My Thoughts and Reflections

“A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”  - Proverbs 22:9 (NIV1984) As we near the season of Advent, we have already heard the calls of selfishness and greed to indulge in Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday sales in an annual attempt to get that great deal or save a few dollars here and there. We will also begin to hear the opposite call from many churches and non-profit organizations. We will hear the call for generosity and an attitude of giving to those who are living much more difficult lives than ourselves. In this proverb, we are told that a person is blessed for their generosity. I believe that we can all testify to the notion that our economic woes, the number of people living in poverty and on food stamps, and the general attitude of selfishness that pervades our culture are directly related to a lack of generosity and the prevalence of greed. Today, on the Family Life Network radio station , they ran their daily cont...

  “I thank my God always for you, because of God’s grace that was given to you in Christ Jesus.  That is, you were made rich through him in everything: in all your communication and every kind of knowledge.”  - 1 Corinthians 1:4-5 (CEB) What are you thankful to God for?  What is it that causes you to be thankful today?  We are in that season of Thanksgiving again and we get to share with each other what we are thankful for!  Paul’s source of joy was his faith in Jesus Christ.  He believed that Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection paid the penalty for his sins and that he was promised eternal life with Christ.  In this passage, he explains to the Corinthians that he is thankful for them as well.  Why?  Because they too have experienced the same thing that Paul experienced; an enrichment through Christ in everything! Have you experienced this enrichment in everything through Christ?  Has your life been changed because of your...

“For the word of the L ORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.  The L ORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”  - Psalm 33:4-5 (NIV) Have you noticed how it seems that our world is full of people that can never seem to tell it to you straight?  We live in a world full of liars, cheaters, two-faced people, injustice, and evil.  Does anyone tell the truth anymore?  Does anyone care about the lack of justice around the world?  Who can you rely on anymore in this messed up world?   The writer of this psalm tells us that, “the word of the L ORD is right and true.”  How refreshing it is to know that we still have one who is full of the truth and who speaks what is right!  God’s words never fail and he speaks only the truth.  We never have to worry about whether or not God’s word is reliable because we know that he only speaks the truth. The psalmist continues and tells us that God is ...

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  – Joshua 24:15 (NIV) All throughout the Old Testament, God’s people, Israel, struggled with their commitment to the LORD their God.  They wavered back and forth between different foreign deities, bowing down to idols made of wood, stone, gold, and silver.  They worshiped the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai when Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments and the Law of God.  They also served it in Bethel and Dan after they split into two different countries! Today, we live in a world that is more full of different gods than in any other age of human history!  Not only do we serve different gods with proper names such as Buddha, Allah, Shiva, Brahma,  and V...

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the L ORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  - Micah 6:8 (NIV) As Christians, we often tout the Bible as God’s handbook on life, but all too often find ourselves at a loss as to where the sections that show us how to live are.  All throughout the Old Testament, God’s people relied on the Law (the first five books of the Bible, also known as Torah) to know how God wanted them to live.  This was a great gift from God to show them how he intended them to be holy people and to show them that they did not measure up to God’s standards for holiness.   The problem, however, was that they often got caught up in the intricate details and ignored the true priorities that God had for their lives.  They thought that the most important thing to do was to make sure that their sacrifices at the temple were done properly and they also made sure that they s...

“Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.”  – Psalm 62:1 (NIV) We live in the busiest era of human history.  It is an age where people get frustrated, stressed, and cranky when a website fails to load in under 15 seconds and when the email app on our mobile devices crashes right before our composed email is completed and sent!  We live in a time when text messages, instant messages, and video chats replace real face-to-face conversations and we think the drive through at the bank will save us time!  When is our time for rest?  Where do we find rest?  Sometimes, it seems hopeless for us to find rest in the business of our lives.  After all, who has the time to rest? In this psalm, David proclaims that it is in God where his rest is found.  When you sit down to think about it, where else does your rest come from?  Wasn't it God who created an entire day just for us to rest?  Rest is a God-given act...

“Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.  Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”  – Isaiah 56:1-2 (NIV 1984) Are we still advocates of justice and doing what is right today?  Are we modeling what honoring the Sabbath looks like?  Are we keeping our hands from doing evil?  We live in a world that makes doing justice and what is right difficult because it champions injustice and a “do whatever feels good” attitude.  We live in a world today where the Sabbath is not honored (Saturday, Sunday, another day; take your pick!), where people do not keep their hands from doing evil and where justice is an old fashioned notion that many people believe means equal and “fair” treatment for all! Isaiah’s call to do what is right came more than 2500 years ago and still rings tru...