Morning Thoughts

Happy Wednesday! You’ve made it to the middle of the week and I trust things are going well for you. Today is going to be a cool day. Sometimes we see rare events. A full moon only happens every 29.5 days so they are always exciting, every time. But, not since Jesse James made his first heist when Andrew Jackson was president have we seen a super blue moon and we are going to experience one tonight. We are getting all kinds of cool stuff in the next 2 months. A blue moon is 2 full moons in one month (an event that usually happens about once every three years or so) but we will have another in late March. A Super Blue Moon is a total lunar eclipse combined with the super moon (when the moon is at its closest appearing 14% bigger and 40% brighter).  It hasn’t happened in 150 years, and it’s coming tonight!  So is there a kingdom comparison here? There are so many rare, rich treasures that we are excited to see, and so many things that are beyond comparison. So many cool event...

It’s Tuesday! Tuesday already and I’m still trying to get things done I should have finished last week. How about you? And how are you doing in your walk with Jesús? Are there times when you feel like you haven’t really talked with him in a while? Where is it you feel closest with him? When you are in nature? In a garden? Some folks feel closest to the Lord when the are reading His Word or engaged in meditation. Still others when they are talking with fellow believers.  None the less, we know that the Prophet Isiah felt the closest to God in the year the King Uzziah died. Uzziah was a great king and he knew it. According to II Chronicles 26, he became king of Judah at 16 and brought about great agriculture, a strong military and built great cities but pride consumed him. When he tried to take over at the temple the job of the priests, it was time for him to repent, yet he could not. FYI, in a battle of like this, God will win, every time and after 56 years as a prosperous king, Uzz...

Happy Monday and I hope you are ready to begin this week walking with Jesús. Have you read your Bible today? For all it’s worth? You know I’ve been in church my whole life and the Bible and Bible stories have always been second nature to me. However, when I start to dig a little deeper, I can get overwhelmed and confused, and I need some help. I don’t try to navigate through it with out tools and guides. I have references I use, on-line helps, and (the best) friends who know and have studied hard to understand the scripture to its fullest.  New Christians I know have a very difficult time trying to put it all together and make sense of it. It can be daunting in even knowing where to begin. One thing I do know is that everyone regardless of Bible knowledge everyone needs a guide, a person who knows more than you whom you can call on and good study guides. No one is equipped to do it totally alone. Trekking through the Bible can be a dusty and rocky road. It’s easy to take a wrong tu...

It’s Sunday and time to worship the great El Elyon. Yesterday was my Sissy’s 50th wedding anniversary. I thought “50! How often can that possibly happen?” How many people get there? So I looked it up. 52% of married couples make it to their 15th anniversary and (get this) 5% make it to the Golden one. That puts Sissy and Phil in an elite category I’m thinking.  From the outside looking in, they have always been a meant-to-be couple. Do I think it’s always been a bowl of cherries and they have never had a fight or times they wouldn’t gladly knock the other one into next week? I’m sure all that’s been in the mix, but I can tell you this, they are great at thinking about the other one and going out of their way to make sure things are good for them. When they speak of each other, it is always in a positive way, not tearing the other down. They speak kindly and show great respect for each other.  “Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Chris...

¡Feliz sabado! Confío en que están listos para un buen fin de semana y ya se están preparando para un momento de adoración corporativa al Padre de la Luz. Amo la mayoría de toda la música cristiana. Me encantan los himnos litúrgicos, Southern Gospel, Contemporanea, casi todo si está bien hecho. Pero también me gusta un poco de country de vez en cuando. (¡No me juzgues!). Hay una canción que me ha estado pasando por la cabeza en los últimos días "Danza conmigo, amada ', están tocando nuestra canción". Se trata de una pareja que tiene la radio encendido mientras trabajan en la casa, y él oye su canción y él quiere parar y bailar. Simplemente me encanta. A veces, necesitamos detener todo nuestro ajetreo por un momento y bailar un poco. Algunos de nosotros somos buenos en esto de forma natural y algunos de nosotros hemos tenido que aprenderlo. (Yo tuve que aprenderlo) No importa cuán ocupada o congestionada esté tu vida, el tiempo solo para meditar y disfrutar de Jesús tiene ...

Happy Saturday! I trust you are set for a good weekend and are already preparing yourself for a time of corporate worship to the Father of Light. I love most all Christian music. I love the liturgical hymns, Southern Gospel, Contemporary, pretty much all of it if it’s well done. But I like a little Country every now and again, too. (Don’t judge me!). There’s a song that’s been running through my head the last couple of days “Dance with me Darlin’, they’re playing our song.” It’s talking about a couple who have the radio going while they are working around the house, and he hears their song and he wants to stop and dance. I just love it. Sometimes, we need to just stop all of our busyness for a little bit and dance a little.  Some of us are good at this naturally and some of us have had to learn it. (I had to learn it). No matter how busy or congested your life gets, time just meditating and enjoying Jesús needs to be there. It centers us, helps us re-group, and at these times, The...

Happy Friday and how was your week been? I won’t lie, this has been a tough one for me and my family. But yesterday was good and cathartic. We have so very much for which to thank the Father of Light. And so very much to thank our friends who have been so very good to us through this past year.  When I was looking out over Sailboat Bridge the other night, I just marveled at the architecture and engineering that not only allowed that bridge to be built but allows that bridge to weather the heaven use with virtually little wear and tear.  There is an old Jewish proverb that says God went about to all the nations asking who should be His chosen people. The Romana said because they were such brilliant engineers and skilled builders, they could build magnificent bridges. The Greeks said they should be chosen because they were highly skilled architects and they could build such awesome buildings.   The Jewish people said we are not the greatest builders or architects but we can...

Happy Thursday. We had a beautiful day yesterday and if you were anywhere near one, i hope you were able to enjoy it. Don’t you love these little bits of perfect days sprinkled in the winter? Casey and the kids took their little pekinese dog for a walk. (The dog that‘s not exactly an exercise freak). They’d gone maybe 1/4 mile when they hit a creek and the dog ran to the creek and just laid down in it. It was cool and he was done! He didn’t want to go any further. Casey let him lay there a little while but when it was time, she tugged on his leash to get him walking and he’d take one or two steps and lay back down. She’d tug again and he’d go three or four steps And lay back down. He just kept doing it to her until she finally just picked up that wet soggy mess like a baby and carried him to get home. She said she thought, “This is just embarrassing. I’ve got to get this dog some exercise!”  I thought, sometimes that’s me, I’m the dog. I need some spiritual exercise. I’ll get a lit...

Happy Wednesday. I hope this week is treating you well and you’ve made good progress in your walk with Jesús. I read my friend Randy Wilson’s Instagram post yesterday and I’ve not been able to get it off my mind. It’s from his #PowerOfTheWord sermon series. Randy and Donnell pastor Bethany Church in Broken Arrow, OK and have for more than 25 years. We all went to Bible college together (and none of us have changed a lick!)  But this post said “We need to tame our tongues AND we need to tame our thumbs”. As you know, words are very powerful. We have seen that in the media, in Hollywood, with gossip in our circle of friends. It’s said that words can yield more power than the sword for a reason. We as Christians MUST use those words very carefully and very wisely.  But, used correctly our words can profoundly effect people’s lives. Our words can cause a man to re-think leaving his family or a lead a lost soul to Christ or bring comfort to one who doesn’t know when to turn or teac...

Happy Monday to you. How was your weekend? I trust you are ready to start this week renewed and refreshed and fortified for the days to come. The take away for me yesterday from the sermon was “If you fear God, you don’t need to fear anything else.” And what a good clip that is to remember. The Lord God is a good God, He is holy and righteous and He is our friend, but He is to be feared. He is most powerful.  Remember, this is the God who with a single word stopped the fierce storm—a storm that had seasoned fishermen really, really scared. And then, when the calm was so quick and dramatic their fear of the stillness was even greater than that of the storm. They were terrified when they realized the full extent the power their Rabbi possessed over nature. Only God and God inspires awe-struck fear.  And remember this is the God who said to 6,000 demons “leave” and they did, never questioning if they had to because they knew who was God.The demons never ask what Jesus’ name was, ...

Happy Lord’s Day. I trust you are going to be in worship today with other believers and that you are going to spend time today purposefully fellowshipping with others. If for no other reason, do it for your physical health. Julián Holt-Lundstat is a researcher at BYU and she looked at every aspect of peoples’ life styles to determine what influenced longevity—things like diet, exercise, smoking, sleep, relationships, and weight. She recorded everything for tens of thousands of persons and then just sat on that data for 7 years and then came back to see who was still alive and aggregated all of the data.  What she found was having a flu shot was more important than exercise. Having a very tight group of people with whom you have a very close relationship (people you can borrow money from) is even more important. But most important is your social interactions, it’s how many people you speak to each day—the lady at the grocery store, the old man walking his dog, the little girl skippi...

Good Saturday Morning to you. How are you this fine weekend? I trust you are doing well. I’m sure enjoying being out out of the deep freeze!  Night before last I woke in the middle of the night with a start to a great pain on my eye. I didn’t know if my eye had been stabbed or had exploded, but I was certain it was one of the two. When I turned on the light to see, nothing was obvious. The one thing for certain, i couldn’t see out of it. I was blinded out of it—temporarily, but blinded.  My initial reaction was to lay down and pull the covers over my head.  My second reaction was to repeat this verse over and over: “He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”” ‭‭John‬ ‭9:25‬ ‭NIV. ‬‬ How often do you feel like you’ve been spiritually blind to truths and Jesus opens your eyes? How many times do you think you know the answers or the right way only to have the Savior unblind you? And He uses all sorts of ways to ...

Happy Friday. Has Your week been productive and have you remembered to put Christ as a priority? To continue my running commentary on Grand Lake, even though it warmed up yesterday, it didn’t completely thaw out the lake. The pelicans were able to get way out to find a little open water, but the geese that hang around the edges didn’t. They were still walking on the ice, slipping and sliding.  As I was watching those geese, they would walk out there a ways just stand and look around as if they were waiting on someone to do something. Needless to say, no one did. I couldn’t help but think again about us as Christians, standing on the ice of life, unsure and confused, waiting for help. But that’s where the similarities between us and the geese end.  “For since the world began, no war has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for Him!” Isaiah 64:4 Just the idea of God working for me (when I wait for Him) is pretty astounding. My big problems, my ...

Happy Thursday and how are you doing? Well, I missed the forecast for here at the lake. It didn’t make it to a thawing temperature yesterday but rather the entire lake froze over. It was crazy! The pelicans were walking all round and they kept typing to find a place to fish. Did you ever find yourself in a place like those pelicans, where your lake was frozen, nothing was as it should be and you couldn’t figure out how to get to a place to fish? Confused, disoriented, and maybe a little afraid? Sometimes we as Christians get in cold places—spots that do not look like we are used to seeing, where we surely can’t see our next move and where we feel alone and cold. Then, just like the ice will begin to melt today, Jesus wakes up and calms the situation. In our craziness and fear, Jesus tells the winds and the waves to be still; the ice to melt; and the craziness of it all to just go away. He takes us by the hand and leads us straight out of it.  ““ Lord, help!” they cried in their t...

Happy Wednesday. How are you today? In the Midwest, our super freeze is supposed to break today and the forecast Is to see temps above 32F (0C). Yeah! This has been quite the few days of brutal weather. I started out Sunday morning to go to church with my kids and when I left Grove, everything was fine (just cold). But after about 10 miles, there was snow all over the sides of the road. Then, by the time I got to Seneca, it was snowing (but not hard). However, five miles later there’s hardly any visibility! And I think “I should turn around” but the roads are awful, I can’t see and I’m afraid to do anything but plow through it.  Does that ever happen to you? Do you get in the middle of something you have no business in, but think you can’t get out? It’s not a great feeling and I don’t think that feeling of hopelessness is one that Yahweh wants for his children. I was praying and among other things I asked the Lord to give me the wisdom to figure out the situation. But about the tim...

Happy Tuesday to you and how are you doing? If you live in the Midwest anywhere close to me, you’re cold! We are freezing here just so the rest of you know. It’s not only cold, it’s brutal—the wind chills are at dangerous levels. So...I’m catching up on things I can do from under a comforter. And I’ve been doing some reading about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer. I’m wanting to understand more fully how the Spirit can be there in a very real basis—to help with every decision and every choice.  “Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” ‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:16 ‭HCSB‬‬ The Holy Spirt manifesting itself in our lives can change everything from how we do business to how we treat people to what we prioritize. In the Old Testament, we see the Spirit of God coming upon people and working from above, without and within. In the New Testament the Spirit comes to dwell within the believer and works from within, without, a...

Good Monday to you. Are you ready to start the week following Jesus? This great adventure that we are on is not to be taken lightly because Jesus is pretty serious about people following Him. Or, at least he was when he walked on earth and I really don’t think he’s changed much, do you?  “As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.” He said to another person, “Come, follow me.” The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.” Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.” But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.””  ‭‭Luke‬ ‭9:57-62‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Jesus ...

Good Sunday to you! I trust you are excited about this Lord’s Day and are ready to worship in spirit and in truth.  I’ve been thinking a lot about how and why we end up in the places we do. And once we get there, what on earth are we supposed to make of the mess? Am I alone in this or do you ask yourself that occasionally as well? It seems as we go through this life and there are times when things are great and times when they are just simply horrible. (Most of the time they are somewhere between) I know I’ve had times that I thought “Life just can’t be much better than this!” And I’ve had times that I thought “I just don’t think I can get through this day, in fact I’m not sure I can make it through the next 10 minutes!” But no matter what we are smack in the middle of, one thing we do know for sure, our feelings will change. We are also told that “there’s always a reason for everything that happens” but how many times have you never quite seen the reason for it or if you’re like ...

Happy Saturday to you and how is your day going? Here on my part of Grand Lake, the pelicans are out in full force this morning and they are magnificent creatures. I know it has to be miserable out there, wide open in that 20 degrees. They look so peaceful even though today, life is hard. Yesterday, I was working on a closet and it was hard.   Life can be hard. Even as a follower of Jesús, life can be really hard and sometimes, it can just be too much to handle on our own. It’s obvious that on my own, I simply do not have what it takes. I am inconsistent, I wander, I doubt and I make mistakes. But I think that’s ok because I am not designed to be perfect or even self-sufficient.  Our security, our peace and our all sufficiency can only be found in Jesús. In Him, we have been given everything we need to face whatever today brings. We have been given God the Father, where we find our identity, and Jesus Christ, who saves and sets us free by His blood! And we have been ...

Happy Friday to you. How has your week gone? Here, the bottom fell out of the temperature yesterday so it’s cold and so many people are sick with something. It’s wintertime in Oklahoma.  I have several items that I’m praying about just now and that’s led me to thinking and reading about prayer.  One of the most famous books on prayer was written 300 years ago by a French monk (Brother Lawrence), who learned to practice the presence of God at all times. We we are told to pray without ceasing, to pray all the time. Obviously, you can’t “our Father” 24/7 but we can stay in the presence of God at all times. It is something that takes lots of practice and work to keep your mind clear of things that discourage the presence of the Holy One but if it wasn’t possible, we wouldn’t have been told to do it.  Have you noticed that so many times when folks are in the same room these days, they really aren’t in each other’s presence. You can walk into a living room and there 4 or 5 peop...

Good Thursday to you! How are you doing today? Has it been a busy week? Lately I’ve gotten serious about cleaning out, cleaning up and getting clean paint on some walls. I’m going to put my house up for sale and that creates a whole new level of spit shinning. Every time I look another direction, i see something that I should fix up or re-do. Since I’m looking at everything with the “for sale” filter, it’s like I’m seeing this house for the first time.  Do you ever think about looking at our spiritual lives with a filter? With the filter of the holiness of God? That’s a tough one. What I think we much more likely to is look at ourselves through the lens of other people and their righteousness—especially others whom we know make us look pretty good. But we aren’t judged as to being better than others, but how do we stand up next to God.  “Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with you, O God?” Psalms‬ ‭7...

Good Wednesday to you! How did you wake up this morning? Ready to hit the ground running? Or did you need to hit the snooze a couple of times and then grab a strong cup of coffee to face the day? I have pretty much been a morning person all of my life. When I wake up, I’m awake and ready to do something.  Where do your thought go as you wake up? When I wake up, one of the first things I do is start to organize my thoughts, think about my day and what I’ve got in front of me. Today, I have several items to check off the to-do sheet so I tried to plan what needs to get done when. But the first thing I really try do is to consciously make my decision—my decision to follow Jesús this day. Sometimes I get preoccupied and blow right on by that and think about God later in the day by random chance. It’s easy to do but the situation is we can either decide to crucify the old man, or not and simply by omission, just live this day however it turns out. Somehow though, if we don’t make that c...

It’s the Sabbath and the day we worship the Lord our God. Today, as pastors and ministers everywhere bring the great Good News of Jesus to congregations, hearts and minds will be changed. Be sure to pray specifically for those you know are charged with bringing the Gospel to those who will listen.  It makes me think of How Paul brought the Gospel not only in person, but by his hand. Those very letters he wrote form 2/3rds of our New Testament under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who carefully constructed that situation to be perfect. I especially like to think about the fact that his letters didn’t just end after he sent them, but have been read and studied for over 2,000 years by millions. Isn’t it mind boggling the way the Spirit took the Word he penned while in chains, used it to transform lives, and then used those transformed folks to carry it forth to the next ones? “And the gift goes on...” “For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with p...

It’s Saturday and I hope you are having a good day. We have had a little warming trend here and that makes it much easier to get outside when it’s not in the single digits. I’m not a fan of cold weather and I’m convinced that hell is bitter cold—an absence of light and heat. It’s not exactly how the Bible describes it, though! I’ve been studying the book of Colossians and I found a great little tool for the overview. You may have already seen these on YouTube, (I’m usually late to the party) but if not, they are just pretty awesome to help you get in your mind what was going on and how the book was structured. Here’s the link for It and if you haven’t seen it, you should watch it.  https://youtu.be/QQXOx3VD9Rk As you know, Paul was in chains for proclaiming that Jesus was the Lord, but while he was in prison, he talked about the many opportunities he had to speak about Christ. Indeed, he believed the very reason that he was there was to bring the good news to the prison guards and ...

Happy Friday! I sure hope you’ve had a great week. I have had a good one and I’m ready for the weekend to get start. In reading Colossians last night, this passage once again amazed me.  “He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together...For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1:17, 19-20‬ ‭NLT‬‬ And every time I read verse 17, I think of atoms—(I know, weird science nerd)—but yes, atoms as in atomic structure. Every magnet you ever played with as a kid, the like sides push away from each other and opposite sides stick together (positive sticks to negative and two positives repel). Even when you talk about making compounds, the opposite sides attract (like Na+CL- and you get salt) Everywhere but on the atomic structure, negative is attracted to positive.  In an atom, all the po...

It’s Thursday and the new year is already Day 4! I trust it’s going well for you and yours. How are you doing with your resolutions? I’m doing OK with mine, but I’m not enthusiastic about it!  I read some Hellen Keller quotes yesterday. There are pages and pages of quotes of hers and lots of them seem really profound coming from her. One of them is “We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” Another was “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” But the one I read over and over was “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” I kept thinking about that remarkable woman who could only communicate with her hands since she was blind and deaf, in a world of black and silence. When I think about being in the place where she lived her whole life (not hearing or seeing), I imagine my self being frightened—most all of the time, never knowing what will happen or who is coming. How brave ...

Happy Tuesday. I hope you had a good holiday yesterday. I was pretty disappointed in my bowl game, but alas, (as I reminded myself 100 times) it’s just a game.  What is not a game is the amazing generosity and grace of God. And what we don’t have to worry about is the outcome with God. He wins, every time.  “Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭11:33-36‬ ‭MSG‬‬ It seems to me the Apostle is using a little sarcasm in this passage—I can almost hear the tone of his voice. Does God have to ask advice from any man? Anyone smarter than God so you can tell Him what to ...

Happy New Year friend! I trust you are ready to begin 2018 with a renewed passion and fervor for our King.  I love this passage in Isaiah for the New Year and I especially like how the Message puts it... “This is what GOD says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? ...Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭43:16-21‬ ‭MSG‬‬ Forget what’s happened before because I’m about to do something new! Could He be any clearer? The God of the Angel Armies tells us not to dwell, not to worry a...