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Showing posts from September, 2012

No Limits

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." Ephesians 3:21 Before the poster found its way into my son's room, it used to hang in my office. Under the picture, I wrote in marker the words, "No Limits". The poster is a frozen moment of one of Michael Jordan's many highlight reel feats. It captures him in mid-flight between the free throw line and the basket during a late 80's slam dunk competition. Needless to say, he won. The picture served as a reminder for me that the impossible is possible with God. Seriously, I'm just as likely to slam a basketball as I am to catch a bullet with my teeth or make an elephant tap out in a wrestling match. It's just not going to happen. So, to see the "impossible" expands my vision. Paul thought about limitlessness as well. He writes here that God can do infinitely more than anything that we can ask or ima

Sincere

"And so the Lord says, 'These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away ..." Is. 29:13 As parents, my wife and I try our best, failing often to be sure, to do the right thing to prepare our kids for a future out from under our roof. When they were little, we would often repeat a scene certainly familiar to you that looked something like this ... An offense against a sibling was committed. The offended sibling cried or yelled or simply just tattled. The offender presented a defense that almost always broke down under cross-examination. The offender was then properly chastised and instructed to apologize to the offended sibling for their offense. The words, "I'm sorry" passed through their lips, but tone and body language revealed their insincerity, never mind the fact that they normally did the same thing again the next day. In the Bible verse for today, God calls out his people for the insincerity of th

(un)Comfortable

"...I have worked harder, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and day adrift at sea. I have traveled many weary miles. I have faced danger from flooded rivers and from robbers ... I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm." II Corinthians 11:23-27 As the thunder and rain continued to escalate as the night went on, it was clear that we were not going to be able to finish our camp-out under the stars. We had taken cover under a tarp covered pavilion, but the water was blowing in sideways and the ground was quickly becoming a little river. In the late hours of the night, the decision w

The Right Thing

"...Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right." Ecclesiastes 8:5b I knew what I needed to do. My nagging conscience and the constant turmoil in my heart was simply not going to go away until I made things right. The man in the gas station had taken a look out the window with his binoculars to look at the pump that I had just finished using and told me it said, "such and such." I gave him the money, got in my car and pulled away. Curious, due to the oddity of the experience, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the pump said, "such and such .05". Yikes, I thought. He missed the nickel. Running a little bit late already, I kept on going. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get that 5 cents out of my head. It stalked me like the beating heart in Edgar Allan Poe's story. Needless to say, the guy working at the gas station when I returned to slap that nickel down on the counter was more than a little b