April 20th, 2007 by admin

As I walked from one office to the other yesterday at work I looked down and saw my shadow. The shadow mimicked my every movement. It even revealed the pen in clarity that I was holding in my right hand.

The shadow was not me, it was a image of me. It looked like me… it acted like me… it walked like me… in every form it resembled me…BUT IT WASN’T ME.

There is a passage of scripture (Psalms 23) that says “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”. Notice that this says shadow of death. Shadows can’t hurt you. The real thing might, but not the shadow.

The bible obviously, through this verse states that we as Christians may have to walk through the valley of the “shadow” of death. The devil is always casting shadows that resemble the real thing. This is to provoke fear in us and to get our eyes off of faith. So if the shadow can’t hurt you and Jesus has already defeated the real thing… what do we have to fear. So the next time the devil throws something your way… remember what Jesus has said and who you are. Realize that it’s just a shadow… and press on.

April 18th, 2007 by admin

I have been wondering why so much of the bible is being used by churches for comfort instead of answers. We are real people with real problems… and though I like comfort… I will take answers a million to one over comfort. I believe that Jesus came to give us answers to our daily life issues. We are one of the physically sickest nations in the world and yet have more medicine than any other country. We also have the gospel message preached to us more than any other nation (probably all nations combined). We need answers… I need answers… Why are the things that we preach that God has for us so difficult to obtain. Does God hide the blessings like Easter eggs and enjoy our frustration when we can’t find them. Of course not!!! It’s not God’s fault. It’s ours. What is our problem?? Why is it when we need answers many people just pray comfort for us. I don’t want to be comforted through the storm. I want an answer for the storm! I believe that the bible has the answers for our needs, not just comfort. We press on, and on, and on, until the answer is revealed. God loves faith, and wants to find it within us all. Faith is seeing the answer when we don’t have it. I guess when we get to a breaking point in our lives, we have to give our cares to God and have faith. I guess…. that is the answer.

April 16th, 2007 by admin

When something dies… it doesn’t have to be the end of life. Here are four live oak trees that died as a result of hurricane Katrina, that received new life at the hands of a skilled chain saw artist. If you feel that the storms of life have damaged you, remember that God is economical and nothing is wasted. He can make something beautiful when it seems there is nothing beautiful to work with.

April 14th, 2007 by admin

I grew up on the beach around the Atlantic Ocean. Every summer we would pack up our beach stuff and head for the water. It was always a great family time. The Atlantic Ocean however has an undertow that sucks water back out to sea as it breaks along the shores. We would stand where the water breaks and feel the undertow pull on our feet. Rafts were different. You could never feel the undertow when playing on a raft. Everyone loves to play on rafts and on occasion just relax on them. It�s the relaxing that becomes so dangerous. Picture yourself laying back on a raft, your eyes closed and the sun warming your face. You�re not thinking about anything in world except how good it feels just laying there. You�re not aware that the tide and undertow are slowly taking you out to sea. You�re now way off shore and don�t even realize it. God help you when you open your eyes! Sheer terror hits, the people on the beach look like tiny dots, and the buildings look like the small sandcastles you made earlier while playing in the sand. Then it hits�. da dunt� da dunt� JAWS!!!!! You feverishly paddle your way against the tide, undertow, wind, and saltwater splashing in your face. You get back to shore, but it wasn�t easy. You also realize how easy it was to drift away from shore. You never even felt it. I have notice this in my spiritual life as well. We drift� it happens. The most important thing is that we get back to shore. Also, if we keep our eyes on the shore (God) more… we tend to drift less.

April 8th, 2007 by admin

Perhaps you know a story about Benjamin Franklin. One day he received a gift of a whisk broom from India. He noticed a few seeds fastened to the wisps of the broom. Franklin planted them. When the first crop came up he distributed the seeds among his friends and neighbors. Their crops flourished. In this way Franklin was responsible for introducing broom corn into the American colonies, and starting the American Broom Manufacturing Industry. From our tiny efforts sometimes come great rewards.

April 7th, 2007 by admin

A family once had two little puppies. One of the puppies was a boy and the other was a girl…and for some strange reason wherever the sister went, the brother was on her tail following right behind her. Every morning, as they were let out to play, they would go scampering out the door, down the steps, across the lawn and through a hole in the fence–and always, the brother was following right behind his sister.

One day, the family decided to fix that hole in the fence, and the next morning, they let the dogs out to play. As usual, the puppies went out the door, down the steps, across the lawn. As the lead dog approached the fence, she saw that the hole in the fence had been fixed and she quickly turned to the right to avoid hitting the fence. Her brother, however, was not so fortunate; he crashed right into the fence. Later, the family discovered why: he was blind–the puppy had been blind since birth. He had simply learned that to get around he had to listen… listen to the sounds of his sister’s footsteps… listen to where his sister was going and follow her.

Jesus wants to lead us on adventures that will go out the door, down the steps, across the lawn, and through the fences (so to speak). I am not saying that we should be blind like this puppy, but we should be free from the distractions around us to follow Jesus as closely as this puppy followed his sister. Happy following!!

April 3rd, 2007 by admin

You know… no one ever sat around and tried to invent something that would get rid of darkness. The thought of removing darkness is kinda weird. I mean… how do you get rid of “darkness”. It is not something that is generated. It is not something that is created. We don’t go around and create darkness (it even sounds stupid).

Thomas Edison didn’t sit around and try to invent the removal of darkness. When he created the light, darkness automatically left. Edison didn’t have to remove the darkness… he just had to create light. Darkness just left on it’s own.

Sometimes in our own lives we spend so much time trying to remove the “darkness” or the negative things that weigh us down. This can become weary and tiresome. Edison would have been a long time trying to remove darkness without the lightbulb.

When God created the earth He said, “Let there be light”. He didn’t say, “Darkness be removed”. When Jesus healed the blind man, he didn’t remove blindness… He told the man to receive his sight. When the man received his sight, blindness automatically left. This is interesting to me…. “Why do we spend so much time trying to get rid of things, when all we need is the receiving of things.” If we want to get rid of the negative in our life, we need to add more positive. The negative will then leave on its own. If we want to get rid of the darkness in our life, we need to add light. And we all know what the light is…. and in case you don’t. It’s Jesus.

April 1st, 2007 by admin

We’ve all heard the the term… “The Sixth Sense”. What is the “Sixth Sense”? I know what the normal five senses are and they are all part of our natural being. We hear, see, taste, smell, and feel, and we do all of this with our flesh. These senses are designed to show us that something is real. Let me explain… Without using the “smell sense” we would never know that flowers had a fragrance. We use the sense of smell to capture a reality that would otherwise not be known… and that is…Flowers have a fragrance. The fragrance still would have been there even if we did not have the “smell sense”, but this sense allows us to capture it… and ultimately enjoy it. This goes for all the five senses. If you were born with no ears and I told you about a fire truck siren. How do I convince you that it makes a sound. The fact that you don’t have ears doesn’t change the reality that the siren on the fire truck still makes a sound. You just can’t hear it. It is still there… You just need ears to capture the sound to experience it. The fact is… there are millions of realities that are out there that only our five senses can pick up. That is why we were given them… to capture the reality of things and enjoy them. Well, Faith works this way too. God has tons of realities that are in His kingdom and we need a “sense” to capture the reality of them, and ultimately enjoy them. Faith acts as our “sixth sense”. The five earthly senses are for us to pick up realities on earth… the sixth sense is for us to pick up realites in heaven. Remember, all that God has is ours. He has given all blessing to us through Jesus. These are realities that are ours. We just have to have a “sense” to capture it. Just because you can’t see, taste, feel, hear, or smell these realities doesn’t mean they are not there. You would never use your nose to listen to a fire trucks siren, so you can’t use the five earthly senses to obtain heaven’s realities either. Use faith to capture the realities that are yours… in heaven… and enjoy.