May 20, 2021 - To my mind, “Sonnets From The Portuguese” is one of the most beautiful works to come from the pen of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The most familiar passage from that great work reads, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” My favorite is a bit more obscure.
May 13, 2021 - The habit of faultfinding is a bad habit that lots of people fall in to. The tragedy is that it is easily acquired and not readily broken. In case you haven’t noticed, we live in an imperfect world. Everything is flawed and defective. Institutions all blunder and fall short of the ideal. People are all erring creatures and sometimes we are offended by their faults. However, we should not pay so much attention to the faults and failures of others. Neither should we dwell on the defects of the world we live in.
May 6, 2021 - It was Mark Twain who said, “They did not know it was impossible, so they did it”. When you think about it, that is a very inspirational thought. It conjures up thoughts of perseverance, courage and accomplishment. It is amazing to think how many interesting and worthwhile things most of us could do, if we did not put mental handcuffs on ourselves.
April 29, 2021 - Have you ever seen items on sale at a greatly reduced price and in the fine print you read “slight imperfections?” Have you ever thought about how that describes us? The church is composed of folks that have imperfections. There are members, preachers, bible class teachers, song-leaders and others with “slight imperfections.” Amazingly, God has over the years been able to work wonders through imperfect people. In fact, God has never had a chance with any other kind.
April 22, 2021 - The occasion might be a family dinner, a time for special memories. Perhaps it is Thanksgiving, Christmas, a birthday, or anniversary or just the weekly Sunday dinner.
April 15, 2021 - Can you see by an eye of faith, Jesus, as he is hanging on the cross? He has been hounded, betrayed, denied, tried before an unjust court, led out of the city, and nailed to a rough-hewn wooden cross. Yet, hanging there, his first words were not a complaint.
April 8, 2021 - We are living is turbulent times. Our political landscape has become a minefield and it seems that every day the rhetoric becomes more hateful and divisive. Yet, there is a very significant passage of scripture from Paul in Romans chapter 12.
April 1, 2021 - Jesus didn’t quit assembling with the disciples because Judas was a hypocrite, or because Peter was always “buttin’ in”. Nor did he quit because James and John “flew off the handle” occasionally. His interest in these men was not lessened because they were envious and jealous of each other at times. He did not quit teaching the high standard of life because some of his close associates failed miserably to live as they should. He did not refuse to teach others because they were unkind and unbelieving.
March 25, 2021 - We read in Mark chapter 6 that Jesus and the disciples were trying to get away from the crowd of people for a little peace and quiet. They needed some R & R as we would say. Yet, Mark tells us the multitude followed and Jesus spent the day teaching them. The “day was far spent”, evening was coming, and the great crowd of people needed to be fed. In Mark chapter 6 and verse 38 Jesus asks the disciples, “How many loaves have ye?”
March 18, 2021 - If you come to our home and look in the refrigerator for the margarine, you won’t find any. You will, however, find real, sweet cream butter in both salted and unsalted varieties. We use butter at our house, lots of butter and I have the waistline to prove it! This morning, as I applied a generous amount of butter to my biscuits, I watched it turn into a beautiful golden liquid as it soaked into that dry biscuit. That beautiful golden liquid made me think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:12, you know, the passage we call the “golden rule.”