Think About It

          I have been reading a book by Randy Harris called “Living Jesus:  Doing What Jesus Says in the Sermon on the Mount”.  In the section where Jesus observes, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’   But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …” Randy asks how many of us actually have enemies.  There may be some people who have sworn enemies that we can’t stand, but a lot of us don’t have relationships that have deteriorated to that level.  So, can we ignore this verse?  Unfortunately, the author challenges to us think about the “irritants” in our lives.   How could this passage change if we reworded it to include, “But I say to you, love your irritants and pray for those who irritate you …”.  Ouch!  That’s not as much fun as passing over this message because we get along with most people, but I really believe it is a vit...

          Sixty-three years ago, the whole world was holding its collective breath!  For almost two weeks in October, 1962; two international superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union – stood toe to toe in a conflict over the presence of missiles in Cuba.  There was a lot of back and forth that included threats, responses and reactions; but for a period of a couple of weeks the world waited for the other shoe to drop – and feared that the drop wouldn’t be another one of Khrushchev's  shoes but a nuclear bomb.  Since we are here to report the history, it is evident that things had a positive outcome, but for those who lived through those days, things were scary!           The reason I bring this up is to encourage us to stop and breathe for a little bit.  Sure, there are some things that aren’t going well in our world, nation and society now; but this is nothing new.  What we...

I have been interested in hurricanes most of my life.  Maybe it was being raised by people who had lived a good portion of their lives on the east coast of Florida and influenced by a grandfather who made his living fishing in the coastal waters of the Atlantic.  Maybe it was the storms that blew close to and through our area when I was a child in southwest Florida.  It might have even been the fact that Jeane and I arrived on our honeymoon in south Florida about the time as Tropical Storm Dennis.  No matter what shaped me, I have been intrigued by hurricanes.  While there are a lot of fascinating things about these powerful storms, one of the most intriguing to me is the presence of the eye of the hurricane.  At the core of this mass of violence, chaos and destruction is a peaceful center.  As the rest of the area is battered by all kinds of forces of nature, at the heart of the storm is an eerie calmness. As I thought about this, I saw a parallel i...

            What cements our relationship with God?   It is tempting to believe that the more powerful and mighty we become in the Lord’s army, the more of an impact we will have and the closer we can get to our King.   While this might make human sense, this concept tends to promote the idea that God really needs us doing His will for Him to be successful.   Folks, our God – the Almighty – is not impressed by what we can do!   If He needed someone or something to be successful in the war between good and evil, there are a lot more powerful beings than we could ever become.   So, what sets us apart?   As I was reading through Matthew 5 (the Sermon on the Mount) lately, I noticed something interesting.   Jesus taught that spiritual sonship comes from a couple of unlikely talents.   First, it is available through making peace, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9). ...

I believe we all have talents, and we need to practice what we do well.   I also believe that we all have struggles, and we must be able to identify them.   Now, I will not get into some great big long list about my challenges, but I will share one with you.   I don’t do the here and now too well.   I either have the blessing or the curse of being able to look ahead and plan my next moves – but the problem with that is that I am too often looking into the future and not fully experiencing what is happening right now.   The issue is that I miss out on so much.   By not being present in the moment, I tend to miss out on the good going on around me.   I am trying to do better job of living “in” today.   I have to believe that there are a lot of people like me.   We invest so much time in the future that we fail to embrace what is happening around us.   I realize that there is danger in living for today, but I think a lot can be said for l...

The Apostle Paul is an interesting character.  Often, when we think about him, we recall him as the insightful Christian writer and tenacious church planter.  We think of him as an incredible man of faith who, according to Christian history, became a martyr for the cause.  Yet, early on, we are introduced to a different man.  Luke describes Saul (Paul’s old name) as being in agreement with those who killed Stephen (Acts 8:1) and goes on to say, “But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.” (Acts 8:3).  Before Paul dedicated his life to promoting Christ, he sought to persecute Christians.  I think this is one of the things that makes Paul’s insight into faith and forgiveness so acute.  He knew what it was to be completely clueless and how good it felt being absolutely cleansed.  This concept is a theme in his life that he expressed to Timothy (and u...