Nick’s Walk

Life is a walk, for Christians a walk with God. Looking back on the long path of my walk, one characteristic predominates: faithfulness, not mine, but God’s. There has been much along the path: eleven years in the military without injury or fear, law school in my thirties, loss of a child, false allegations, challenges of all kind. Through it all my God has been faithful. My family has never gone hungry. I have enjoyed a beautiful family, faithful friends and a decent career. I have often wandered from the path, but God has stuck with me. Looking around at where I am today on the path I have to wonder. Is this where I should be? Was this God’s plan A for me or are we on plan B or even Z? I have walked a long way, but should I have walked faster or even run? How many times have I been turned around or had to double back? Did I fully understand and appreciate all the beauty along the way ? Have I more often helped others or stepped on toes without thinking? Will my passing be remembered with smiles or frowns? Looking ahead I can […]

It seems we are often unsatisfied or discontented because we make poor decisions. It’s understandable that this can happen when we don’t have all the facts. The strange thing is that often these poor decisions are based on bad information about ourselves. I read an interesting article yesterday about things we should know about ourselves.  Here’s my take on that. 1. Whom do you serve? We all serve someone. The problem is that we don’t always realize it. It could be ourselves, our employer, our checking account, our spouse, or someone else. We need to know the real answer to that question. 2. What do you love? At least once a day we find ourselves saying that we love something or someone. What or whom do we really love? Shouldn’t our decisions be based in significant part of whom we love? 3. What makes you angry? At least once a day we find ourselves angry or upset about something. These emotions guide us often unconsciously. It is wise to recognize what gets under our skin. 4. What motivates you? Great leaders and coaches are terrific at identifying and utilizing the motivations of others. We aren’t always that good at recognizing […]

A Methodist pastor friend of mine lost it on Facebook this week. He went after the non-denominational churches questioning whether folks who go there know what the church  believes and accusing some of these churches of “sheep stealing.” As one Facebook post said this week “It’s now what you believe, but whom you believe.” What you believe is important, but if you believe the right one that works itself out. Further, they are not our sheep. They are His. It’s easy enough to understand his frustration. Main line denomination churches have lost folks for years.  Lots of reasons have been given. They have become too liberal or too political or not political enough. Some blame the secularization of America. The free love period of the sixties had an impact. Church scandals haven’t helped. Now even some “conservative” denominations are feeling the pinch. The Catholics are feeling a bump aided by a new pope who seems to get it in terms of what people are looking for, but may not get it in terms of theology. Some churches are doing great. The ones that do often get targeted as being “seeker friendly” or watering down the message. I think that’s […]

We all have our favorite sins. In fact, I believe we have two categories of favorite sins. We have our favorite sins that we like to commit. We don’t believe they are really bad sins. In fact, we may not think they are sins at all. They are really just little missteps. We don’t think they really hurt anybody so they are of the no-harm-no-foul variety. We know we would be better off without them, but there are certainly much worse sins out there.  One of these days we will get around to stop doing them. Probably when we are old and they aren’t so much fun. Some of us call them venial sins. “Venial” means “slight” or “pardonable.” These sins tend to be sins of the mind or perhaps sins that occur in private. That’s one of the reasons they are our favorites. We really don’t like people to know we have sins, or should I say faults. We like to keep such things private. They are really nobody’s business. That brings us to the second group of favorite sin: the sins others commit. They tend to be much more public and everybody’s business. After all that’s how […]

5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. 1 Timothy 1:5 The one thing we all really want is love. We want to love and to be loved. We may try substitutes of all kinds but nothing else will do. What we really want sometimes seems unattainable.  It doesn’t seem like a big thing, but three big things keep us from it. Who we are. What we’ve done. Where we’re headed. We spend our lives trying to change these three things about ourselves. We know who we are and we know we are unloveable and incapable of really loving others. We know what we’ve done and no matter how deep we bury that or how much dirt we shovel into the hole, we can’t cover that up. We know that we are headed no where. We know that no one would be willing to join us on that hopeless journey. As to number 1, who we are, we seem to have only a couple of options. We can improve ourselves or we can lie about who we are. The problem is […]

We waited for three hours last night for word on my grandson’s visit to the ER. It all turned out well but most of us are not very good at waiting. It seems like we are always waiting for something. The issue is what to do while waiting. Here are some thoughts. Don’t just wait. There’s often much we can do while waiting. Watching the clock is not a useful activity. We often say we are waiting on something, when it’s just an excuse for not doing all the things we really should be doing. Most of us have “smart phones.” We can check our email or read some scripture or maybe just turn it off and pray. Why.  Delays often have a purpose. A couple of weeks ago while I sat for 6 hours at the Lafayette airport. It occurred to me that sitting there might just be better than flying in bad weather. Encourage someone else.  Waiting seems so awful because it’s a time of self-concentration. Trying focusing on someone else. Look at what others are doing. Trying talking to them or even better listening. Trust God. Things happen in God’s perfect time. Just because we think something […]

This year we made a vegetable garden. We got tomato, eggplant, pepper and herb plants. I made a raised  bed and we planted and fertilized and watered. The plants are doing great. In fact they are very fruitful indeed. We also bought a fig plant. We couldn’t figure out where to plant it. So we didn’t. We just placed it next to the raised bed. It gets the same sun as the vegetables and the same watering. It isn’t doing anything. It looks fine, but it isn’t growing and there seems no chance we will get any figs this year. The Christians I know are like that. I don’t know all of my Christian friends’ theology on eternal security. I do notice this. Some of them are well planted, watered and sunned. They are very secure in who they are and who they are in Christ. They are very fruitful. Others I know are not planted. They tend to roam about without any roots. They get water and sun but they aren’t very secure. They are not fruitful at all. Is it possible that first comes justification, then assurance, then sanctification with the fruit that goes along with that? […]

It was Thursday night at VBS. Anyone familiar with VBS programs knows that’s a big night. It’s the night of the special time, the quiet moment, the invitation time. This year it was handled in great fashion by Della (the lady with the neon hair). It’s tough to pull off an altar call and get kids to all of a sudden take you seriously when your hair can be seen all the way in Abbeville. Nonetheless, it was a great success. At the proper time many little hands went up. Many precious prayers were spoken while almost all eyes were closed. Alright, I know it was supposed to be every eye closed. I was in the back row. It was hard to miss. So sue me. I consider myself the press and inquiring minds want to know. Lots of thoughts come to mind at a time like this. Special. Precious. Moving. Worth all the hassle. Thank God tomorrow’s Friday. Other thoughts creep in. Young. Don’t really understand. Following the crowd. I already had some thoughts over the last few weeks. Repentance. Conversion. Justification. Sanctification. Assurance. Cheap grace. Words from scripture come to mind. Love. The whole world. Whosoever. Will be […]