Moments

  "What's the major difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament?' "The Old Testament is about the fall." "And? "It is like the verse from the hymn says: 'Christ has regarded my helpless estate,'  Old Testament. 'And shed His own blood for my soul,'  New Testament. "For God so loved---"  Praise God.

Luke 11: 23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth. There is not middle ground; no straddling the fence with Jesus - no politicians here. You are either "all in" or you are all out. On a secular level I have found this to be true with ironman training. The cost and reward are high, the training rigorous. A half-hearted ironman attempt can lead to serious problems out on the race course. You can't be "almost an ironman. The time limit is 17 hours. Finish within that time and you are an Ironman. Don't finish within 17 hours and you are not. And one who does not gather is one who scatters. If I call myself a Christian, claim to be "all in " for Jesus, yet my life is no different from the way of the world, am I gathering or scattering in the expression of my faith to the world. And, when the world hears my profession of faith and does not see the evidence of Christ acting through me, my confession a...

Have noticed in reading the story of the prodigal son that the change occurred in the wayward son when he was at his lowest ebb, feeding pigs; trying to keep from starving by eating their food. The scripture says, "he came to himself." From that point, his life takes a different direction, a new road, a new perspective on himself, his place in the world, and his father.   But, he had to come to himself. That suggests that the capability to be who he could be was in him all the time. He had drifted from who he really was. Sometimes we might drift from the person God sees in us; the person that through Christ we can be; the person we really are; close to our Father's love.