Think About It

Will you be worshipping the Lord this weekend? Now, let me rephrase that because it is possible to worship God wherever we are. Will you be in a worship service this weekend? If not, why not? What is more important than spending time worshipping? I know there are all kinds of events and activities that are tugging at us, but are any of them more important or more special that spending time with like-minded believers in worship to God? The great thing about our society is that most of us have quite a bit of time off each weekend, so we can fit in a lot of activities. With this in mind, are we going to block out a certain amount of time to publicly honor the Lord? Centuries ago, a very busy King David, made time for God. I am sure there were a lot of things he felt like he needed to get accomplished, but he also realized the value of worship when he wrote, “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I ha...

When we look back on each day, what do we remember? At the end of the day, as we lay in our beds and assess what has happened, do we think about the good or the bad? Do we recall the victories or the defeats? If you are like many of us, our evenings are full of regrets. While this is bad enough in-and-of-itself, have you ever thought about what a defeatist view of today does to tomorrow? If we are counting the losses as we end the day, we are more apt to carry that thought process into tomorrow. The other day I came across a bit of wisdom that said, “Praise the day at night, and life at the end.”. I think we are pretty good at being reflective at the end of our lives – we can look back at what we have done and find significant value in it – but how much more could we accomplish if we ended each day with praise? No, we shouldn’t gloss over negatives, but by ending the day counting our accomplishments, we provide a solid foundation for a better day tomorrow. What do you think a...

Have you ever thought about the difference between faith and hope? Now, just for a minute, I would like to remove this from a spiritual discussion and focus on our day-to-day lives. Faith is having the confidence to believe something that hasn’t happened yet is going to happen. It is less about wondering and more about waiting. Hope, on the other hand, isn’t as much about confidence as much as it is about wanting something and believing it could happen. The expectation might not be there, but the excitement is. Hope is about seeing what is possible and looking forward to it happening – in essence, it is another word for optimism. The reason I being this up is to ask us if we are people of hope. Again, I am not confining this discussion to spiritual matters, I am asking about our perspective. Do we have hope that good things can happen? There are too many of us that have convinced ourselves that the worst awaits us – how much better could our attitudes be if we let ourselves ...

There is a lot of discussion about the beginning of the world, but for those who believe in God, we must make sure that we don’t get too sidetracked by the “hows”, the key is the “Who”. When we accept the Bible as truth, we acknowledge that God is the source of Creation, so He must have been before the beginning. When we accept that, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) we declare that God is eternal. If He is eternal, He has to be Supreme and that is what gives Him the power of creativity. Honestly, I am not bright enough to know how He did it, I just must accept the fact that He did it. It is tempting for religious people to spend a lot of time debating non-believers about the process when we should spend our time affirming the providence. God is full of power – how He used it is up to Him. Let’s invest our time in accepting what He did and not worry as much about analyzing how He did it. Think About It!

What does it mean to be a Christian? Like with most opinion questions, it depends on who you ask. There are some who use that term to describe the moral make-up of our country (claiming we are a “Christian nation”). There are others who might apply it to a political faction (citing a “Christian coalition”). Yet, have we given much thought to what it means to be Christian as defined by the Bible? First of all, the term Christian is used infrequently in the Bible but the concept is very apparent. The biblical concept of a Christian has little to do with policies or preferences – it’s all about service to the Master. The Bible tells us, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11). Let’s be protective...

What is the purpose of the Bible? Throughout the years we have used it as a science book, a history book or even a civil guidebook, but when we do that, we are missing out on its true value. Sure, it teaches us some facts about how the world runs or what has happened in the past, but where it excels is in helping us come to a greater understanding appreciation of God. There is no better place to look for how we can live in harmony with each other, but when we use it to find a relationship with God, we get the most out of its pages. When the Apostle Paul reflected on the message of the Bible he observed, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (II Timothy 2:16-17). By digging into the God-breathed message, we become the spiritual beings we have been called to be. We learn about God and how we interact in His world. We see how He ...

Do we find certain aspects of our lives unfulfilling? Maybe it is our work, our household tasks or even a service project – but is there something that leaves you flat or even worse that you really dislike doing? Most of us have some aspect of our lives that we don’t get excited about – I mean not everything is worthy of celebrating – but could it be that the problem isn’t what we are doing? Is it possible that what we need a different reason to do it? When Paul wrote to the church in the First Century he challenged them, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:17). Did he mean that everything needed to be done with a belief that our soul’s salvation depended on it? I don’t know that we could go that far, but how would our minds change if we did everything like we wanted to bring glory to God with our efforts? We do what we do so that the world can see that God is present in my life. ...