Think About It

When Jesus was preparing His early audience for the coming of His spiritual kingdom, He challenged them, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1).   Jesus came to earth when religion was important in Israel; but it was by no means perfect.   (Does that sound familiar?).   As I read His warning the other day a couple of things came to mind.   First, we need to have a proper attitude about our religious rituals.   We have to do with them the proper attitude – a desire to please God, not to be noticed by mankind.   Yet, there was another aspect that jumped out to me – we were still supposed to do them.   Not only do we need to have the right attitude, we still need to do the right actions.   Over the next few verses we are told, “So when you give to the poor …” (v. 2) and “When you pray …” (v. 5).   Believers need to have more ...

What makes a solid foundation for appreciating life?   There are a lot of platforms upon which people anchor their future:   finances, family, politics and social causes just to name a few; but is that really what holds our lives together?   The economy can tank, family can move away, political parties let us down and social fads fade; so if we put too much stock into them, we are bound to be disappointed.   Now, while there are some unstable principles; there is one thing that will never let us down – a relationship with God.   His principles are perfect and His track record is spotless.   After pointing out the frailty of man, David, the psalmist, identifies a wise man by noting, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.   He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and...

What is the greatest thing that God has done for us?   That’s a pretty big question, isn’t it!   When we look back on all that God has done from the creation to now, that’s an incredible list.   Yet, if there is one that tops it all, it might be defined by the Apostle Paul when he praised God by writing, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14).   God created the world in which we live and even designed us to live when, where and how we do – and that’s pretty awesome – but He went one step further.   Knowing that we would mess up His perfection, He provided forgiveness.   He saved us from the darkness of sin and determined a way by which we could be restored to a pure relationship with Him. Let’s be willing to appreciate what God has done to give us this world and an eternal home in heaven.   However...

As a whole, do you think people are prejudiced?   As an individual, are you prejudiced? Growing up when and where I did, it is kind of tough for me to even type these words.   As I was being raised, the discussion of prejudice and bigotry were so emotionally charged that your moral make-up was tied to the way you perceived life.   Now, lets go back and see if we can break this down a bit (and hopefully make it sting a lit less).   So, when we separate the word into two concepts:   “pre” involves making decisions before having the facts and “judging” means applying an emotional component to what we see.   In other words, prejudice is making up our minds before we have accurate information.   Now, let’s go back to that original question, do we practice prejudice?   I think that if most of us were genuinely honest, we would have to admit that we make quick decisions about things and people before we investigate them.   Whether generated by g...

Last weekend I listened to the soundtrack of much of my growing up years.   One of the stations on “IHeart Radio” played back-to-back-to-back episodes of American Top 40.   If you are a child of the 1970s and 1980s, the voice of Casey Kasem has a very special tone to it.   Each week he counted down the tunes that were bringing us entertainment and – from time to time – shaping our thoughts.   It was fun to spend a lot of the holiday weekend reliving my youth.   As I reflected on these shows, a couple things came to mind.   First, I found that the songs promoted emotions that were typically more positive than negative.   I smiled a lot more than I lamented.   I enjoy music – especially oldies – and maybe it is because they remind me of the good times.    The other thing that I noticed was that, as much fun as I had listening to these songs, I didn’t want to go back to those times in history.   The reruns were fun, but not overly ...

I know that I am a day early, but Happy Independence Day.   Throughout American history, the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 has been remembered as the day we became an Independent nation.   As a country, we have embraced the joy of being liberated.   Now, while this is a good thing for us as a nation, what does it mean for us as individuals?   Liberty is an important human right, but what are we doing with the freedom we have given?   Is it all about how much I can get out of my life – or is there something more to being free?   While we will spend tomorrow celebrating our national freedom, I would like to challenge us to spend some time on Sunday thinking about what our spiritual freedom means to us.   It is tempting to translate this into a libertine mindset, but is that what we have been called to do with the freedom we have been given?   When the Apostle Paul reflected on what it meant to be free, he noted, “For y...