A Christ Follower: The Journey

  When Death Becomes A part of Life:  When death becomes a part of life, it is accompanied by grief and a troubled heart. In John 14: 1-6, this is precisely what is going on as Jesus teaches His disciples, and us, 21 centuries later. In this sacred Word of God, that will sustain you and me during one of the hardest times in life, Jesus speaks clearly, dearly, with love, compassion and tenderness about Heaven. His disciples are troubled. They are afraid. They are confused. The Cross looms awesomely on their horizon, and their world feels like it's unraveling. It's kind of like we feel during times when our loved ones are going to leave us here or have already gone on to be with the Lord; nevertheless, into our storm of uncertainty, Jesus speaks peace and encourages us to achieve a Heavenly view. Let not your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid. You believe in God. Believe also in me.   The Place. The Relationship. The Heartbeat Heaven, in this moment, is not jus...

 So shall my Word be that goes forth from My mouth. It shall not return to me void. But it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing for which I sent It. Isaiah 55:11 Wherever you are in the world, God wants you to hear from Him: Like the man in the picture above, whether you read the Word, hear the Word, study the Word, meditate on the Word or memorize the Word, your Creator is longing to speak to you, if you will listen, and I will tell you why. First, when you intersect with God's Word, as our scripture lesson implies, the very Words flow from the Holy Spirit as if they are coming from the very mouth of God. And God says what He is speaking will NOT be wasted. What He says will not return unto Him void.  They will, however, accomplish whatever He pleases.  As a matter of fact, those things He speaks will prosper in accomplishing what He is broadcasting to you. This brings us to you.  How will you benefit?  You can count on it, the wo...

For decades now, I have been blogging and was surprised just how many people all over the world are coming to read this blog. Some are from countries where being a Christ Follower can be life threatening or dangerous. One thing I know is, if you are like me, you definitely need to be covered with prayer. And so, just about every morning I pray for all of you who read this. And I trust God that you are covered by His protective hands.  I would like to challenge you to pray for all who come here from around the world and let us see what our loving heavenly Father will do, as we join in prayer, in Jesus Name. While you are at it. Pray for me. I really need it. God Bless You, SoJourner.

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...