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 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—  to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,  to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.  In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, […]

Elijah the Tishbite. Read all about him.  October is Clergy Appreciation Month. At my church we don’t think in terms of clergy. We refer to Pastors. No matter the name, these people are under attack. The more they are trying to do God’s will as a leader, the more Satan is concerned and focused. Having served as a pastor myself I can report that it can be wonderfully rewarding. But even as a “part-timer”, it’s a thankless job full of headaches, disappointments, conflicts, loneliness, frustration, petty complaints and tight budgets. Since I was part-time and had a full time job that paid me well, compensation wasn’t an issue but the average pastor makes less than $34,000 a year—and  may work an extra job to feed his or her family. 90 percent of pastors work more than 50 hours a week; 70 percent say they don’t have any close friends; and 45 percent say they’ve had to take a leave of absence from ministry because of  depression or burnout. The biggest problem is that Pastors are asked to do the impossible. Most modern Christian churches are lead by a single man. The leadership can be viewed as a pyramid with the Pastor […]

Recently I received a request to send everything to a certain person via email instead of by text because the person was having problems with receiving texts. My thought was that I didn’t remember ever sending this (very nice by the way) person any text messages. After a few minutes God got my head straight and I think I know what’s going on. What a refreshing change! At our church, Amana Christian Fellowship, we have something called “Amana Prayer Partners.” We send reminders of church events, prayer requests and announcements, the Daily Bread daily devotional, and “Nick’s Walk.” It seems to work pretty well and all anyone has to do to get plugged into that is to provide the church with their email address. In fact, you can do that here. If they then have a prayer request or need, they simply send an email to amanaprayerpartners@googlegroups.com. Of course, they can fill out a form on the church’s web site, or send me an email, or call me or send me a letter, I guess. But sending the email directly is the easiest thing. Not that long ago, only very computer savy people communicated by email. Now, it has […]

On Monday, I had my post-surgical doctor visit. I had many questions, but they could all be summarized as “Is this as good as it gets?” Even just a week post op, things are better. I can stand without pain. But there is still pain. It was a foolish question. I am more frequently than not, foolish. The question was foolish, not because my doctor is great, but he’s no prophet. But because the answer to “Is this as good as it gets.” is always, “No. It’s going to get much better.” It always amuses me when someone sighs with satisfaction and says “It doesn’t get much better than this.” Those words represent a sad philosophy that could be restated as, “This is as good as it gets,” or maybe, “it’s never going to get better.” Here I was exhibiting what I know is a sad philosophy The truth is, in God, there is always more. The present is always just a foretaste of some more glorious future. No matter how things may seem, good or bad, it’s going to get better. That’s a wonderful promise whether we are slogging through a valley of life, dancing on a mountain […]

I’ve had my i-pad for a couple of weeks. I love it. I sleep with it. Okay that last one needs an explanation. I use it in bed and sometimes I fall asleep and it’s still in the bed. You can do lots of cool things with it. You can watch movies, read books and magazines, play games. And, yes, it is an incredible help in my legal practice, and in my role as “webmaster” for my church. Well, you just have to try it for yourself. It’s very intuitive. My three year old great grand child just picks it up and starts doing amazing things with it.  In watching her play with it, I realized that she was doing things more efficiently than I was. Shortly after that I stumbled upon the User Guide. For you ipad-ers, it’s a favorite on Safari, the web browser.  More amazing, I read it. I’m the type that throws away instruction manuals with the packing when I get something new. So manual reading isn’t my forte’. The darn thing has a manual and I read it and now refer to it often. I view myself as an emerging i-pad expert, but self-delusion […]

I heard from God yesterday. It’s amazing He was able to get through to me. He didn’t email, text or contact me through Facebook. Yet He was able to reach me nonetheless. It happened this way. I had to make an announcement at church Sunday morning regarding the upcoming Kairos weekend. I was up early on Sunday, researching, drafting handouts, burning up my printer. I stopped for a couple of minutes to relax. In the early morning quiet,  I felt the strong “feeling” that I needed to make the same announcement at Pastor Doucet’s teaching which occurs before the worship service. You will notice that not only did God not contact me electronically, He didn’t speak to me audibly. Often hearing from God is only a “feeling.” But it is confirmed by results. At the 9 o’clock hour, as the teaching began, I sat in the back and heard Pastor continue a discussion on the Glory of God. Suddenly I knew why I was there. I was to offer lab work for the classroom work. Attendance at the Kairos closing would allow those who were studying about the Glory of God, actually see the Glory of God in the […]

Around these parts, I have a reputation as a Florida Gator fan. A brave thing to be in South Louisiana where most folks bleed purple and gold. Many would have a hard time believing that I once proudly wore a t-shirt that read “Happiness is Gainesville, Florida, in your rear view mirror. ” I had just finished 27 months at University of Florida Law School. I was ready to get on with real life and not in a mood to look back. My eyes were firmly fixed on the future. Life is not always like that. We can we spend too much time looking in the rear view mirror. If we consider the qualities of rear view mirrors versus front windshields we might learn something. Autos and humans are designed for facing and moving forward. Safety requires only an occasional glance to the rear. God created us as to be future focused creatures. With God, all the good stuff is ahead. He gives us the gift of excited expectation. We can never say we have seen the most beauty we will ever see or had the best of life. That’s always ahead. With God there is always more. It’s […]

Practically everyone on Facebook is complaining. Significant changes appeared on the world’s most popular website on Thursday. It’s clear that most folks prefer the old and familiar to the new and innovative. Most Facebookers assumed that Facebook was just messing with them . . . Change for change sake. In fact, the internet changed forever yesterday. Some will “like” the changes, and why not. They will be able to watch media with friends and have their personal history compiled and displayed. They will know what their friends are watching, doing and saying online in real time. Some will hate having that much known about them. Facebook friends will “know” each other like never before. Privacy and intimacy will never be the same. If you think I exaggerate, Wait and see. Two great perceived needs of man are about to collide: the need to be known and the fear of being truly known. We want to be known and loved. We think we won’t be loved if we are truly known so we filter what others know about us. Facebook intends to change all that. Just think how you would feel if everything you did was known to everyone. Facebook […]