A Christ Follower: The Journey

Delighted, Committed & Trusting People Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to Him and trust in Him: He will act. He will bring these things to pass. Psalm 37:4-5 Ancient wisdom really does help us to experience true life that is full, and this brief passage is jam packed with powerful ways for us to be and do. And it's really simple what God is telling us to be here in order for Him to be active in our lives. Delight yourself in the Lord: I don't know about you but being delighted in the Lord is an easy task for me.  I am delighted, for example, that God loves the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be the Savior of the world.  I am delighted that anyone and everyone who believes in Him will never perish but will live eternally.  It brings me joy that God didn't send Jesus to condemn the world, but He sent Him to save us. And I find it ecstatic that, when a person truly believes, that a...

Pork Chops & God: When I was a child, I remember every one of us sitting around the kitchen table. Mom and Dad were sitting at either end of the table, and if I remember correctly, the three boys sat on one side, and the girls sat on the other side. I remember reading a comic strip called " Little Abner. "  He actually was a big muscular guy wearing overalls. And I remember he was sitting at a table, all by himself, with a stack of pork chops on a plate. He had all the pork chops to himself. I actually imagined what it would be like having those pork chops to myself. Some Time Later: It wasn't long until I had my own pork chop experience: One particular day, we had pork chops, with the vegetable's fixings, and we had some really good southern sweet tea. Right in front of me - sitting on that table - was a big ole stack of pork chops. I counted eight of them. And I was hungry; however, by the time all eight of us had our portion, we got 1 pork chop a piece. It was ...

  One of the deadliest, and life-threatening diseases, is heart disease, and journeying through life with this debilitating morbidity is an overwhelming thing to be sure. That is unless you have the Lord God Almighty walking with you every step of your journey; additionally, you can become overwhelmed, not necessarily by this particular disorder, but you can really be dealing with overwhelming trauma, that simply drags you down to the valley of the shadow. Perhaps, it can best be said like this: You are going along in life, and BAM! Life comes at you in ways you were not anticipating. Whatever the circumstances, the situation is heart breaking, and your soul is simply weary. Then, all of the sudden, you feel like everything in you is giving out. Your body aches, fatigue sets in, and your mind is overwhelmed with worry. It feels like your spirit is crushed by disappointment, and you feel utterly depleted. Well, the writer of Psalm 73:26, seems to have experienced all the above and m...

  On any given Sunday on planet Earth, millions of messages from the Bible are preached about many different things.  I could spend the entirety of this blog listing all the subjects covered.  But one thing concerns me a lot. That which is "of most importance" seems all too often to be placed on the back burner of what is really important. In other words, keeping the main thing, the main thing prevents God's single most vital message from being proclaimed. And what is that? I am talking about "The Gospel." Check out what Paul says about this below. In speaking about the Gospel, Paul says the following: "For what I receive, I passed on to you of "first importance:"  That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That he was buried, that he was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and the sisters at the sa...

  HE gives power to the faint. And to them who have no might, HE increases their strength. Even young people will faint and be weary. The strong young men can utterly fall. But they, who wait on the Lord, will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:29-31 Given the right, or not so right, circumstances, fainting can take place, just as being so bone tired makes you feel powerless. Again, given some challenging circumstances, even a really strong young person can feel weary, and their load may be so heavy, that they simply fall. In our scripture lesson, being able to be like an eagle, being able to run tirelessly, and being able to walk tirelessly, as God increases strength, occurs when we "wait on the Lord." Hmmm. What does "wait on the Lord" mean? I am glad you asked. Waiting by Being Alone with the Lord. In this fast-paced world, where we clutter our minds with Smart...

 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O LORD . Lamentations 3:22-23 Most have heard these words: "God is love." But what does this love look like? The "crying prophet" let's us in on this. He is clear that God's love is steadfast. In other words, it is dependable, and it can definitely be relied on no matter how we feel emotionally. For God's covenant people, this love comes because of HIS mercy or because HE is NOT going to give us what we deserve. And this love is fresh. It never ceases.  God's love is like a never-ending flowing river. It never comes to an end. "It is new every single morning. And I might add, it is new every single night and any time in between.  How do I know this is true? I know it because I have experienced it. I know it because, "the Bible tells me so."  The main reason I know all this to be true is because God is ...

  One day, the Apostle Paul was sharing with the Church, and he was discussing an urgent matter .  At least he urges people to do something. Listen to him in his own words: "Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual act of worship. And don't be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. You do this so that you can test, and approve what God's will is, seeing that it is good, pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 Did you catch all that? First, he is indeed urging the Romans, and he is urging you and me, to take advantage of God's mercy, to fully surrender ourselves to God, and to do so by making an offering of our entire bodies. God considers this a spiritual act of worship, and while we are doing this, God views us a being holy and acceptable unto HIM.  Second, something beautiful happens to you and me when ...