Stories and other stuff

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. ...