.  I do not know if it's just a by-product of getting older or if time is really flying by faster than it used to.  It seems to me, and to others I talk to that all of creation seems to be in a hurry these days. We live in trying times, to be sure.  We hear of wars and rumors of wars.  People call that which is bad, good; that which is good, bad.  We live in days that Paul wrote about and we see the signs of the times all around us.  And we wait, expectantly, for Jesus to return. The news today is distressing.  Our country is facing yet another first and I'm just mindful of something our pastor said on Sunday which was, "what goes around comes around."  It seems that what was wished on others has come to roost on the one who wished it.  I find no joy in seeing this happen.  I'm just mindful that I'd also heard this philosophy explained in another practical way by Dr. J Vernon McGee who put it this w...

A friend of mine who is a pastor reminded me about the topic of pride and God's feelings on the matter.  His thought that he shared online got me to thinking about the subject of pride and that's what today's post is about.   From an early age, I was taught the right thing the wrong way.  I was taught to take pride in my work but the meaning behind that sentiment was that I was to do the best job at whatever I was doing and find satisfaction that I had accomplished the best I could.  That puts the focus of satisfaction on me.  Look at what I did. In thinking about pride, (what pride month is all about is another matter in and of itself), and the phrases we use in association with the word, I thought about taking pride.  The phrase taking pride kind of insinuates that pride is something to be taken, and if it exists as something to be taken, who are we taking it from? And that leads me to think of the many things God says about pride in the Bible. ...

 The note wasn't place where these types of notes to the pastor should go.  It was left on a seat in the sanctuary and wasn't signed.  It was discovered today while the sanctuary was being cleaned up a bit and the note simply said this:  When is the book of Revelation going to be preached? I think that's just where we are these days.  These aren't the end times, per-se.  These certainly seem to be the last days and as the church shrinks in America, we are fast becoming a remnant of the body of Christ that once existed here in the USA.  We're curious about what's to come because it's apparent that there's a strong possibility that we will actually see the last prophesies start to unfold In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John is given inside information about what's going to happen at the end.  The Apostle Paul wrote about the times in which we live in his second letter to Timothy.  Most importantly, the Lord Jesus Himself spoke about the ...

 At an evening of worship at a local church last Sunday, I started listening closely to the words of some of the songs that were sung and I had a thought run through my mind, which is that Christians are truly peculiar people.   The why of the thought is that we were singing about the day we die.  Not that any of us are in a hurry for that, mind you, but that we understand that our hope of all hope is beyond the life that is what we have here.  While we are here, we worship our God, while at the same time longing to see Him, the One who was pierced for our transgressions and that gave up His life as a ransom and payment for sin for the lives of those that would believe on Him. I wonder what people that aren't believes think of a people who would sing about the day when we must leave this earthly tent and more on to our home in Heaven.  The other thought that I have is that these same people really have nothing to sing about when their time is at an end. I'm...

 One of the things I find interesting is how things in God's kingdom is how God uses our gifts differently.  Just as each of us are differently able to do certain things in life, so it goes for ministry.  Not every ministry opportunity is right for every person.  I had a hard time wrapping my head around that at first.  In my mind, if one wanted to serve one's God, shouldn't they be able to do anything they wanted? The short answer to that is no.  And the longer version of that answer adds to the No, the idea that thinking like that isn't even Biblical.  It's not up to us to decide what we will do for God.  It's God who calls us to join Him in areas He calls us to work in.  The Bible tells us that long before the foundation of the world, He prepared the good works for us in advance.   I understand this principle though.  Sometimes, our gifts don't match up with opportunities to serve.  Other times, those opportunities migh...

 A man I have known my whole adult life was recently found to have cancer.  Shortly thereafter he suffered a stroke.  The prognosis is not good.  And this man has had his share of bad news over the years and to know him would be to think of him as a decent and upright man and to not understand why such a terrible thing could happen to such a man as him. I also know this man to be a Christian because I was there the night he made that profession of faith.  Me, being me, was being a "martha" at the moment it happened but I was in the auditorium when he came forward.  I couldn't have been happier then.  I'm still happy for that now. We all need Jesus.  My brother in Christ will need Jesus to see him through this trial even if it means at the end of this illness, he will go home to be with Jesus.  I know that either way, this man wins.  It's hard to express that to someone who doesn't share a belief in Christ like that though.  He's dyi...

 I don't know who is responsible for the sentiment, but I heard it a few days ago being re-quoted and the sentiment I'm speaking of describes the war Christians fight with the old self this way:  "most of the battles we fight are fought between our ears." I find that true.  Most of the things I struggle with in my own life are things from the past that try to creep their way back in.  I understand the words Paul the Apostle wrote when he said we are "to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor 10:5b) Sometimes those past things can try to worm their way back in to your life.  Sometimes it's a thought, sometimes something else will trigger an old memory, like meeting someone that reminds you of someone else from your past.  Other times, it's just waking up alone and realizing you're alone and facing that reality that causes those thoughts from when that wasn't the case to creep in. The battle is real even if it's f...

 The older I get, the more I see a real truth at play in life, which is that most of our lives seem to be spent around the idea of trading time for money. I need to plant some grass.  Well, I probably NEED to pour concrete and dye it green, but what will do instead is planting grass.  However, because three dogs co-habitate with me, I need to plant grass that is already ready to go.  My people call this type of grass, sod.   Sod is not an in-demand item in the marketplace in which I inhabit, so I have two choices for this purchase.  One is to have it delivered.  The other is to pick it up and drive a total of 7 hours to do that.  My cost to pick up:  about $200.  My cost for delivery:  $750 So, my cost savings is worth the time and gas to fetch said sod.  I'm trading time for money.  Often times, we trade money for time, which n this case would have been to pay the delivery fee.   The nice thing is that I ca...

 I love God, and I mean that.  I mean, with my whole heart, love God.  Not perfectly, but i'm trying harder and harder to not try so hard.  By that, I mean I'm just trying these days to just do the things God is asking me to do so that I can be closer to Him.  It was an interesting week for me.  It became somewhat evident that I was going to be taking a week off from the things I'd normally do, but not by my own choice.  Where my choice came in was to see what God was doing and saying yes to that, even though it meant having to do without the things I really enjoy getting to do. This last week for me has been kind of like a performance review.  I have a better understanding of some things I need to change about the way I'm doing things.  The first one starts with taking off the name tags.  By that, I mean the things that identify what I do (like job titles).  I'm not this or that.  I'm me.  I get to do this or that and onl...

 Why do we forget sometimes that God is Sovereign? I had occasion to ask myself that question earlier today in response to a conversation I had with someone else the previous evening.  I explained to said someone that I quit fighting something in my life a while ago.  Every time I tried to change the situation I found myself in, I explained, it was a disaster, so I quit fighting it. Doing that was a choice, but for me, it was a choice of whether or not God was Sovereign and was I going to let Jesus be Lord of my life, or was I going to just try to go my own way? In the book of Acts, a man named Saul was fighting God, all the while thinking he was defending God by persecuting Christians.  But Saul met a man named Jesus.  Acts 26:4 describes the encounter this way:   Acts 26:4 (NIV)  We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice  saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ Back ...

My son asked me today why I make my bed each day.  I was pretty good at that for the longest time, but I have been slacking.  I noticed the other day I'd been slacking on a lot of things.  Not intentionally, but the slip had been happening.  I replied that I try to do that because it means I've accomplished one thing during the day.  I never quite understood the importance of making my bed until I started doing it.  It looks nice and it's a nice thing to climb into a made bed each night instead of climbing into the crumpled mess it winds up each morning after myself and the dog mess it up during the night. Attention to details in life matter.  If you don't stay on top of the dust, things get dirty.  If you don't take out the trash when it's full, it overflows.  If you don't clean the shower, you get pink stuff growing in it.  If you don't put things where they go when you're done with them, then they become clutter and then you can't fin...

 Once a month there is a prayer meeting on a Friday evening that is hosted by one of the local churches.  It moves from church to church each month and the purpose is to bring people from all the local churches together for a time of worship and prayer. Last night, it was at a church a friend of mine attends and I'm so glad I went.  Sometimes life gets hard and we just need to find some time and a place to just get away from whatever is pulling on us and just let out some worship. I did that last night.  Got my hands up and everything.  For me, lifting both hands up in worship is not an easy thing to do because I get a little self-conscious.  But not last night.  Last night, I just worshiped God with a bunch of other believers who were there to do the same. I saw a man on his face last night.  Others were singing and signing the words they were singing.  Hands were lifted up, voices were lifted up, and petitions for our community, our leaders...

 My goal is to write a blog post three times a week.  I find myself falling very short of that mark these days.  It's not because I don't have the time.  It's mostly because I don't make the time and get busy with other things and before I know it, the day is gone.   I get convicted about things like this from the Holy Spirit.  It's not because the things that keep me busy aren't good.  They are.  It's a matter for me to use some discernment about what is best and start formulating a priority list based on that.   The Lord Jesus has some words about this that he spoke to one of two sisters.  One was listening to Jesus, the other was about the house trying to prepare things for her guests that day, including the Lord.  When she complained to Jesus, this was His reply:  (Luke 10:41-42) 41  “Martha, Martha,”  the Lord answered,  “you are worried   and upset about many things,   42  but few t...

 It was a blessing to be invited to speak at a Resurrection Sunday Sunrise service over the weekend.  I was doubly blessed to bring the message at the main church service as well, but today's post is about the sunrise service. Speaking in public can be scary, especially when you're not very good at speaking off the top of your head.  For the service, the Holy Spirit gave me some remarks that were appropriate for the occasion and and led into the service.  Before I left the house I made sure I had the remarks separated from the main message and off we went. The gentleman I was with told me rain was in the forecast but not until mid-morning.  When we arrived there were quite a few people gathered.  All total, we had 22. Someone had built a nice fire.  We sang a couple of hymns a-capella and then it was my turn. Ever tried to read wet paper?  Because when it was my turn, it started raining for real so I did what anybody would...crumpled up the papers...

 Today is Maunday Thursday.  Today we commemorate the last full day of the life and ministry on earth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It's also Passover.  Our Jewish brethren celebrate this night as the night death passed them over.   What should be a time of peace and celebration is anything but this year.  As I write this, news reports are saying that Israelis are conducting airstrikes on Palestinian positions.  This is after Israeli police had to restore order at one of the mosques that sit on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  It's considered an affront to the Islamic world to have Jews enter their holy site.  The temple mount is administered  of the Jordanian Government. While nobody knows the day or the hour that the Lord Jesus will make good on His promise to return, events sure seem to be leading that way in a hurry.  One thing we know for certain is that, in the process of remembering the last week of His life, His death on th...

 I had to embarrass myself today because I said something that wasn't true.  At the time, I thought it was, but I was mistaken.  I could have kept it quiet and nobody on the planet but me and Jesus would have known that I'd mis-spoken.  The thing is that I believed what I said about the day I got saved.  The only problem is that the day that was probably "the day" was six days later.  I just happen to be bringing the message on the day I thought it was, which just happens to be Resurrection Sunday. I'd rather look stupid than live out a lie, even if it wasn't an intentional one.  It was an unintentional sin of commission, instead of an intentional one and I took the opportunity to make it right.  I'm gonna have to tell that again at least one more time. One of the things I've learned is that it's better to correct a mistake and admit to it rather than cover it up.  It's always the cover-up that leads to more and more lies and it makes things ...

  4  “And now, O Israel, listen to  w the statutes and the rules 1  that I am teaching you, and do them,  x that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the  Lord , the God of your fathers, is giving you.  2  y You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the  Lord  your God that I command you.  Deuteronomy 4:1-2 (ESV) I tell people from time to time that I get opportunities to serve God.  One is through my job.  Other times, I get to teach God's word to help people new to it to understand it.  God has blessed me with opportunities to bring a message on Sunday mornings.  I enjoy that because I like to write and I get to learn things about His word, or sometimes a new concept I hadn't fully understood.   I'm careful to be careful with the Word because it's very easy to take things out of context to prove a point especially ...

 I typically don't comment on posts about religion, and almost never (sometimes I do and then have to use the delete key) comment on political posts on Facebook.  The Gospel message is offensive enough.  Sometimes, though, you just gotta. The post in question took two Scriptures out of context to suggest that one could lose one's salvation.  I know some people believe that, but the argument this woman was making using these two scriptures was just plain wrong because in the context they were written, they pointed out to anything but... When someone uses a Scripture verse on its' own....me, or anybody else, everyone who reads it should go back and read the 20 verses before it and the 20 verses after it to gather the context in which the verse is used to see if it was used correctly.  If I don't, call me out.  Please.  I don't ever want to use God's word to be right.  I want to be right in using God's word for its' intended purpose. The other thing ...

Today's verse of the day on the Bible app I use on my phone was "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength."  Some days I have to stop and ask myself if I'm really doing that or am I kind of putting me first in some areas. To he honest, I think I sometimes get busier than I ought and let my mind wander.  I spend time thinking about things not above, and it sometimes causes me to not take the best advantage of quiet time with God. I've been thinking about how we, as humans, do that.  We get ahead of our skis and forget how important that quiet time, that time spent with God, reading His word, speaking to Him in prayer, and just having those bonding moments is to our day.  And sometimes, honestly, I let busy get in the way of things God has asked me to do and I forget to do them in a timely manner because I don't make them a real priority. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is here to remind me of those things and to work with me ...

 Much in the news these days about lies and truth.  I don't often comment on politics and today's not going to be an exception.  I am going to comment on court case though.   My son and I often engage in conversation about current events.  While we don't agree on a lot of things, we are able to have conversations about them in reasonable ways.  Sometimes we learn something we didn't know when we have them.  Sometimes, I can tell by a phrase he uses who in his sphere of influence.  When the company Dominion sued everybody who was spreading what they claimed as false information for defamation, I told my son to keep an eye on this court case because the truth was gonna come out of it. Each person they sued is entitled to a process known as "discovery".  And Dominion is entitled to their own "discovery", and it appears that they've discovered quite a bit.  And a bit of what they've discovered is that people other people really trusted ...

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. Luke 18:18-19(NIV)   A well meaning friend who is a believer called me a good man the other day. I appreciated the compliment and I told him so but I also reminded him that no, I'm not a good man. I also told him that I'm a better man than I used to be.   This very topic came up this morning and I brought up the problem with this particular compliment. It's a sentiment used a lot in appreciation of the good things someone does for us, but the good things we do, they do not make us good people. I reminded the folks there that we're not using a right standard for that kind of judgment. I also pointed out that if we accept that kind of praise, in a literal interpretation of Jesus' own words, we are placing ourselves on par with God, without even realizing, nor meaning to.   I do take that literally. And...

I don't know where the time goes these days. It seems like I just forget to write a blog post, then I forget again, and before I know it, a week has gone by. What a week it's been, though. I have never been more busy in my life than I am these days. It's busy with good things, but busy nonetheless. Busy with doing things God has for me to do, but it seems like even in that, finding time to work a 10 hour a week part time job is becoming a struggle because of scheduling. That's a good thing because I work at my church as the custodian. I try to be there when other people aren't and that's sometines hard to do. And then, this week, I just feel like I live in a snow globe and someone just gave it a bit of a shake. James 4:13-15 says: 13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a m...

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” Jesus the Way to the Father 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1-6 (NIV) I had a short discussion with my son the other night about life. He finds me, in his words, arrogant, because I hold to Biblical truth instead of the ideas that he has. He said something that gave me pause, and I asked him who he stole the idea from. I told him th...

I said hello to someone today at Walmart who I know. She propmptly ignored even acnowledging that i was even there. I've been ignored before but not like that. I didn't take it personally. Obviously the lady didn't want to acnowledge me and that's fine. It should have been an awkward situation but I just laughed it off. It's not like she was anythong but an acquaintance anyway and I find the whole thing quite funny, acutally. I was just trying to be polite in the first place. I'm reminded of the places in Scripture where Jesus says Hw will tell people, "I never knew you. Away from Me, you evil-doers." It's one thing to be snubbed by someone at the grocery store. I think it's quite another to be told that by the King of Kings. I'm good for not being one to hold a grudge or take a slight seriously. It's not a big deal to me, but I can see something in it that the Lord will tell those that only knew about Jesus and not a r...

For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. Psalm 46:10 I like this verse because it reminds me of a solid truth. God is. God always will be. Forever and forever. But the verse says more than that, it says that He will be or guide even to the end. I tried running my life. I made a collosal mess of it. I don't do that so much these days, but it wasn't always as easy (like it's still easy sometimes) to let go of things and let God. I've been kind of dealing with that lately, letting things completely go. It's not always easy, and I'm surprised how I can see myself trying to keep just a little piece of this or that for myself instead of going the total surrender route. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit helps me see when I'm doing that. The Spirit guides. He moves. Great things happen when we let Him guide us on the journey. As believers, He will guide us, even to the end. We may not always like, or even und...

We had a very interesting discussion at Bible study this morning. I love being a part of this group. They engage. They ask great questions. We have good discussions about Scripture and the practical application of it in our lives. One of the things someone brought up today is his belief that all of life is just a test. I got thinking about that, and, to be certain, we face tests in life. God tested Abraham's faith. I'm reasonably certain He has tested mine. God is God and He is entitled to do anything He wishes with His creation and that includes each of us. But if this is a test, I thought on the drive home, then there's really only one question on the test and it's pretty much a pass or fail test. The question each of us has to answer for ourselves is this: Who is Jesus Christ? If He is who He says He is, and we accept Him as Lord and Savior of our lives, and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, we become children adopted into God's family and will spen...

I get to do life with some pretty neat people. I get to belong to a small group at my church and out of this group, I have some pretty close friends. These aren't superficial friends, either. These are pick up the phone at 2 a.m. people that love Jesus like I do. I learn a lot from them and I'm blessed to be among them. I'm not sure I could put into words all the things I've seen happen since joining this group but I would like to share about something last night. I heard two stories last night, one was from a couple who obeyed God and moved. The second was from a couple who wanted to move and obeyed God and stayed. The details of their stories each fascinated me and I listened as they talked aboutp how some of their feelings had to be put aside to obey God's call on them in both situations. I listened with sadness in my heart because I still bear the wounds from not doing this at a key juncture in a relationship I was in with someone. I got punished 7 y...

Sometimes, when I teach a Bible Study lesson I try to interject a little bit of humor. In today's study, which was the story of Jesus healing a blind man and what happens afterward, I likened some of the events to what seemed to me the modern day equivilent of things that the people in the group would share some understanding of. The thing Jesus did was heal a man born blind. Now, nobody in the history of EVER up until that moment had ever done this thing, and when you look at this from the perspective of the guy that got his sight back, the story of what happens to him gets to be a little bit, well, much.... The Lord heals this man, and he's obviously got to be completely blown away by what happens. He's discovering all these new things. He can see what his parents look like, he can see what EVERYTHING looks like, and then the people around him are upset because Jesus did this wonderful thing to him on the Sabbath. So he winds up in front of the Pharisees for a line...

One of the things I've learned over the last few years is that we can avoid a lot of troubles in our own life if we make up our minds in advance of temptations coming our way, as to how we are going to hadle them. When we-pre decide how we will deal with the temmptations that come upon us in life, when they do, we have a battle plan for not falling into those temptations. Psalm 119:11 says " I have hidden Your word in my heart thatI might not sin against you." (NIV). Recognizing that when we sin, it's God Himself that we sin against. A friend of mine likens sin in the body of believers that Christ calls His Church to an infection. When we don't deal with sin in our lives, as a part of the body, it affects the entire Church in one way or another, even if we can't see it. Deciding beforehand that we're not going to give in and having God's Word in your heart are important tools for avoiding the sins associated with whatever temptations we fall into...

One of the things I get to do these days is lead a Bible study group on Wendensday mornings. This morning, we were studying John 8, in the latter part of the chapter, where Jesus says some profound things about who He is, who the Jews of the day were, and what the Truth does to people who believe that He is the Christ, the Savior of the world. The things the world is going through these days are not new. Not by any stretch of the imagination. What is different, I think, at least in my observation in my own little corner of the world, is that there is a larger lack of understanding the truth of God's word, which makes the lies the devil has been telling more palateable. We live, I'm told, in a post-truth world, where each of us is to make up our own truths and just go with it, whether or not those truths are based in any kind of fact. And even things we think are true are being manipulated to match whatever flavor of the month new "gospel" or "truth" co...

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Matthew 25:29 (ESV) This verse is taken from a story Jesus told which is known as the parable of the talents. It's found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25 starting at verse 14. It's a story of how a master trusted his slaves with talents of gold (a talent is an ancient measure) and what each did with what they were entrusted with. The moral of the story is found in this verse, which is that what we do with our own God-given "talents" matters. I've not been what anybody would call faithful in posting on the blog. I forget. I get busy. But it is something that God has given me to do to make use of one of the talents He has given me. So, my plan is to be more faithful in posting something on Monday, Wedensday, and Friday. I'm hopeful that if I'm faithful in posting, that someone will become interested in ...

Sometimes, I get busy and forget things. Obviously, writing the blog is one of them, and I hope to be better at three times a week. It seems these days that we are all so busy that it's easy to forget things. Like forgetting to pray for people when we say we will. Or forgetting to get into the Word of God each day. Yes, life gets busy, but when we make the time for what's important, then the days will take care of themselves. I got up early this morning. The dog barked at something so I got up. It was before most of the house was up and I had time to spend in prayer and reading a devotional. My days have been better since I started starting my day with God instead of waiting until the end of the day for those prayers to be spoken. How about you? When is your quiet time? Feel free to start the discussion in the comments.