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- A Christian Halloween - A Christian Halloween –By Matney Woodard: Unless you live a very sheltered life, it is almost impossible to avoid being influenced by the Halloween season. It is now one of the biggest holidays for retailers, and a huge money maker for Hollywood. Scary movies, witchcraft, demonic activity, the occult, are all being promoted by the media, entertainment, and pop culture. All of these in some way introduce fear into people’s lives. Fear is the opposite of faith. The root of ALL fear is doubt, or unbelief in God. It is your faith that pleases God. Continue reading
- Yikes! - Yikes! Have you ever taken an honest and deep look into the dark reaches of your soul? All those hidden things that your sense of honor or pride or shame, you just couldn’t, wouldn’t reveal? Yes, yikes, is a good way to put it. We want to keep those things all tucked inside, so there’s no possibility that someone may see, may know that about us. Or the goblins will get ya if ya don’t watch out!!! Continue reading
- Old Testament Jesus? - Old Testament Jesus? You say that Jesus is not mentioned in the Old Testament? Are you looking with honest and spiritual eyes? One of the beautiful things about Jesus being the fulfillment of the law is that the Old Testament points directly to him as the Messiah. Please note, it is not like we threw out the Old Testament or rewrote it once Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Granted, the New Testament is added to God’s story, but remember that both are testaments to the truth of who God is. Continue reading
- Safety - Safety: Feeling safe is the doorway to happiness. How can one be happy if you are experiencing anxiety, fear? We long for safe places. Remember yesterday when you were in peaceful safety and did not worry about an unseen evil? Maybe a virus? Remember? Well, that peace that you felt, that safety you told yourself you rested upon? Those all came from our Lord and Savior. Remember, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty”. Get that? Those who live in the shelter (within the Word). How about “Those who trust in the Lord shall renew…” Continue reading
- Conflict vs. Comfort - Conflict vs. Comfort: How would you describe your comfort zone? Maybe a state of being that feels good, and feels…well, comfortable. It is one of those human conditions that might be difficult to communicate to another, but you know when you are taken out of yours. Even though our world has changed drastically since the time of Jesus, the basic needs of humanity, of you and I, have not changed. Jesus repeatedly challenged his disciples not to worry or be afraid, and yet they did worry and were afraid. That fear became intense at the foot of the Cross. Of course, that soon changed! Continue reading
- Much-Afraid and the Shepherd - Much-Afraid and the Shepherd: I am reading, again, the book Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hunnard. It is an allegory of the Shepherd Psalm, where the main character is called Much-Afraid. Have you ever wondered away, looking for...something, or avoided doing what the Lord was leading you to do? Ever been defeated? Fired from your job? Divorced from the one you loved? Alienated from a beloved friend? Did you ever become Little Much-Afraid, dwelling in fear? How does a shepherd restore the soul of a sheep, or, for that matter, leads sheep along paths of righteousness? We live in the divine confidence that after every storm there is a rainbow, no matter how long it takes to show up. The lesson learned by Much-Afraid, that transformed her into Grace and Glory. Continue reading
- The Lord Is My Shepherd - The Lord Is My Shepherd: Psalm 23, just six verses. if you memorized this Psalm as a child, as I did, you probably recite it in the King James Version. As soon as you speak the first verse, The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, the rest of the verses just flow, hardly without any encouragement or thought. Should we seek out other versions; the message, NIV, etc., it’s not nearly as familiar and meaningful. Who wrote this Psalm? See, that is something else we probably know, if we gave it some thought. David, the shepherd boy, later the Shepherd King, is credited with the authorship. He imagined the thoughts of a sheep expressing how it feels about its shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd implies a profound affection and a practical working relationship between the creature, us, and the creator, our Savior. Continue reading
- Repent! - Repent!: Can’t you hear the echoes from the gospel tent of an old time evangelist urging and calling to his congregation, “Repent! Turn from your sinful ways. Failure will lead you to hell’s damnation!” What does repentance mean? It means a change of mind, simple as that. Jesus’s first directive was not to believe, but to repent. repentance leads to faith—it’s a foundational practice we cannot afford to ignore. Repentance is not a “one and done” transaction because we step from grace to sin, repeatedly. Jesus is Lord of everything, or He’s not Lord of anything. Continue reading
- Letting Go and Letting God - Letting Go and Letting God: People in the Bible repeatedly found strength through their relationship with God. For the Israelites, Faith in God followed a pattern of on again, off again, throughout their history. To what extent do you trust the Lord? To the point where you can let go of all the difficulty of your life into His nail-scared hands? The space of all that worry will be filled with His Peace. Continue reading
- Hot Wheels - Hot Wheels: Rachel Remen, in her book "My Grandfather's Blessings, tells of playing Hot Wheels with her 6-year-old nephew, Kenny. Kenny had two of the little cars and they had a great time with imaginary traffic events. An oil company’s promotion of giving away Hot Wheels for gas purchases allowed Rachel and her friends to present Kenny with a box of several models of the cars.The gift had a puzzling impact on Kenny. He lost interest in playing with the cars! When asked, he told Rachel that “he didn’t know how to love this many cars”! Do we collect too many “Hot Wheels”, or wealth for that matter, without realizing that we have a “box for giving?” What are you doing with your “Hot Wheel” collection? Continue reading
- Whatever is Untrue - Whatever Is Untrue: I wrote the following on Friday, February 28, 2014, almost seven years ago. Some might read into this something political, but they would be wrong. When I posted this in 2014, I got some feedback, including one that claimed I had “misquoted Paul”, to which I replied that I wasn’t quoting Paul, I was speaking to disciples of Christ. In today’s hurting world, it seems appropriate to, once again, speak to disciples of Christ. Continue reading
- Decisions, Decisions - Decisions, Decisions: At one time many thought being a Christian meant try hard to be a “good person”, and that was the key. For me, that “good person” idea began to change in the face of the challenges of a family with two young children, a change in my professional life, and poor decision making along the way. Inch by inch, God was leading me along a different way, and, at age 40, I accepted Christ and the whole tone and structure of my life changed. The decision to follow Jesus, is not a group decision, it is a personal, solitary decision you make. You literally "decide to follow Jesus." Continue reading
- What Are You Afraid Of? - What Are You Afraid Of?: Fear. Fear hits us all, maybe differently in you or in me, but, nevertheless it’s part of our lives, it’s part of how we function in this complicated and difficult time of life. What are you afraid of? The disciples, crowded into that boat on the sea of Galilee, and in the midst of a storm, cried out in fear for their lives. They saw no way to be rescued. The storm was too fierce, the waves too high, the wind threatened to capsize the boat. Then, there was Jesus, coming to them, walking in the midst of their storm. Too often, when we are fearful, we feel we are alone. But, the Word of God is both a command and a promise. The promise is that we are not alone. We are to wholly lean on Jesus’ name and know that He is with us. Continue reading
- The Inner Space - The Inner Space: We have seen pictures from spaceships of the vastness of the universe, even as far as science can help us see. When we think of the infilling of the Holy Spirit we can only come to the one conclusion that it is only in the spirit realm could God, so infinitely great, live within each of us, who are so very small. We have no choice but to be awed by the power and the glory of God’s Spirit within us…within us! I think about John Glenn on that very first manned space flight; a trailblazer in science and a devoted public servant on Earth as well as in the heavens. What was it like to be thrust into space, trusting the science to put you there and to return you safely back to Earth? To behold what God had created, up close and personal, far beyond the ability of we earthbound folk. Continue reading
- Patience, Prudence - Patience, Prudence: I stood at the counter while a somewhat frustrated staff member processed my credit card to pay for my copay at the doctor’s office. Her comment was that the system had been slow all day and it was “maddening”, her word. I’m not sure patience is in short supply so much as there seem to be multiple opportunities to lose it. Prudence, also known as good judgment, wisdom, and calmness in considering our affairs. The Lord tells us to relax, not to worry. He reminds us that our weakness as an opportunity to grow in our faith. Continue reading
- Unwrap Yourself - WATCHWORD: 38 Then they came to the tomb. It was a cave with a heavy stone rolled across its door. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, said, “By now the smell will be terrible, for he has been dead four days.” 40 “But didn’t I... Continue reading
- In Their Shoes - In Their Shoes: So often we read scripture and while we sometimes imagine what life was like in those days, can we imagine their thoughts, how they felt, the decisions they struggled with? That is hard. At the time of His crucifixion and Resurrection there were certain principals cited in Scripture: Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; Peter, John, Barnabas, Matthew and Andrew. In this imagined conversation at this critical time in all of their lives, Andrew speaks to us: He’s dead! We thought He would live forever. He was to be our Savior, our new King who would lead us to freedom. Just this week we saw Him bring Lazarus back to life…why could He not save himself? I don’t know what to do! I don’t know where to go! I don’t know what to believe. He made so many promises, and now He is gone! How about you and I? Do we struggle with the markers of our faith? Markers like the Virgin Birth, water to wine, the healing of lepers, the raising of Lazarus, and, finally, The Resurrection? Do we stand by those? Continue reading
- Good Being - Good Being: This passage from Matthew is part of the Sermon on the Mount, a series of lessons by Jesus that would come to shape the lives of the disciples and their ministry. In like manner, these lessons are intended to shape our lives as Christians, followers of Christ, the Lord. This particular lesson, with love your enemies at its core, is hard to grasp. But when He completes this lesson and tells us that we are to be perfect, even as our father in heaven is perfect, now we have a problem. All our lives we have been taught that only God is perfect, and now being instructed by our Lord that we also are to be perfect. Well! How do we even get our mental arms around that thought, let alone "be perfect"? Continue reading
- Storms - Storms: It seems to me that this year we have had an increase in different kinds of storms; floodings, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. The talking heads often refer to global warming, and that is part of it, I am sure. In a recent Our Daily Bread, Arthur Jackson reminded us of a record rainfall that proved fatal for 20 people in the town of Waverly, Tennessee. He told us about a skillful and compassionate helicopter pilot, Joel Boyers, who saved so many by his bravery. We’ve all encountered storms in our lives and God has brought us through them. Even now many are struggling, dealing with sharp points of difficulties, yet, because of our faith, we have come to rely on God as our refuge and our strength, our shelter in the storm. Continue reading
- Alone but Not Alone - Alone but Not Alone: Joni Erickson Tada wrote and performed the song, Alone but Not Alone, that made its way to the top of the Christian music charts and into a movie by that same name. When I listen to the words and the music of that song I cannot help but be reminded how true it is. God is with us, God is for us, God loves us. There is no doubt in that. At a most crucial time in the life of Jesus, as a man walking the earth, facing eminent crucifixion, He asked God the Father to give all believers the Holy Spirit, as a Friend and Guide. And so, in reality, we may feel we are alone, but if our faith is strong, there's no question that our Helper, the Holy Spirit, is there with us. Continue reading
