Day Fifteen – Doing…
We need the foundational elements of being and knowing as they inform us as to the action, the doing of our life. Without understanding who we are our actions can be like spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. Life has an active element in caring for those in need. We are best defined by our charity. We are here to serve!
Country musician Vince Gill summed this up in a song, “What You Give Away”…Read More>
Day Sixteen -Waiting
Habakkuk 2:1-3 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end- it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
We do not read from the prophet Habakkuk very much. He is somewhat dwarfed by the other, more prolific Old Testament writers. Yet in these few verses alone he offers a wealth of common sense wisdom…Read More>
Day Seventeen – Overcoming Fear / Part 1
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Tim 1:7
There must be something about some fear we like. The theme parks with their rides are built upon fear – at least apprehension and being startled. Horror movies can send a shiver down our spines causing us to tremble. There are other fears very real that affect our everyday life. There are fears of failure or success, fears of financial ruin and in recent years the threat of terrorism. There are fears of the natural order, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and more. Fear can paralyze us and keep us from being all God wants us to be. I believe this passage points to three main fears and the remedy God has given us in Christ for dealing with them…Read More>
Day Eighteen – Overcoming Fear / Part 2
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Tim 1:7
I believe this passage points to 3 main fears and the remedy God has given us in Christ for dealing with them…
The second fear we have in life is the Fear of Others. People can inflict all sorts of pain upon us, words that wound. My friend, Steve Fry in his book I AM tells this story…Read More>
Day Nineteen – Overcoming Fear / Part 3
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Tim 1:7
I believe this passage points to 3 main fears and the remedy God has given us in Christ for dealing with them…
The third fear is a fear of ourselves. I believe we have a fear of ourselves. a fear of failure or of losing it in one way or another. It might be a fear of making life work. Many folks are paralyzed from taking any action because they are wrapped in fear.
I walked away from a youth group meeting I led. The music was poor, the teaching was flat, the game did not work, the kids were obnoxious, complaints from parents; it was a very bad night. I was feeling like a failure, ready to give up, quit and do something else with my life, at least something I where could earn a decent living.
To over come this fear God has given us…Read More>
Day Twenty – Good tasting and ripe fruit
People often think that the fruit in the Garden of Eden that tempted Adam and Eve was an apple. The Genesis account does not say except that the fruit was good to eat. I like apples, I travel every October into the Apple growing region of North Carolina and bring back a few bushel of apples every year and when I was pastoring a congregation we had our own feast day of Apple Sunday! Saying that and being a Georgia Boy I have to say, “If I was to be tempted by fruit it would have to be a Georgia Peach!” Sweet, juicy and delicious, there is nothing like a peach and I have a picked a few in peach orchards in Georgia. Are your taste buds primed?
Spiritually, fruit is important. Jesus speaks of this in The Gospel of…Read More>
Day Twenty One – On Death and Dying…
We do not like to think about death and dying. We put away, relegate it to “someday” and try to think about other things. I appreciate how the Book of Common Prayer gives us some instruction about death… The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all its meaning in the resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised. The liturgy, therefore, is characterized by joy, in the certainty that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This joy, however, does not make human grief unchristian. The very love we have for each other in Christ brings deep sorrow when we are parted by death. Jesus himself wept at the grave of his friend. So, while we rejoice that one we love has entered into the nearer presence of our Lord, we sorrow in sympathy with those who mourn.
My mother passed away in 2005. I waited by her bedside…Read More>
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