Nick’s Walk

After having written over the weekend about how much I enjoy the certainty that comes with fundamental Christianity; I run into one of those issues in which I find no certainty, Halloween. It seems when I was a kid, Halloween was not that big a deal. We threw together some costumes, raided our neighbors’ houses and made off with an unreasonable amount of candy. The next day a queasy stomach and some discussion about which of our neighbors were generous good guys and which were cheap bums, pretty much summed up the event. Now it seems like such a big deal. My neighbors decorate their yards. Stores begin hawking their ghoulish wares as long before Halloween as they put up Santas before Christmas. And that may be the heart of my discontent. I want Christmas, even in its impure form as celebrated these days, to be clearly THE holiday. I don’t like the challenge being put up by Halloween. To me it seems an obvious good guy/bad guy dichotomy. It’s God versus Satan. In that race I have a clear favorite. I know that for many, maybe even most,  Halloween is just good clean fun. I admit having fun last night […]

NOTE: This posting was drafted on Saturday but due to technical difficulties (operator error) it was not posted until now)I come to you this morning from Coffee Call in Baton Rouge. I have just polished off an order of beignets and I’m working on my cafe au lait with real sugar. It’s comfort food for I am suffering the curse of uncertainty. I didn’t leave the sleep center where I spent the night with the expected diagnosis of sleep apnea, curing breathing apparatus in hand, happy snore free wife in future. Instead, I am told maybe I have sleep apnea and maybe I don’t  Further analysis and possibly another night in the center is in my  future, in short, uncertainty. I don’t like uncertainty. Certainty is the reason I am a “fundamentalist”  Christian. I am certain Jesus died for me. I am certain I will live with Him forever.  I am certain He is the only way. The certainty that gives me comfort makes the world miserable. Certainty is politically incorrect. Relative truth is in. The Bible as truth is out. My god is as good as your god, that’s in. The one true God, that’s out. I’m  certain […]

 11-12Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. 1 Peter 2:11-12 The Message There is one area of life in which spiritual warfare language already prevails. The  Culture War assumes that  political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The two sides are sometimes defined differently: left/right, conservative/liberal, christian/world. This “war” heats up in 4 year cycles. As the Presidential election approaches, the differences between the opposing sides come into focus. Language, and sometimes actions, becomes more strident. The combatants do little to convert “enemies” to their side and, in each election, the “independents” decide the winner.  It is disturbing how “into it” Christians become. We tend to get caught up in the rhetoric and we often become offensive and, sometimes, nasty.  We lose perspective. Although this struggle is important, we need to keep it in perspective.  Consider this: Our salvation is not in politics. Both sides are […]

Lots of things can go into making an ordinary day great. I was blessed with several of those things yesterday. My day began with my Wednesday morning prayer and share. This time has become one of the highlights of my week. Every Wednesday morning I meet with some men from my church at McDonald’s in Youngsville. We discuss the Our Daily Bread devotional of the day, what’s going on in our lives and pray for each other. I highly recommend that you find a way to become part of a prayer and share group that meets each week. Another aspect of a good day is one combining time with the Lord and productive time. I had both yesterday. I was able to accomplish some long put off legal work, listen to lots of worshipful music and produce some video. On the last point, my Pastor reminded me that Jonathan Reaux, our worship leader and youth pastor at Amana had produced some great worship soundtracks. I had a copy of the CD, but frankly hadn’t paid much attention to it. I was blown away. It’s great.  Check out this worship piece. The Air I Breathe. I hope it blesses you as it […]

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.   But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?   You observe days and months and seasons and years!   I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.   (Galatians 4:8-11) I spent much of the day yesterday seeking photos of other members of the Kairos 53 team and posting them to the internet. Much of our team “training” is getting to know each other better and I have a terrible time with names. My intent was to provide a photo album with the photos labelled with the name of the team member. It turned out to be a fun exercise. If you have someone’s email address, you can learn a lot about them on line. Not everything you learn is completely flattering. It’s amazing what information people will put out for the world to see. I think we have a strong natural desire to know […]

 10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we

Yesterday I took my grandson home after church and we tackled my store and lock. I had a pick up truck bed full of items to go in the unit and I knew there wasn’t enough room. I had been putting off (procrastinating) removing some items and delivering them to the rightful owner. It’s a long story that doesn’t deserve telling here. Nicky and I tackled the problem, removed the offending items, called the owner, and delivered the items. Bad news is that I then had room for the new stuff that should have probably been thrown away, but is now safely in storage. The entire evolution took a couple of hours at the most. I had put it off for over a year. I have ignored the fact that even having a store and lock is an act of procrastination. It is a sign we are putting off throwing away things that we really don’t need. We just stick them in storage. Later, maybe much later, we’ll get around to throwing them away. It’s kind of like left-overs. At our house we have the procedure of putting left overs in the fridge, growing a little mold and then, […]

35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 Like destruction is the result of warfare in the nature, dissension is the result of warfare in the spiritual realm. Dissension is defined as disagreement among those expected to cooperate. Since Christ gave us a mission, we are expected to cooperate to accomplish that mission. Dissension makes mission impossible to accomplish. But more Christ promised something greater than simply agreement among His people. He made possible a love so dramatic that it causes ordinary men to desire to participate. So when Satan can stir dissension among the people of God, he wins at least  twice. He destroys the witness of the church while robbing the members of the church of the ability to work together to accomplish its mission.  But dissension gives Satan victory in another sense. Not only does it destroy witness, and mission, but it steals blessing. Agape love is a selfless love that is only possible when gifted from God. It is a blessing in itself. Anyone who has experienced the glow of selfless love wants never to lose it. There is likely no greater experience than to […]