Looking for an earlier Watchword?
- Saturday, November 28 - Paul and Peter: I think we’re most familiar with the role that Paul played in the spread of Christianity among the Gentiles. That was the mission that Jesus the Christ gave to Paul and that’s the one that he was dedicated to, as reflected in all of his epistles. While we may not see the same role in Peter, yet, in the history of Christianity, he was instrumental in the development of the Church, even to the point of becoming the first Pope of the Catholic Church. Continue reading
- Friday, November 27 - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! I am a snow lover! A little snow is not enough, I want piles of it, a beautiful, glistening, white covering the whole country. A clean, fresh. white, reminding us of the purity of God’s blessings. For me, there is something about a snow fall that fits nicely into my comfort zone. I was in my third year as Dean at the college, and the famous blizzard of 1979 had buried the town and this part of the state. We had ten or twelve students that had just returned from an experience in Europe that were stranded in Chicago. Our caravan brought them home, and the thing that stood out for me, even after all these years, is the how they expressed the gratitude of “being rescued” and returning to the familiar, their comfort zone, the campus. Continue reading
- Thanksgiving Day - A Day of Thanks: Don’t miss the question. 17 Jesus asked, “Has no one returned to give glory to God? The German mystic and philosopher, Meister Eckhert, once wrote: “If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that will suffice.” I think we underestimate the importance of the ‘thank you’. The acknowledgment of a gift given, assistance provided, support extended, or simply friendship that has no qualifications, it’s just always there. Continue reading
- Tuesday, November 24 - en·chant·ment: noun. A feeling of great pleasure; delight. "The enchantment of the mountains". The state of being under a spell; magic. "a world of mystery and enchantment". We are heading into the season of excitement and enchantment, that too often over-rides the reason for the season. Somewhere in the recesses of our minds is the memory of the child that you were as Thanksgiving and Christmas-time came around. Continue reading
- Monday, November 23 - God in a Mask: Today, everyone is wearing a mask, or should be. When we wear a mask, we may find breathing a little more labored, sometimes we consider it quite a nuisance. But in this day and age we need to embrace this new normal, even though it is temporary. We have seen other people trying to have fun with masks with all kinds of sayings, sports teams, etc., and I think, that’s the spirit! Continue reading
- Saturday, November 21 - Get Out of My Church! How often have you stopped and considered what a confusing set of rules and regulations we have as born-again Christians? Seriously, we have looked askance at Judaism and their 613 “laws” which define their commitment to God. And yet, we sometimes crash ourselves on the rocks of discrimination, literalism, or, perhaps you are among those who think about such things as the Virgin Birth, Parting of the Red Sea, Jonah and the Whale, etc., and wonder if your uncertainty of the facts, disqualifies you, somehow, to be a Christian. Continue reading
- Friday, November 20 - Charles Spurgeon, on the power of Psalm 23 -- “We have all things and abound; not because I have a good store of money in the bank, not because I have skill and wit with which to win my bread, but because the Lord is my shepherd.” And so, we begin the final four stanzas of the Psalm of David: Continue reading
- Thursday, November 19 - I’ve been reading Philip Keller’s book A Shepard looks at Psalm 23. Keller grew up and lived in East Africa surrounded by native herders who whose livelihood closely mirrored shepherds in the Middle East. For a number of years, he actually made his livelihood as a sheep owner and sheep rancher. So, he brings to his understanding of the Shepherd Psalm a slightly different perspective than those of us who are more ‘city-folk’. Let’s take just a few phrases, for now, and try to see what David, the shepherd who became king, was saying. Continue reading
- Tuesday, November 17 - Referring to Philip Keller’s book A Shepard looks at Psalm 23, we stay with the Shepherd Psalm and consider interesting takes on the next four verses. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures – Even after several years at the Heifer Ranch where there were lots of sheep and goats, I did not know that it was almost impossible for sheep to be made to lie down. Keller says that sheep will not lie down in peace unless four requirements are met – They must be free of fear, free of conflict with other sheep, free of flies or parasites, and free of hunger. Apply that to us, and our Good Shepherd. He promises us peace in its various forms. Have you ever had trouble sleeping? Too many things running around in your mind? “Come to me…and I will give you rest…” Continue reading
- Monday, November 16 - Creative Living: The other day I visited a friend of mine. As I walked into his living room, there he was, sitting on a couch, a ukulele in his hand, and how-to-play books scattered around. He was teaching himself how to play the uke. I thought how cool is this. My friend has had a very successful business life, has a large and loving family, and despite the fact that he has suffered a number of strokes, is the kind of person that you really enjoy being with. And there he was plunking out “my dog has fleas”, but the fleas were just a little off key. But that didn’t matter. We spent a bit of time talking nonsense and family, and just general stuff. We touched on some personal matters and we exchanged some observations, some of which struck close to home. As I drove away, I thought about his last comment to me, which, in my mind, had to do with creative living. I don’t know how you would define creative living, but I think a lot of it has to do with having the courage to act on God-given graces, whatever they are. Continue reading
- Saturday, November 14 - This is the two-hundred-second (202) edition of Watchwords, over the past eight months. The first (March 20) was just an e-mail sent to most of the men in the Bible Study group at the start of the Pandemic as a way of keeping in contact and encouraging one another. The next day, a Sunday, we coined the word ‘Watchword’ and the Meditation was short and to the point: “Here it is Sunday morning and I am at home, my church is dark, and maybe yours, too, but not our hearts for we learned long ago that church is within us.” Gradually, over the weeks and months we have added others who find Watchwords devotional helpful and part of their time with the Lord. From time to time, you, the readers, have shared your own writings, your humor, and readings you found special. Of course, prayer requests. Our numbers are growing and now that Watchword is out on the web, others join in. Continue reading
- The Power of Prayer - Prayers -- A dialog with Jesus: And Jesus says, just keep in touch. Don’t worry about the Prayers, they will come. The important thing is the communication, it’s the human, reaching out to Me. Don’t worry about the Prayers, they will come. In My own time, they will come. Stay tuned, always stay tuned to Me, the Lord and your fellow man. Do not lose touch. Don’t worry about the Prayers, they will come as inspiration springs from thoughts and calls and compliments and criticisms, from feelings, from isolation and loneliness, and even from a loss, for, My Child, I know all of this. So, don’t worry about the Prayers, they will come. Continue reading
- Thursday, November 12 - Veteran’s Day was yesterday, November 11. I was 18 when I was enlisted in the Army. I say “was enlisted in the Army” because it seemed inevitable that my “draft number” would come up soon and besides that, I had lost my military deferment when I was academically disqualified from Ball State where I majored in parties. So, in an unheroic act, I volunteered for the draft. I wrote about my experiences in the service in 2015, which I titled, “On Being a Veteran”. Those experiences were a formative part of the person I have become and, from that point-of-view, as a veteran, I offer these additional musings on our current state of world affairs. While we salute veterans as heroes, and rightly so, in this day and age heroes are multiplying exponentially, all around us. Continue reading
- Tuesday, November 10 - Great Things Beyond Our Understanding: We had been married for less than a year when we traveled to Colorado to visit family. My wife and I decided to drive to a lookout point where we could see the whole of Denver, shrouded in a fresh fall of snow. We stood by a snow bank on a freshly plowed mountain road and threw snowballs at one another, and then threw them out and down into the valley below. We were just getting back into our car when I realized that my new wedding ring was missing. Frantically, we pawed through the snow drift where we had been making snowballs, all to no avail. We gave up. In frustration, I made one last grab, and there in my hand was my ring. Impossible? Beyond my understanding? Luck? Whatever it was, the two of us just stood there in amazement, happily, thanking God. Continue reading
- Monday, November 9 - Invisible Enemy Among Us: In the October/November issue of The Evangel, a publication of the Association of Lutheran Churches, there is an article by James Hoefer, entitled The Invisible Enemy. We may immediately think of the Covid 19 virus and how it has upended our lives and created isolation in our usually socialized existence. It would be hard to argue about that. In his article, Dr. Hoefer speaks of the power of darkness. He makes this statement: “But a deeper dive into the Biblical portrayal brings some surprises! There we find that everything we see in the visible, physical realm is caused, provoked, or at least influenced by something in the invisible, spiritual realm.” Continue reading
- Saturday, November 7 - Isn’t that our cry, as well? Help me, Lord, for I am poor and needy. Yes, we are, and the reason is laying there, right on our shoulders. We thought we could do it all on our own, we thought we could plow our way through this stress we’re experiencing, that we can somehow sandbag our worries, tuck them away so we don’t have to look at them or feel them. That strained relationship, well, it’ll just go away if I ignore it, over time. How did we get here? A foolish man would say the devil made me do it. But we know better than that. It’s true, it was a foolish man, find a mirror and see. But the truth in the matter is that our generous Creator gifted us with the power to choose, the power to walk away from Him, the freedom to act like I can do it all on my own. Maybe we hear the words, “only I can fix this” coming from our mouths. Continue reading
- Not My Problem - Not My Problem: The Good Samaritan is a familiar story. Passing by on the other side. How many of us have done that over the years? Maybe not as dramatically as the parable that Jesus tells, but nevertheless real. Passing by on the other side is an easy way out. It is similar to saying I haven’t got time to do this, or I am not qualified, or maybe I could get sued, or better yet, I might get dirty. Or, perhaps, not my problem. Indeed! Whatever the reason, passing by on the other side is a standard. We all have done it at one time or another. We divert our eyes, we cross over to the other side of the street. We don’t want to be inconvenienced and we are not sure we want to get involved in another’s trouble. We don’t want our life interrupted. Continue reading
- Thursday, November 5 - Setting aside the obvious setup of bald jokes, these words of Jesus make the point that even the tiniest details of our lives matter to God. Even the sparrows that were worth only 0.4 cents each were not forgotten by the One who made them. While it can be comforting to know that God cares about the big things in our lives and the little things in our lives, it can also be frustrating when things don’t seem to be going well. It makes it seem like God is picking on you or else ignoring you when the little things go wrong in addition to the big things. Suddenly, minor inconveniences take on outsized importance. Continue reading
- Tuesday, November 3 - “This redefines my understanding of what large is!” my grandson said as he stood, for the first time, on the south rim, gazing at the Grand Canyon. It is an overwhelming view. You might have anticipated what you are now taking in, based on pictures, but there is no substituting for the real thing, and the real thing far exceeds what we were prepared to see. It redefines the base thought. Redefining your meaning or understanding of ‘large’ based on seeing the Grand Canyon, illustrates the difficulty we are faced with when seeking to understand God and God’s word. The difficulty goes far beyond the manner in which the scripture is handed down to us. Continue reading
- Not My Way - This is a hard one. First, the Lord tells us that he loves us very much and calls us His children. We would all accept that, because that’s what we are. We are little children. We have our tantrums, we have our disappointments, we fret when things don’t go our way. We’ve all seen that as we’ve raised children, but now here we are one! Then the Lord goes on to tell us that if we love our mommies and our daddies more than Him we are not worthy to be His. Maybe we understand that, to a degree, but, maybe we don’t. Life goes on, and it’s not always fair. Maybe you are sitting alone in your assisted living apartment, and it doesn’t feel all that good. Maybe you have been alienated from parts of your family and you feel that kind of loneliness. Perhaps, you have lost your spouse and you feel that separation from all that you knew, and now it’s different. Continue reading
