Nick’s Walk

I want to be Caleb. You remember him. When the children of Israel approached the promised land, Moses sent twelve spies in to check things out. All saw the same thing, a land filled with promise but with challenges. Ten counseled caution. We can’t do it. Aaron and Caleb said with God’s help, we can do it. For all, God’s redemption of them from Egypt and the destruction of Pharos army, were fresh memories. You would have thought that more than 2 of 12 would still have been pumped about the power of God. Forty-five years later the generation of the unfaithful were all dead, except for Caleb and Aaron. Caleb was 85 years old and still ready to take on the challenge of invading the promised land. I want to be Caleb. I haven’t posted a blog in a while. I haven’t known what to say in light of terrorists, cop killers and cop killings. I have read lots of opinions and haven’t completely agreed with any of them. I’m not a police officer nor am I black so I’m haven’t had subjective experience to challenge or confirm all that I’m hearing. I have friends on both sides […]

If you are reading this you are one of the lucky and blessed ones. I’m not saying that this post is all that great. What I am saying is that if you are reading this, you are alive. You have made it to another day. There are many who have not. You and I are blessed, so what are we going to do about it? Pass the Test.  We all face death. We have a limited amount of time to justify our existence. This life is a test. It’s an opportunity to choose to follow Jesus, not just in a one time decision, but in a continuing life. We follow by placing our trust in Him and being in obedience to His commands for our lives. We live to know Him and to make Him known to others, to make disciples. If we haven’t made that decision, we may be technically alive, but are, in fact, Walking Dead. The first obligation of those of us blessed to still be alive is to pass the test of life. Enjoy the rest.  Did you know that “Eden” means “delight?” God created man and placed us  in an environment which is meant […]

Today we celebrate Independence Day. It’s a good time to do some thinking. This country is very different from the one I grew up in. We spent the weekend in Houston. We didn’t see many folks who could speak English. I am not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s just one piece of evidence that the country is changing. The people who make up America are changing. We have always been a melting pot; it just seems that lots of the new folks aren’t melting in. I’m not sure that’s good. The new folks don’t seem to be aware of or grateful for how we got to be independent. Even the young folks who were born here seem to have that problem. We have always been free; but I wonder how free we are. I feel more controlled and watched and limited by government than ever before in my life. I have never known a time when the IRS and the justice department and the Congress in general was so corrupt. it’s not a question of “might be” corrupt. There isn’t much issue about it. I think we are less free than ever.  What worries me more is that […]

I have come to believe that we can measure our maturity by how we value people, things and ideas. Consider with me: Self. When young we tend to value ourselves by what we do. This is not surprising since strength, beauty, brains, energy and a life time to do, all belong to the young. We think we have capacity, opportunity and time to succeed and measure ourselves accordingly. It’s only after years of fighting, failures, and unfairness, that we begin to realize that our value can’t be in what we do, since what we do is so much less than what we dreamed. The realization that our worth is in who we are is slow to come and difficult to keep up. If we have had the blessing of coming to know Christ, we learn that it’s not about what we have done, but what He did. Our worth is in being His and being loved by Him. What we do is as filthy rags; what He does through us is the stuff of  miracles. If we fail to reach this level of maturity, we die in failure and hopelessness. If we learn to live in Him, we live in […]

Sometimes I amaze myself at just how clueless I am. When listening to my grandchildren I only understand about 10 percent of what they say. When I drive off the paths I take most days, I see things that I forget about. I see poverty and shacks in which I am sure hunger stalks. I walk in crowds and see empty eyes and blank faces that show a complete absence of the love Creator God has for them. Occasionally I hear things that shock me to the core.  There are employees working in private homes who are forced into serving and/or fraudulently convinced that they have no option to leave. Women, men or children are forced into the commercial sex industry and held against their will by force, fraud or coercion. Human beings are forced to work under the threat of violence and for no pay. These slaves are treated as property and exploited to create a product for commercial sale. Individuals are compelled to work in order to repay a debt and unable to leave until the debt is repaid. It is the most common form of enslavement in the world.Women and children are forced to marry another without their consent […]

To all those fathers who do their best to be all they can be to their children, “Thank you.”  Society doesn’t appreciate your effort or understand the value of your calling. You are the butt of jokes and the easy one to blame.  You are making a difference. Don’t give up. To all those who try to fill the shoes of absent fathers, “Thank You.” Your efforts are often not recognized, sometimes spurned or misunderstood. Carry on. You are desperately needed. To all those whose father is absent, physically, spiritually, or emotionally.  Know that you are loved by the Lord and Father of all. Turn to Him. Be especially blessed this Father’s Day when you feel you have no one to thank or to honor. To my own special father, now gone too many years. I am so sorry I never recognized the great job you did while alive. Who today could raise nine children on almost no money and not end up with any in jail or on drugs? To my descendants, here and gone and yet to be. I am so sorry for the times I have been absent, or too distracted or too busy. I am […]

Have you ever come to the sudden realization that you’ve been robbed? Years ago we walked into our home to the realization that someone had been inside, ransacked and taken some things. It created a huge sense of violation. I have often since come to the belief that I’ve been robbed, that something I had or think I should have is not mine. Perhaps you’ve had this sensation. Particularly as we grow older we can be overcome with a sense of loss, or a sense of a failure to gain. Perhaps it occurs when we discover that our life didn’t turn out as expected. It can happen when we realize that our spouse and kids and even ourselves aren’t perfect, far from it. Maybe it’s when we realize that the dream of arising to the pinnacle of our profession is never coming to fruition. Perhaps we realize that the financial security we thought we would have isn’t there. When these realizations, we have to consider two possibilities: Perhaps our expectations were unreal. Should we really have expected that our spouse would always be twenty-one? Was it realistic to believe we would be the wisest, richest or most beloved person […]

Mind control. It’s not just the stuff of grade B sci-fi movies. It’s a very real thing. Just spend some time on Facebook, Twitter or television news. Folks seem to be wandering around like mindless zombies. Repeating what they have heard and having no thoughts of their own. On Facebook folks keep posting pics and stories from four years ago as if they happened this morning. I wish Facebook had a “no politics” mode that would automatically hide anything about Hillary, Donald or Bernie. Talk about mind control. Satan is very definitely in this mind control business. He wants us regretting yesterday and fearing tomorrow so we won’t be good for anything today. He wants us thinking about politics, bills, terrorism, taxes, flesh-eating bacteria and the antiChrist so we will give no thought to God. I suppose he’s pretty good at it, but we really make it pretty easy for him. We Christians, who claim to be eternally secure, worry constantly about death and think every cough and tummy ache is cancer. We claim to be heavenly minded but can’t remember the last time we told someone about Jesus for fear of offense. We store up stuff where rust […]