Sheep Food

  “By this...all will know...that you are My disciples: If you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) That was, still is, and will continue to be...the litmus test, the fruit, or the evidence of those who truly follow Jesus. It won’t be how long you attended church or if you went on mission trips or could speak in tongues and understood all mysteries while your faith was moving mountains. (1 Cor. 13:1-3) If the God-kind-of-love is not manifesting in your life on a regular basis, then all the other stuff is meaningless fluff, and will get you nowhere. (Matt. 7:22) When I say ‘God-kind-of-love’, I am referring to the standard that Jesus laid down in the preceding verse there: “You are to love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34; 1 Cor. 13:4-7) And if you think you can attain this ‘ability’ to go and love others as Christ loves us by just trying harder to do better, then you are greatly deceived. It ain’t gonna happen on your own. Do you know why? Because we don’t have...

  “I’m not perfect...you know!....Nobody is perfect!” Funny, is it not...how that line seems to take care of everything and make us feel better about ourselves when WE... mess up and are called upon to explain our own failings, mistakes, and ‘sins’. And yet, how shallow are those words when, for example, a spouse confesses to you that they cheated on you again, for the 5th time in 10 months? Or how about that husband that physically and verbally abuses his wife on a regular basis, reducing her to a crumpled mass of tears along with a bruised body and soul. Does his admission to not being ‘perfect’ speed up the healing process? What if your 16-year old comes home with a notice of a school suspension for some unacceptable behavior and is one step short of having legal charges filed against him; will his admission to not being ‘perfect’ make you less inclined in dealing with some obvious pressing issues? So why do we think that line is going to persuade God to give us a ‘pass’ when w...

  I have lost count of the number of times my wife has asked me over the years, to grab something for her out of the pantry, or the fridge...and when I open up to look for whatever it is...I have to inform her that it is ‘not here’. Then comes the ‘sigh’ and even an ‘eye-roll’ at times, as she walks over, moves me aside and miraculously reaches in and grabs the item she asked for...and there it was- sitting right in front of me. I’m guessing I’m the only one that ever happens to? No lie- it’s baffling to me how something can be right in front of us, and yet we simply cannot see it. So I suppose in some ways, I can understand the profound question Pontius Pilate would eventually ask Jesus when He stood before him in the Praetorium and began to interrogate Him. (John 18) “Are You the King of the Jews?” “Am I a Jew?” (33,35) Jesus responds: “My kingdom is not of this world...My kingdom is not from here.” (36) Inserting a brief personal commentary in here regarding those comments ma...

  If you have been reading here for any length of time, you have heard me state on more than one occasion that I am NOT...on ‘rapture watch’. What do I mean when I say that? Well for starters, I sense no compelling to spend any time writing about and addressing the topic. That is not to say I don’t believe in what most have commonly have been taught is the ‘rapture’, or the ‘catching away of the saints’. Truth be told, you can only find about 3 references to this ‘event’ where Paul alludes to this being ‘caught up together...in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air’. (1 Thess. 4:17). So I guess it’s safe to say this event won’t happen on a day that is clear and sunny? I can tell you that Paul spends a whole lot more time admonishing the ‘saints’ to making sure their hearts are right and that ‘having these promises...beloved...let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’. (2 Cor. 7:1). [When you read that word ‘clean...

  Think of someone who is close and dear to you; a friend or relative that you can’t imagine not having in your life. It could be a spouse, or a child and even a parent. Why it might just be a close neighbor whom you look in on regularly You know them well, probably better than most other people do, and on the ‘outside’ they seem to be doing ...okay. Then, something about them begins to ...change. It’s slow at first and subtle. But you notice it. They begin to lose their appetite and are not eating as much. It’s not like they are dropping pounds at an alarming rate, but you know it’s only a matter of time. Then other things become noticeable. It’s an odor, not pungent at first but you can tell. They are not grooming or bathing regularly, before they stop all together. It’s as if they don’t really ...care anymore. It is those outward signs we begin to notice that can often reflect what is happening on the inside of them. If you were to ask them how they were doing, they mos...

  Asking the question again...(for a friend, of course) – Does God actually take pleasure when His children ‘suffer’? And once again, that depends on what kind of ‘suffering’ we are talking about. It is not the will of God for any to suffer/perish, but for all to come to repentance. (2 Pet. 3:9) And yet, if we don’t repent, we will perish. (Luke 13:3,5). When Jesus “saw the multitudes who were weary and scattered, like sheep with no shepherd, He was moved with compassion and healed ‘every sickness and every disease’ among the people.” (Matt. 9:35-36). So no, God does not take pleasure when He sees His people, taken ‘captive and going astray’, suffering in the process. (Jer. 13:17; Isa. 53:6). And God never changes. (Mal. 3:6) But the kind of ‘suffering’ He does delight in, is when we ‘suffer in the flesh’ when we are following in obedience, putting to death once and for all, those fleshly desires, as we stand in the furnace of affliction. Why does He delight in this? Because we ...

  So...I did ‘this thing’. Yep....I joined a gym and started working out a few weeks ago, even paying extra for a trainer to work with me two days a week. I promise not to become a ‘fitness evangelist’ now and start posting selfies of my progress as I document my ‘journey’. I will tell you though what prompted me making this decision and why I even posted the photo of me here today. While I have pretty well been blessed with ‘good health’ most of my life, I would never suggest I am in ‘good shape’. And growing older along with adding extra pounds has begun to catch up with me, and this was made that much more clear to me as I try to keep up with two young grandsons who are not getting any smaller nor slowing down. I truly needed to be keeping better care of my ‘temple’, not only for the Lord’s sake, but I’d like to be around for a good bit of these boy’s lives; hence the decision to venture in to this ‘world of fitness’.  The Bible does say 'bodily exercise profits little',...