Looking for an earlier Watchword?
- I Declare a War - I Declare a War: Does it sometimes feel like you go from one struggle to another just to get through the day? Sometimes the struggle is Health related, sometimes the struggle is relationships, or issues related to finances. Does it ever occur to you that that’s the nature of being a human being? That there is a continuing struggle, whether in the mental, moral, physical, or in the spiritual areas of life. I don’t know how you read Jesus words, but I think the struggles that we have, moral and physical and mental issues, always come back to spiritual. Continue reading
- Sunday or Monday? - Sunday or Monday? It was a special morning. My mind was filled with all sorts thoughts and ideas, some coming from devotionals that I had read and some coming from the scripture passages that caused me to meditate, or sort through my own understanding. What a morning! Like cream rising from the top of milk, one idea persisted long after I moved on to breakfast. Jesus commanded his followers to go and make disciples. Sunday or Monday, or “any-day” of the week, that commandment is the same for us. Continue reading
- Division is Good? - Division is Good? Stories of churches who have split over some of the most ridiculous reasons are numerous. At last count, there are as many as 50,000 splinters of the Christian faith. Churches have split over serious differences as well as ridiculous and superficial reasons. While disagreements among the congregations they continue, the basic tenet of Christianity, Jesus Christ is Lord, remains. That is the point, isn’t it? We who sit in the pews may grieve a split in your church, but our worship has the singular focus of Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified. Why do you go to church? Continue reading
- Regrets vs. Repentance - Regrets vs. Repentance: I had always thought that repent meant stop sinning, which had a lot to do with how we treat others. But now I think it has more to do with being led by the Holy Spirit to a different understanding of my relationship with God. So, shouldn’t we know that it is not our turning from sin as much as more fully following the Holy Spirit into a closer relationship with God. That wee small voice within, that Holy Spirit speaking to us, drawing us ever closer into the presence of God. In short, it is not our relationship with others that is the sin, it is our relationship with God. Continue reading
- Batteries Not Included - Batteries Not Included: It is Christmas morning. Your children or grandchildren are all excited. The presents, clustered around the Christmas tree, are so inviting. But they wait. The time comes and the melee begins with squeals of laughter. Your oldest daughter or granddaughter has just unwrapped the gift that was at the top of her wish list, and now she is holding it, with tears of happiness! You help her overcome plastic shrink-wrap and then your eyes see that terrible phrase: Batteries Not Included. Oh, no. You hadn’t expected that and now you are faced with her impatient disappointment. You quickly rummage in the pantry and, thank goodness, you found what was needed and peace is restored. Continue reading
- Broken – Better – Best - Broken – Better – Best: Recently I heard a sad story of a 17-year-old boy who ended his life with a gun, but not until after he had sent notes of goodbye to family and friends. This is a wonderful, terrible time of the year. This mental health problem goes far beyond children and adolescents, it’s all of us. Maybe we’re not contemplating ending our lives, maybe is just a mild sense of loneliness, a wondering about our own value. We all know what a powerful message that human contact can you make to another. The phone call, a visit, an invitation to join you, maybe over a meal. Human contact, a smiling face and a “God bless you” delivered by flesh and blood. Continue reading
- Come Lord Jesus - Come Lord Jesus: The first trimester of Mary’s pregnancy is spent with Elizabeth and Zechariah in their home in the town of Ein Karem, just a few miles from Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Mary has just heard from the angel about her pregnancy, and she fled to Elizabeth, her cousin. Understandably she was shaken by this news and sought the comfort and advice of the older woman. Joseph is unaware of the pregnancy until Mary returns to Nazareth and shares the news. It is after that conversation that the angel comes to Joseph to reassure him. So, Mary is probably in her fourth month of the pregnancy when Joseph learns this startling news. This is hard, even now, to grasp the significance and the power of God’s love, and his desire to learn and to understand what his creatures must learn and understand. Continue reading
- Advent Unfolds - Advent Unfolds: Zachariah is a priest, well-schooled in prophecy, and yet not sure and unprepared for a prophecy to be revealed. Miracle after miracle. He heard the angel of the Lord tell him of the familiar scenario of Abram and Sarai facing a similar challenge, and yet God promised to make Abraham “the father of many nations.” That promise was kept. Now the same thing was happening to he and Elizabeth. How does Zachariah respond? With doubt. He wants a guarantee. He wants to know for sure that this will happen. Does that sound a little familiar? Early in your faith journey have you ever had doubts or wanted proof. Continue reading
- Being There - Being There: Has the Pandemic instilled in us new habits that have devalued the importance of being in church to worship. Has the frequency with which you would rather watch streaming of a service, increased, rather than get back into the habit of going to church and being there? “Why do we go to church?” “We go to church for other people. Because someone may need you there.” Never underestimate the importance of your presence to others…and to yourself. Continue reading
- Lamb of God - Lamb of God: Let your imagination play on this thought: You hear a knock on your front door, when you answer there stands a man. An ordinary man, dressed in jeans and a plaid flannel shirt. He smiles. You say to him, “How can I help you?” He answers, “I am the Lord and I desire a conversation with you. May I come in?” What would you think? What would you say? When Jesus walked this earth, people didn’t recognize. They were expecting the Messiah as a powerful lion, bringing judgment on their enemies. They had forgotten the prophecy of Jesus coming as a lamb. Jesus appearing as a lamb may seem a picture of weakness. But suddenly, in Revelation, men are hiding themselves from the “anger of the Lamb.” Continue reading
- Meditation - Meditation: Meditation? Okay, what is meditation? Or, what does it mean to meditate? Or, still another, how do you meditate? J.I. Packer in his book Knowing God, tells us that “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.” Wow, that seems complicated, very formal, and steeped in theological expertise. For me, and probably many of you, meditation is far more peaceful, relaxed, and quiet, our minds focused on something read in the Scripture or other devotional thoughts. Often our time of meditation leads directly into our prayer conversation with our Lord. Continue reading
- Friends and Lovers - Friends and Lovers: We sometimes miss in all of our readings and study of scripture Jesus' simple and uncomplicated words, ‘I call you friends…’. So, what is a ‘friend’? How do we consider that quality, that title, that word, that honor? In this time of Covid fears and political strife, are we learning to rise above it? Isolation and separation are merely geography. Those loved ones and friends – I’m here, while you were there – but, we know we are together. How do you show love to another as Jesus loves? You could wash your friend’s feet, but you don’t have to! You could lay down your life, but we pray it doesn’t come to that. So, then what? Simple. Be a friend. Continue reading
- Happy? Joyful? - Happy? Joyful? Time to clarify. The Bible isn't interested in making people happy. Instead, the Bible focuses on joy. Happiness is something we feel because of our situation or circumstances. We are happy because something made us happy, but we are joyful because of something within us. Somehow, happiness never seems to cross our minds when adversity knocks on our door, and yet…Have you ever thought about this: Can adversity breed joy? How about mistakes? Errors? No? Let me ask this then, who is your worse critic? Continue reading
- What’s So Funny? - What’s So Funny? Seeing the humor in life is one of God’s great and, possibly misunderstood, graces. What makes you laugh? Laughter that seems to be coming from, yes, deep within your soul. So rich and innocent, not at the expense of another, but seeing the quirks of life and the true, God-blessed humor in what lays before you. Such times of joy are gifts from the Lord. Jesus and laughter go together. I am reminded of something I heard recently, “Those who dance are considered insane by those who don’t hear the music.” We should thank the good Lord for the completeness of this reality we call our lives, for including a sense of humor that gets us through some of the rough patches. Continue reading
- Thanksgiving Day – Borrowed Thoughts on Thankfulness - Borrowed Thoughts on Gratitude: Invocation by A. W. Tozer -- Arise, O Lord into Your proper place of honor, above our ambitions, above our likes and dislikes, above even the family, and our health, even above our lives. Let us decrease that You may increase, let us sink that You may rise above. Ride forth upon us as You did ride into Jerusalem mounted on a humble donkey and let us hear the little children cry to You, “Hosanna in the highest”. Amen. Continue reading
- Never Ending Story - Never Ending Story: The Gospel lesson was the Mark 13 passage, which has themes of the end of the world, fear and being on guard. I have been told that this passage is one of the more difficult portions of the Bible to preach on, so I was curious how this pastor would approach this in his sermon. He represented the text very well, drawing a parallel with “The Never-Ending Story”, a children’s fantasy where a young boy is both the reader of the story and, in the end, emerges as the hero of the story. In the story, the force that everyone fears, the power they believe will destroy the planet, carries the apt name “Nothing.” In confronting and defeating Nothing, the people realize that with their faith and resolve, they solve the How question and the threat is gone. The lesson for us? The fears we face are “Nothing” with God. Continue reading
- The Spiritual Life - The Spiritual Life: For a number of years, I worked in an organization where the wife of my president was known as a spiritual woman. I’m not sure I could define that, but I would say that in her presence there was a calmness a peacefulness, the sense of always being welcomed. I have come to realize even more deeply that God speaks to all of us in the whispers of our quiet time. When we contemplate the meaning of a Scripture passage or a devotional reading, and you have a moment of clarity, of seeing the deeper meaning…that’s God speaking to us. Don’t be misled, Spiritual life is not mental life. It is not thought alone. Nor is it, a life of sensation, a life of feelings and experiencing the things of the spirit, and the things of God. It needs both. It is not just a life concentrated on those times of inspiration.You and I, must be totally alive -- Body, soul, mind, heart, spirit. Each held sacred and transformed by the action of God, in love and faith. Continue reading
- Sing for Joy - Sing for Joy: Ever have your heart so full of joy that it seems you can’t stop singing, or humming or even dancing? You want to shout, “I feel goooood!” You can say that you were happy, but it’s more than that, far more than that. The Psalmist tells us to sing to the Lord a new song. That doesn’t mean you need to compose a song. I think at the very heart of our joy is the knowledge we have been invited to come to Him and he gives us rest. It is more than “put on a happy face”, it is the hard work of deciding ‘I will be joyful, I will not let this get me down. I will rejoice in the Lord through this day. Continue reading
- Four Score and Seven - Four Score and Seven: One-hundred fifty-eight years ago, on this date, November 19, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln stood on the bloodied ground of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and delivered a brief, but memorable address of national unity. Many, reading this essay, have vivid memories of having to memorize the speech, maybe when you were in the eighth grade. For me, memorization was never fun! While the address was given 158 years ago, Lincoln's words are relevant today. Continue reading
- Ten Blessed and Random Thoughts - Ten Blessed and Random Thoughts: God has gifted us with the ability to think and to consider carefully each of these statements. As we dig deeper into each one, we find a timeless truth that applies to each of us. Sometimes the truth is barely noticeable. Sometimes it is seen by those that love us. All of the time the truth is present in each of the Ten, known only to God. Amen. Continue reading
