Reflections on Christmas

In less than one week we will celebrate Christmas Day. It has been said that the day Jesus was born forever changed the world. Looking back, the change must have been so great that mankind made His life the most historic point of reference. Historians now divide the time between the periods BC and AD. Centuries before His birth the prophets foretold of His arrival. When He arrived, those prophecies were fulfilled but certainly not in the way many had imagined it would. His place of birth was not a palace but rather a stable. His earthly parents were not people of wealth...

Blessings Abound

I have been reflecting on all the ways God has blessed me in the course of my lifetime. Every blessing from Him I thought of, without exception, had something else in common. God used people in His blessing. As a child, God used my parents to bless me. When I attended school, God used teachers to bless me. At church, He used pastors and Sunday School teachers to bless me. In my professional life, He used my employers and coworkers to bless me. To develop my character, he has blessed me with wonderful role models. To uplift me, He has blessed me with a wonderful...

Misjudgment

Scripture provides us with a very clear warning about judgment. Luke 6:37 (NET) - "Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven." If asked why we are not to judge, my answer would be twofold.First, and most obviously, we are told not to judge and this, in and of itself, is sufficient.It is the Lord’s place to judge, not ours.But, if pressed for a secondary reason, I would offer that as human beings we have the all too human capacity to be wrong.A coworker, for example, would likely base his or her judgment by what transpires...

Turning Point

When I was a young man, I had a job that I enjoyed working with people that I liked. There is an old saying that states that ignorance is bliss. I was happy but only because I was ignorant of changes that would soon turn that part of my world upside down in the span of one day. One Friday morning, I was approached by two managers. They informed me that the company had promised a shipment to a customer that day. They added that when the product reached my department for inspection we were to do whatever was necessary in order to make sure that product shipped that day. While this might...

Checkmate

When I was a very young boy, my uncle taught me to play checkers.When I was a little older, a family friend gave me a chess and checkers set.As much as I liked to play checkers, I was fascinated by the chess pieces.I really wanted to learn how to play chess but at that young age I could not read the instructions and no one in my world knew how to play.As time went by, I grew older, my world grew larger and I learned how to read.One day, as I browsed through a bookstore, I discovered that many books had been written on the game of chess.I was delighted.I carefully selected a book that not only...

Preparing for the Worst

Currently, there are many television programs that deal with preparation for a post apocalyptic world.For some reason, television producers sometimes prefer to use the word "Doomsday" in their titles.So many of these programs revolve around people preparing to live in such a world.These people are shown stockpiling food, water and weapons.They are then depicted training to use those weapons.Some even have more than one stockpile in the event they forced to abandon their primary store.Some are spending huge sums of money building elaborate underground bunkers.One family is even building a castle...

No Sad Ending

John 16:22 (NET) - So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy away from you. I am grateful for every one of God’s blessings. I am also grateful for the people through whom God blesses me. Less than a year ago, the father of one of my friends passed away. Although I never met my friend’s father I have been told that he and I had a great deal in common. A few weeks ago, my friend offered to give me a collection of books from her father’s personal library that were written by an author that her father and I both appreciated. Of...

A Fresh Start

A new school year has started. While I have not attended school in a long time, I remember well some of the feelings I had when I began a new school year. One of the feelings that I remember best was the excitement of having a new beginning. Nothing compares with the sense of leaving prior mistakes and shortcomings behind. It is a chance to start over. The slate is clean and free of test grades that are less than great. It is free of homework assignments that have not been given my best effort. There are no negative comments in the margins. There are no essays with the comments "explain"...

I wanna be a rock star

 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:31,32 Many teaching we get in these two verses. I will look in this: "If you hold to my teaching..." To believe in Jesus is more than to  know about Him. It is more than to know what He is able to do. To trust in Him means  to abandon our beliefs, even when we "believe" they may be came from God. Many times we were taught about God but few of us look at...

Give Us This Day

Luke 11:8 (NET) - I tell you, even though the man inside will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of the first man’s sheer persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. The other day I found myself thinking about an old friend who passed away many years ago. He and I were both part of a circle of friends who used to gather at a restaurant most evenings. There, we would enjoy a cup of coffee or two, swap stories and simply enjoy the company of friends. This particular friend was much older than I was. In fact, he was originally my father’s...

Weathering the Storms

John 16:33 (NET) - I have told you these things so that in Me you will have peace. In the world you will have trouble and sufferings, but take courage - I have conquered the world. In the summer, it is relatively easy to predict the weather where I live. If I were asked to do so, I would forecast hot and dry and be correct the vast majority of the time. I recall one summer day when the forecast called for hot with a slight chance of rain. Even the professional forecasters all but dismissed that chance of rain. Throughout the day and into the evening, it was indeed hot and not a single drop...

When the Undesirable Happens….

Ezr 4:4 Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building. Ezr 4:5 And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. Ezr 4:23 And when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they hurried to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them stop by force and power. Ezr 4:24 Then the work of the house of God at Jerusalem ceased. So...

Worlds Apart

Matthew 5:3 (NET) - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of God belongs to them. My friends just returned from a mission trip. They shared some of their experiences with me. In reflecting on the things they shared, I could not help but feel overwhelmed. The remote village to which they traveled was quite poverty stricken. The people there had very little as far as possessions are concerned. Home was little more than four walls and a roof that could not even keep out the rain. A simple bag of food distributed by missionaries to a household would be rationed and stretched to...

The Right Tool

Scripture reminds us time and again that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things, God used Moses to deliver His chosen people from bondage, Even Moses was reluctant to heed that call at first. Exodus 4:10 (NET) - Then Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and  slow of tongue." Nevertheless, God used Moses to fulfill His purpose. When the giant Goliath filled Saul’s army with fear, God provided someone to defeat him. God did not send in a seasoned veteran of many...

Water of Life

It rained where I live about a week ago,. There is a left hand turn in the road where we set out our garbage for pickup. That curve in the road is not level. Whenever it rains, the water travels downhill until it reaches the curb by that turn where it can travel no farther. There, the water collects and a variety of small animals take advantage of this bounty while it lasts. This pool of water does not last very long though. The summer heat causes the water to evaporate. Birds and other small animals drink their portion as well. As I took out the garbage the other morning I noticed that...

In Charge of More

This week, our church hosted another successful Vacation Bible School. I am so grateful to God for my church family. A great deal of effort goes into this ministry. I do not use the word work here because many do not consider what they do as work. Preparations begin months in advance but the end result is a very successful ministry and community outreach. Although children and their walk with God is the focal point of Bible School, we also provide an adult class every evening, I felt both happy and privileged to teach two of those adult classes. My second class posed a particularly interesting...

Set Sail

Scripture constantly amazes me. No matter how many times I read or hear an account from the Bible, I still pick up on things that I had not picked up on before. This is true even of the most familiar accounts. Even those I first learned as a child. One that fits this category is the account of Noah and the ark. One of the earliest picture books I was given as a child was about Noah and the ark My mother related the account of Noah and the ark to me many times while I was still too young to read. I even had a toy ark to play with complete with a tiny Noah and little pairs of animals. Recently,...

Few things get bigger

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much...” (Luke 16:10, NIV) Are we faithful in the little things that life faces us with? Or are we always waiting for that big opportunity to stand up for Jesus and bring others to salvation? Well, what we very often tend to forget is that before God can use us greatly to be a blessing to many, we have to prove ourselves by being faithful in little things; things which are part of our everyday life and which may seem quite insignificant to us in the larger scheme of things....

His Finest Hour

Psalm 23:4 (KJV) - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. In the line of pastors that have served my church, I have had the great privilege in knowing three of them in my lifetime. Each was unique. Each had his own personality. Each had his own style of oratory. Yet, all three were men of God who utilized the gifts God gave them when they answered His call to the ministry. My thoughts lately have been of the second pastor I knew. He was the pastor who taught my confirmation class. His...

What Do You Know?

Few things are touted more enthusiastically in our society than "knowledge." Modern technology, which seems to rule the world, is based ultimately on sophisticated mathematics and science.  Millions of people spend or borrow untold billions of dollars to gain an understanding of those things in universities.  Governments spend billions more to finance medical and other scientific research, so that the knowledge acquired can be applied to improve our material lives or, at the extreme, to comb the universe in search of other worlds...

Damaging Words

Matthew 19:14 (NIV)  - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." I am always amazed at how an event can bring back a memory with vivid clarity. Last week, something I heard caused me to remember a most unfortunate event I witnessed many decades ago. When I was a teenager, I went to a department store with my parents. As soon as we entered the store, I left my parents and went directly to the sporting goods department. As a teenage boy, this was one of the few areas of the store in which I had much interest....

Parts of the Plan

Jeremiah 29:11 (NET) -  ‘For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the LORD. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not harm you. I plan to give you a future filled with hope.’ I will always be grateful for the mother God gave me. Her story was not an easy one. Her first pregnancy was extremely difficult and the child she delivered, my brother, died in infancy. Her second pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Heartbroken, she and my father must have concluded that having a child they could raise to adulthood was just not meant to be. God’s plan was different. Shortly after my mother turned...