September 11th is “Grandparents Day” according to the flower and gift industry. Certainly grandparents are worthy of a bouquet or an outing at the Golden Corral but if we really want to please them, how about some things that would truly make a difference in their lives?
Staying in touch and visiting on a regular basis would be nice. Cards and flowers on one day without an on-going presence only heightens our absence and recalls our neglect throughout t... read all »
These words are surely addressed to praying people-like yourself. The Apostles were praying people, who upon hearing Jesus pray, still said:“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Would you like to improve your prayer life? G. Ashton Oldham might help our prayer life, when he wrote:
“Prayer is the chief agency and activity whereby men align themselves with God’s purpose. Prayer does not consist in battering the walls of heaven for personal ben... read all »
Jesus said the above in John 7:24. We usually hear people claiming that the Bible says not to judge and they are usually making this claim having judged someone for having supposedly judged someone else. They seldom catch themselves, however.
Actually, the title quote above is incomplete. Jesus’ full statement was, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment”. The only way to make a righteous judgment is to have suffic... read all »
“For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” Romans 7:19
What evil do you want to do? I have mine. You have yours. Even the apostle who wrote the above had his.
Need a list? Just off the top of my head I can think of gluttony, envy, arrogance, drunkenness, promiscuity, vulgarity, adultery, physical and/or mental abuse, theft, dishonesty, bullying, gossiping, carousing, filthy talk, substance abuse, deceptio... read all »
I cannot recall what it was like to be in my mother’s womb. Of course at that point I was incapable of understanding any of the wonders of the created universe into which I would eventually be born. But having been born, I would never go back.
As children, we always looked to the next “phase” of our lives. We wanted to play with the big kids, to go to school, to go to the next grade up, the next school up and so on. We had in mind that there was a... read all »
Seems like I spend an awful lot of time driving. I’m picking up kids, going to the store, running errands…how about you? Most of the time my mind is running in different directions and everything is on autopilot, and my random thoughts flash in and out of my head (most I can’t remember and count as “senior moments”).
But, the other day a stop sign caught my eye. STOP. In this day of acronyms, (WWJD, TGIF, lol, 24/7, etc.) I thought th... read all »
Discouragement is something that we all, from time-to-time, face. In fact it may be all around us. At times we are faced with challenges that seem impossible, or work that can never get finished or we have too many factors against us. It might be times of indecision, financial burdens, family conflicts or the loss of our job. We may be in times when our faith in the Lord seems to be drifting away from us. This could be demonstrated when we lose interest in attending... read all »
You see it often in the gospels; Jesus reaching out with his hand to touch people. He touched Peter’s wife’s mother on the hand and took away her fever (Matthew 8:14-15). He touched the eyes of two blind men and gave them sight (Matthew 9:27-31). He touched the ears and the tongue of a deaf mute and gave him hear-ing and speech (Mark 7:31-35). He even touched a leper to make him clean (Mark 1:40-42).
What is it about touch? There is no substitute for it... read all »
I find it interesting that there are no specified instructions for how to hold a funeral service in scripture. There isn’t anything teaching us that we must have one, nor even any direct instructions as to what to do with the body. Yet God teaches us that there is something very special about death, especially the deaths of those who die having been faithful to Him:
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.
Psalm 116:15
And I h... read all »
God challenged Jeremiah about 2,600 years ago:
“Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note. And seek in her open squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her”
Jeremiah 5:1
Jerusalem was doomed because her people had abandoned God. His justice, having been building ever since Israel’s demise about 120 years earlier, was now looming just over the h... read all »
To brethren, living in corrupt Corinth, Paul closes his first letter to them: “Watch ye; Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (I Cor. 16:13 AS). William D. Poe stated: “The most important thing in the world that makes young people civilized is good old people.“¹
J. Edgar Hoover adds:
“The bulwark of religious training is vital if the line is to be held against the forces of corruption, crime and disloyalty. I be... read all »
If you look around when you are outdoors, with the exception of a few rare places on the planet, what you’ll see is an amazing array of plant life. Trees of every description decorate the landscape from the umbrella shaped Parana pine to the fern-like cypress and the cartoonish baobab.
There are also grasses, carpeting the ground with color, texture and beauty. Shrubs and bushes abound that add character, definition and splashes of color as the seasons change... read all »
As I write this note, the TV in my office is presenting a program on “Electric Fish”, in particular, electric eels. As I watch and listen I cannot ignore the evidence of our God’s majesty. How can anyone see creatures like these, and deny a supreme and tremendous creator? Even the word “creature” come from the same root as “create”. They are not “evolvers” coming out of evolution, they are creatures coming from a... read all »
God created both Adam and Eve in His image. Each of them had a divine purpose. Adam was created first according to Genesis 2:1-18 noting for us that it was not good for the man to be alone. God then made woman from the man to be his wife, but more specifically, to be his helper according to 2:19- 24.
Because of the weakness of our fleshly minds, we humans tend to make this relationship competitive, but competition has never been any part of God’s plan. Equali... read all »
Did you ever wonder why our paths have crossed? Did our paths cross by chance or was there a purpose? Will our paths cross again? As we look at these situations let us consider why our paths may have crossed.
I remember 30 years ago, though it only seem like yesterday, that I met a young man, a very likeable man who was easy to be around, easy to talk to. He had a great out look on life, one of happy go lucky, causal. You have probably met such a person in your lif... read all »