December was my least favorite month n 2022 by a country mile. I spent my birthday, Christmas, New Years Eve, all the football games on New Years’ Day and our 29th wedding anniversary in the hospital with Covid.
I’m clear and back at home now and I’m resuming my blog post schedule–
new posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Dr, John Ed Mathison’s weekly blog posts on Thursday.
On Monday, January 2, 2023, one of the most important NFL games of the year was just ten minutes into the first quarter. The outcome of this game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals would influence the playoff status of several teams.
An unexpected thing happened. Buffalo Bills safety, Damar Hamlin, tackled Bengals Tee Higgins. Damar got up, took a couple of steps, and then collapsed on the field because of cardiac arrest.
The medical teams from both sidelines were on the field immediately and started medical procedures including CPR. After 30 minutes, they placed Damar in an ambulance and carried him to a Cincinnati hospital.
Prayer was primary for most every person. Nobody was debating whether or not you should have prayer at a football game or that players could kneel and pray. ESPN analyst, Dan Orlovsky, told viewers nationwide, “Maybe this is not the right thing to do, but I want to.” He said that the Buffalo Bills organization believes in prayer. He prayed, “If we believed prayer didn’t work, we wouldn’t ask this of you God. We believe in prayer…..” Marcus Spears and Laura Rutledge said, “Amen.” Google the whole prayer that he prayed.
People have continued to pray around Buffalo, New York, Cincinnati and everywhere. It is reported that people meet on street corners, public places, and designated venues, and circle up and pray. I think Damar is the most prayed for person in America!
This event has reinforced many beliefs and commitments for me. Here are two that I will share:
The Bible says that sincere, passionate prayer of a righteous person avails much. (James 5:16) Mark records the healing of a young boy by Jesus. When the disciples questioned why they couldn’t heal him, Jesus said, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” (Mark 9:29)
Practice praying daily and experience the power of prayer every day this year.
The coaches were reminded of that lesson during the time that doctors were administering to Damar on the field. Bengals Coach Zac Taylor and Bills Coach Sean McDermott were standing with their arms around each other. It was still undecided if the game would be resumed. McDermott told Taylor, “If they resume the game, I am not coaching it. I’m going to the hospital with my player, Damar.”
Begin each day in 2023 answering the question, “What and who is most important in my life?” Don’t get your values inverted. Read Matthew 6:33 and Matthew 22:37.
Everyday experience: Prayer—Power—Priorities–Possibilities
What is your personal testimony?
When did you get it?
Who gave it to you?
How many testimonies do you have? You can have many?
How many people have you shared it with?
What feedback if any, have you received? Positive? Negative? Share
Simply put an effective testimony rocks when Jesus does a transformative work in your heart no matter how small or large.
If your testimony is effective and genuine you’ll hear your voice hear the sounds of the words but the testimony will be Jesus doing the transformative work in your heart.
You won’t hear it. But you’ll eventually feel it.
I didn’t go in for all that Nintendo and game boy fad in the 80’s. It didn’t intrigue me like it did a few of my friends. The Nintendoe technology was crude and still in its neophyte stage. The Nintendo did have one really cool feature though. Right next to the “START” button was the “RESET” button. So if you didn’t like your score, or just wanted to start over, all you had to do was hit “RESET” and you could begin a new game, start over. A brand new fresh start.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a reset button for life?
What about that discussion you had with your wife that went South in a heartbeat and you said some awful, mean, hurtful things to her. With the reset button it’s like it never happened. You could reset the balance on your credit card so your balance could go back to $0. You could reset your marriage, relationships, the mortgage. All kinds of stuff if you just had a reset button.
Some
If you are in Christ, then Jesus is your life’s reset button. Jesus has a brand new life for you; but you need to completely destroy the old you completely.
So how do you make sure your old self is gone completely. That’s no easy task. Come back to my For His Glory blog site Monday t find out how you can get rid of your old self completely and forever. Promise!
Do you know Jesus? YES___NO____? I don’t mean do you know about Him, or have you heard about Him, or you’ve heard other folks talk about Him? Maybe you’ve even read about Him in the Bible.
But do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Let me tell you why the answer to that question is so vital to tour future. The moment you die you will find yourself briefly in the presence of Almighty God. If you say, “Father, I’m one of your children (0f course God already knows you’re one of His children). God will wrap His arms around you, and say, “Come with me now to your eternal home I created for you when I created the Paradise I call Eternity where we will be with each other forever.
For those who have rejected God’s offer of salvation and a forever home in Eternity, they will be cast into the pits of hell where they will suffer unceasing torment, anguish and excruciating agony 24 hours a day
Do you know Jesus? YES___NO___?
I don’t mean9 Do you know about him or read stuff about hiin, or heard others talk about him or even read about him in the Bible. I’m talking personal relationship. Like call him and ask him to catch a good movie with him, or text him to see if he’d like to go grab a coffee together. That’s Personal.
Let me explain to you why your answer to that question is so vital to your destiny.
All of us (humans on the planet) will die some way some time some way.
When we take our last breath–EVERY ONE OF US we will stand in the presence of Almighty God and give your answer to that question, Are you a child of God or not. Of coarse The Creator of all life already knows who all his children are. No last minute changes of heart here at the gates of Heaven.
God will look at you and smile. He’ll put his arms around you and say, “Come and see where we will live together for Eternty in the garden Paradise I prepared for you and all my children from the foundations of the world.
If you failed to accept God’s offer of salvation and promise of eternal life you are banished to hell forever to live in unquenchable fire and never-ending torment and suffering and anguish and pain that will never end.
(Editor’s note) I wrote Sweet Tea and Jesus several years ago. It remains one of my readers’ most liked posts. It is also one of my favorites.
Folks who live outside the Deep South don’t understand Sweet Tea. If you go to most restaurants or truck stops north of the Tennessee line and ask if they have Sweet Tea, they’ll say, “Sure, sugar’s on the table.” (That means, “No. We don’t have sweet tea. Sugar’s on the table.”)
When you make real Sweet Tea, first dump two cups of sugar into a pitcher. Bring a half gallon of water to a boil. When it boils put in three family-sized tea bags. Leave it alone for five or six minutes. Remove the tea bags and bring the tea to a boil. Pour the tea into the pitcher and stir it until the sugar melts. Fill the pitcher half way with ice and stir until the ice melts. Then fill the pitcher with cold water. Stir until blended.
Something real scientific happens when you make Sweet Tea. When the sugar dissolves in the tea, you no longer have sugar and tea, you have Sweet Tea. It is a different mixture. Two separate ingredients mix together to form a new substance. It’s no longer sugar, and no longer tea. It’s Sweet Tea. The sugar won’t settle on the bottom of the pitcher, because it’s not sugar any more. The liquid will always be Sweet Tea to the last sweet drop in the pitcher.
The Bible teaches us that’s the same thing that happens when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and invite Him into our hearts. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man (water) be in Christ, (sugar) he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (Sweet Tea).
As born again believers we are now spiritually in Christ, and will be forever. God has already guaranteed our position in Christ for eternity. Ephesians 2:5-6 proclaims, “even when we were dead in our transgressions (God) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
As a new creation in Christ, He wants to live His life in us, through us and as us to bring glory to God. As part of our true identity we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We’re new creations.
The next time you drink a big glass of Sweet Tea, think about being a new creation with Christ living in you and you in Christ. And for all you Yankees, I hope y’all get to visit us down here one day and savor a tall cool glass of this delicious nectar us Southern folks call Sweet Tea. Y’all will just love it.
Now I’ve got two language college degrees. And many of my friends are well educated too. I have asked several of them if they’d explain they think woke is, and they can’t tell me what it means.
So I did some research, because I really want to know what it means. I did find out from my reading that I am NOT woke. I never have been nor will I ever become woke.
Someone I read said woke has a built in conundrum. From all I read I can agree.
I must say that from all I read from some self-proclaimed scholars and some highly skilled experts in their fields of knowledge no one could explain satisfactorily what woke means.
Wikipedia says, Woke is an English adjective meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination” that originated in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Martin Luther King was quoted as saying woke is to stay alert, awake, vigilant, ,and to adjust and face the challenge of change. One writer described woke as being “cool”. Another writer said woke means a pat on the back for the left and a way to affirm the sensitive
In general woke seems to be the rallying cry of the increasingly left wing Millennial generation.
If any of you ever find out what woke really means let me know please.
Our culture, and all the Woke thinkers have really messed up gender identity with heir contrived identities.
There are two identities– only two 1. MALE and 2. FEMALE. You can’t change an identity.
How are they different? Well, the female has breasts and the male doesn’t–never has. The female has a vagina, and a womb, a vulva, and ovaries. The male does not. The male has a penis, facial hair and most men have disgusting habits.
All human beings received their permanent and true identity thousands of years ago.
God gave Adam (the male) his identity, and Eve (the female) her identity, in Genesis chapter 2. God didn’t create any more identities then, nor has He created any other identities since.
Despite some folks’ efforts to change their identity biologically or surgically or emotionally or just a male announcing he feels more like a girl now–I think those guys are perverts and just get a charge out of dressing out with girls. You don’t see many girls wanting to be boys. I told you some boys have disgusting habits.
All this identity mess never should have never happened. But for the zillionth time man chose to rely on his own will instead of depend on God’s perfect plan and will.
Will we ever learn?
Sometimes in life we feel like we are living on a mountaintop. Other times, we feel like we are in the valley. Paul said that we ought to be thankful in all situations of life. (Ephesians 5:20; I Thessalonians 5:18)
One of the best examples of this is Coach Jimmy Perry. About thirty years ago, he was one of the top weightlifters in the state and was a runner up to the Mr. Alabama contest. He then discovered he had to have a kidney transplant.
I went to Birmingham with him. His faith was radiant! The transplant was successful.
Last November, as he and his wife, Judy, were driving to Birmingham for a check-up, they received a phone call from the Alabama High School Athletic Association congratulating him on being selected to the Alabama Football Coaches Hall of Fame. He was on the mountaintop.
Later that day in the doctor’s office, the examination revealed clear cell cancer. They told him that he only had less than three months to live.
From the mountaintop to the valley. It was a long drive back home. But Jimmy has a strong faith, a great attitude, and a lot of people praying for him.
Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2021 were really tough as Jimmy processed the fact that this would be the last ones he would spend with his wife, kids, and grandkids. His faith was strong.
He and Judy went back to Birmingham for his final check-up in January 2022. His doctors were immediately amazed because they couldn’t find the cancer! The doctor asked him what he had been doing. Jimmy replied, “We have been praying.” The doctor’s reply was, “What you’re doing is working a whole lot better than what we are doing.”
The doctor then said we have one more test we need to run involving your DNA. He said there’s only a one percent chance that this test will prove that you are clear. Jimmy looked at him and smiled and said, “One percent and God is all the odds I need.” Jimmy was right. The test showed complete healing!
As usual in August, he invited me to come over and speak to his football team and their parents at the beginning of the season and have a prayer in the locker room for the families.
The picture above shows us with his quarterback, K.J. Jackson. He is a big boy. I offered to give K.J. a few tips of playing quarterback, but Jimmy wisely said we didn’t have time!
Saint James had its best season ever. They played Piedmont, the defending state champions, in the Championship game and were trailing 20-10 at the half. Jimmy and his staff made adjustments at halftime and came out and scored 35 points and won 45-28!
K.J. threw for 5 touchdowns in the second half and was the MVP. He is only a junior and had 41 touchdown passes for the year!
Coach Perry was back on the mountaintop, but he lives as humbly and gratefully on the mountaintop as he does in the valley. He believes in the power of healing. He has experienced it. He still makes every day count. He still wants to make a difference in the lives of young people.
How do you handle the mountaintops and the valleys?
How many boxes can you check to validate your religious experience?
How many boxes did you check?
Are you content with the degree of religion your checked boxes indicate? YES____NO_____
He was an apostle. He gave up everything he had to follow Jesus; He was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples. He was there when Jesus fed the 5,000. He helped pass out the bread. He saw all the miracles. He watched Jesus calm the seas and raise Lazarus from the dead. He preached the Gospel all over the territory From all indications he appeared to have a strong active faith.
So what happened? Deep in his heart Judas was doubleminded.
The heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately sick.
Who can understand it
Jeremiah 17;9
Judas went to the high priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I turn him over to you?” So the Jewish leaders counted out thirty pieces of silver and handed it to Judas. From that moment on Judas looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
We all know the rest of this story.
When Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. “I have sinned.” he said ” have sinned against innocent blood.”
The Jewish leaders answered, “What is that to us, That is your responsibility. So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself.
In 1 John 2:1-2 John teaches: My dear children I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
They went out from us, but they (Judas was among those who left and were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. 1 John 2:19
So, was Judas saved or not? Can you justify your answer?
Creator and Editor Steve Sawyer
God blessed me with the gift of writing. I turned His gift into a challenging yet rewarding 30-year writing career. When I retired I created my “For His Glory” blog so I could continue my love for writing. This month I begin my 13th year blogging on “For His “Glory”.
If you’d to message Steve or discuss a post or Scripture contact me and I will always respond. stevesaw@gmail.com
A thankful heart determines the kind of attitude we have in life, the kind of disposition we display every day, the kind of expressions we have on our face, and represents the kind of faith that we have. A thankful heart is extremely important.
One of the greatest men who ever lived was Dr. Billy Graham. He preached to more people and saw more people come to Christ than anybody in modern history. He once said, “A spirit of thankfulness is one of the most distinctive marks of a Christian whose heart is attuned to the Lord.”
A thankful heart represents a humble spirit where we recognize that we did not create the things that we enjoy. A heart that fails to give thanks is one that begins to take blessings for granted and take credit for all accomplishments. G.K. Chesterton said, “The critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”
A thankful heart requires that we take the effort to thank not only God but also people. During the Pandemic, Jeff Gerson was placed in New York City’s NYU Langone Tisch Hospital with COVID-19. When he was intubated, he lost consciousness. He woke up one month later and had no memory of his recovery.
But he wanted to thank the heroes who saved his life. He tracked down the names of all 116 doctors, nurses, and therapists by looking through his insurance records and treatment charts. He then sent a handwritten note of thanksgiving to each one of them. He explained, “Healthcare workers often go without appreciation and the point of my letter was to thank them for what they did for me.”
Each of us is where we are because someone helped us get there. A terrible thing is to develop an arrogant attitude that assumes we are responsible for the accomplishments that we enjoy. Remember—if you ever see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself!
One of the marks of genuine thanksgiving is when we can thank God for the tough times of life. The tough times are when we learn the best lessons. Paul reminded us that we should rejoice in our suffering because suffering brings endurance, and endurance brings character, and character brings hope, and hope never disappoints. (Romans 5:3-5)
Rev. Martin Rinkart was a 31-year-old German pastor when the 30 Years War broke out. He ministered during the war, the Plague, and a time when there was very little food. He wrote that he saw “30 or 40 people fighting in the streets over a dead cat or crow.” He buried 4,480 people during that time!
Martin always encouraged people to take refuge in God. Their ultimate security must be with God and not with the military. Through all the suffering, grief, and deaths, Rinkart always thanked God for the blessings he enjoyed.
In that setting, he wrote the hymn, Now Thank We All Our God. It became the second most sung hymn in Germany behind A Mighty Fortress is Our God. It began as a prayer before meals and later became a national hymn. It taught people to thank God even in the toughest times.
A thankful heart is not developed by receiving thanks but giving thanks. And a thankful heart isn’t active just one day a year, but every day!
A thankful heart is a healthy heart!Back to my blog
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I was the editor of a weekly newspaper in Alabama in 1995. One very nice Spring Sunday afternoon Marie and I drove to the animal shelter in Wetumpka. I was writing a story on overcrowding at the shelter.
While we were there a man drove up in a pickup with five six-week old German Shepherd-Beagle mix puppies, four girls and a boy. I picked up the male (just to look at him for a few minutes). I could hold all of him in the palm of one hand.
I just happened to have a cardboard box and some newspapers in the back seat of the car. The littie puppy we named Bo went home with us that afternoon and for the next 14 years he was our most loved member of the family.
Everyone liked Bo and Bo liked everyone who came to the house. He always thought our guests came to the house to see him and he greeted them with licks and wags that made them all feel loved and welcome.
In July, 2009 we had to make the gut-wrenching decision to put Bo to sleep. His kidneys were failing, he stopped eating and he was sick a lot. All Bo did all day was lay under the bed and sleep or gaze at nothing. We could tell by looking at him that he was tired. He had no quality of life any more.
The vet told us she could not fix him.
When we took Bo to the vet for the last time, Marie and Lois and I all lay down beside him on the blanket and spent our last moments with him, petting him, cuddling him and telling him what a good dog he had been and how much we loved him.
Those were his last memories of us, and our last memories of him. He died peacefully and quietly and very quickly with us next to him.
Then we cried and sobbed and wept.
We will never forget Bo. We don’t want to. All our memories and stories of him are good ones. And though we no longer have his love and loyalty and his funny ways, we have all those memories.
And we will treasure them always.
ATLANTA–Every year on the second weekend in October thousands of gays and queers ( Oops. Can I even say that word any more? Can I call someone a queer without being called a racist or a bigot?)
Gay pride is a cast-in-stone, dyed-in-the-wool MISNOMER! Every year thousands of them march and decry their gayness and queerness in one of Atlanta’s biggest parades of the year.
My pals over at the Oxford English Dictionary place tell me pride is a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated (other gays and queers). In other words they’re saying, “Look at me, honey. Look what I’ve done. Look at what I’m wearing” That smacks of self-righteousness for one thing, in my book.
But what does God’s word say about sexual perversion and homosexuality?
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. Leviticus 20:13
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice homosexuality deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:32
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
But God has a plan for redemption–His name is Jesus Christ. God valued you and me so much that he willingly allowed his only son to be crucified on the cross to pay the price for all our sins, eradicating them all for eternity (past, present and future), even those sins of the most wicked and vile creatures in all of humanity.
All any of us has to do is believe that what God promises us in his Word is true.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
“ ‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. Leviticus 20:13tus
I am blessed way more than any child of God deserves to be.
First, I was born into a typical midwestern WW2 Veteran family. We lived on a quiet street in a neighborhood of families like ours in Shenandoah, Iowa. My brother Sam and I both had plenty of friends and spent seasons (even Winter) mostly outside playing with our friends. We share wonderful memories of a blessed childhood and a loving family in a small friendly midwestern Iowa small town.
Then, after I sowed enough wild oats to choke a herd of horses, I met the love of my life, Marie. She and I will celebrate 29 blissful years of marriage and each other’s best friend in December.
Her family took me in and made me feel like a special part of the family. Take about close-knit family–we were the poster child. It was a happy, friendly hoot when we all got together.
Her dad, my father-in-law, Robert, had a peculiarly way of giving me his approval to marry his daughter. Marie and I went to visit Robert and Joyce one Saturday at the Perlis Truck stop near Opelika (Robert’s home town) which was about half way between Montgomery where we lived (engaged) and where they lived, in Atlanta.
Half way through the meal Robert turned to me and said, “Let’s take a little road trip.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but if your future father-in-law asks you to go with him on a road trip and you’re still awaiting his blessing, you go anywhere he wants to take you.
Turns out we had a delightful time. We talked and laughed and told stories. Mostly I listened to his, and he had a bunch. He showed me his old high school and took me to an old railroad bridge where we dove head first into the water to impress his girlfriend. i saw everything there was memorable to see in Operliker (op-er-liker) as Robert called his hometown.
Robert didn’t mention our road trip to me ever again. As far as I know he didn’t say anything to anyone.
I learned later that our road trip was sort-of my audition for Robert’s approval to marry his daughter.
I can’t write a story about family without fawning over Joyce the Matriarch of the Wallace clan. Everyone, including me, loved that woman in their own way, and Joyce loved them all in her special way. After my mom died in 2004, Joyce became a loving mother figure to me. WHAT A BLESSING! Family is and always will be an invaluable blessing to me.
i
How do you handle defeats in life? Defeats do come. Nobody wins every time they go on the playing field, or business negotiations, or doctor’s visit, or any venue in life. It’s always fun to win, but how we handle defeat usually tells more about who we really are.
The third Saturday in October has become famous because Alabama plays Tennessee in football. It’s an intense rivalry. The relationship between the fans of both schools is extremely competitive. In fact, it’s despicable how some of the fans from each school talk about the other.
Alabama has had the upper hand for the past several years. In 2022, Tennessee was excited about changing that part of history. They did on Saturday, October 15, by winning 52-49.
Alabama had a stellar performance from its Heisman winning quarterback, Bryce Young. He is an exceptional young man. People weren’t sure whether he would be able to play or not because of a shoulder injury. He took every Alabama snap.
Bryce is a great leader and a great football player, but he is even greater in his witness of the Christian faith. You will always see him before the game in the corner of the end zone, kneeling to pray. He doesn’t do it for show—he does it to acknowledge his commitment to God through Jesus Christ.
Bryce Young had a great game against Tennessee. He took a lot of punishment from the Tennessee defense. He never fussed at his teammates, complained to the referee, or lost his cool.
How would Bryce Young handle defeat? He sent out the following message the day after the Tennessee loss, which demonstrates the kind of winner he is:
“If you want us to cry—we will not. If you’re looking for excuses—there are none at the University of Alabama. Tired & Weary, but never broken. The things you learn fromlosses are far more important than those moments when you’re standing on the mountain top. Romans 5:3-5 says, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Win, lose or tie, I’m Alabama ‘til I die. If you haven’t given up on the Tide, go grab a jersey!
When a person loses, he has a lot of options of how to handle it. Some people quit—some people complain—some people have a pity party—some blame it on the referees or the weather conditions, etc. Bryce Young handled defeat using a Biblical perspective. That’s the best way to handle defeat!
I have a hunch that Bryce Young will be a better leader than ever. He has oftentimes stood on the mountain top—he also knows how to go through the valley. He doesn’t stay in the valley–he goes through it! (Psalm 23:4) It will be interesting to see the next mountain top that he conquers.
it is rare when everyone in a family gets along. You can usually dredge up some contention somewhere. Sometimes the contention finds you. Not in the Wallace clen. The brothers-in-laws are like real brothers.
I must confess, though, when I get together with my two brothers-in-laws at family get-togethers We always argue about which brother-in-law is Joyce’s favorite. Of course Bob, sister Peggy’s husband and Herve, sister Nancy’s husband always get their dander up when I win every year. I have to console both of them, and shrug it off and just say, “Maybe next year, guys”.
Herve, pronounced er-vay, is a Koi fanatic. He raises them in a lavish Koi pond Herve built himself.
Herve is from the Netherlands which adds a colorful twist to his Dutch flavored-English. Herve has been a pond fanatic since his grandmother piqued his interest in ponds and fish when he was a toddler.
Herve is just one of my favorite people. He is highly intelligent and can carry on a solid conversation on a wide range of topics. One of the most resourceful, interesting folks I know and love to be around.
Today is a special day–Herve’s birthday.–66 candles on his birthday cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DUTCH BROTHER-IN-LAW.
I’ve published Bob Dylon’s song, “Everything is Broken“in several recent posts. It is so true and so appropriate for the times we are living in today.
One question: Can you think of anything that’s working the way it’s supposed too today? Everyone is arguing. Everyone is out to meet their own needs. Personal conversations are non-existant. There’s so much lying and unresolved anger and angst and hostility and unbridled resentment in every people group. Most folks are loathe to accept, let alone, listen to or accept another person’s opinion or idea that differs from their own.
If someone asked me to describe every aspect of our nation today I would respond without hesitation, “Contentious‘! And a I would add an exclamation mark!
God is sovereign. God knows everything about everyone. He knows their thoughts before they think them, their intentions, their motives, their level of devotion to Him, how much they love or don’t love Him/her, their deepest, heartfelt desires, their failures, their sins, their successes. Nothing escapes His attention, Ever!
Noone’s evil or disgusting behavior gets by Him. Noone’s callous disregard for the truth escapes His attention. Don’t try to hide anything from Him. You can’t.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans: 8:28
He’s going to work everything out for His glory and our good. ALWAYS.
So why worry about ANYthing?
One of the most disdainful, aggravating tv commercials these days is the one when some already-filthy-rich guys try to convince guys like you and me to buy some gold and add it to our portfolios to protect our wealth.
How disgusting. My wealth is all wrapped up in inflation–On our fixed income, we’re lucky to pay all our bills and have any money left at the end of the month.
Jesus had a different take on wealth than these hoarders on TV hawking gold.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:19-24
M,/ commercials
Persecution’s been around a long time. It was prominent in Jesus’ day among Jesus followers and his disciples who went around sharing the Gospel.
Today persecution is most prominent in countries like China, ,Nigeria, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria and Vietnam.
But in the past several years we have witnessed an increased amount and severity of persecution in our country. And Christians are bearing the brunt of it.
That shouldn’t surprise us at all. Jesus told us
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for utheirs is the kingdom” of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you Matthew 5:9-12
So we shouldn’t get upset when we experience persecution. Jesus told us we would. He said, they hated him and persecuted him, so they would persecute them too.
Well, persecution came right to Joseph Kennedy’s job site to persecute him. You see Kennedy, the former High school football coach at Bremerton Washington high school.
After every game he coached, he went to the 50-yard line and knelt to pray. After awhile his players joined him. The prayer eventually attracted even some parents and opposing players.
Eventually one of the coaches on an opponent’s team objected and claimed a football game was no place for religion or prayer. The coach sued the school and the school board Now, “Coach Joe” stood at the center of a national debate on First Amendment rights, religious freedom and prayer in public schools, according to an article in the Seattle Times.
The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
In June of this year the high court ruled 6-3 in Kennedy’s favor
The Court ruled that Kennedy who prayed with his players and other students on the field, could legally do so under his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, The Times reported.
So much for persecution .”Thank you Coach Kennedy for being courageous and committed enough to doing what Jesus would do and being willing to stand up to those who would persecute you.
When I moved to Frazer in 1972 it was just a little church out in a cotton field. I had to drive four miles at lunch just to get a sandwich.
As Eastdale Mall was under construction, I received a telephone call from Mr. Truett Cathy, the owner of Chick-fil-A. He asked me if I would be willing to do an opening prayer of dedication for Chick-fil-A and give him names of young people who might want a job. I gladly said yes.
I asked Mr. Cathy why he would call a church looking for potential employees. He said that kids who were involved in a church would have a better work ethic, a better personality, and would help establish Chick-fil-A as being a different type of eating establishment.
Truett Cathy was a genuine Christian who wanted to honor God by not being open on Sunday. Jeff Vines was the owner of the new Chick-fil-A in Eastdale and he embodied Truett Cathy’s values and vision.
When I was invited to serve on the national board of directors for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, one of the first persons I met was Buck McCabe, the chief financial officer for Chick-fil-A. He is one of the finest Christian gentlemen I have met. Truett Cathy knew how to pick good leaders. I learned a lot about Chick-fil-A from Buck.
Gary Soriano owns the Chick-fil-A at Eastchase, which is one of the busiest franchises. Eastchase is especially known for the efficient way they operate the three lines of their drive-through.
I was talking to Gary recently and he shared that they have a special consultant working with them to try to improve the efficiency of their drive-through lines. While they are already the best, that’s not good enough for them. Gary told me that one of their core values is “continuous improvement.”
The consultant has spent two weeks using the technology that the NFL uses to evaluate players and plays in each game. Gary gave me a detailed explanation of the things they were looking to improve. While they already can serve 200 cars an hour in their three lines, they have set a goal to raise that to at least 220 cars an hour!
I love that attitude—continually improving. Too often a business, or a church, or individuals become satisfied and “sit down.” At Chick-fil-A the people are trained to be life-long learners. They are looking at ways to eliminate bottlenecks in every aspect of their business.
How many churches are like that? How many businesses have that attitude? Paul wrote, “You have received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God that you may excel still more.” (I Thessalonians 4:1) Excellence is never an accident!
If I see you at the Chick-fil-A drive-through, speak quickly because neither one of us will be there very long!
Where in your life needs to experience some “continuous improvement?”
If someone who knows you were a Christian and a follower of Christ came up to you and asked you, What do you truly believe? How would you confidently respond?
As a small boy I memorized and learned to recite the Apostle’s Creed. Its memory and words of belief and faith have remained in my heart all these many years and serve as my testimony about what I sincerely believe about God and life.
I believe in God, Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. On the third day he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sitith at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the Holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
Our president (and I use that term loosely) recently told a gathering at the United Nation that the US will commit $11 Billion, (that’s Billion with a “B“) to “Climate Change” funding and what he said will help “save our planet”.
I can just hear God and Jesus both chuckling together over this totally absurd presidential gaff!
Lots of countries are committing millions of dollars and millions of resources to what they believe will lead to transformative climate change and save our planet. I read a statistic recently about electric cars. The research revealed that if everyone on the planet drove an electric car for a year, the result would warm the planet a whopping .00002 of one degree.
I have said this before: Climate Change is a total joke from a bunch of liberal dreamer clowns trying to play GOD.
They all refuse to accept God’s role in all this nonsense.
First of all God CREATED the planet they’re all trying to save. With one wave of His hand God could make the earth evaporate. But he’s not going to do that. And He doesn’t need anyone on Earth to help him save the planet, if that’s what he chooses to do.
God also created every human being on the planet.Why? Why would Almighty God create all those people? One word–LOVE.
God created mankind to love them and provide for their well-being so they would in turn glorify Him, by surrendering their lives to him, claiming Jesus Christ as their Savior, and becoming a child of God.
Mankind’s efforts to change the climate will fail miserably. God is in complete control of the climate, the earth, and every other thing or human being He has ever created.
The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Proverbs 16:4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3
An organization functions best when each person correctly accesses his/her gifts, then deploys those gifts as a part of a team effort. Organizations get into trouble when individuals try to function independently rather than collectively as a team.A good model to follow is I Corinthians 12. Paul describes the Church as the human body. My body has different parts, such as feet, hands, ears, and eyes. My body does not function well if my eyes try to hear or my ears try to see. There is also dysfunction when one part of my body starts claiming that it is more important than another part. Each part is extremely important and essential for my body to function as a coordinated unit.
There is a beautiful example of this reported in China. A couple of eco-warriors in China are redefining what it means to work together. Jia Haixa is blind, and Jia Wenqi is a double amputee who lost both his arms at age 3. They both found it very difficult to find a job.
In 2001, they decided to engage this basic principle. They began working together planting trees along the riverbank in their hometown of Hebei. Despite the fact that neither one of them could do the work by himself, they discovered that together they could accomplish amazing things. They saw their respective situations not as disabilities but as possibilities if they worked together. The 53-year-olds have now managed to plant 10,000 trees over the last 10 years!
Today they are making a modest living which is helpful to their families but is also helping to protect their village from dangerous floods. Haixa says, “I am his hands. He is my eyes. We are good partners.” It is amazing what can happen when each person contributes his best gift to the work of the entire team.
There is a story about a captain of a ship and the chief engineer who one day began arguing about which was more important to the ship. To settle the argument, they decided to swap jobs for a few hours. The chief engineer went up to the bridge and the captain went into the engine room.
About an hour later the captain appeared on the bridge. He was covered with oil and soot and wildly waving a monkey wrench. He said, “I can’t make her go.” The chief quickly said, “Of course you can’t, we have run aground.”
An important aspect is the capability to both give and receive the help we need. It was reported that Apple chief executive Tim Cook revealed he once offered a dying Steve Jobs part of his own liver. Jobs’ response was, “I’ll never let you do that.” He refused the help. Cook said that he worked with Jobs for 13 years and was never yelled at but four or five times, but this was one of them. I wonder what could have been if Steve Jobs had received Tim Cook’s offer.
Working together is the “together” that makes for success. Sir Thomas Beecham, the eminent conductor of the London Symphony, was once the guest conductor in another venue and was frustrated with the seemingly undisciplined group of musicians. During the rehearsal, the concert master asked Mr. Beecham how he wanted a particular section played. After a long pause, and with great emphasis, he replied, “Together!”
We may not have it all together, but together we can have it all!
Every one will face an impossible situation at least once in their life. If you haven’t yet, one is on its way. Trust me.
When one arrives, it devastates the whole family. Panic, despair and fear settle in. There’s not even a straw to grab on to.
It’s the elephant in the room that won’t go away. It could be a spouse dying from lung cancer.
It could be papers on the kitchen counter your wife brought you to sign to make your divorce final. It could be those bills on the desk you have no idea how you’ll pay them. It could be the miscarriage your daughter-in-law just told you about. It could be your neighbor across the street who had a stroke on Saturday and died on Sunday. Your water heater is leaking all over the garage floor. You’re getting another splitting migraine headache. “God, help! Won’t you do something? All this suffering. And no relief in sight.
Regardless of the severity or duration of your impossible situation, there is only one way to find relief and healing.
Go to Jesus.
Jairus knew that. In Luke chapter 8 his only daughter, just 14, was very sick and was dying. She hadn’t gotten out of bed for a month.
This was Jairus’ impossible situation. But he knew what to do. He trekked across town to find Jesus, who was in the temple. Jesus agreed to go home with Jairus to check on his daughter.
On their way home, some of Jairus’ friends met them on the road. One of them said, “Jairus, we have horrible news. We regret to tell you that your daughter is dead. Jesus said “No she isn’t. She’s not dead, she’s just sleeping.”
Jesus walked into the little girls bedroom. And there lying in the corner in the shadows was the still little figure. Jesus sat on the bed and took her pale hand. He
reached down into death and gently brought the little girl back to life.
She leapt out of bed. Jesus threw open the shutters and sunlight flooded the dark room.
“Hungry, little girl?” Jesus asked. She nodded”.” Jesus called to her family, “Bring this little girl some breakfast.”
And that’s how to heal impossible situations. The only way–with Jesus
Portions of this blog post were taken from The Jesus Storybook Bible, pg. 220
syn·a·gogue
/ˈsinəˌɡäɡ/
In my opinion gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals and queers could not have picked a more offensive, morally reprehensive label to celebrate.
Pride is at the root of every sin known to mankind. Every one.
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:8.
To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverb s 8:13
You folks and your pride collide headlong into God’s will for your lives and lifestyle.
My friends over at Miriam Webster’s place describe pride as a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements
Totally self-absorbed, self-centered. ME ME ME! Focused on what you think of yourselves rather than showing thankfulness for who your Creator and mine created you to be. No matter what or who you are and what you believe about yourselves, God loves every one of you unconditionally and has a beautiful plan for your life if you will trust Him and His will.
I have a suggestion: A serious one that just might be a beautiful thing.
Rather tha call your celebration PRIDE, why not your celebration–SERVE?
After all Jesus commanded me and you to LOVE ANOTHER and to consider the needs of others greater than our own. That’s our greatest purpose. It’s God’s personal calling for each of our lives.
Foot washing was common around the evening meal dinner table in Jesus’ day.
But wait a minute. This is the Creator of the Universe bent over washing the disciples’ feet. This is the Savior the world. The King of kings. The Lord of Lords. Washing feet. Peter said “No.” But Jesus said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Peter answered, “Then, Lord, Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well. “
This account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet is the only place in all of Scripture when Jesus gives the disciples a personal, visible example of how they are to love and serve each other.
So, are you ready to wash your family’s feet tonight at supper? How about your neighbor’s feet, whom you don’t particularly like? Are you ready to wash a stranger’s feet who is hungry and tired and cold?
Are you ready to serve and love others like the example Jesus showed his disciples by washing their feet?
At the end of Psalm 19 David writes what he calls his prayer for life.
For my Bible study this week one assignment was to write a prayer for my life.
Heck, I couldn’t top David, so I told myself I’ll just use David’s.
The pastor at my home church in Montgomery, Alabama used to pray this prayer every Sunday right before his sermon.
Now may the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
So many people today are hurting, misguided, looking for answers, and feeling totally inadequate and broken. Many of them go for help in places that falsely lead to greater brokenness.
This was the case of Riaan Swiegelaar. In looking for answers, he began to resonate with the people and views of satanism. He joined their group.
He became a leader and was one of the cofounders of the South African Satanic Church. It was the first satanic church in the country of South Africa.
Earlier in 2021, he was doing a series of radio interviews concerning the satanic church. He was not ugly or argumentative—he just confessed that the people following Satan had cared most for him.
An amazing thing happened. After the radio interview, the interviewer named Amy came up to speak to him and simply hugged him appropriately. He said he had never experienced that from a person who called themselves a Christian. He couldn’t believe it. He had only experienced negative rejection from Christians.
I don’t know what Amy might have said to him. She did communicate that she was a Christian and that Jesus loved everybody.
A little later, Swiegelaar was involved in a satanic ritual, and he felt that Jesus appeared to him. He said that he recognized that it was Jesus because he saw in Him the same kind of accepting love that he had seen in Amy at the radio station. That was how he recognized the love of Christ.
He became a believer on May 30, 2022. He resigned as a “Presiding Reverend” of a satanic church. It just reminds me that God can change anybody anytime from anything.
Please note that it was the witness of a wonderful person who didn’t judge or condemn, but simply allowed the love of Christ to show through her. Jesus uses people to bring people to Him.
I encounter people who say that they have gone too far for Jesus to redeem them. Each of us is just a person who has sinned and stand in need of God’s forgiving, redeeming love that has no boundaries. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) That “whosoever” is the most inclusive word in the English language. It includes everybody!
The founder of a satanic church is on a different road in life today because somebody shared the love of Christ with him. That’s what we are called to do as Christians.
We live in a world that is broken and is filled with broken people. Broken people want to get fixed somewhere. The only real fix is done by Jesus. He is the Great Physician and can heal anybody. Whenever anybody chooses to follow Jesus, that person becomes a new creation. (II Corinthians 5:17)
I am so grateful for who Jesus is and how vast is His love. His love reached me and fixed my brokenness. His love reaches you. It reaches out to every person regardless of what they have done.
Be sure that you receive God’s grace. Be sure that you become the kind of witness that helps broken people find healing. I like the words of an old country preacher who said, “I’m just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can change anybody.”
Jesus can fix any broken person or situation!Back to my blog
So many people today are hurting, misguided, looking for answers, and feeling totally inadequate and broken. Many of them go for help in places that falsely lead to greater brokenness.
This was the case of Riaan Swiegelaar. In looking for answers, he began to resonate with the people and views of satanism. He joined their group.
He became a leader and was one of the cofounders of the South African Satanic Church. It was the first satanic church in the country of South Africa.
Earlier in 2021, he was doing a series of radio interviews concerning the satanic church. He was not ugly or argumentative—he just confessed that the people following Satan had cared most for him.
An amazing thing happened. After the radio interview, the interviewer named Amy came up to speak to him and simply hugged him appropriately. He said he had never experienced that from a person who called themselves a Christian. He couldn’t believe it. He had only experienced negative rejection from Christians.
I don’t know what Amy might have said to him. She did communicate that she was a Christian and that Jesus loved everybody.
A little later, Swiegelaar was involved in a satanic ritual, and he felt that Jesus appeared to him. He said that he recognized that it was Jesus because he saw in Him the same kind of accepting love that he had seen in Amy at the radio station. That was how he recognized the love of Christ.
He became a believer on May 30, 2022. He resigned as a “Presiding Reverend” of a satanic church. It just reminds me that God can change anybody anytime from anything.
Please note that it was the witness of a wonderful person who didn’t judge or condemn, but simply allowed the love of Christ to show through her. Jesus uses people to bring people to Him.
I encounter people who say that they have gone too far for Jesus to redeem them. Each of us is just a person who has sinned and stand in need of God’s forgiving, redeeming love that has no boundaries. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) That “whosoever” is the most inclusive word in the English language. It includes everybody!
The founder of a satanic church is on a different road in life today because somebody shared the love of Christ with him. That’s what we are called to do as Christians.
We live in a world that is broken and is filled with broken people. Broken people want to get fixed somewhere. The only real fix is done by Jesus. He is the Great Physician and can heal anybody. Whenever anybody chooses to follow Jesus, that person becomes a new creation. (II Corinthians 5:17)
I am so grateful for who Jesus is and how vast is His love. His love reached me and fixed my brokenness. His love reaches you. It reaches out to every person regardless of what they have done.
Be sure that you receive God’s grace. Be sure that you become the kind of witness that helps broken people find healing. I like the words of an old country preacher who said, “I’m just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can change anybody.”
Jesus can fix any broken person or situation!Back to my blog
Suffering is never easy. It is amplified when it befalls the family. It can become almost unbearable when the one suffering is a child. Even worse when the suffering child is your only daughter.
My saga of dealing with my daughter’s suffering actually began when Leah married the love of her life, Danny Stephens. I have never seen a couple so much in love as those two were. They doted on each other, and fawned over each other. It was such a joy to see them love each other.
They tried to have a baby naturally. It didn’t work. They tried in-vitro fertilization. And that didn’t work either. They both really wanted a Stephens’ baby. So they collected Danny’s sperm and Leah’s eggs and hoped for another way, another day.
In February, 2021 Leah was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Then, just four months later Leah fixed Danny a bowl of ice cream and took it to him in their bedroom. She went back to check on him a few minutes later. . .
Danny was dead.–a sudden massive heart attack.
Leah’s ovarian cancer treatment is ongoing. She is participating in a trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. They told her that surgery for her cancer would be very, very risky.
Leah works in a research project at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Several months ago driving home from work she was in an accident and totalled her car. She broke several bones in her back and had to wear a cumbersome back brace for a month.
Then on August 26 she was admitted back to M.D. Anderson for acute care. They were treating her for pneumonia. For several days she had trouble standing and walking. No pneumonia thank God. She’s better now and is feeling better back home. She goes back to M.D. Anderson on the 18th or 19th to meet with the oncologist to see if the cancer has spread to the lungs.
Please pray for relief and healing for Leah.
Leah and Danny both know Jesus. I know, as sure as I know my own name, that in just a flash Leah and Danny will be reunited and resume the love relationship they started down here, then live together and love each other for all Eternity with God in heaven.
The Bible teaches us,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Let’s unpack this pivotal verse and see what God reveals to us about our life.
First of all if anyone is in Christ, (is a true believer with an intimate personal relational with Christ) the rest of this verse is true about them.
the new creation has come–that’s you my brother and sister, the new creation. You are brand new in Jesus. You have a new life. You don’t have to do anything.
the old is gone. The word “old“ in this text is from our English word for archeology which means buried, irrelevant, gone, useless.
The Apostle Paul says that when we are united with Christ through faith in Him, it is like putting on new clothing. In fact, when Jesus saves us and gives us His Spirit, it’s like putting on a new set of clothes each day. So, if you’ve got a new set of clothes to put on you have to take off and destroy your old clothes.
Wouldn’t you love to be living that new life in Christ all the time?
But if you don’t bury your old clothes, what often happens is that something from that old self rears its ugly head and we find ourselves wrestling with a demon or two from that old buried life.
Sometimes, if you don’t bury your old clothes you can think something from your past will define your future. Maybe you dropped out, maybe you slept around, maybe you were in jail, maybe you were a drunk, maybe you were a thief. But who you’ve been does not define who you will be. We are not who we were; but we are still becoming who we are.
The Apostle Paul says that when we are united with Christ through faith in Him, it is like putting on new clothing. In fact, when Jesus saves us and gives us His Spirit, it’s like putting on a new set of clothes each day. So, if you’ve got a new set of clothes to put on you have to take off and destroy your old clothes.
The inspiration for this post was a message entitled "The Old is gone, the new has come" by Kyle Idleman, Senior Pastor, Southeastern Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky.
Idleman
The experts define stress as our body’s way of responding to any kind of external demand or threat. In other words: your life feels out of control.
Stress doesn’t just bother us. It overwhelms us. Stress can trigger other troubling emotions such as fear, anger, irritability, anxiety, depression, isolation, panic attacks loneliness and more.
Our stress response1 is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life—giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.
When stress grips our body, what do we want right then more than anything else: rest and peace. Right?
Stress impacts folks differently, depending on the life event causing the stress. A pair of psychologists studied stress and assigned numeric values to a variety of life events causing stress. They call them Life Change Units, or LCU’s. Here are a few and their numeric values:2
1To review all the LCU’s or evaluate your stress level by the numbers now, click here.
However, all the LCU’s and psychologists and doctors and stress management books and tapes and websites can’t begin to relieve our stress as thoroughly and as quickly as these proven stress relievers.
Try these infallible stress relievers:
You want rest?
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and humble in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.
My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Psalm 61:1-2
You want peace?
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; [Talk to God about your stress] and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Here’s another: In the middle of your struggle and trials with stress, just keep repeating the name, Jesus. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”
A note to ye of little faith in these stress relievers:
You may think just saying scripture is bogus. “No way quoting scripture is going to relieve my stress.”
I would ask you, have you tried it? If not, why? What’s do you have to lose except stress?
If you’ve tried it and it doesn’t seem to work for you: Keep quoting. Keep meditating. Keep memorizing and keep remembering:
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
1 This paragraph taken from HelpGuide.org
2 To see statistics for stress indicators, click here.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Many Americans go to the beach on Labor Day weekend, or another favorite vacation spot in the woods or mountains, or perhaps taking a “stay-cation” in their own backyard. This holiday marks the end of summer, the last chance to relax together as a family before school and fall activities start.
It’s a good time to think about labor—work. Work is regarded, even by some Christians, as part of the curse that came as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin (Genesis 3:1-24).
But work actually came before the curse. When God created Adam in his image, He gave him work to do—just as He Himself had worked in creation (Genesis 2:15,19-20).
The word labor or toil comes from a root word meaning “representative, messenger, one sent.” God placed Adam and Eve on earth to care for it as his representatives (Genesis 1:26-28). After they disobeyed, their sin effected their work. God cursed the ground with thorns and thistles and said, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” (Genesis 3:17-19).
We all find thorns and thistles in our gardens. Fellow workers do not always cooperate. Someone else gets the attention or raise we wanted. Our ideal job turns out to be much more effort than we expected. We sweat, maybe psychologically more than physically.
We need to recognize that God has given us work—“good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” as Paul says in Ephesians 2:10. We need to seek his guidance in finding our jobs and then dedicate them unto Him, especially when difficulties appear. If we allow God to work through the thorns, thistles and sweat, we will grow and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-30).
Can you see that God has given you your work? Instead of “TGIF,” can you say, “Thank you God, for the work you’ve given me”?
Devotional today courtesy of: Dig Deeper Devotionals
I published this post earlier this summer. We need to keep hammering this message home. These left-wing radical climate change and green new deal intellectual snobs are in direct conflict with God and His creation.
They are not unlike scores of other left wing radical, angry, extremists in society devoid of common sense. They rally around some make-believe cause and rebel and protest and burn things and break windows and give word-salad speeches to convince others to think like them.
The green new deal is a hoax and a fraud. There’s no way the green new deal ever happens.
Think about this: Who’s going to make all the parts for electric cars and how will parts be mad?All the climate change and all the green new deal folks will fail.
For one reason–God is in charge of everything. He is sovereign. Nothing that happens ever, that is not under His control.
There is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.” God has no competition in this universe. There is nobody He is trying to wrestle control of this universe from. Psalm 125:2
God will determine what happens in the earth and everything that happens on it when and how. God controls everything that happens in the entire universe.
These green-new dealers and all the climate-changers are claiming “We can do things better than God. Let’s see who’s right in the end.
How many folks reading this post have ever bought something off an infomercial on TV? Come on. Be honest. Well, at least some of you are buying. In 2015 for instance, infomercial sales pushed $250 billion.
That’s billion with a B
Even if you’ve never bought something on an infomercial, I’ll bet you probably know someone who has. To be honest I’ve never known anyone who’s ever praised a product, gimmick or gadget they bought from an infomercial. In fact, I’ll bet most of the reactions are just the opposite of praise.
Even my pastor succumbed to the wiles of a slick pitch man one night to the tune of $45. The wand was going to take the place of his back yard sprayer. It didn’t. The magic wand ended up in the trash. The pastor was livid. He was disgusted with himself for being so guidable.
Do you know why infomercials get such a bad rap for being so cheap and sleezy. First of all because they are cheap and sleezy.
Secondly and most telling–Because they over sell and under deliver.
And if we’re not careful, infomercial faith can creep into the church and inhibit our ability to handle impossible situation that beleaguer us in life.
Folks with infomercial faith know just a little bit about Jesus and the bible but their faith and their Christian walk is shallow and shy of the truth.
Probably quite a while, if ever I’d guess. Do you know why? Because Satan is difficult to talk about. He’s also difficult to hear about.
Before we go on–Everyone reading this post, no matter who you are, where you’re from, whether you are a believer or not, we are ALL in a war–a spiritual war.
Let’s go back to the Garden. Adam and Eve had the chance to trust God and enjoy all the benefits and blessings of Paradise in the Garden.
But Satan had other plans. Satan played with their appetites. “See how good that fruit looks. Surely it’s delicious and will be good for you.”
Adam said, “but God said it is forbidden to eat it. And if we eat it we will die.”
“Oh, God didn’t really mean that”, Satan said. If you eat that delicious fruit you certainly will not die”.
“And why would you want to follow his rules and worship him? Don’t you want to govern yourselves, make your own decisions. Come on, be open-minded.”
But Adam and Eve fell to the temptation, and they sinned. As a result they lost it all and everything that went with it.
But God, being all wise and loving did not want to leave his children in this God-forsaken world, so he sent his one and only son “I
God wanted to call us back to follow Him
As far as Satan goes I think a lot of folks with marginal faith concock a bunch of stuff they’ve heard or read some stories from other people to assuage their conscience and can say to their friend they know Satan.
You see,the thief (Satan) comes only to steal, kill and destroy.
Remember, whether we want to be or not, we are in the biggest war of our lives–a spiritual war. Everyone needs to believe it.
I think lots of folks with marginal faith fabricate a definition of what they think Satan is to assuage their conscience so they can say they know Satan. But their idea of Satan goes something like this:
“I believe in jesus and I try to follow him, but I don’t believe Satan is a real being. The devil is like a concept. When you get right down to it the truth is that it’s just me and God trying to figure this life down here out.”
Okay, first of all, Satan has no physical body. He is a spirit being. He whispers lies in your ear. At one time he was called an angel of light. Fallen angels became demons and they can tempt us.
Satan is a liar. He hates the Cross of Christ. He is not omniscient. he is not omnipresent.
Satan can only tempt us, He can’t make us sin. We have to choose to sin. He pretends to be our friend when he is tempting us.rgiveness
Every sinful or “holy” choice we make. Forgiveness removes the eternal consequences but rarely the earthly ones.
In his book, The Rest Of The Gospel Dan Stone writes most of us live behind our buts. No matter how we phrase the sentence, what lies behind our buts is our truth.
For instance,
Isn’t it a good time to get off our buts and start being servants?
In Henry Blackaby’s Bible study, Experiencing God, Blackaby says we need to look around to see where God is at work and join Him in His work. Living behind our buts with Christ’s perspective sounds like this:
Where we put our buts can make an eternal difference in the lives of others and in our own walk of faith as servants of the Most High God.
So, how big is your but?
DONT MISS READING FOR HIS GLORY M0NDAY. I’m publishing one of my favorite and funniest posts ever, Mississippi Grandma. I think you’ll love it even if you’re not from the South. See you back here Monday.
Before the days of modern harbors, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it to port. They had a Latin term for this situation which was op portu. That literally means that a ship is standing against a port waiting for the moment when it should ride the turn of the tide to the harbor.
It is from this image that we get the word opportunity. The crew members and the captain had to be ready and wait for that special moment of opportunity. They knew that if they missed that moment, they would have to wait for another day for another tide to come in.
When opportunities are presented, it is so important to seize the opportunity. If opportunity arises and you don’t take it, somebody else will.
Jeremiah 46:17 says that “Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is a loudmouth who missed his opportunity!” Ephesians 5:16 reminds us that we need “to make the most of every opportunity.”
Oftentimes, opportunities are not easily distinguishable. Sometimes opportunity is a result of some obstacle that you overcome.
There is an old fable about a king who placed a large boulder in a very heavily traveled road. He then hid so he could see if anyone would take the time and effort to remove it.
Some of the great merchant people in the kingdom traveled the road. When they came to the boulder, they simply went around it. Some of them even began to criticize the king for not keeping the roads in better shape. Nobody even attempted to move the boulder.
Eventually a poor farmer came along carrying a load of vegetables on his back. He laid down his load and began trying to move the boulder to the side of the road. It took a lot of effort in pushing and straining. He finally succeeded.
When he paused to catch his breath and pick up his load of vegetables, something caught his eye. It was in the sunken area where the boulder had been.
When he went for a closer look, he saw a purse. He picked it up and opened it. Inside was a note from the king that said, “ Whoever removed the boulder from the road could have the contents of the purse,” which was filled with gold coins.
Many opportunities are missed because we try to go around them or criticize someone for putting something in our path that we think is an obstacle. Overcoming an obstacle can lead to an opportunity.
The greatest opportunity God gives us is to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Every day we have many opportunities. Paul writing to the Colossians says, “Make the most of your opportunity to tell others the Good News. Let your conversation be gracious as well as sensible, for then you will have the right answer for everyone.” (Colossians 4:5-6)
Don’t sit around waiting until your ship comes in. Someone said, “Many of us fail to see the door opening because we are in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.” Be proactive and be like a ship that is prepared, ready and waiting for the tide to change and present the op portu—opportunity—to bring passengers to the port.
When opportunity arises, do you just see it and acknowledge it, or do you seize it and act on its possibilities?
I am not a Southerner.
I talk like ’em, I think like ’em, I vote like ’em, I eat like ’em. But I am not one of ’em. I will remain forever an outsider, content only to revel in close proximity (to rub elbows, if you will) with those true Southerners I have come to admire, love and yes, even envy a little.
My father-in-law is a true Southerner. Robert “Skinny” Wallace was born and raised in the South, so were his father and his father before him. His “people” (as true Southerners refer to their kin folk) migrated to Opelika, Alabama from the East in the 1830’s, when Alabama was first settled.
But that doesn’t make him a true Southerner.
My father-in-law grew up on a farm, hunted and fished, picked cotton, went to all-white schools, played with toads, jumped off a railroad bridge and broke his arm trying to impress some giggling little girls.
But that doesn’t make him a Southerner.
My father-in-law married a Southern girl, served his country honorably in World War II, then returned to the South where he raised three charming, little angel daughters.
But that doesn’t make him a Southerner either.
What makes Robert Wallace a true Southerner is a passionate and indelible link to the land of his Opelika roots.
Alabama, and the South, has forever been inextricably agrarian. Industrialization helped heal the South after the Civil War. However, all the efforts to modernize (ergo transform) the region could not alter that most fundamental and prevailing kinship of its people with the land.
A true Southerner never forgets that.
My father-in-law took me back to that most treasured birthplace of his roots over the Christmas holidays. Geda (pronounced “Gee-daw” because one of his grandchildren couldn’t say “Grandpa”), lit up like a Christmas tree when we drove up to Bean’s Mill just off Highway 29. Despite poor ciculation in his legs, which hinders his walking considerably, Geda walked all around the mill and affectionately recalled old times with John Ross who is restoring the mill. My father-in-law reminisced about his kin folk and his school days with Mr. Ross for half an hour.
We visited the old cotton gin, the abandoned railroad depot, the railroad bridge, his old school, his birthplace, the church his grandfather helped found, the graves of his parents and grandparents and other relatives, his old hunting grounds, and lots of other places.
He had a story about every one of them.
We put more than 70 miles on the car in about four hours and covered only about five square miles. For a few hours my father-in-law took me back, gave me a taste, an old wrinkled snapshot, of the life he lived as a true Southerner.
My father-in-law moved away from home shortly after graduating from high school with his graduating class (he and another boy). When he retired, he and my mother-in-law settled down. They now split their time between a home in Atlanta and a quiet beach house in Panama City.
But, as often as he can Geda returns to Opelik”er,” as he likes to say. That’s where his heart will always be–where he grew up as a True Southerner.
Was Jesus a liar?
He made some outrageous claims during his ministry preaching and teaching.
In John 14:1-12, Jesus says these things, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In Father’s house are many rooms (“mansions” in the KJV); if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a ling time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather it is the Father living in me who is doing His work. Believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”
W H O A! Talk about an uproar! Talk about some arrogant, blasphemous claims.
When His disciples heard Jesus tell them He and God were one in the same, they became confused and agitated. When the Sadducees and Pharisees heard Him call himself God they were furious and plotted to kill him. When people heard him say He was God and God was in Him some of them walked away and refused to believe Him. And some people didn’t know what to believe.
In Philippians Paul teaches, “Therefore God exalted him (Jesus) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is__________.” NIV.
How would you fill in that blank? When you read what Jesus called himself in John 14 one of three things is true:
Each one of us, as the Bible says, will have to deal with Jesus whether we believe what Jesus said about himself or not. Each of us has the choice to either:
All three choices have eternal consequences.
What do you call Jesus? Don’t know what to call Him. Don’t know Him personally? Would you like to find out more about Jesus and how He can totally transform your life? Would you like to call Him Lord of your life? If you’d like to find out more, and decide what you’d prefer to call Him just follow this link to find out more.
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but those who hope in the Lord
will renew( the word is “exchange” in the Greek) their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
When we become believers, at the moment of our salvation experience, Jesus actually exchanges His life for our old man, our sinful self, the life we were born to from Adam.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith, in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
He comes to live in us and trades his resurrected sinless holy sanctified life for our old sinful life. In that great transformation Christ took all our sins and guilt, and we received His righteousness as our eternal position in Christ.
Our right relationship with God is based upon what Christ did for us on the cross. Jesus died as our substitute. He took our place on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins.1
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—Colossians 1:21-22
The problem for many Saints (including yours truly) is that many times we choose to revert to our old Adamic nature, our old man, that would rather rely on “self ” than live and make our choices out of the extraordinary righteous freedom we have in Christ.
1 Abideinchrist.com http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/exchangedlife.html was an inspiration for this blog post.
Picture this:
It’s 1954. Central Elementary School. Shenandoah Iowa. It’s third grade recess. We boys are playing kickball. The girls are standing around acting silly. Off to the side standing alone is Betty Jean Davis wishing some of the girls would talk to her or ask her to join them. Betty Jean hoped some of the girls might laugh with her instead of at her. She’s wearing a pair of thick lens glasses and she talks with a lisp. Her hair is a mess. It’s late October and Betty Jean is wearing a dusty, disheveled hand-me-down short sleeved dress. She doesn’t own a long-sleeved dress. It’s 41 degrees. The girls teasing her were merciless and hateful. The teacher was nowhere in sight. I wanted to say something to make them quit teasing Betty Jean but at the time I wanted to remain popular with the boys so I kept quiet.
Once a week we had story time in class. Betty Jean always told some outlandish wild story about our family. Everyone knew her stories were made up. I think Betty Jean wanted beyond hope to just be accepted and liked. We thought she hoped Her stories would give her some measure of credibility and popularity among the rest of us. They never did.
The first day of fourth grade Betty Jean didn’t show up. No one including the principal or teachers ever knew what happened to her or her family.
God used my experience with Betty Jean to begin teaching me the gift of mercy. It is my primary spiritual gift today. I was heartbroken even in third grade at the way some of the girls treated Betty Jean. We all know how wicked and cruel little girls can be. I regretted for years, even today, not coming to Betty Jean’s defense over 60 years ago. Betty Jean, I wish I knew where you were today. I would ask you to forgive me and hug your neck and tell you how much Jesus loves you. Hopefully you already know. I would love to be brother and sister in Christ with you.
Betty Jean if you’re out there I hope you’ll contact me here on my blog. If you leave contact information in a comment I will surely follow up with you. We have 65 years of life stories to catch up on.
Tune into For His Glory tomorrow for John Ed’s latest post and Friday to see what God’s been sharing with me. May God richly bless you.
Sometimes I am privy to conversations between folks who want to discuss the meaning of truth and its various applications. I chuckle when I hear these discussions which sometimes escalate into stubbornness and even at times name-calling when someone’s beliefs are so ingrained.
Some are so adamant about believing in “their” definition of truth they’ll reject anyone else’s “truth”. Discussions about truth become volleys between your truth and my truth.
The sad ‘truth’ is that any discussion about ‘truth’ or its definition or anyone’s self proclaimed definition of truth falls miserably short of what truth is.
Truth is there is only one “TRUTH” in the entire universe.
Truth is a man–Jesus Christ He said i t in Scripture, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, no one
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17
You see there is only one truth–the person of Christ. Every other discussion of truth, every other definition of truth, every application of truth all circle back to the one and only truth–Jesus Christ.
So your truth and my truth are the same. You don’t have a truth different from mine. And my truth is the same as yours.
Is your life going somewhere or is it just a repeat of the same meaningless activities day after day? If you are not going anywhere, you will get there, and be greatly disappointed with where you are. If you know God’s purpose for your life and where you are going, it will be an exciting journey!
I went to school at Young Harris Junior College in north Georgia. Not far from there was Bryson City, North Carolina. It is in the mountains and near north Georgia, north Carolina, and Tennessee.
A few years ago, a beautiful highway was intended to connect Bryson City and Townsend, Tennessee. It was going to be a scenic drive. Problems occurred when environmental concerns caused the project to stop. Even though the highway was built for several miles, it was never completed. It’s been named “the road to nowhere.”
It’s a beautiful road. The scenery is exquisite, the lines on the completed part of the road are precise, and it was built with the best materials. You will be excited when you start driving on the road, but there is great disappointment when all of a sudden it ends.
Now you can stay at the end of the road and hope that someone would come along and finish it, but you don’t have enough food, water, and time for that. Or, you can turn around—do a U-turn and get on the road going to where God wants you to be.
In one of George Moore’s novels, he details part of the history of the Irish people who had to navigate the Great Depression. People were becoming bored and discouraged because there was no work.
The Government decided to hire men to build roads. All of a sudden, there was a new excitement among the Irish men. They began to lustily sing their Irish songs. They were glad to be back at work again. But suddenly they discovered that the roads they were building led nowhere. They just went out into the dreary bogs and stopped. They realized that they had been put to work only to provide them employment as an excuse for feeding them. The men quit singing, grew discouraged, and started complaining about their lot in life.
George Moore observed that the roads to nowhere are the most difficult to build. For men to work well and sing, there must be a worthy goal in view.
If you are not going somewhere in life, you lose your enthusiasm, your strength, your attitude, and your will to live.
God lets us choose which road we take. There are options. Their initial appearance can be deceptive. Jesus said, “The road is broad that leads to destruction, and many take it…the road is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who take it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) Are you with the many or the few?
David said, “Show me the right road O Lord; point out the road for me to follow…He shows the proper road even to those who go astray.” (Psalm25:4,8)
Peter warns about taking the wrong road when he writes, “Forsaking the right road, they have gone astray having followed the way of Balaam…who loved the ways of unrighteousness…” (11 Peter 2:15)
Do you need to make a U-turn?
She was one of the most significant characters in the New Testament, some would argue possibly the most significant in all of Scripture.
Jesus and his disciples were traveling to Samaria which took his disciples by surprise because in that time Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans.
Jesus planned the trek through Samara just so he could meet the woman at the well.
Besides being one of the most significant characters in scripture she was also probably one of the most unlikely.Jesus traveled to Samaria just to meet her at Jacob’s well.
Jesus had a knack for identifying and engaging some of the most unlikely and downtrodden folks to do his bidding and spread his message of unity of all peoples. And he did it by breaking down some longstanding deeply entranced barriers.
For instance when Jesus encountered the woman at the well Jesus tore down several long-standing barriers. In Jesus day Jewish men were not to speak to women. Jews and Samaritans were not to associate with one another. Jews worshipped in the temple in Jerusalem but the Samaritans were limited to where and how they could worship.
The Jews assumed when the Messiah came his mission would be to destroy the Romans.
However Jesus’ ministry on earth was to unify all peoples under God in one family .
To me the most abominable thing on TV these days is commercial or TV shows depicting men kissing other men. Social media and network television promote blatant homosexual in both male and female actors roles. They are sweeping morality under the carpet.
They MUST know that God considers male on male or female on female sexual relations are sinful, no matter how you cut it, and Scripture forbids it. The only way to avoid a death is to repent of their sin and clim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
No matter how hard they try to justify sex between men-and women-on women members of the LGBTQ+ folks can’t justify men on men or women on women. It goes in conflict with God’s law and it is sin. On Judgement Day those who practiced a life of unrepentant homosexuality will be held accountable to God for their sinful life. They will receive a one-way-ticket to hell where they will live in torture and painful torment 24 hours a day with no relief for eternity.
The only way these sinners can escape their destructive lifestyle is to repent of their sin and claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior
I am overwhelmed with wonder every time I consider the sovereignty of God. It is certainly a component of his character I’ll only vaguely ever grasp.
He is infinite, he has no beginning and no end. There is no place on earth or in the far reaches of the vast universe where he is not right now, this moment. Think of that for a moment. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?
He doesn’t judge anyone for what they believe or do now. He has reserved a special day and time when He will judge everyone.
Nothing gets past God. He knows every thought everyone is thinking before they think it.
There isn’t anything he doesn’t know. He knows the winner of the next World Series and the one after that. He knows who the next president of the United States will be.
He knows exactly what you’re thinking right now.
When life presents challenges, different people react in different ways. Some sit down, quit, and feel defeated. Others have a determined effort to overcome adversity.
This was demonstrated vividly to me in 2022. In the latter part of last year, a huge snowstorm hit Alabama. Many roadways were impassable.
There were a couple of nurses in Huntsville, Alabama who were driving to work when their car got stuck in the snow four miles from the hospital. They had a choice to make. They could sit in the car until someone came to give them a lift or they could start walking in the snow to get to work.
Travionne Ja’Nae decided to fulfill her responsibility as a nurse. She joined some other nurses who were stranded and started walking. Some people took pictures of the nurses walking through the snow. When it was placed on Facebook, the post immediately had seven thousand reactions and over three thousand shares.
Those nurses became heroes. They made a tough choice that was an endangerment to them, but a tremendous blessing to their patients. When Travionne was asked why she did it she said, “I just had to get to my patients. I took a nursing oath for a reason. I love my career and God always favors me. I’m good y’all I promise.”
She didn’t want a raise or a bonus for going the extra mile. She just said she was doing what she would want somebody else to do for her. She didn’t have to do it—but she did it.
Contrast this with Webster’s Word of the Year for 2022 which is “quiet quitting.” (Can’t Webster count—isn’t that two words?) That phrase refers to people who are not performing the responsibilities laid out in their job description. They try to do the bare minimum and nothing more.
A Gallup poll shows that the share of actively disengaged employees has increased between 2020 and 2022 up to 18%, and the share of employees who say they were fully engaged at work has dropped to just 32%. That’s a lot of folks who are “quietly quitting.” It could get worse because Webster’s Word of the Year, Quite Quitting, recorded a 1,740% increase in searches on their site in 2022!
Which category do you fit it? Are you a person who is going to do just as little as you can and get by or will you be a person who is willing to go the second mile in your job and vocation?
Being a pastor for years, I have seen this contrast in people in the church. A lot of people who are looking for the easiest way to appear that they are engaged in ministry, but really are doing the minimum to “get by.” Fortunately, I was blessed to work with lay folks who were “second milers.” They were willing to go above and beyond everything that was expected and discovered that the second mile is really the mile that means the most. Read Matthew 5:40, 41.
Quiet quitters don’t get much joy or pleasure out of their work. Second milers discover that they receive a lot more than they give. It’s just one of the strange ways that life works.
If I am in the hospital, I know which kind of person I want to have as my nurse. As a pastor, I know what kind of lay people I want to work with.
What kind of person are you?
A bunch of family health and personal issues have plagued the Sawyer family beginning in December and continued through January. Probably the most traumatic interruption in our lives was the death of my 41-year bold daughter Leah Stephens on January 20 after a valiant two-year battle with ovarian cancer. You can read her obituary here if you’re interested.
I am shooting for a March launch of FHG 2.0 so please bare with our family as we scramble to get back to some semblance of order in the weeks to come.
I have some exciting and interesting posts in the wings as well as some new stuff we’ll be imroducing to the website I know you’ll love. So stay tuned.
Those 12 men Jesus picked to be his disciples became known as “The Chosen“
You and I today probably wouldn’t have picked even one of them to be one of Jesus’ intimate followers. Like most of the folks Jesus interacted with these guys were non descript commoners. They were poor fishermen, farmers, day laborers and hired hands. There was absolutely nothing special or distinguishable about any of them.
As far as this ragtag dozen guys knew this guy was nothing more than an iterate rabbi talking to anyone who’d listen to him.
Jesus didn’t carry on a conversation with any of them To each of them all he said was, “Follow me.”And each one of them did.
Think of that for a moment Here’s 12 guys that a total stranger has invited them all to simply follow him. They don’t have a clue who he is, what he wants with them, where he wants to take them, and for how long and for how long.
And yet each of these ragtag commoners left their families and children and jobs, if they had jobs–all their worldly possessions to become revered men of the bible we love and the words they left for us to study.
When we develop relationships with others, whether they’re with neighbors or friends on church associates or business associates or casual friends don’t we try to put ourselves out there with others who are more like us? –same likes and dislikes, same sports teams, similar values and social presence.
We want to hang with folks like us. We don’t generally associate with folks who are different from us. Why is that? For instance you won’t find too many Auburn football fans clamouring to grab seats in the Alabama section of Bryant Denny stadium Tuscaloosa. We don’t have anything in common with our football rivals.
We’re usually not comfortable associating with folks who think differently, or act differently, or dress differently or deal with conflict, or raise our kids differently than we do. Is it healthy to promote two antithetical paradigms of relationships in our society? Instead political parties, church denominations, and ideologies seem to be pulling farter apart rather than growing closer together.
Are we headed towards full-blown socialisms? Only time will tell.
Born April 30,} 1981 died JaLeahnuary 20, 2023 after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer
She was predeceased in death by her husband Daniel Jack Stephens. She leaves behind her step daughter Genesis Stephens. Her step sister Lois Whitfild, her half brother Quentin Demmon, her mother, Roxanne Hawk Holland (Edwards) and her father, Steve Sawyer.(Marie)
Leah graduated Magna Cum Laude from Auburn University Montgomery with a BS degree in biology. She obtained her degree. She obtained her Masters degree in microscopy from the University of Sydney in Australia. She worked as a lab managersd doing cancer research at Vanderbilt university.
She was a fearless traveler, a lover of art and nature, a seeker of adventure and new experyences. She made friends ef kept them for life. She laughws loudly and argued fiercely. She worked hardtlaughed loudly and argued fiercely,worked hard, loved without reservatiobdegree, and lived every minute fully. Her life was a gift to us all and she leaves this world a better place.
V
What a year–ender. December was not my favorite month of 2022
I spent my birthday, Christmas, New Years New Years’,
Eve, and our 29th wedding anniversary in the hospital with Covid. I’ m okay now but putting up with residual Covid fallout. Others say that could l last a month or several months or up to a year. I hope its short lived.
Anyway, thank Almighty God I’m back at my keyboard and my regular posting schedule–new posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and John Ed Mathison’s weekly posts on Thursday.
Her dance card was empty, The women in the town didn’t even invite her with them to go to the well in the morning for some girl time. No men took an interest in her. She had no family. The demons wouldn’t leave her alone. She was haunted by them. She was not very attractive.
She had nothing to look forward to.. Her future was as bleak as her past had been. She had no self respect. UNTIL . . .
Jesus sought her until he found her. “:Mary, do not fear. I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.”
He bent over her and and cupped his hands around her soft cheeks and held her face to his chest.
At that very instant seven evil spirits that had been haunting her for years left her and a calm peaceful spirit she had never known swept over her whole body.
Mary Magdalene would never be insignificant again. In fact, she became one of the most significant and influential women in the bible.
In fact, her resume includes being among one of the crowd stranding alongside Jesus’ mother watching them crucify him, then watching them bury him.
Then on Resurrectiom Sunday Mary was the very first person to see Jesus come out of the grave in his resurrected body. She was the very first person Jesus spoke to in his resurrected body.
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” So Mary Magdalene was the one who went and told the disciples, “He has risen!” I have seen the Lord and he told me these things.
Also Mary Magdalene was part of Jesus’enterage who followed him throughout his ministry travels.
My entire beloved America is a total train wreck. North, South, East, West, politically, economically, religiously, socially, militarily, professional sports, medically, relationally.
Seriously–Can you think of anything, ANYTHING–that’s working the way it’s supposed to now??–this Cheryl Crow version of a Bob Dylan song is spot on to describe what a mess our country is in these days?.
No one is in charge.
The American Girl magazine is encouraging girls as young as three to change their sexual orientation IF THEY WANT TO (and they don’t have to tell their parents)The American Girl magazine is encouraging girls as young as three to change their sexual orientation IF THEY WANT TO (and they don’t have to tell their parents)The American Girl magazine is encouraging girls as young as three to change their sexual orientation IF THEY WANT TO (and they don’t have to tell their parents)
Our educational system is in peril. Some administrators and woke teachers are ignoring math and English and science and history and teaching anything they want to, usually something woke..
military recruitment is suffering all across the country.
Crime continues to get more violent and pervasive and blatant.
Inflation is through the roof. So are prices of everything.
Our president makes decisions, but his small group of advisors tells him what to decide. He’s an authority in name only. His leadership serves to bolster his legacy as the WORST president this country has ever had.
A bunch of libraries are forbidding faith-based books from having story book hours.
I could go on and on. The point is we’re losing our freedoms a little at a time to far out non Christian liberalism and woke everything.
Let’s go back the question at the top of this post.
Can you think of any part of our entire country that’s working like it’s supposed to?
If you can, I’d like to know what you think.
Y can email me at stevesaw@gnail.com
Fortunately God is in control of everything. We might not understand it, we might not believe it/. we may reject the idea (too bad) but Almighty God is in control. Always has been, always will be
. He’s minding the store
She was a teenager. A virgin. Engaged to be married. She lived a life of quiet faithfulness to God. We don’t read that she was extraordinarily beautiful, nor wise. Nor rich. Nor from royalty. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was, by all accounts, extraordinarily ordinary, yet humble. She lived in Nazareth. an out-of-the way village, probably just a few hundred folks. Nathanael once remarked to Phillip, “Can anything good ever come out of Nazareth?”. It was a place you’d want to drive through, not stop to visit.
After Gabriel announced to Mary that she had found favor with God, after he told her she would soon give birth to the Savior of the World, after Gabriel told Mary her Son would be extraordinary, her response was simply, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
I sometimes wonder why God didn’t choose the mother of the Savior of the world from higher up the social ladder.
I think it was Mary’s quiet faithfulness. Her total surrender to God’s news. Her servant’s attitude. Her humility. All found favor with God.
Have a “Mary” Christmas this year. Never ever feel ordinary. Never feel that you don’t matter or that you couldn’t glorify God with your life, regardless of your circumstances.
God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people who, like Mary, live in quiet faithfulness, humility and submission to God.
Where’s Jesus? Where did Christ go?
Jesus is smack dad in the middle of everything Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, Christmas cardsChristmas carols Christmas gifts, Christmas presents, Christmas dinner. Christmas stockings
Where is Christ?
I’ll tell you where he isn’t.
Everywhere they celebrate Christmas. Drive up and down the streets and what do you see? Lots of prett y Christmas lights, and snowmen, and wr eat hs hung on doors. Do you see Jesus? He’s nowhere to be found.
Every program and cable show comp ete to see who can air the tackiest, most artificial, contrived attempt to portray a Christmas message.
But no Jesus.
Every business and car dealer advertises great deals and deep discounts on their products.
But no Jesus.
What ever happened to, “Jesus is the reason for the season”?
Jesus is not the reason for the season for most of the country. Most folks today have lots of things on their minds besides Jesus They’re watching Christmas movies at the theater. At home they’re watching Christmas movies on TV with 115 minutes of commercials and 5 minutes of program. 5hopping, travel, school breaks, holiday plans, baking, neighborhood gatherings, in laws, decorating, snowball fights.
But no Jesus.
Where is Jesus?
Is he in the congregations of the megachurches on their Christmas Eve services? Is he in the thousands of churches on Christmas Sunday? NO
Christ is alive and well abiding in the hearts of every believer
people
Our woke-riddled entertainment industry seems to court the gay crowd but also encourages and promotes their active participation in the industry.
The sad truth is that society seems bent towards accepting, even promoting gay behavior in TV and cable programs, and in movies. like gay men kissing and foundling each other on screen. You can witness gay women embracing each other.God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19), therefore, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:1, 2).
Homosexuals I assume are the same as the LBGTQ community.
They have all made the same mistake that a zillion folks have made over the years just like Adam and Eve did when they started this whole thing in the Garden of Eden. They decided they’d rather make their own decisions and follow their own will rather than follow God’s will and perfect plan for life.
They use selective scripture to make their claims that God made them ““For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made (from Psalm 139) (this scripture makes no claim to include homosexuals.
“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19), therefore, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:1, 2). What in God’s name do these verses have to do with legitaimizing LGBTQ sinners. The “L”, the “G”, and the “B” in their logo represent people who practice same sex intercourse which is a SIN! and God hates sin. He cannot even look upon sin.
Let’s remember that of course God loves every man or woman who label themselves as LGBTQ. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10 :9 He created them, but He HATES their sin. Every LGBTQ risks eternal damnation unless they become one of of God’s children and play their Get Out Of Hell Free card –that means repent and claim Jesus as Savior
He was crucified on the cross to forgive the sins of the world. That means LGBTQ sins as well.
That doesn’t mean we won’t stop sinning.
What it does mean is that when we draw our last breath and stand before Almighty God, He will gather all his children, those who have claimed Jesus as their Savior and surrendered their lives to the Kingship of God.
Those who have failed to accept God’s free gift of salvation and promise of eternal life with God will be cast into the pits of hell where they will live forever in unbearable anguish and unending suffering, torment, pain and constant torture 24 hours a day for eternity..
Would you please think deeply about what God has to say about ALL sin and accept His free gift of salvation so that you will escape this judgment and spend eternity in heaven with God?
Our 23rd year - we are one of Iowa's oldest Internet news and opinion sites!
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"...Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." 1 Kings 19: 11-12
Sharing God's love with the world, one heart at a time.
Where irrationality trumps reason
Sharing the Gospel message of hope, strength, love, and peace through Jesus Christ to those who are hurting in their soul or spirit. This is the mission of Healthy Mind Ministry
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Beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord through glass.
"He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45)
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Grace, hope and Truth for each day.
if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing!!!!
Let's Talk!
Prime my subconscious, one hint at a time
Our 23rd year - we are one of Iowa's oldest Internet news and opinion sites!
Christ-centered, family-friendly devotionals that glorify God
I Dare You to Figure Me Out
"...Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." 1 Kings 19: 11-12
Sharing God's love with the world, one heart at a time.
Where irrationality trumps reason
Sharing the Gospel message of hope, strength, love, and peace through Jesus Christ to those who are hurting in their soul or spirit. This is the mission of Healthy Mind Ministry
Hope For Needful Things
Del Parkerson's Blog
Beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord through glass.
"He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45)
Share The Word
Wheelchair Reflections of Sacred Wonder
Encouraging widows to "Reviresco" (flourish) again
Grace, hope and Truth for each day.
if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing!!!!
Let's Talk!
Prime my subconscious, one hint at a time
For His Glory 