Stories and other stuff

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.

I had an interesting experience today. I felt led to take a road trip today, and through a confluence of circumstances and a substantial nudge from the Holy Spirit, I decided to go. I didn't want to, but I knew I needed to. There is a thrift store up the coast in the next large town that I like to go to. Sometimes I find really good stuff there and I just had a "feeling" that there was something there for me. So much so that I told a friend that I had to go there, that there was something for me. And there was. But there was something more....I was listening to a radio program and as I was getting ready to turn into the parking lot, I heard something I needed to hear about taking my feelings, or lack thereof, in this case, to God and talk to Him about them. I did, right there in the parking lot. And then I went inside the thrift store. I like looking for Christmass stuff at thrift stores. Sometimes you can find a lot of nice stuff and over the years I have foun...

Last nght, I saw a United States Congressman, on national TV call Christians the "forces of hate" and "relics of the past", in response to them declaring what God's plan for marriage is. I found the idea nonsense, but that's the time we live in. Right has become wrong, what used to be taboo to even talk about on TV is now the law of the land, and we can't expect God to bless America when we're living in outright defiance to His word. Think about that. Do we trust God, or does our money lie? If we trusted God, it seems to me that we surely would pay more attention to what He has to say on matters. But we don't. At least not our secular government. I don't hate anybody. There are people I prefer not to be around, but that's just life and if I feel that way about some, I'm sure the feeling is shaared by people who feel the same about me. I prefer these days to be not as controvercial as I used to be so there's that. But st...

One of the greatest conundrums of the Christian faith is wanting to do something for God, or wanting something (or someone) in your life, and God says "No." We think of God, sometimes, in light of our favorite attributes. He is Love. He is good. He wants to give us good things. And all of these things are ture, but like any good father He sometimes tells us no to things. He has reasons for that. One of them is that He is God and we are not. And either He is in charge or He's not. (Let me help you discern this simple truth, so you might avoid some hard and unnecessarily painful things by accepting this simple truth up front: He IS very much in charge and you're not!) In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wanted to go lots of places. He wanted to go to Spain. He wanted to go to Asia, and the Holy Spirit told him no. Paul documents thes things in his Epistles to the New Testament churches. The no is a necessary part of being a Christian. I'm having...

I was blessed to bring a message on Sunday to a little country church near my home. Something in John 5 had really convicted me about Christmas and what we, as Christians are looking forward to. Sometimes, I think this time of year, we're looking forward to looking back. We demonstrate that in a lot of ways by the traditions we keep, and I wondered if maybe we keep them too tightly. I had finished up the sermon on Saturday night and I was feeling pretty good about life. My Utes still had a chance at the PAC12 championship game (they're in!) and I felt good about the message. I was deliviering a pot of soup to some sick friends and was driving down the Cape Arago Highway here when I got convicted about traditions: What about candy canes, Dale? Ouch! I have this "thing" about candy canes. Red and white ones are not good enough. I need red, white, and green Kencraft candy canes (before them, they were called Ike's candy canes). But they don't make the...

I'm old, but back in the day, we used to use the expression "what he said" to indicate agreement with someone else. I know it's still used today, but not as frequently as it used to be. Last night at our Bible study we were discussing a portion of the Gospel of John and it's an exchange between Thomas and the Ressurected Christ in a room. This from the Gospel of John, chapter 20:24-29 24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and...