Year: 2013

We have the balm to soothe the hurting hearts we come in contact with every day. But if excuses crowd our minds before passion fills our hearts, people will never hear. Thankfully, we can rediscover the passion of our early Christian days. Take time today to praise God for His salvation, which delivered you from a path toward disaster. Then commit to carrying out your part in the Great Commission by talking about Jesus with someone in your life. Charles Stanley. I saw a lot of passion at my church on Sunday.  It’s great to be passionate about something. It’s why we love sports. It’s why it’s more fun to watch a game when “our team” is playing. It’s why elections and honeymoons are exciting.  Satan fears our passion. Passion dictates action. We are passionate because we care. He seems to have two strategies when it comes to passion: 1: Cool it if he can. 2: Misdirect it if he must. Jesus wasn’t fond of the lukewarm. If Satan can get us to believe, that what we believe is not that important. He has won the battle. Don’t let that happen. Be passionate. Don’t have misdirected passion. Make sure […]

It’s Mother’s Day. The supermarket will be swamped with children, old and young, picking up last minute cards and flowers. Facebook is full of sappy Mother’s Day sentiments. Preachers will feel obliged to preach “Mother’s Day” sermons. Restaurants will be packed so moms won’t have to cook one day. Sorry but I’m not a big fan of all this. My mom has passed but don’t get me wrong there are lots of women in my life who are mothers and who I greatly appreciated: my wife, my daughter, my grand daughter, my daughter in law. My problem with Mother’s Day and similar days for other special people is that the persons honored expect to be honored on these days. That’s fine but it just points out how bad we are at making these people feel special year round. If the only day you kiss or do something special for your mom is Mother’s Day, bad on you. Our lives are special because of all the special people in them. I just spent a few days with my wife celebrating our anniversary. I try real hard to make sure she knows how I feel as often as possible. It’s just […]

Rose and I decided to go out of town for a few days to “get away” and celebrate our anniversary. We chose to stay at a hotel in the French Quarter in New Orleans. What were we thinking? At 4:30 this morning the noise was still incredible coming from Bourbon Street. We are not French Quarter people. We are certainly not Bourbon Street people. We would have been better off in a nice small hotel in the Garden District. We like to have a balcony and this hotel has one, but with that comes much we didn’t want and didn’t need. It’s amazing how quickly made and ill conceived some of our choices are. I like the fact that we made a last minute decision. I like to think we are not too old to have a sense of adventure when includes some quick decisions. I just wish we had made a better one. We still had a good time and it only affected three days of our lives. Some of our decisions have so much more impact and for such a long time. We sometimes have such a stake in our decisions that, even after we recognize we […]

My daughter broke her ankle a few weeks ago and can’t put any weight on it for a while. She can’t stay alone so she has been alternating weeks with Rose and I and with a friend. It’s been a bit of a hassle for everyone because she is used to living alone and we are not use to having a week long guest. But it’s also been a blessing. She and I both work from the house so we spend hours together in the same room doing our work. We have both picked up interest in each other’s TV viewing habits. I have learned more about her life and work and loves. Our relationship has been great (at least since the teenage hormones wore off); but in the last few weeks it has been “refreshed.” We are both probably pretty relieved when our week is over and a break is coming. But I also know when this period of alternating weeks is over I will miss her greatly. I have “refreshed” my memory at how cool, funny and lovely she is and how much she relies on Jesus. She is leaving for a week today and my wife […]

Choose to place yourself and your circumstances in God’s hands today. Joyce Meyer I think that Joyce is a pretty smart lady; but today I’m not sure about her quote. I would reword it “Choose to recognize that you and your circumstances are in God’s hands today.” I think we are always in God’s hands. We can try to take control. We can say we will let Him be our co-pilot, but the truth of the matter is that God is in control. Somehow He does it without denying our free will and in spite of the efforts of others to control us and everything in their worlds. The secure Christian lives in peaceful excitement. He knows He is in God’s hands and enjoys every moment of the ride. The insecure Christian keeps trying to grab the steering wheel and drive things himself. If the road starts to get bumping He thinks God has forgotten him or is taking him on an unnecessary detour. To be at peace, there must be trust. The truly insecure Christian tries to drive the bus for everybody else. Not satisfied to be “in control” of his own life, he tries to control everyone […]

Our concern is more about going to heaven than loving the King. Francis Chan Francis Chan is one of several young pastors who are setting fire to the church with similar messages. They are saying that the gospel, as originally preached by Jesus, carries a radical message. We don’t need a new gospel, we need to return to the original gospel in all its radical life-changing aspects. That’s a great message. His quote above struck me hard. I think most of us, if we are truthful to ourselves, will admit that we want to go to heaven, because the alternative is too horrible to conceive. We sometimes even think that heaven isn’t going to be that great, it’s just going to be a lot better than hell. We just don’t have that longing in our hearts to be with the God we love. We haven’t come to know our God enough to really love Him. We may know in our hearts that we should so love God that we can’t wait to be with Him and those who have loved Him through the centuries. However, we recognize that perhaps our love for Him is considerably less than it should […]

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. Hebrews 5:13One of the great things about doing prison ministry is that your audience knows they are sinners. The state has formally proclaimed it. It makes presenting the real gospel so much easier. That’s one of the great problems of witnessing to free people. They don’t think they are sinners. Most people think they are basically “good.” It’s easy to look around and find someone “badder” than ourselves. They don’t see any real need for Jesus.Because of this challenge, sometimes we short circuit the true salvation message problem by presenting Jesus, not as an answer to the problem of our sin, but as a kind of self-improvement guru. By doing this we eliminate the “problem” of talking about “sin” and repentance. We tell folks Jesus can make our lives better and we can be happier. That’s very true, but it tries to present the solution without addressing the problem. It also leaves the “believer” confused about the process of sanctification.The truth is we are sinners. In fact, we are much worse than we are willing to admit. It’s kind of like an […]

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35 Yesterday I went to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions. When asked for my driver’s license, I couldn’t produce it. It wasn’t in my wallet. I don’t know where I lost it.  Lucky for me I’ve known the pharmacist for years and he just accepted my social security number. I can say I spent a good part of the day yesterday getting it replaced. I don’t know what folks who don’t drive do. A driver’s license seems to be the universal proof of identity. Jesus knew that those who called themselves Christians would not always be true followers of Him. He established a proof of identity: the way we love one another. It seems many who called themselves Christian try to prove that status by the bible that they carry, an attitude they portray, the folks they hang with or the ones the refuse to hang with. For many, love is not a part of the equation.  Sadly when most non-Christians describe Christians “love” is seldom part of the description. We have to do something about that. Our love is assurance […]