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  A few quotes made by Jesus- “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” “...How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Mark 2:17; John 5:6; John 5:40; Matt. 23:37) At the ‘end of the day’...as we like to say, when we’ve laid aside all the commentaries and devotionals and turned off all the devices that funnel countless voices into our heads; and when we have nothing else to add to our theological debates in an attempt to narrow the divide of our doctrinal differences, there really are only...
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  “...And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26) I’ve been saying this for years, that we in the ‘church’ would probably do well to let others (those on the outside)..refer to us as ‘Christians’ ('Christ-like')...instead of us publicly making that proclamation. And it has nothing to do with being ‘ashamed’ to make such an admission either. If we are a true follower of Jesus...we shouldn’t have to tell anyone; they will know! “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – Jesus (John 13:35) If you didn’t catch yesterday’s message, I beg you...please stop here and go read it now? I believe I mentioned recently in one of my previous posts that the boys (my twin grandsons) are at that age now where they want to do everything...’by myself’!. “I can do this Papa...I don’t need your help!”. And so I’m learning patience as I step back and wait a little bit...until they come to me and ask for my assistance, which ...
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  I was ‘scrolling’ the other day through Instagram and came upon this reel that stopped me in my tracks. It’s shared from a secular point of view, but please...take your time with this and read through the transcript I've posted here:  (caution- 'steel-toed slippers' advised) -- We love to believe we are ‘good people’ because we’re kind to strangers. You can be kind to animals and kind to the delivery person who drops packages off at your house. You can be kind to every stranger who crosses your path. But the real test of character isn’t how you treat the barista or the cashier at the store. It’s how you speak to the people who live with the real you. Kindness to strangers is not the measure of our character. Kindness at home is the real test. Strangers don’t carry your history. Strangers don’t activate your wounds. Strangers don’t mirror the parts of you that you still haven’t dealt with or maybe have avoided for years. Your spouse does. Your kids do. Your home does. A...
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  It’s one of those many verses...that can give you pause when you come across them as you read through the Bible. This one is found in Matthew 24 where Jesus had been asked by His disciples...”Tell us what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age” (3), (which Paul seems to suggest is ‘already upon us’ (1 Cor. 10:11). Jesus began with a serious and repeated warning to be on guard against widespread deception (4-5). He goes on to spell out other ‘signs’ that would be unfolding and how there would be much division as ‘nations would be pitted against nations’ as well as various kingdoms. (7). Interesting side note here, but that word ‘nation’ come from the same Greek word that we get ‘ethnicity’ from; just saying. But it’s the somber warning found in verse 19 that always catches my attention: “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!” At first glance, you have to wonder what He is trying to convey here; does God have it...
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  So which ‘besetting sin(s)’ in your life (Heb. 12:1) that you struggle with to overcome...have proven to be a formidable match for the power that is declared to be found in the name of Jesus, and in the power that comes through His shed blood? I only ask because Jesus seemed to suggest that we would ‘know the truth’ and that this ‘truth would set us free...from all sin’. (John 8:32-36) It's a fair question, honestly. And it’s one I have had to confront myself and come to terms with in recent years. Either God’s word is ‘truth’...and ‘works’...or we are just playing religious games, guilty of ‘walking in a form of godliness while denying the power’. (2 Tim. 3:5). Or is it possible that you were ‘sold a counterfeit’ gospel, as Paul warned might happen in 2 Cor. 11:3-4 ...where you would end up ‘receiving another spirit’...and even following ‘another Jesus’. The other alternatives to consider is that a person can still be ‘in the dark’ or ‘ignorant’ to the truth (Acts 26:18) wh...
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    Ahh...those were the days...when I used to cut down trees and chop up my own firewood. It was hot, hard work that I found deeply satisfying. The place where we built our home back in Texas had a number of older oak trees, some I needed to remove before we poured our slab, and then others I thinned out over time. Whenever I did lay a tree down, I usually let it sit there for a week or two before I would start to split it and get the area cleaned up. And something that I witnessed on every occasion was when the tree was first cut down, most of the branches and the green leaves remained intact. It appeared to be a ‘living tree’ that was laying on its side. But one would notice after a few days...the leaves began to ‘wilt’; and the longer it laid there... the leaves turned brown as it became quite obvious...this tree was no longer ‘living’, for it had ‘died’ and was in the early stages of decaying. Never, in all the years of doing this, did a cut down tree continue living, ...
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  If you have ever heard a car engine backfire, you know it’s abrupt and loud enough to send cats leaping vertically into the air, jolt sleeping babies awake, screaming, and cause soldiers who struggle with PTSD to ‘hit the deck’ cowering in fear. And if it’s something your car does, or maybe a close-by neighbor’s car...one hopes the problem is fixed sooner than later.  Suppose you do have a neighbor whose car develops this obnoxious problem and they apologize to you for its unruly disturbances, informing you they are taking it to a local garage the next day to have fixed. Then, a few days later while enjoying your first cup of coffee that morning, you hear that neighbor getting ready to leave out for work, or maybe to church and as they pull out of their driveway...there goes the loud explosion of their car backfiring once again. It causes you to recoil, spilling coffee down your front, as local dogs in the neighborhood begin barking loudly. Maybe it happens one more time...
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