Category: The Spiritual

At Amana on Sunday we were blessed to have a visit from T. G. Koshy the founder of Faith Theological Seminary in India. It was interesting to hear what a man of God from a very different culture had to say to an American congregation. Here are the highlights: Pray for the President. Christians, particularly recently, have become outdone with politics and particularly the politics of our President. It’s clear that Christians are not a favored class in our culture these days. While our lives are based on following a God of power, we often underestimate the power of our God to change lives. Life changing is what our God is all about. It’s so easy to forget that we struggle not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces. We need to pray for our leaders, especially when we disagree with their actions. A man of God from another culture can see that need with a clarity that those of us who are involved lack. Bro. Koshy has also seen our God of power work miraculous changes. Focus on the spiritual, not the material. India is a very “spiritual” country. Sometimes the spiritual is dark there, but Brother Koshy […]

We are under the power of our habits. Our lives are a conglomerate of repetitive acts. When we rise and go to bed, what we eat, where we work, if and where we go to church; all are not the result of independent thought but are just habit. Habits are fine if they are wisely chosen and personally developed. Most of our habits just happened. Is it any wonder that we find life boring, predictable and unexciting? Our habits are not even original. They are formed by copying what we see others do. I’m not talking about others we admire, just others that we see from afar on television or in movies. We all seem to dress, talk and act alike. Sure we differ greatly on political or philosophical matters, but that’s just because we are copying the ideas and talking points of different groups of “leaders.” We claim to be “followers” of Christ. Let’s check that out. What were the “habits” of Jesus? He had, such as, the habit of going off alone and spending time with His father. This habit was so unusual that it is repeatedly noted by the writers of the gospels. Most of what […]

My pastor was on vacation last Sunday. So he had two weeks to prepare for this Sunday’s sermon. It was so good that I have to steal from it. As the political season heats up it’s easy to conclude that no one is trustworthy. Don’t fall for that. Our God is trustworthy and we desperately need to be able to rely on His truths. You are forgiven. We all  need to dump the baggage we carry around. You know what I mean. It’s the guilt for all that we have done wrong. God forgives as long as we are willing to forgive others. God places this condition on forgiveness because not only do we need to be relieved of guilt, we need release from the burden of unforgiveness. Unforgiveness fills us with bitterness and steals our focus from all the good we have been given and should be sharing with others.  God will provide. Give us this day our daily bread. If we could really mean the prayer we all know, if we could limit our concerns and worries to 24 hour blocks, how joyful would our lives be. Just as His forgiveness lifts the burdens from our past; […]

My wife and I had a glorious evening on Thursday. We spent three hours on the couch with Logan our great-grandson. We had a couple of movies going that we had already seen but our focus was on Logan. It’s glorious to watch his personality unfold. He is already showing traits that will likely last his entire life. We look forward to many years of watching him develop. The experience made me consider how wise our God is. In so much of life, he gently unfolds things, not hitting us with them all at once. It’s evidence that he is acutely aware of how slow we are to appreciate the beautiful, awesome and glorious things of life. He does this with children like Logan as they unfold like a beautiful flower over their years of growing up. It’s Kaydence’s birthday and looking back over her seven years I’m amazed at the process. It’s not just kids. Fall, for example, is my favorite season. Even in the parts of the country where fall colors are glorious, God doesn’t unveil them all at once. There are, at first just hints of colors, other than shades of green, in foliage. Slowly the fall […]

I have been studying what it meant to be a disciple in Jesus’ time. A disciple was essentially an apprentice. He “moved in” with the Rabbi or teacher. His goal was to, one day, be as nearly like the rabbi as possible. He would seek to imitate the rabbi, not just to learn all that his master knew, but to be all that his master was. We talk about knowing Christ and making Him known. I think too often we mean knowing “about” Him and not knowing Him. We can gain knowledge “about” a person by reading what they have done and said, and what others have said about them. We can amass facts and opinions. Our knowledge can become encyclopedic. We might still not know Him. To “know” a person is to know what they are thinking, how they are feeling, what they need, what they want. It means having a high degree of comfort in their presence when they are at peace and when they are not. It means feeling their absence acutely, their hurts personally, their desires passionately. It means having their heart and mind. It means doing what they need done without being told. There […]

Let there be no mistake, Followers of Jesus, we are at war. There is an increasing number whose declared intent is to shut us up, marginalize us, de-franchise us, persecute us and, yes, kill us. Label me a nut if  you wish, but the evidence is overwhelming.  Sadly, so far our response has been ineffective. Some of us haven’t gotten the message. Some of  us are afraid. Some of us don’t understand this kind of war. I want to address only the last group today. If you haven’t gotten the message try watching the news. If you are still afraid, talk to Jesus. This isn’t the kind of war we see on television. It’s not waged from behind computer terminals with deadly long distance weapons. This is hand-to-hand combat. Our fight is personal and face-to-face. We don’t fight a traditional war. Our aim is not to occupy territory, cut off supply lines or kill our enemy. Those are the goals of the enemy. They are not ours. Confused? We have to move from being reactive “Christians” to proactive followers. We can no longer just respond instinctively or emotionally. Here’s the deal: We need to be guided by His plan. 16 Then […]

It’s been over a week since I posted anything. It’s amazing how time is flying. My excuse is that I have been busy. I have had real work to do and that’s a good thing. I wrote three articles for Covenant Spotlight. I have led a connect group on Sunday nights which involves preparing a teaching and a PowerPoint presentation. It’s been wonderful but time-consuming. I’m filling in for Pastor T, our Senior Pastor, next Sunday. Rose and I just finished doing two nursing home visits a week while Bill and Anne were out-of-town. We are planning a getaway to the beach. I just exhausted myself. The truth is that I got out of the habit of posting every morning. It’s incredible how difficult it is to begin a new “good” habit and how easy it is to abandon it. I enjoy posting daily and would appreciate  your prayers so that I may get back into the habit. Something I saw on Facebook this morning forced me out of my dry spell. I will steal what I read because it precisely expresses my feeling, “I’d like to introduce my dear friends the Reauxs (Jonathan, Megan, Lyla, Jed & Gabriel). They […]

I really enjoyed War Room. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. According to USA Today, it topped the box office for the Labor Day Weekend. “With War Room at No. 1, the summer box office is ending on a blessed note. The Christian drama topped the four-day Labor Day weekend with $12.6 million in just over 1,500 theaters, according to box-office tracking firmRentrak. Made on a budget of just $3.5 million, the PG-rated film has earned $27.9 million in just two weekends of release.” Not only was it an entertaining movie but it has motivated me to animate my prayer life. I wonder how many closets are being cleaned out around America. I’m not cleaning out one. I don’t have room anywhere else for my stuff. I’m also not the kind of guy who sits in a closet with sticky notes on the walls. I’m more of a “in the cloud” nerd type of prayer dude. My first thought was that there must be an “app” for this. It turns out there is. There is a War Room for Prayer app.  I checked it out, but wasn’t really impressed. Plus it costs $.99. I did find an app for my […]