Have you ever exercised an exploration for the Truth? In a culture that consistently capitulates to relativistic concepts, truth is considered fluid or incarcerated in ideologies of indifference. Try proclaiming truth on a university campus and you will be caught in the consequential clash of world views. You’re likely to be subject to scorn and derision.
Read MoreHave you ever taken the time to consider or examine a spotlight? A spotlight is a strong beam of light that illuminates a small or specific area. For example a spotlight will focus on a performer on a stage in order to make him or her the center of attention. This concept can also be applied to a Christian’s life. This week, my objective is to shine a spotlight of focus on our service to God.
Read MoreWhen my sons were younger, my wife, Gloria and I created chores in order to champion personal responsibility and stamp out the seductive spirit of slothfulness. On one occasion one of my sons was instructed to clean his room and complete his homework before playing with his toys or watching a video or television. The expectation of his parents was well established and he was fully aware of the consequences for not carrying out his responsibility. After an hour had passed I decided to check on his progress. To my surprise, he selected something he deemed more important than cleaning his room and doing his homework. He had paid my instruction no attention therefore I immediately got his attention with my good friend R.O.D. also known as the “Reminder of Discipline” in my home (Proverbs 13:24). Before the application of the R.O.D., I asked my son why he chose to be disobedient. His answer was simple: Because he wanted to do something else.
Read MoreOne evening I was having a bite to eat with my wife and my daughter-in-love and we were having a conversation about exercise/smart watches. These smart watches (with no diploma or degree) will make it their objective to track your daily activity which includes monitoring an individual’s number of steps, calories burned, sleep patterns, stress and recovery. Although we call it a “smart watch”, the watch needs assistance in accessing data. Therefore, it has to be paired or synced to your phone or another mobile device.
Read MoreHave you recently given any consideration to what brings you joy or more complete joy? Perhaps this question makes you think of a new spouse, the birth of a child, acceptance into the college of your dreams, a job promotion, an astronomical amount of money that was not anticipated; the list is inexhaustible. Every genuine believer that has been gripped by God’s goodness and grace, however, knows the place of Jesus’s joy in our hearts!! Furthermore, the echo chamber of evangelical deduction decidedly declares the Lord Jesus’s gift of salvation gives us joy down deep in our souls. He is indeed the center of our joy!
Read MoreLast week, I concluded our blog with a summary statement which I hoped would help us submit our heart to our Lord’s heart of Holy living. As a review, Jesus calls us to be: fixed in a lifestyle that is faithful and focused on pleasing God and Free from hypocrisy, full of the Spirit, fixed in truth, and full of love, grace, wisdom and discernment…
Read MoreRecently I received a phone message from my eye doctor aka ophthalmologist reminding me of my annual check up. Every time I go to my eye appointment, I see that something is wrong (no pun intended) with my eyes. I have been diagnosed with an eye deficiency called nearsightedness which means that with your natural uncorrected vision, you can see closer or “nearer” but objects further away become blurry. Nearsightedness or myopia is a refractive defect of the eye lens in which an image is formed in front of the retina not on it. The way I mitigate my myopic malady is through contact lenses. I wear one contact lens in my left eye to correct for my nearsightedness and with the other eye I read things up close. So one eye is assisted in focusing on what is distant and the other eye focuses on what is close…
Read MoreWhen we are occasionally occupied with various observances on the Christian calendar such as Advent, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, they are each connected to certain passages in Scripture. As it pertains to Advent and Christmas, Isaiah 9:6 is attached to the season and abundantly applied to cards and posters. Because of our celebration of Christmas this week, I have chosen the word “given” captured in Isaiah 9:6 for today’s discussion.
Read MoreIn last week’s blog we initiated a discussion regarding the Provocateur's (Satan’s) methods used to provoke Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden. The closing statement turned our thoughts to the tempter’s tactics and that we must trust the truth in order to thwart all his tactics:
When the Provocateur purposes to park in your mind and heart make a power move and point him to truth of Gods word. Remember it is written, it is written and it is written!
As we continue our Christmas blog series, I invite you to direct your consideration toward a titanic trespass that threw the whole human race in brokenness and failure. This was Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command in the Garden of Eden. But their fall and failure forwarded a faithful Redeemer that would rescue us from our rebellion and remove us from “Reprobate Road.”
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