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Showing posts from July, 2017

Declared

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the earth..." Psalm 19:1-4  My family and I were on the back porch recently mesmerized by the setting sun. Pinks, purples, reds, oranges, aquas ... amazing! We were reflecting on how each and every sunrise and sunset are different in some way. They are slow and spectacular. It then dawned us how amazing it is that God made us in such a way that we find them beautiful and emotionally compelling.  David, in his Psalms, routinely marveled at God's creation. In our mind's eye, we see David in the fields at night with the sheep staring deeply into the same constellations we see today. How beautiful the sunrises and sunsets were and are over the hills outside of Beth

A Gift

"When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners." Romans 4:4-5 As a caddie at a private golf club, every dollar I received was a hard dollar. Carrying bags for 18 holes as a 12 year old was tough. Chasing carts and tracking 4 golf balls wasn't any easier. This happened only after I rode my bike down the train tracks for two miles and waited in the caddie shack for who knows how long just to get in line for golfers to request caddies. Between the attitudes and the disappointing tips, I chose to retire early. Many places in the Bible extol the value of hard work. However, here Paul very clearly communicates that the most valuable of all things, salvation, is a gift not a wage. We can earn many things and that's great, but heaven is not one of them. Nope, Jesus paid for our forgiveness. He purchased our pardon. He

I Believe

"So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said." Acts 27:25 I didn't believe him at first. After all, he's kind of joker. The story? He claimed a lady, while at the buffet table at our wedding reception, leaned over to scoop up some food. Unfortunately, in doing so, her hair, filled with hair spray, got too close to the candles and went up in flames! He then told me that he took his plate of jello and smashed it on her head to put out the fire. "Yea ... right," I thought to myself. However, later on I saw this same lady with an ice pack on her head visibly shaken by what most certainly had been a hair burning, jello smashing experience! Paul in our story for the day, made it very clear about what he thought when God spoke to him, "I believe it!" He never second guessed a word from God. When God spoke, it was go time. It was courage time. For as he had seen again and again, "It will be just as he said."  God