Author: Nick

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5: 7 Just think how great life would be if we could let go of our cares. They keep us down. They keep us tied to earth and earthly things. They keep us distracted from our mission and from our Lord. They pump our wrongly placed self-assurance. We are incapable of handling our problems. They are beyond our power. We can’t even fully understand our anxieties in that we don’t have the perspective to fully see and understand them. Our anxieties are Satan’s greatest tool keeping us from the life of joy and completeness that is ours in Christ. One of the reasons we fail to cast our cares on God is that we don’t trust Him. We know He has the power. We question whether He has the care. Notice how this verse encourages us “because He cares.” Perhaps the best way to overcome our “care concerns” is to glance in the rearview mirror of our lives. If we look back, we repeatedly see God acting in our interest at times and in ways we did not even understand at the time. He […]

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. Psalm 62: 5-7 It’s truly amazing in what we will put our trust in. In America, we have built a system where it appears we trust in government for everything. Wow. How dumb is that? We trust in political parties and politicians. We trust in gurus, assets, systems of finance, philosophy and thought. Repeatedly these things have proved to be untrustworthy.  It’s really all about God and trusting in Him.  Where you are, there is heaven. And where you are not, there is death and hell. You alone are my desire and, therefore, I must groan and cry out earnestly for you. In short, I depend fully on you— and you alone— to help me in the necessities of life. Watkins, James (2016-01-12). The Imitation of Christ: Classic Devotions in Today’s Language (Kindle Locations 732-733). Worthy Publishing. Kindle Edition. The disciples, including Paul, lived lives of joy in the […]

  I was sick yesterday. I felt awful. I got some food in me late and fell asleep. Sometime during the night I felt a hand, first on my brow and then on my hand. I heard something about fever. I’m not sure if it was “You have fever.” or “You don’t have fever.” It didn’t matter because I knew in either case she had this. I then felt her crawl into bed. I was overcome with an intense feeling of gratitude. At the same time there was a small sense of dread in the thought that there are so many who have no one to give a comforting touch in the night and the knowledge that one day I might be in that lonesome number. I fought off those thoughts away because for now I am in the number of the blessed and for that I am deeply and eternally grateful.  

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” Matthew 7: 1-2   Drones are getting cheaper and have become accessible to the masses.  We see more of these devices flying about. Most of them have cameras. It’s becoming more usual to see videos of familiar areas from a new perspective. The new views are fascinating as we see things in ways we never did before. It’s why we should leave judging to God.    Our perspective is so limited. We see from a low angle and generally miss the overview. God never does. Not only is our view limited in the physical.  It also lacks time perspective. We see in snapshots. God sees with the past and future in view.  How dare we judge?     We would not want to be judged by our perspective with its very limited view. Most of all we would not want to be viewed without the filters God has and uses. He sees things through the filter of his love and of his son’s forgiving redemptive […]

Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 1 John 4: 1 There is nothing new about fake  news. It’s been around for thousands of years. The news stories have changed but the basis and motivations are the same.    Fake news takes advantage of our desire for certain things to be true. In politics, for example, we want the worst to be true of those with whom we disagree. We light up at stories that confirm that belief.    Fake news also takes advantage of our fears. We are afraid that those we respect and follow will not be all we believe they are. We reluctantly accept as true stories that confirm these fears.    In spiritual matters fake news include teachings that promote cheap grace that say we can have salvation without repentance, joy without sacrifice, that believing is enough without following. We want things to be easy and there will always be those who will tell us they are.    We also are subject to fears that the […]

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8: 31-32 Most Christians will tell you that the “truth will set you free.” A lot fewer will recall the importance of faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus. Freedom doesn’t come in wisdom alone, but in faithfulness to what is true. It’s a matter of action.  At the Day of Judgment, we will be not be questioned as to what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holy we have lived. Watkins, James (2016-01-12). The Imitation of Christ: Classic Devotions in Today’s Language (Kindle Locations 653-654). Worthy Publishing. Kindle Edition. Yet it seems that Christians are wedded to the idea of learning and not to doing. The most “significant” part of Sunday service for most is the “teaching” or “sermon.” That teaching sometimes, but not always, contains a motivating call to action. What good is it to sit through a teaching without building up motivation to go out and do something. By Mondays, not only are […]

“The very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6: 63). They are not judged by human understanding. They are not spoken to impress others, but to be heard in silence and received with all humility and deep love. Watkins, James (2016-01-12). The Imitation of Christ: Classic Devotions in Today’s Language (Kindle Locations 605-607). Worthy Publishing. Kindle Edition. We make hearing the voice of God a tremendously difficult spiritual exercise requiring years of monastery life to master. Certainly being completely comfortable in hearing God is a lifetime experience. The first step is pretty easy: Just shut up. I guess that’s a lot easier in a monastery.  Our failure to hear most things, including the voice of God, is founded in our failure to stop talking. I remember some years ago I was at an organizational meeting of a Kairos weekend. One of the newbies was going on and on about how he didn’t know if he would be able to talk to the inmates. I advised him to “Just shut up.” He kept on talking. I advised him again. He kept on talking. My comrades who had also done the ministry for years knew what […]

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” Matthew 25: 37-40 The “righteous” ones were pleasing their Lord and didn’t even know it. You would think it shouldn’t be necessary to force folks to feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked or visit the sick or those in prison. Nevertheless, we don’t do those things. I am not sure why. There is so much need out there that we tend to block it out. Since we can not address every problem; we decide not to address any. Charitable acts are, by their nature, selective. We sometimes say we are “called” to particular acts, and not to others.  Successful charitable acts require discretion. We need to learn to hear and respond […]