Category Archives: Life

Devotions, Life, Ramblings

Enough for today!

Matthew 6:23 “Jesus said. ‘Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself, each day has enough trouble of its own.’”

————————————

There is nothing wrong with planning for the future. Looking forward to a new experience, and planning a task list for today and for tomorrow are both good things. But there is a danger if we are worrying so much about a coming rainy day to miss the good weather. There are only two days to savor each week. Two days fill my heart with joy and expectation. The first of these days is tomorrow because it has not yet come and is filled with hope and anticipation. The second of these days is today because it is the only day we have to in. I will live in it by making every moment count and forgiving and moving on. All the rest of the days are already gone. There is nothing we can do but live in the grace and mercy of our Lord. The Lord is in my today and that is good enough.

Devotions, Justice, Life, Motivation, Preaching

Parable of the Rock

Colossians 1:13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

——————————————————-

I cannot change the past. It is a stone that is simply too large to move. It is the immovable object trailing along behind held by ropes to my inner well-being. It constrains my self-image. It impedes whatever progress I think I am making in all my relationships. I scratch and pull and yank and sometimes I simply try to ignore the weight constantly restricting me. I get so tired of the strain, I stop and think, “my place, my current position good enough”. But the weight continually increases until the shadow of that immense rock shades everything I do. I toil in a tethered country of struggle. The stone becomes the hallmark of the dominion in which I live. But there is a solution to the darkness, to the weight that so easily restrains my progress. A solution that does not include darkness, struggle, or immobility. The solution is forgiveness and the severing of the bonds that would impede my headway. The solution which opens to me a new kingdom. Bliss and progress are now my paths.

Devotions, Life, Mercy, Motivation, Personal, Theology

No looking back

1 John 1:9  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

————————————

Occasionally I receive remarks and comments on my writing.  Not too long ago, I was called up short by a comment on the harshness of God’s view of man. God does see his creation as flawed and corrupted, and this willfulness on our part separates us from Him. Further, I understand how God has interacted with and often tested his people.  The result of this testing has been mostly repeated failures.  It is terrible to fall into an angry God’s hands.  It is a terrible state of mind to only think of yourself as constantly unworthy. Conviction of my state is the first step to understanding my need to be forgiven. A need to experience God’s mercy and grace. Everyone, including me, has corrupted the image of God in which we were created. This feeling of being less than expected or even unworthy should point to something more than dwelling in the slough of self-loathing.

I am saved by grace.  I am forgiven of my multitude of flaws.  I have felt the mercy of God upon my face.  I walk boldly in the calm, sweet, renewed path set before me, and I don’t look back.

Assurance, Devotions, Life, Motivation

Race one step at a time.

Thought for January 21 – Day 21 of the new year

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

——————————

The Christian race is ongoing.  All those who have gone before are our observers. We are required to run without the baggage of a thousand regrets. The past of our lives is always the greatest hindrance to our progress.  Regret, shame, and guilt slow our progress. We must just let it go and run.  It is extremely easy to think and say the race is about the final checkered flag.  Yet it seems so far away.  I need to just concentrate on the next step, the next few feet.  It is about perseverance.  It is about focused continual action.  The accomplishment of one step is an encouragement to make it to the next after that.   

Assurance, Bible Study, Devotions, Life, Motivation

Renew me again

Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” ——————————————

It is recorded that as Sir Walter Raleigh placed his neck on the chopping block of his execution, the executioner asked, “Does your head lie easy, Sir Walter?” Answering the man holding the double-edged ax, “It matters not, my friend, how my head lies, provided my heart is right.”

The state of my heart is my decision.  My soul can be a stone with an associated hardness and lifelessness, or it can be a thing of hope, caring, forgiveness, and love.  I cannot allow ideology to supplant God’s will.  I cannot let my wants, needs, desires, and my own personal demand for control, take the place of God’s will. My alliance with God’s perfect will, my decision, makes me who I am.  It is an act of God’s renewal of me.

#

Assurance, Devotions, Life, Mercy, Music, Personal

Showers

Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”

—————————————-

The sun is out this morning.  It seems like there has been rain or a threat of rain for almost a month. There are showers of refreshing for all those who are willing to stand out in them without fear of getting soaked. A sign on my wall so aptly states, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.”

God’s favor is for those who have been made clean, made into new creatures, being made in His image. Similar to the hymn we used to sing in church:

There shall be showers of blessing,
This is the promise of love
There shall be seasons, refreshing
Sent from the Savior above.
Showers of blessing we need
Mercy drops ‘round us are falling
But for the showers, we plead.

Refresh me again Oh God. 

Culture, Devotions, Life

Today is the day to do what is expected

Hillside Thoughts for Thursday – Day 279 of the year 2022 – October 6

Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

——————————————————-

Imagine for a moment what our world would be like if just the Christians stopped fighting. Think for a moment where every Christian on your block would reveal themselves by caring for the less fortunate. What would be like if two billion redeemed by the blood Christians, conformed to God’s intent? Would it be a wonderful blessing to begin to do what Jesus asked us to do by showing unconditional love, unbounded kindness, and unlimited grace to all?

If we belong to God, the God of grace, there is a mandate for us to become a people of grace. That is how we can imitate God. It is being the extension of God to everyone you encounter today.  Just do it and begin a wave of Jesus to all.

Devotions, Life, Personal

Peace of God within Me

Romans 15:33 “Now the God of peace be with you all”

——————————————————–

The God I serve and praise is more than an uninterested supreme being living up in some cloud. The God I find satisfying to my soul is my creator.  The God I focus on every day is one of peace.  God created us to have peace with him. He desires us to be at peace with everyone we encounter.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace. God the author of peace wants peace with his creation. He seeks peace.  My God does not rejoice in my pain or conflict. God does not sit with impunity, looking down and laughing at my stubbornness and rebellion.  Peace was lost first by the rebellion of Lucifer.  Again, peace was lost in the garden by Adam and Eve in their willfulness.  In my stubbornness and rebellion, I can destroy my peace with God. It is my choice to go my own way.

It is also my choice to relinquish my obstinate and persistent attitudes and accept the freely offered alternative.  It is my choice to have “the God of peace with” me.

#

Culture, Devotions, Justice, Life, Motivation, Sermon Illustration

The Standard of Justice

Genesis 18:19 “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”

—————————

Webster was right when he said, “Justice, sir, is the great interest of people on earth.”  Without justice, there is no hope or expectation of continuance for our culture. A just society must first acknowledge a moral law higher than itself: a supreme lawgiver to whom even the most powerful are held into account. America’s founders writing the Declaration of Independence, in the very first sentence acknowledged the existence and dependence upon something greater than themselves.  Our nation is founded on a supreme, objective basis of justice and righteousness. Justice is not a whim of whoever is in political power at any given election cycle.  Justice is based upon the supreme lawgiver. To substitute man-made morality or even personal political ethics as a new standard is just folly. God’s perfect justice is established by His unchangeable nature. To set any other ultimate measuring stick of justice is foolishness.

Devotions, Life, Mercy, Ramblings, Sermon Illustration

Jesus the mathematician!

 Matthew 28: 18,19,20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

——————————–

My path has been far in traveling.  I have not come to its end.  I would have liked to have traveled further, to see all the mercies God has in store for me down the road.  My steps are sometimes belabored.  My burden causes my back to scream in pain. I trod my road set before me and am winded. “God, why can’t this be easier?”

What I have discovered along my path is that God seldom takes things away.  Instead, God is in the adding.  He is more a giver than a taker.  When I run along my path in darkness, he does not take away the clouds but increases the sun.  When my path seems terribly dry and my lips are parched, he does not heal the thirst but brings gifts of water. When my path is lonely to a point of panic, He does not take away the terrible foreboding isolation, He simply comes near Himself. He adds. When I stop and take a rest because of pain in my old joints, He does not take away the pain, but adds joy to the steps I can make. He adds.

What shall we call Him? Jesus the mathematician.