Author: Nick

Who said, “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”? a. Jesus b. Paul c. C. S. Lewis d. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. a. Jesus – If you picked “a” I’m a bit embarrassed for you. Jesus didn’t say this or anything like it. You might want to pick up a red-letter bible and read the parts in red. I think you will conclude that Jesus wanted his followers to be a lot MORE heavenly minded. Our problem is usually that we are too distracted by the earthly things that surround us. b. If you said “b” that’s not as bad as “a” but not really good. Paul said things like “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:2, ESV). Frankly that’s just the opposite of the familiar saying. Check out those letters Paul wrote. You will see what I mean. c. C. S. Lewis is a better guess but not much better. He’s a theologian who wrote lots of things, but not this. In fact, he wrote: “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of […]

Psalm 1 1 Blessed is the one     who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take     or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,     and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,     which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—     whatever they do prospers. This morning I attended a men’s bible study led by Ty Cook, Senior Pastor at Lighthouse Family Church.  Ty spoke on the first three verses of Psalms 1. That got me thinking about plants, particularly trees. The Great Flood of 2016 left our back yard in shambles. The nasty bayou back up water stayed for a couple of weeks. After it finally receded, most of our yard looked dead. However, fall had also arrived and some of the brown might be attributed to that. It has become an issue to distinguish between the dead and the dormant. We got some pretty good advice. We had two options. We could wait until spring and see what turns great or we could cut into the […]

My dear wormwood: Make sure the patient remains completely fixated on politics. Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis, 1942 Angst is a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general. Anger is a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility. Angst is defensive and general. Anger is offensive and specific. Angst sees the problem “out there.” Anger finds the solution inside. Angst inhabits cowardice. Anger motives courage. I don’t think Jesus ever felt angst. I know He was sometimes angry. I am moving from Angst to Anger and I think it’s a good thing. My angst is based on disgust with politics and disappointment with the church. I have long wondered how a nation couldn’t come up with two candidates better than what we have. I am beginning to realize that we are getting what we want and deserve. There’s a feeling of satisfaction in thinking that we are morally superior to our elected leaders. It’s an excuse for not being better. It’s like my attitude about the church. It’s easy to see that the church is not compassionate enough, involved enough, or doing enough. It’s harder to recognize […]

I recently read an article giving advice on how to deal with this election with your children. It’s a great article. Then it dawned on me that most of us are being child like in our treatment of the election. The candidates are acting like children. I guess we shouldn’t expect to be any better. I am angry about the choice we have for President in November. I’m a Republican and my party rejected men with high moral standards and went with an egotistical, no class reality star. My Democratic friends couldn’t find anyone better than Hillary, who wouldn’t know the truth if it bit her and who believes that a child has no rights and can be murdered until the moment of birth and that I should have to pay for it.  I realize that those are my issues and don’t project then on everyone else. It’s my anger and that’s what it’s based on. Maybe I need a perspective reset. Maybe we all do. 1. Fear Not. Most voters aren’t thrilled about their candidate, they are “afraid” of what will happen if the other candidate wins. I’m okay with having no faith in the government, but the […]

  This election will be decided in a handful of states and mine is not one of them. Louisiana Christians in particular would be better off spending the time and energy promoting Jesus as the only solution to what ails us and preparing for the awful situation which will prevail in this country when the election is over. Going to the polls this November will be like going to a Saints game; we should be wearing bags over our heads to avoid being identified. A recent Fox News poll found that 57% of voters say that fear that the other candidate might win is behind their choice. In other words, most voters are voting against someone instead of for someone. It’s not just that we don’t like the opposition. We are actually fearful of what they will do. After the election, we will be more sharply divided than ever. We will have a President that most did not really wanted. More than a third of us will believe the new President isn’t honest or trustworthy. More than half of us will have a negative opinion of our new leader.  Many of us will be in fear of what our government […]