Author: Nick

. . . being justified freely by His grace . . . —Romans 3:24 We have decided in our family to give only to the children for Christmas. We know that it is more blessed to give than to receive and, sometimes, I think it is easier for us to give than to receive. To accept the generosity of another we must admit that we need something. There is a certain pride in people that causes them to give and give, but to come and accept a gift is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom; I will dedicate my life to service— I will do anything. But do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God through our own efforts. We must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the knowledge that we are destitute. Until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for […]

. . . by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world —Galatians 6:14 A bit late for today’s devotional. Chalk it up to a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. How do we accomplish being IN the world and not OF the world. Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power. We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, “Is this the kind of […]

. . . except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14 Isn’t it strange that we move from Thanksgiving Day to Black Friday. We transition from a spirit of thanksgiving to the biggest shopping day of the year. If we have so much to be thankful for, why the need to go shopping? Oh I understand that much of the shopping is for others, but not all. And isn’t that still a dramatic change of focus?  Isn’t most of our gift giving totally expected? Doesn’t our shopping list consist of people we “need” to buy gifts for?  Maybe it would be better if we focused on Good Friday instead of Black Friday. If we want to know the power of God (that is, the resurrection life of Jesus) in our human flesh, we must dwell on the tragedy of God. “Look to Me. . .” (Isaiah 45:22).  We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power— the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives. It’s fine to give gifts, but our best buys on Black Friday won’t change lives. Let’s […]

Have a Blessed Day.

My God Thank You.For Your Son, whose love for me is still beyond my understanding.For Rosemary, whose love for me for over 40 years is also beyond my understanding.For Allison, whose beauty, growth and energy, make me want to demand that she take a blood test to assure myself that I am her father.For Jason, whose time with me was limited and whom I miss.For Jessica, whose life is still new and whose potential is great.For Martha, whose view of life makes me look at things from new prespectives.For Nicholas, whose enthusiasm energizes me.For Samantha, who still thinks crawling on PawPaw’s lap is okay.For Kaydence, who is still young enough to think I’m pretty great.For Donna, who is old enough to know I’m really not.For brothers and sisters who I don’t see enough, but who, when I do,  still remind me of the wonderful years of my youth.For my church and its leaders who encourage, bless and strengthen me.For Kairos, for allowing me a place to minister where I can’t mess it up.For America, for reminding me if you want to be great you can’t rely on your past, you better work today to ensure your tomorrow.For a world […]

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters . . . , so our eyes look to the Lord our God . . . —Psalm 123:2 A servant looks to his master’s hand for many things: direction, substance, correction; so should we look to the Lord our God. Like a servant we are unable to direct, sustain and make good use of our lives without our Master. But notice this about the verse, we are to look to Lord our God completely, not just at his hand like the servant does. We get more from God than the servant gets from the Master. We get every thing. We get love and eternal life. His claim on us is greater than a master’s. He made us. He sacrificed for us. He is our everything. To look anywhere else is folly. In the words of the hymn: Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and Grace. Be blessed. Nick

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt —Psalm 123:3 Holidays are tough for most of us. We get pulled in every year. We are bombarded with images of perfectly cooked turkeys, gifts that bring broad smiles, gatherings full of joy and good will. The reality never seems to live up to the images. Our past works the same. When it comes to memory, we stack the deck. In our minds, holidays of our childhood are recalled in a perfection that never existed. Face it, the good old days, weren’t always that good. We have to be careful that we not become jaded. We must guard our minds and our attitudes less we shake our faith in Our God and in each other. We must move forward in the proper state of mind with the best attitude. “Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously” (Malachi 2:16). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we […]

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31 We like to consider ourselves “deep” or “profound.” But much of life is lived on the “shallow” or “mundane” level, the simple things. Much of the deep life is not visible and the shallow is very much seen by others. We are often in danger of assuming another is shallow because that’s all we see. Even worse, we may fail to notice that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God.  Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby. To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher . . .” (Matthew 10:24).