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• Wisdom or Common Sense? - Wisdom or Common Sense? When we read the Message version of the Bible we hardly recognize the message. Sometimes, however, it speaks to us more clearly than another version. Which would suggest there is value in reading scripture across versions to see which opens God's Word in your mind. The passage from the Book of James is the King James version and the subject is right up there in the first sentence: ‘If any of you lacks wisdom…’  While in the Message version, the subject is implied, ‘If you don’t know what you are doing…’ Yet, to me, the instruction in the Message is more straight forward on how to proceed, ‘Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.’ A statement that parallels King James version, 'Let him ask in faith, with no doubting'. The truth is, it doesn’t matter which version we prefer, it is His Word we are to meditate on day and night. Continue reading
• Integrity - Integrity: In a recent Our Daily Bread devotional, we are reminded that since 2022 there have been three Prime Ministers in the United Kingdom. The change was the result coming out of discussions during a parliamentary prayer breakfast where people expressed their conviction about the need for integrity in public life. Sometimes it takes those in positions of political power to stand up and demand integrity, and doing the right thing, is crucial to the welfare of the country and affectedness of those elected to those positions by the public. Solomon made a request to God upon taking the throne. He asked for wisdom. Oh, to have leaders as wise as Solomon! We need to be brave and courageous, just as God advised Joshua. Continue reading
• Who Do You Trust? - Who Do You Trust? In a recent Our Daily Bread devotional there's the story of a rescue dog that became a fixture for the woman who adopted him. He was a wonderful companion, always calm, always friendly, never intrusive. Then one day Rudy began to jump next to her, licking her face every time she sat down. Later, a doctor's exam confirmed a microscopic bone cancer tumor. If she had waited it would have killed her. Rudy was a life-saver. What would happen to us if we truly trusted him to lead us into happiness? Blind faith? Are you kidding me? No, I'm not. Try it; what are you going to lose? Continue reading
• How Do You Pray? - How Do You Pray? At almost every church service our pastor says let us pray as the Lord has taught us, and we go into the familiar, and memorized, prayer that begins “Our Father who art in heaven…” It would be most unusual if we were to go on and say “ask and you'll get, don't bargain with God. Or, this is not a cat and mouse hide and seek game you're in. Spit it out, say what you mean”. I venture to say, many of us might take exception to those words. When we read the words of Jesus, we get the impression that our Lord is urging us to not get bogged down in a timid approach to the Lord but to be candid, to be even direct. If we are to pray continually, as Saint Paul admonishes us, it just seems to me that an ongoing conversation with God, our Father, is an informal, give and take, while being attentive to the Holy Spirit and responding. Continue reading
• The Day After - The Day After: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Yes, and today is that ‘tomorrow’ that you can face because He lives! He is in your life to love, to heal and to forgive. How does that make you feel to know that He holds your future and that you have no need to fear; not today, not the next tomorrow, or the next? Rejoice! Jesus speaks to us: Dearly beloved, “when I give you no special guidance, stay where you are.  Concentrate on doing your everyday tasks in awareness of My Presence with you. The Joy of My Presence will shine on you, as you do everything for Me. Thus, you invite Me into every aspect of your life. Through collaborating with Me in all things, you allow My Life to merge with yours. This is the secret not only of joyful living but also of victorious living. Continue reading
• Easter Sunday - Easter Sunday: Easter Sunday. Maybe a more descriptive label would be Resurrection Sunday because that is what it is. In the archives of your mind, your memory of childhood, what do you come up with? Easter baskets filled with brightly colored plastic straw, and jellybeans, and chocolate covered Cadberry Easter eggs filled with peanut butter. The fun of coloring the hard-boiled eggs so they can be placed out in the yard for the big Easter egg hunt that will follow that afternoon. All that seems far removed from what was happening in Jerusalem on this very Sunday, just two days removed from the awful day, Friday, and the sad day of Saturday. On this day, it was another triumphal entry into the hearts and minds of the disciples and the followers of Jesus. He is risen! Continue reading
• Holy Saturday - Holy Saturday: Can you imagine what it was like on this Saturday, the day after Jesus’ crucifixion, among the vast followers of Jesus? All who had seen him do marvelous things, miracles, and healings. They had counted on Him to change their lives, many of whom stood there on Calvary and watched in shock as they murdered their Savior. They couldn't help but see John and the two women with him, one of whom was Jesus’ mother, at the foot of the cross. Can you imagine that these people simply did not know what to do, or where to go, or if they had any future at all? A grief so deep that they were lost. Down the dusty side street of Jerusalem they came, away from Calvary, through Damascus Gate, away from Herod’s Palace to the very edge of the city. They approached the nondescript house and file into a large gathering room, already filled with sadness and loss. Continue reading
• The Centurion - The Centurion: Two excerpts from the book, A Life for Barabbas, related to Good Friday: (Calvary Hill, Good Friday, 33 AD) Barabbas’ attention was still on Jesus, when one of the soldiers, a Centurion (Longinus), approached the cross. The soldier seemed sad as he paced back and forth. He gazed at Jesus briefly, shaking his head. Then raised a spear, and, almost in anger, drove it, hard, into the side of Jesus. Jesus made no sound, nor did he move. He was dead. The Centurion withdrew the spear and bowed his head, hiding tears. Then, still looking sad and angry, he threw the spear down and walked away. Continue reading
• Maundy Thursday - Maundy Thursday: Holy Thursday. Thursday of Holy Week. On this day there were four significant happenings that move us to the center-piece of our faith and belief.  Jesus returns to the temple and continues His teaching. At sundown, He gathers His 12 disciples for the Last Supper, during which He reveals the one who would betray Him. He uses bread and wine as a sacrament of remembrance. He then gives them a "new commandment" to love one another as He loves them. The Thursday of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, redefines the ministry of Jesus. Continue reading
• Holy Wednesday - Holy Wednesday: Wednesday of Holy Week. Jesus and his disciples remain in Bethany. The previous days had been exhausting and this was a day of rest, welcomed by all. Later in the day, Jesus attends a dinner at the home of Simon the Leper. It is here that a woman, some believe was Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anoints Jesus using a flask of fragrant nard. Nard was an expensive substance used in burial rights, a foretelling of Jesus death and burial. It is during this time that Judas took the final step in his betrayal of Jesus. That is why this Wednesday is often called “Spy Wednesday”. Have you ever reached the point in your walk with Christ where doubts crept in?  Perhaps you wondered who was this Jesus, really, this deity I prayed to, this spirit that I talked, the Savior that I called to help me? Continue reading
• Holy Tuesday - Holy Tuesday: When we follow Jesus’ ministry, we find it filled with parables, miracles and teachings, but rarely think of Jesus as a prophet. That all changed on this Tuesday of Holy Week. After spending Monday night in Bethany, Jesus and his disciples return to Jerusalem. Back in the Temple, He continued to teach and it was here that he made a shocking statement that this building would be completely leveled, “Not one stone shall be left here upon another.” A prophecy fulfilled in 70 AD. Later that afternoon, Jesus left the city and went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives where they had some privacy from the crowds. Continue reading
• Holy Week – Monday - Holy Week - Monday: Jesus and the disciples spent the night in Bethany and now, Monday morning, they are returning to Jerusalem. Can you imagine how the disciples felt, remembering the triumphal entry of the day before, all the crowds cheering and welcoming them. Perhaps in their minds they were thinking now our Master will begin his reign. Jesus entered the temple courts and found them full of corruption, money changers and filled with animals offered for sale as sacrifices. He began by overturning their tables, scattering the animals, and clearing the temple, saying, “The scriptures declare my temple will be a House of Prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the elders came to him and challenged him. Holy Week and God is in charge. Continue reading
• Psalm Sunday: A Donkey’s Tale - Psalm Sunday: It's Palm Sunday, and Jesus travels from Bethany into Jerusalem riding on the colt of a donkey with a large celebrating crowd, many of whom had been with him since Jericho, waving palm fronds and throwing throwing them on the road for the King. A triumphal entry for the Messiah. A Donkey’s Tale: With imagination, we are asked to hear about Palm Sunday from one who was there…the chosen one, the donkey. ask the animals, and they will teach you. Yes, we can learn much from what the Lord has taught us through all elements of His creation. Continue reading
• Holy Week – A Fresh Start? - Holy Week – A Fresh Start? Holy Week, that important time for the Christian Church between Passion or Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.  A solemn time, commemorating the events of Christ’s journey to the Cross and the Easter Sunday celebration of the Resurrection. We mourn with the disciples and the Mary at His death, and we try to understand the depth of their loss on that Good Friday, as they were unaware of the coming Resurrection. But, as Christians, we ARE aware of the Resurrection.  Our faith is rooted in that knowledge, for we know the rest of the story.  The solemnity of this week is really a rededication of our faith, of our belief.   It is a retelling of the centerpiece of our faith.  Continue reading
• Are You Evil? - Are You Evil? One Sunday, a few years ago, our pastor asked us if we were evil people. Evil people! That's what she said. Then she went on to say that she was evil more often than she cared to admit. Matthew sternly warns the people of the judgment to come, that in the end, those who are evil will be thrown in the fire. Matthew was trying to scare the hell out of the people, literally. How does that translate into how we live our lives? Does that make us hesitate in our answer to the question; are we evil people? In today's current state of affairs, who knows what moral living means. What if I don't have enough money to give away and I'm too busy to volunteer, does that make me bad? Continue reading
• At Least I Think I Am - At Least I Think I Am: Can we follow Jesus if we don't believe everything about him? What is it that you and I believe? Do you believe that Jesus is not just an idea, but he is a power, that he is, indeed, the Creator God? The crippled woman who came to the synagogue, unable to stand straight, was healed by Jesus without saying a word. That suggests that her faith brought her to church but it was not a real thing in her life until she experienced the healing through Jesus. It was through her faith that she was healed. What does that have to do with your belief or mine? Our faith is based on our belief in Jesus. Not just the idea of Jesus but the power of our Lord and Savior. Continue reading
• Lost and Found - Lost and Found - Reprise: The young couple stood at the door and asked, ”Can we speak with you?” The young man said to his friend, “You tell him.”  She, in turn, said to him, in tears, “I can’t, you tell him”, and the story came out. It was a story of loss, loss of innocence.  There had been an abortion five years before, at the age of 14, and the young woman was lost, deep in depression and delayed grief over her lost child. By the time the story was fully told, we were in tears. That was the start of a lengthy period of conversation and support.  Eventually, the conversation turned to faith, the support of her parents, her circle of friends. At some point, months after her friend brought her to my office, the real healing began: she began to speak openly of her experience and the choice that was made for her, and how her faith and her friends had helped her move on. Please do not condemn those who may have had an abortion. Pray for them, support them, and know that they bear a burden you can only imagine. Continue reading
• I Will Give You Rest - I Will Give You Rest: We read in the scripture how all-encompassing God can be with his love. That He clothed the grass of the field, that He numbers the hairs on your head, that He cares for even small birds. We view these statements as clear until we begin to dig deeply and try to apply it to our everyday lives. That's when the simple seems to turn toward complex. A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us because, what do we do?, we read complex or conditional things into it. Which raises the question, how can we maintain the simplicity of Jesus so that we can understand him? When we lose ground in our fellowship with God, it’s because we have drifted and have carelessly ignored what Jesus would have us do.  In Matthew 13 Jesus talks about allowing the cares of the world to enter into our lives while forgetting that our Heavenly Father knows it all and it's there Jesus tells us that if we would obey the life of God within us, He would look after all other things. Continue reading
• Your Dash? My Dash? - What will be on Your Dash?: Recently a friend of mine passed away. I had not known him for very long, our contacts were mostly following church services when we would spend perhaps 5 to 10 minutes, the time it took to walk to our cars. I'll get out to Oak Glen cemetery sometime in the future and I'll look upon the marker, which will read, in effect, 1946-2024. Did you see that? That little line between the dates, the little dash that represents the most important elements of his life, or our lives. What have we done, how have we lived, how have we honored God, how we loved others, how we responded to adversities, how we left our mark. A little line, loaded with how we have lived our lives. Continue reading
• God of All Things - God of All Things: I just finished a hard read, a difficult read, and I slogged through to the end because I had read so many of Kirstin Hannah’s books that I had found spell-binding. So, I wadded through. This one, The Four Winds, was different. As I said, it was a hard read, which at time caused me to feel depressed. I would call it a detailed study on the tragic period in our country’s history called the Dust Bowl. It was a time so bad that it caused many to turn from God, a God that, in their minds, had deserted them. I won’t tell you how it ends, except to say that love wins. In a recent Jesus Calling, we read: “Trust Me in every detail of your life. Nothing is random in My kingdom. Everything that happens fits into a pattern for good, to those who love Me.” This is a hard lesson, Lord, when we are enduring adversity and loss. Bringing ourselves to say “Thank you, Lord” during those times takes such a commitment and grit. Yet, we know that we can do all things through You, Lord, who will give us strength. Continue reading