Nick’s Walk

It’s going to be a fabulous day today, at least it will be weather-wise. As I write this it’s 60 degrees with a high expected of 84. A taste of fall at last. You can almost hear the gumbo pots hitting stove tops and the packs of chicken and sausage sailing across check out counters. There are already leaves on my lawn and we are four weeks into football season. Unless you’re a LSU fan and football season ended last Saturday night 🙂 Fall for me is more about renewal than New Years Day or springtime. It will finally be cool enough to get into my yard and do all the stuff it’s just been too hot to do for months. I have had plans for this first cool day for months. I’m not going to be doing what I planned. A dear friend who is faithful in nursing home ministry called last night. He has an emergency and can’t do his nursing home teachings this morning and tomorrow. He couldn’t find anyone else to fill in. So guess where I’ll be the next two cool  mornings. Nursing homes are “not my ministry.” I’m not comfortable with the residents […]

Luke 7:1-10 English Standard Version (ESV) Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant 7 After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd […]

I few months ago I was headed to church. I was all dressed up, which is rare for me. I was speaking that Sunday. I pulled into my usual breakfast place and noticed that I had a flat tire. Since my knee problems, I have a problem kneeling and being all dressed up was an issue as well. One of the waitresses and one of the cooks noticed my problem and went out and changed the tire. Talk about service. At the risk of showing my age,  I remember when “service” stations would pump your gas,  clean your windshield and  check your oil. Then we went to “full service” options. You could pay a few cents more per gallon and get full service or you could save a bit and pump the gas yourself.  I remember when you could go shopping and get “waited on.” Now you find the dressing room yourself and stand in line to check out. I remember when you needed a service you thought of friends or folks at church who might be in the business of providing the service you required. Now we check on-line or believe the TV ads. I miss getting full […]

Today’s church is already wired, and if your parish isn’t taking full advantage of all of these ways of touching people throughout the week, it is becoming increasingly irrelevant. By Greg Garrett, July 15, 2013 Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world, Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared, Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed. Christ has no online presence but yours, No blog, no Facebook page but yours. ~ Meredith Gould I don’t hang around at bars, strip joints or casinos. I do spend a lot of time on the internet and some folks seem to think that’s worse. I could gamble, have an affair or conspire against the government on-line. I can’t drink or do drugs online but I imagine someone somewhere is working on that. Just as I don’t gamble, hang around strip clubs or conspire in the “real world” I don’t do it on the internet. I don’t use filters. I’m not against them I just haven’t found any that really work for me, but they are available. Most of my posts and tweets are transmissions of my blog, the subject of which is Jesus, or […]

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians  5: 18 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ (2 Corinthians 2: 14). But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15: 57) Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you (1 Samuel 12: 24). Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5: 20 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians  3: 17 For a couple of weeks now our electric range has been on the fritz awaiting a part. The part came in today but didn’t work and has to be reordered. As my wife said today, it’s nice to go out to eat if you have a choice. There is so much we take for granted. When we do that it damages our praise perspective. Consider: • If you […]

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ… Titus 2:11-13 It’s God’s grace that convicts us of sin. It’s His grace that saves. It’s His grace that empowers us and teaches us how to live a post-lost life. After we are saved, we live in a new paradigm. That’s a fancy way of saying that we have new perspective, a whole new way of looking at things. The problem is we live in the same old world. Grace having saved us doesn’t dump us as new creatures into a world that hasn’t changed. It empowers us and teaches us how to deal with our new circumstances. Grace first teaches us to disown what ruled us before. Because of what Christ did for us, we don’t want to ever bring shame to Him. In place of what use to compel us, Grace teaches us about self-control and living soberly. To live soberly means […]

It’s clear that ISIS is bent on killing us Americans in general and us Christians in particular. It really doesn’t matter if this is radical Islam or something else. What should be our response? The government response should be based on its principal function to protect its citizens. Government is not there is educate us or supplement our incomes or take away our incomes or our freedoms. It’s function is protection. A government that doesn’t do that is failing in its fundamental function. There is only one way to deal with someone trying to kill you: kill them first. For those of us old enough to remember, Pearl Harbor was just on painful reminder that isolationism doesn’t work with fanatics. As Christians, our first response should  be to convert them, but it seems a little late for that. Right Mr. Robertson? Our response as Christians to radical Islam should be radical Christianity. That means it should not be fear and it should not be hate. We should respond by doing what we should have been doing all along. We should be radically following our Lord. We should be radically carrying out His commission. We should be radically loving, even […]

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.Romans 8: 28? Last week I read Model Man by Larry Stockstill. You can’t help but notice that Pastor Stockstill is a man of routines. He gets up at the same time each day, goes on a walk with his wife with whom he then does a devotional time and then eats the same breakfast. He has, or at least did when his family was younger, a family night and a date night each week. These patterns seem to have served him well as God has accomplished much through his ministry over the years. Sometimes patterns make us efficient and secure. However, sometimes they make us lazy, bored and comfortable. If we have too many patterns in our lives it makes it tougher to grow because growth is about change and patterns restrict change. If we are to affect the world around us that requires us to be creative and patterns tend to restrict our creativity. If God is doing something to move you out of your habits or patterns as I know He is […]