Moments

 Jesus did some amazing things with storms.  He calmed the storm once and another time He came to His disciples walking on water at night "when the winds were contrary."   He wasn't intimidated by storms or bad weather.    Today, things just sort of piled on in life and I felt sort of overwhelmed by the storms and bad weather.  I could sense the tenseness in my body, mind, and soul.  I felt so tired from it all.   I went into the other room and after sitting in a recliner, I closed my eyes and tried to pray.   The words never started.  What did start was an awareness of supernatural realities, that I never expected.  Prayer became communion as I thought of how it will be when all this is over when I am in heaven with Jesus.   There was a sort of picture in my mind of that reality and with that vision came a peace washing over me.  I will be with Jesus soon.  This all will be over soon.  No mor...

 Luke 17:12-19 Ten lepers were desperate for healing.  All were healed but only one came back to praise and worship God for this miracle.  Sound familiar?  I knew a man with really bad cancer.  He was prayed over and prayed over and he knew it.  Miraculously, he went into remission.  In a celebratory dinner for this miracle, the man took credit for it, talking as if as if he had done it all himself out of his macho personal strength.  Cancer came back with a vengeance in short order and all the personal bravado couldn't save him.   The body is just the body and it is finite.  No matter how many times we have healing miracles, we will all die.  But healing  physically will not necessarily make  you whole.  Real healing is infinite. The leper who turned back, glorified God "with a loud voice."  He fell on his face and gave thanks. His life had been given back to him and He had been made whole.  He wasn't...

  Nothing is really wrong, but God  seems quiet.  The feeling is close enough but it is like I can't sense His leading.  Maybe it is that He is already given the instructions, and now it is up to me to perform, to do HIs will which I sought?   Don't we get like that sometimes? We ask for directions.  He says, "Go  here."  Then we just stand there on the corner waiting for the free ride to come along and take us there without effort. God is not a genie in a bottle to give us three wishes.  He is almighty God, whose "ways are past finding out," no matter how smart we think we are.  Jesus warned those who wanted to follow Him to first "count the cost." Discipleship will cost us something.  Discipleship is effort, and a privilege so far as we feel honored to give our all to Him.    So, we have a calling and cause.  Perhaps the greatest value in following this calling and cause is the experiences we will have alo...

  It's been a challenging last few weeks. The rains, the storms, the floods. We had a pond on our road to cross to get out to the main road. I have caught big fish in shallower water in my time. The rest of that road was somewhere between bad and awful. We didn't go out much. If we did we had to take the chainsaw to cut the limbs that fell across our road. A tree fell across our house and uprooted our gray water line, then our AC went out, and then our well went out. I took a nice bath in my pond this morning. However, good people were in place, praise God. The tree folks came out quickly and got the tree off my roof. The roofing folks came out and did the roof. The AC repair was done speedily and today, yes on a Sunday afternoon, the well person came out and restored my well. If all these things had not happened, I would not have realized how blessed I am to have these good people in my life. I am so grateful. "I thank God for the mountains. I thank God...

"Jesus gave it all"   As His followers, are we asked anything less ?     When Jesus called His disciples He didn't say, "Come on, give it a try and see if you like it."  No, it was and is a "no turning back" decision.  As the song goes, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back."  Following Jesus surrender. You  give up who you are to get on  the path to who you can be, though Jesus Christ. We change and we change the roads we are on.  This is no easy life.  The road is full of muddy place and potholes.  often difficult and demanding.  It can be difficult and demanding But, what in life that is worthwhile isn't difficult and demanding?   The call is "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."  Carrying our cross on that difficult and demanding road is hard.  That cross is heavy.  We get tired. We get worn. But we move ...

  As I ponder whether or not to act my age and give up vigorous activities, I somehow think that if I just stop doing these things, then I will be safe from all that COULD happen to me.  It's an apple in the Garden of Eden.  It is a tempting thought to kick back risk nothing and wait to die on time.  But the apple is rotten.  Safety in this world doesn't exist.  It is an illusion. You can lock all the doors in your life, set your alarms, and still have a tragedy befall you.  And I think making yourself safe and depending on our conservative, noncommittal, and cautious approach is a departure from an abiding faith. Our Hope, our safety, is in Jesus Christ only.  "All other ground is sinking sand," the song goes.  We cannot find security in the natural and secular world.  We find security only in the arms of Jesus.   And yes, we can lose everything in a disaster and yes, we can get hurt or even killed out there trying in the worl...

 Early morning in the county and there is a peace wisped in with the thin fog. It is quiet, serenely quiet, and the feeling is of a massage of the soul.   The silence is slightly broken by coyotes howling close by.  The wildness in their cries is not an interruption but a different verse in the song of morning peace.  The coyotes howl again in defiance of the civilized world and now the neighbors' dogs bark back their excuses.   The faint smell from a fire built last night is coming through the open window with the cool air. My world is at peace.   Thank you, God, for being here. Praise God.