Basic Truths | Finding God in Everyday Life

  I’m a sucker for an introductory offer. If I can get something at a greatly reduced price for a year, I’m all in. Thrifty person that I am, I usually cancel when the introductory period is over!   Companies make these offers as enticing as they can in order to get you to try their product or service in the hope that you will want to continue with them.   God’s ways are not like the world’s ways. This is God’s introductory offer (from the Beatitudes, Mt. 5:3-12).   If you sign up now, you will be humbled and you will mourn. People will take advantage of you, they will insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil about you. You will hunger and thirst for righteousness as you try to make peace out of the conflict around you.   If you take advantage of this introductory offer, you will be blessed! You will enter the kingdom of heaven, you will be comforted, you will inherit the earth, you will see righteousness, you will be shown mercy, you...

  I vividly remember doing an experiment in chemistry lab while I was in college. I looked down and noticed that a few of my fingers were smoking where the acid I was working with had started eating into the skin. I quickly washed the acid off with no lasting harm done. I was much more careful after that!   Unforgiveness is an acid that eats away at our heart and mind and spirit. It has the capability of doing great damage to us. You would think that we’d want to wash the acid off before it disfigures us but most of us find it very hard to do so.   It can be especially hard if the other person is not repentant in any way.   Jesus gave us a stern warning about unforgiveness, “If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Mt 6:14-15). He further illustrated the point with the parable of the unforgiving debtor who begged successfully to ...

  I’m showing my age when I admit that I grew up in a time before there was bottled water except for the big water coolers in offices. There was a spring near to where we had our camp trailer. The water that came out of the spring was delicious and cool, even on a hot summer day. We would make a side trip to the spring when we were staying at the trailer. We’d bring empty jugs to fill so that we could bring some spring water home for the rest of the family.   God’s love is infinite, like a never-ending spring. When we are filled with His love, we can share it with all those around us without ever running out of love ourselves.   Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:7-9).   Try...

  As I’ve mentioned before, my wife and I are celebrating our 30 th wedding anniversary this year.   I was looking in our wedding remembrance book recently and re-read our vows. We wrote our own vows (available on request!) but they were similar to the standard vows we hear at a wedding ceremony. When the bride and groom exchange vows at their wedding, their promises are total and unconditional. There are no prenuptial agreements, no exceptions, in their vows before God.   Throughout the Old Testament, the scriptures refer to the relationship of God to the Israelites as that of husband and wife. The book of Hosea is an acted-out parable of how the Israelites strayed from God, their first love. In the New Testament, Jesus referred to himself as the bridegroom (see Matthew 9:14-15, for example). Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, compared the relationship of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church. We see in Revelation that the church will be united with G...

  I remember when I started my first real job. My employer didn’t have a formal dress code but the men were expected to dress in a suit and tie every day. I went out and bought a whole new wardrobe. I looked like a different person in my new clothes from the T-shirt and jeans college student that I had been only weeks before.   In Colossians Chapter 3 we are told to have a spiritual “change of clothes”. We are called to rid ourselves of “whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (Col 3:5). In its place, Paul tells us to ”Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…..and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Col 3:12, 14).   It’s human nature to judge a person by the clothes they wear. In the same manner, people will judge Christians, and Christianity itself, by the way we present ourselves. We are called as Christians to be a light to the world. We should always try to wear our new “s...

  We try to make it out to the State Fair of Texas every year. We do the same things each time we go, i.e. get samples at the Food & Fiber Pavilion, check out the Arts & Crafts contest winners, ride the Ferris wheel, and eat corn dogs. I’ve been asked why we keep going back when we just do the same things each year. My answer has always been that we enjoy doing those things and that there is something comforting in going to the fair each year and knowing that it will be the same. In the midst of this rapidly changing world, it’s nice to know that some things remain the same.   We can take comfort in the fact that our God is unchanging and eternal. As the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow” (Heb 13:8). We can be confident in God’s promises to us. He will always be with us to lead us and guide us on our way, to provide for us in times of need, and to shower us with His love and blessings until the day we ...

  We took a trip to Zion National Park earlier this month. The canyons were spectacular! We did some hiking in the park, including one hike in the river that formed the canyon. The water in the river was less than knee-deep for most of the way. I was struck by how such a little river could create such large and deep canyons. If somehow you could go back in time to before when the canyons were created, I imagine that you would have thought that it was impossible for the little river to overcome the rocky ground to form the canyons we see today. Fortunately for us, the little river carried on and wore down the resistance and won out in the end.   Jesus asked His disciples to feed the crowd in front of them. The disciples thought it was an impossible task. Then a boy came forward with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus used what the boy brought to perform a miracle, feeding the crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children.   We all face obstacles each day in many diff...

  I am not a social media person. I have a Facebook account that I use to occasionally look at posts by immediate family and friends. Twitter finally forced me to create an account so I could see posts by my school’s sports teams. I have never been on TikTok or any other site. I don’t follow anybody and nobody follows me and I am content with that. Some day that will probably change but I’m not looking forward to it. I am amazed that there are people out there who have over one hundred million followers.   The earliest Christians were known as “Followers of the Way”, presumably referring to Jesus who described Himself as “…the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6).   Jesus said that He is the Good Shepherd. He calls us as His sheep to follow Him. “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be” (Jn 12:26). The question is: Where is Jesus going today? Wherever He goes, that is where we should be going, not necessarily physically but a...

  I remember a few years ago when I decided that I needed to lose some weight. I managed over the next year to lose 25 pounds and I have been able to maintain my weight since then.   I needed to change my mindset in order to accomplish this. When I go to the grocery store or a restaurant, my first thought is how my choices will affect my weight goal. When I sit down to eat, I think about what and how much I can have within the context of my weight goal. That has allowed me to make better decisions and have a better result.   In my last post, I talked about Jesus telling us how we needed to hear His words and put them into practice. We hear this same admonition in several places throughout the Bible. James writes, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). How can we get to this point? First, we should try to develop a mindset that evaluates everything we do in the context of God’s desire for us, whether our actions are...