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I have a few weeks off from working in the tech booth at my church, so today while my wife was working in the nursery during the third service I sat in the car listening to the radio and looking through the newspaper. They were interviewing Lauren Talley who was telling of a trial that she had come through over the past few years and the book “Songs In The Night” and album “The Extra Mile” that came out of it. At one point they played a track of her singing the great Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s “My Life Is In Your Hands”.  As I listened, the words and tune were so familiar. Our choir  used to sing a lot of Brooklyn Tab and almost instantly I was singing along the bass part. (more…)

A few years ago our pastor during a sermon made the distinction between what is a Gift and what is a Present. Often we use the terms interchangeably, but they are much different.

A present is something we ask for, something we want. Those that are old enough to remember the Sears catalog and Wish Book probably remember looking through it as Christmas approached and taking it to show to your parents, or writing a letter to Santa with items by page number on your wish list. Yes, these are presents, things we wish for and desire.

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The Bill Gaither Trio was the first I really knew of Gospel music. I remember going with my mom to the Greensboro Coliseum to see the Gaithers. That was probably in the mid to late 70′s. One of the songs that stuck in my head over the years was, “Because He Lives”.

Through some of the early days of my Christian life when things were especially tough in school because of the pressures and temptations it was this song that often came back into my mind.

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⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. – 2nd Timothy 4:6-8

Today my friend and co-worker Preston was looking through some pictures on his laptop. He pointed out a picture of his son that he lost to leukemia in March. The picture was of grandmother holding her grandson on the Sunday of his dedication. What was ironic was that at the time she was wearing a wig because she was going through chemotherapy. (more…)

Those who have house pets are well aware how they become almost like children in the household. We have a dog and two cats. The dog is about 13 years old and deaf, but what she lacks in hearing, she still has in sight and sense of smell. She is a chow-hound. To that point she can smell food the moment it comes in the door and is scampering around wanting a bite.

This evening I worked late and stopped by Wendy’s on the way home. I came in and she was lying on the kitchen floor sleeping, which she does more and more of as she has aged. Walking into the dining room she roused up and was quickly at my side with her tail wagging, hoping for a french fry.

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Several years ago Pastor Jim Reimer made a statement in a sermon, ” …the main thing is that the main thing remains the main thing…”.  He was speaking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This statement came back to me tonight as Pastoral Intern Bryan Miller was speaking and made the statement that “…we should never assume the Gospel…”. He went on to say that we should never assume that everyone knows the Gospel, which is the main thing! (more…)

Last night our grandson spent the night with us and spent the day keeping Nanna quite busy. This morning I was awaken by his rotary sleeping patterns at 3:00AM and managed to snooze some until 5:30. He is an absolute ball of energy. After I got in the shower I heard Juli telling him that Paw-Paw was in the shower, but being inquisitive he came into the bathroom to check for himself. I saw a small shadow through the frosted glass of the shower door. When he got close enough I flung a bit of water over the shower door, which was followed by a squeal and laughter. You see he believed I was in there, but now he knew for sure and knew I was picking at him.

I got to thinking about how that is with our heavenly Father. As believers we profess that we ‘believe’ in Him, but too many believers live many years not ‘knowing’ Him. We have a loving heavenly Father that loves and cares for us, just like I would not hurt Mikey, God will not bring harm to us. He doesn’t splash water on us like I did Mikey, but He will bring circumstances our way so that we will know that He is real. (more…)

This morning’s lesson from the Adult Life Group at my church was from the book of James, chapter 1.  A couple of key verses the teacher touched on was verses 19-21 which I have copied below.

¹⁹My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. ²¹Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you- NIV

The main point the teacher drew from these verses was to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. At times I have a short fuse and got my toes stepped on a little, that’s called godly correction. Point taken! (more…)

I was reading in Proverbs 21 the other night and came across this verse.

²⁷ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with evil intent!

My mind went back to a previous post regarding giving and how there are those that go about preaching a prosperity gospel.  Here Solomon says that a sacrifice brought with evil intent is all the more detestable. This sent my mind spiraling, thinking about ‘who’ the ‘wicked’ would be likened to. Is it a greedy non-believer that thinks they can give gifts (sacrifices) to the church and gain more? Possibly. Maybe someone ‘playing church’ to get in the good graces of a romantic interest? Maybe. (more…)

In a previous post I made the comparison to a clean pool and a cleansed life. I was comparing how the application of the blood of Christ can make a life clean, and how the application of chemicals and cleaning makes a pool clean. The difference being that the blood of Christ applied once can make one a new creation, a pool neglected becomes dirty again.

Something happened yesterday to the pool that has me thinking through that previous post again. Yesterday my wife went to get our three year old grandson, Mikey, to spend the day with her. He  loves to walk the yard and pick up sticks and pile them in the back of my truck so that I can haul them off. Well, she had in mind to do some gardening and took him to the Dollar General to get him some inexpensive gardening tools of his own. He helped her pull weeds out of the raised plant boxes and made himself busy shoveling dirt from one plant box to another. She looked up to see him walking away from the pool. He had deposited a heaping shovel full of red clay dirt into the pool. Lovely! (more…)