Think About It

When the Lord was establishing the proper way for mankind to relate to Him, He made it a point to let us know that He created us, not the other way around. I believe that one of the reasons God prohibited the use of idols as representations of His nature was the temptation for humans to believe that since they fashioned an image of God, they were somehow responsible for creating and; therefore, controlling Him. While most of us are familiar with the prohibitions against creating an image of God, do we ever give much thought to the process of worshipping Him? I think that one of the temptations we face as humans is trying to come up with ways to worship God. When we invest our energy in developing methods to praise God, we might begin to feel that our words become the focus; however, what is vitally important is the God who is being worshipped. In fact, when we realize the incredible nature of God, we will become humbled in our ability to adequately praise Him. The Bible shifts pr...

After not being as diligent in following through with my medical appointments as I should have been, a few months ago I started going to my medical appointments. However, as I began making appointments, I scheduled them far enough in advance to be able to correct some bad habits I had gotten into during the past couple of years. I don’t know that it was enough time to change six decades of issues, but it might give me time to establish a track record of doing better. As the appoints drew closer, I found myself more disciplined in my healthcare so I could give a good report to the doctor. What would happen if we did something similar in our spiritual lives? What if we thought about our weekly appointment to commune with God – would we be more apt to remain faithful if we thought about coming “heart to heart” with Him each weekend? How would our lives change if we continually thought about the second coming of Jesus? Would our lives be better if we prepared for that date that we...

As I was driving to work the other morning, I suddenly realized that I was listening to my parents’ music. I have several ways of playing music these days, but many of them are loaded with music that my parents would play when I was a child. Sure, being a child of the 60s and 70s I developed my own appetite for music (everything from Disco to the Urban Cowboy sound); but fifty years later you will find artists like Herb Alpert, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and the Platters featured on my playlists. My parents didn’t force me to listen to these artists but I couldn’t help but pick up their tastes living in their house. A couple days ago, I was recently talking to my son who had plans to attend the Jimmy Buffet musical, “Escape to Margaritaville” and realized I had passed on some of my musical tastes to my children as well. As I thought about my musical influences, I was reminded of a proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it...

One of the more interesting aspects of Maryland law is that the Department of Motor Vehicle Administration can issue a “pick up order” on license plates that have been flagged in their system. For example, if a vehicle owner is in arrears in insurance coverage; the division will put out an order that those license plates should be immediately removed from the vehicle; therefore, rendering it undriveable until the issue is resolved. When I originally heard about this, I was a little surprised, then I got to thinking about other instances when an agency or even a business can repossess objects for a violation of an agreement. The most common example of this is the repossession of a car for non-payment of the loan, but there is another example that is more serious than losing our wheels. When the Lord used the Apostle John to describe a revelation of spiritual things He reminded seven churches in Asia of their need to remain faithful. To one of the churches, the one in Ephesus, He...

I don’t know about you, but one thing the constant attention to the COVID virus has done was remind me how bad I feel most days. As someone who has dealt with allergies for years, the last several months have made me more aware of my symptoms because many of them resemble those that accompany COVID. Each morning that I wake up with a scratchy throat, nasal congestion and a slight headache I wonder if I have the virus. After thinking about it for a bit – and taking my allergy medicine – the fear subsides and I get back to my routine. Talking about the symptoms of the virus has made me more aware of my general health The reason I bring this up is not to have you run away from me whenever I am around for fear that I have the disease (if that was the case, I have had COVID for about eighteen months); rather it is wonder out loud if we should be talking more about sin in our world? It is more fun for Christians to discuss faith, hope and love; but there is a need to identify sin. One ...

How do we go about changing the world around us? The older I get, the more I begin to realize that few people are actually satisfied with the way things are. People on one side of a discussion believe we are too permissive, while those on the other hand feel constrained by the way things are. One of group of people believes we need more, while another group approaches the same problem advocating restraint. Honestly, I am not sure that we are ever going to agree, so that makes it important to set groundrules for disagreement. In a speech in 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King observed, “As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos....

Jeane and I enjoy traveling. We actually like the process of going on the trip as well as arriving at the destination. Me, on the other hand, I also really like the shopping and planning for the trip. I am the type of person who will shop and shop for deals, then book the best trip I find. However, I don’t stop there. Even after booking the trip I will keep trying to improve on what we have. Can I find a cheaper rental car? Can I find a better hotel deal in a nicer location? If we go a day earlier for the same price can we get a better bang for our buck? There usually comes a time in the preparation for our trips that Jeane will say, “Enough already. Just stop!”. The reason I bring this up is I wonder if Jesus is as fed-up with us as Jeane gets with me. Before leaving the earth, Jesus established His church and set out the criteria by which people would be saved. Yet do we keep trying to change His plans? Are we constantly fiddling with His ideas – trying to make them mor...