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- Spiritual Balance - Spiritual Balance: Apostle Paul’s admonishment to pray without ceasing, which we conclude is an ongoing conversation with God throughout our daily lives. Joyce Meyer wrote that we have to have balance in our life, balance between our spiritual life, which encompasses time that we spend in prayer, in devotional reading, and so forth, and our earthly responsibilities, and challenges. Maybe instead of praying without ceasing, we should be in constant fellowship with God at all times, in all ways. Continue reading
- Roads - Roads We have all driven on interesting roads. There is one in Arizona, Route 89A, Oak Creek Canyon scenic drive, which is one of the most beautiful and scary roads in the US. Approximately 24 miles between Flagstaff and Sedona, a change in elevation of 4,500 feet! That doesn’t quite tell the story. Most of that change in elevation is in the first 19 miles. If you do the math, the grade is STEEP and CURVY! Then there is another road, nearly as steep, but far more rugged, and even more dangerous. A road that Jesus trod that ended, days later, on Calvary’s Cross. Jericho Road, 17 miles of twists and turns. Your safe zone on this dangerous road would be Wadi Qelt, pronounced ‘Wadee Kelt’, a large cavity carved in the face of the valley wall by the Qelt Stream, spacious with a fresh water spring. Continue reading
- Follow Me – Part 2 - Follow Me - Part 2: The parable continues: Now, it was much later in the afternoon, the children returned to their father, and my Master had died on the cross. I watched as the two Pharisees, the ones that were so sad, stepped up, took the body of my Master away, and placed it in a tomb. I could not understand all this. Just yesterday the Master told us to be at peace, and now all of this, and he is dead and buried and I am lost, but strangely at peace? How can that be? And the voice said, “Follow Me”. Follow? Who? The one I followed is gone. There was the mother of my Master, in the midst of grieving, angry, upset people, bringing a different message; smiling, reassuring, and saying “Remember who He is and what He told us, just days ago, to be at peace.” And in the remembering, I heard again the voice saying, “Follow Me”, and I knew I had found God’s Peace. Continue reading
- Follow Me – Part 1 - Follow Me - Part 1: We call ourselves Christians, but what does that mean? Wearing His symbol of a cross around our necks, is that a sign that we truly are following His commands? Or are we more causal about our faith; worshiping him on an occasional Sunday morning where we recite from rote memory the prayer he has given us. Sometimes the way of the Christian is difficult, and we are confronted with both opposition and difficulties that seem to hold us back. But the word from our Lord and Savior is simple, and we need to take it seriously. In a clear voice he tells us, Follow me." May we have the strength of faith to do just that. Continue reading
- Learning Theory - Learning Theory: I have this learning theory that I believe is logical, true and effective. I call it ‘Not by Accident’ and it suggests that what we have experienced or learned in our earlier days, we now pass on to others, intentionally or not, as we live our lives. These influences or lessons could be good or not so much. On the ‘good’ side, how do we teach compassion? How do we teach love, or faith, or trust, or generosity, or something as basic as making and maintaining a friendship? Or, on a more practical side, how to make the world’s greatest potato salad? Continue reading
- A Personal Miracle? - A Personal Miracle? Miracle in your home? Have you thought about that? Miracle, right there where you live. Have you thought about what God is doing within the ebb and flow of our lives, even as we sit here in our comfortable chair? Something is different. We can’t put out finger on it, but it just feels different. What has changed? Sometimes change can be subtle, like a gentle breeze we hardly notice, but it feels...peaceful. At other times change is like an abrupt something that happens, and our lives are upended, redirected. Or, maybe it exposes something of which we were unaware. You know, before that Day of Pentecost, the Disciples had to wait for something. We have our own time of waiting for our personal Day of Pentecost. It just doesn’t feel like that same kind of waiting time that the disciples went through, but how would we know? Continue reading
- Our Story - Our Story: He was a man of arrogance, ignorance, and pride. Caught up in his own perfection and he blindly saw those around him agreeing, even supporting him. And the Lord looked down on him and said to the Angel Michael, “He needs to be trained, to be shaped in our image. Let us begin”. Then the sun shone down on the man, in great heat, and he smiled and laughed, and said “What can a mere light in the sky due to me, I have shade and SPF 90 sunblock. I am perfect. And the sun continued to shine even brighter, and the heat increased, and the sunblock melted away. And yet, the man shrugged it off, his arrogance deepened.Then rains began and beat upon the man and he laughed, “What can a bit of rain do to me? I am weatherproof. The rains will soon cease, my crops will grow. My friends will come.” But the rain did not cease, and flood waters rose. In near panic, the man called out to his friends, but they did not come. He called again and again, but no help arrived. Then, overcome with fear, in desperation, he cried out, “Lord help me.” Is that what it takes? We come to the edge of disaster before we call on the Lord? Continue reading
- A Simply Amazing Morning! - A Simply Amazing Morning! One Wednesday, some time ago, the man awoke at 6:30 a.m., eight hours of sleep, interrupted only once by leg cramps. Eight hours, in itself, was amazing, because he usually got less. He felt rested and relaxed as he sat with his devotionals and his coffee. He always looked forward to this time with the Lord, reading devotionals, thinking about what he read and praying. Each time he spends with the Lord usually has variety, something different to think about, but this amazing morning was different. The readings/meditations were knit together to form one powerful message from God. Let me share His Word in this meditation: Continue reading
- A Weed, A Blessing - A Weed, A Blessing: There's a window that looks out on a little meadow with pine trees in the distance. The window faces southwest and in the summer the sun shines brightly through the window, which affects working at the desk. After unsuccessful attempts to plant a little garden outside the window, a weed sprang up and over a period of time, turned into a leafy bush. The man thought about cutting it down until he realized that weed was blocking the sun, allowing him to look at that beautiful scene as he worked. Each winter the plant went dormant and each spring sprouted anew with leaves that continued to bless the man, providing assurance that God was actively present. Continue reading
- Sounds of Silence - Sounds of Silence: Leonard Bernstein believed that ‘sang’ was a better translation than ‘said’ in the Genesis passage of Creation. Friedrich Nietzsche said that without music life would be miserable, in fact life would not exist at all. I agree with both statements. Do you? But I wonder if we miss the songs of God because we choose not to listen. If we believe God created the universe, and yet God is a personal spirit within us, why are we not listening carefully to the murmurings that come to us during our time with God, whenever we sit and surrender to the Lord, even in silence. I wonder if we sometimes miss the Spirit speaking to us in the words and music of secular songs, the beauty of art, and the majesty of scenes of nature. I wonder... Continue reading
- A Clean Heart - A Clean Heart: The heart is more than just emotions and affections, it is the center of life for each one of us. Without an effective beating heart, blood would not flow, it would not become oxygenated, and that would affect our thinking, even my praying. The heart is far more than we think it is. The Bible informs us that the heart is a critical center of life which touches and impacts all that we are and all that we do. Continue reading
- Lost in Wyoming - Lost in Wyoming: Have you ever been lost in thought? You’ve heard the tired, old funny, “My mind wandered away and it hasn’t returned, yet.” Sometimes that’s how I feel when I get lost in my imagination, lost in writing. In my case, I get lost in Wyoming, the location of recent stories. For me, being lost in Wyoming is a blessing. It’s a way of saying that I get caught up in the leading that my Lord provides, nudging me along a storyline that He wants written. When I get lost in Wyoming, and feel a sense of human pride creeping in, I remind myself that it is the work that God does through me that counts, not what I do for Him. I have to remember where it all comes from, and seek a closer relationship with God. Continue reading
- Making the Team - Making the Team: In high school, I learned that I made the basketball team! I had worked hard and had made it! As the first game of the season approached, I was thrilled to know that I would start! A couple of errant passes, a missed layup and a foul, and I found myself on the bench. Crushed! While in college, I had aspirations of becoming an actor. I auditioned for a part in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and was cast in the role of Sebastian, one of the male leads. A few years later, in another city, I auditioned with the local Civic Theater for a role in Bus Stop, and was cast in in the role of Beauregard 'Bo Decker, the male lead. My "aspirations" were encouraged. Still later, while playing the role of Horace Vandergelder in Hello Dolly! I discovered a major flaw in my plans. Continue reading
- Lost, but Found - Lost, but Found: The young couple stood at the door to the counselor’s office, and asked, ”Can we speak with you?” The counselor smiled and motioned for them to come in. 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, the three were in tears. Continue reading
- Gloom, Despair, and Agony - Gloom, Despair, and Agony: Humor plays an important role in our lives. Without humor and our faith in Christ, we can sink to the depths of ‘gloom, despair and agony’. There were times when felt we were in that pit during those months during the pandemic, a very real, and painful experience where you had to trust in the Lord and the few brief contacts with the outside world to keep sanity in place. The truth is that in living our lives we occasionally slip into depression, worry, and uncertainty. This is a very real issue that we need to be aware of in ourselves, and in our conversations with friends and family. Continue reading
- God’s Gifts and Our Purpose - God's Gifts and Our Purpose: Think about that and about the gifts or talents given to each of us. Every person has the task of releasing angels by shaping and transfiguring all those raw materials that lie within into our life, artistic works, careers, etc. We chip, and scratch, and file away at our raw material to discover our gifts, and the transformational process begins. Beneath this shell of hard-headedness, stubbornness, self-importance, low self-esteem, etc., waits the angel of our worth. Because our gifts carry us into the world and makes us participants in life, the uncovering of them is one of the most important tasks confronting any one of us. When we talk about being ourselves -- being the person we are intended by God to be -- we are talking about gifts. We cannot be ourselves unless we are true to the gifts and graces that flow to us from His hands. Continue reading
- Every Good Thing - Every Good Thing: Think about that and about the gifts or talents given to each of us. Every person has the task of releasing angels by shaping and transfiguring all those raw materials that lie within into our life, artistic works, careers, etc. We chip, and scratch, and file away at our raw material to discover our gifts, and the transformational process begins. Beneath this shell of hard-headedness, stubbornness, self-importance, low self-esteem, etc., waits the angel of our worth. Because our gifts carry us into the world and makes us participants in life, the uncovering of them is one of the most important tasks confronting any one of us. When we talk about being ourselves -- being the person we are intended by God to be -- we are talking about gifts. We cannot be ourselves unless we are true to the gifts and graces that flow to us from His hands. Continue reading
- Taking Care of Business - Taking Care of Business: There is a phrase in the secular world, “Making Love”, that conjures up things that do not belong in a devotional. However, that phrase does communicate an important process in the deepening of a friendship, the strengthening of the bonds in a marriage or a partnership, or the trust that often forms in a Bible Study group. A process that requires discipline, both active and passive.From a spiritual standpoint, we are called to love others, and Jesus goes so far as to tell us to love others as He has loved us. Continue reading
- Fourth Day - Fourth Day: We had been part of the Bible study for less than a year, when our Pastor urged us to participate in a weekend retreat. Neither one of us wanted to go, but when the pastor asks…On the drive over to Columbus we were two grumpy men, who were going where they did not want to go, doing something we did not want to do, being part of something we did not know anything about. Three days later we were two different men in that car traveling home, back to what we knew was our ‘Fourth Day’. On that retreat, we had met Jesus in ways that we have never considered, and it changed us. We now knew that we were children of God. Continue reading
- Can You See God? - Can You See God? Well, wherever real beauty, goodness, and truth occur they give us clues to seeing God. Each one of us could define those words but I would challenge you to visualize an absolute, concrete example of each, for each carries a glimpse of God. We humans have a fascinating problem when we consider how the God of creation shows himself to us. We have a hard time grasping the magnitude of the Almighty. Sometimes we miss clear evidence of His presence, character, and purpose when it is displayed before our very eyes. We simply miss the moment, the act, the healing, the joy, the peace, the touch of a loved one’s hand or voice, the little things that mean so much to us, forgetting that it is God showing Himself to you and I, personally. Continue reading
