My Thoughts and Reflections

“ A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” - Matthew 12:35 (NLT) One of the many issues that we face while living in this world full of sin and death, is that we are constantly bombarded by evil. Evil words and actions are constantly in our faces as a result of local, national, and world events. It is very difficult to shield our eyes, ears, and hearts from the constant state of evil that our world is in. This is a problem at home, school, work, or wherever you find yourself today. As followers of Jesus Christ, we desire to be good people, as this verse says, who produce good fruit, but that is difficult when we are being filled with so much evil from our world. How do we combat this? By filling our hearts with the treasure that we find in scripture. When we go through our day without opening our Bibles to receive that holy food from God, we are allowing the evil of...

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. Psalm 86:5 (NRSV) If you are ever finding that you are in need of encouragement, begin with this verse in the Psalms!  It is so easy to get down on ourselves and to view life negatively.  Just when we are seeing success, "life" throws us the proverbial curve-ball and we are left to pick up the pieces or figure out how to live life with that new set of circumstances.   This verse tells reminds us of who God is.   The Lord, our God, is good!   How often do we blame God for the bad things that happen in our life?  We look up to heaven and shake our fists at God the moment we get a bill in the mail that is much higher than we were expecting or when someone dings our door in the parking lot and leaves without leaving a note.  God is not a God who takes delight in our suffering or in causing harm to us.  God is good and that is something...