Psalm 95:7b - 8a ...Today, if you hear his voice,   8 do not harden your hearts.... How often do I harden my heart when I hear His voice?  How often do I choose to ignore God calling?  I hope it isn't often but I am certain that I have.  I can't remember the details but I'm  just sure I have.  I know me well enough to know that sometimes I'm plain lazy and that in itself would cause me to ignore God's voice.  After all, if I hear it, don't I have to act?  So the Psalmist tells me plainly "do not harden your heart".   If I harden my heart and choose not to hear God's voice, I am missing opportunities that God gives me to be part of His plan.  He certainly doesn't need me but He allows me to be part of His plan.  If I do well with a small part, then He will give me an even bigger part.  This scares me.  However, the one I am hurting when I harden my heart, is me.  I am the one missing out.  I am the one letting an opportunity pass me by.  

It started snowing last night.  By morning the ground was covered with a nice thick fluffy layer of snow. It isn't too cold but it is cold enough so that the snow doesn't seem to be too heavy - at least from the looks of it from my window.   I was sitting thinking on 1 Timothy 6:11 about pursuing righteousness (see my previous post) when I heard such a clatter outside that I sprang (ok, I didn't spring) from my chair to see what was going on. A really bundled-up neighbor, at least I assume he is a neighbor  and a male neighbor at that, was on his lawn tractor with a blade mounted on front cleaning the snow off my driveway.   What a wonderful gift.  Completely undeserved.  Completely unexpected. Completely without cost - at least on my part.  It cost him warmth, time, fuel for his tractor, wear and tear on his tractor, etc.  But he gave this gift of a cleared-off driveway anyway.  No strings attached.  No payment due. Isn't that just exactly what God did for us? 

1 Timothy 6:11 (NIV) But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. I looked up the word pursue on the website www.dictionary.com. The synonyms listed there are " 1. trail, hunt. 2. dog".  The definition is "to follow in pursuit" and "to continue".  With that definition we are to chase, trail, hunt, follow and continue on to righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  These are very different pursuits. Pursuing faith does not make us gentle, or to have endurance.  Being able to endure does not make us godly or righteous.   Picture the above definition and synonyms.  Trailing requires that a dog's nose be close to the ground, with eyes and ears trained on seeing and hearing the target of the pursuit.  When someone hunts he or she is quiet, and patiently awaits their prey.  When we use the term to dog someone or something we generally mean to stay very close,

God is good all the time.  All the time God is good.  Even when things are bad, even awful, God is still good.  God cannot be anything but good.  Goodness is from God.  God will create something good out of every bad thing.  He uses the bad to bring us closer to Him because He wants us to depend on Him.   When things are great, we seldom recognize that God even exists, let alone that we MIGHT need Him.  Throughout all of history, people (in general) grew closer to God during the periods when things were absolutely horrible.   Ask yourself this question: When do you ask for help, when do you recognize that you need others?  This seldom happens when you are "great".  You don't go to see a doctor when you are healthy.  Sometimes people will go for annual check-ups but that is still because there is a fear that they might not be healthy.   So, God is good all the time.  All the time God is good. Remember that when this are bad and when things are great.  Say thank you to

Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together…..let us encourage one another.” This evening was spurred because of this passage of scripture. A great bunch of people got together for food and fellowship. Some knew each other.  Some only knew a few people.  But we all have a similar experience with the Walk to Emmaus.  The Walk to Emmaus is a 3-day Christian program for developing Christian Leaders. After a person has experienced this wonderful weekend, he/she is called 4th Day.  Well, a couple of 4th Day decided that they needed to be encouraged and knew of no better way than to use 4th Day people to get together to praise God. We ate.  We sang some wonderful praise songs.  We listened to a witness speaker who told us that she chooses to be glad because this is the day that God has made in spite of it being the birthday of a dear niece who died entirely too young.   This gathering of people spur[

Exodus 34: 29b, 35 ......he [Moses] was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD........ 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD. Moses went up Mount Sinai to see God.  Each time he did this, his face became radiant, so much so that he had to cover it with a veil when he returned because the Israelites were afraid.   Lesson 1: When we meet God, we are changed.  Each time we meet God, we change more and more.  God uses our time with Him to change us to meet His purposes.  And because God is good, we will be changed for the better each time.  Lesson 2: The change process may be difficult.  When God changes us, people become afraid.  Have you noticed that some family and friends try whatever they can to prevent us from meeting with God, from allowing God to change us?   Becoming what God wants us to become can result in new friends, possibly at the expense of old frien

Philippians 1:29 (New Century Version) God gave you the honor...of believing in Christ..... We are given the honor, the privilege, the gift of believing in Christ.   God calls us.   God pursues us.   God loves us. And because of His mighty love for us, He gives us the gift of believing.  How utterly amazing that God gives us salvation AND gives us the honor of believe in that salvation, in believing in the peace offered by Christ, in believing in His creation, in believing in His love for us. Nothing else can be said.   We believe because He gave us the gift of belief.   Amazing. Thank you, Father God, for Christ and for belief in Christ.

Mark 15:32a (NIV) Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those watching the crucifixion of Christ mocked Him, challenged Him, chided Him to show Himself as the Christ.  Christ didn't take the dare.  He just died. He had already shown who He was.  Those who were watching throughout His ministry knew who He was.  He didn't need the approval, acceptance of these challengers.   Today, we see evidence of Christ all around us.  Many, however, do not see.  Many challenge Him to "show me" as though Christ needs their approval and acceptance.  That is not how God works.  He shows us by His love, His creation, His peace within us.  He does not need our approval.  He offers us, he gifts to us, the privilege of knowing Him and believing Him.  He won't accept a challenge.  He simply offers a gift.  Will You accept it? Dear Jesus, my savior, thank you for the wonderful gift that You continue to offer even as

Philippians 2:3b -4 (ESV) ... but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. The important items of this passage, to me, today, are humility and "count others more significant" and "the interests of others".  If everyone would practice humility towards others all the time, counting others as more significant than ourselves, and look to the interests of others instead of ourselves, the world would be a much gentler place.  I would have more purpose.  I would be more giving. I would be more aware of other people's needs and wants.   Jesus, please transform me into a humble doer of Your will.  Create in me the will to put others ahead of myself.  I am Your servant.  Amen.   

NIV version Exodus 5:2 says: Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go." This statement is part of a discussion between Pharaoh of Egypt and Moses when Moses was trying to talk Pharaoh into letting the Israelites leave Egypt.  We can almost read the sarcasm and arrogance in the Pharaoh's voice. Pharaoh simply could not believe that Moses would think that Pharaoh, a god in the eyes of his empire, would/could listen to the God of Moses and the Israelites.  After all, why should he listen to this God who was so insignificant that Pharaoh didn't even know who He was? Oftentimes we choose to ask the same arrogant question.  Who is the Lord and why should I obey Him? The simplest answer is that the Lord, our God, is the creator/sustainer/master of absolutely everything and we should obey because He is master.  We should obey because He can, because He is, because He asks us to, because He

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." How many times do we say we trust the Lord, we believe in His ways, we will follow? Yet oftentimes we will argue with another or demand our own way when it comes to what the Bible says. Each time we do this, we are in effect limiting (what we believe to be) God's power. I know this is a tired debate but I want to bring it up anyway. No where in the Bible does it say that there is no such thing as evolution. There is nothing in Genesis that says "on the first day that God did anything, he created xxx, then on the very next day that God did anything, he created xxxx." No, Genesis uses terms like (Yes, I know the terms are translations from the original text - which was also not the original because the original was not text at all but rather an oral history!) anyway, Genesis uses phrases like "the first day", "the second day", "the third day".

Good evening. I thought i'd see if I could get disciplined enough to devote some time and thought to God each day. More likely it won't that often but i'm sure gonna try. I don't have anything profound to say but maybe God will use me once in a while to say something. I don't if I'll ever worry about grammar/spelling and the like. I expect that sometimes it will look like stream of consciousness that makes little sense to anyone other than me. If you read, be patient with me. offer opinions if possible. God loves us all. He uses us whether we know it or not, even those who don't believe He exists. So maybe it will be apparent when He uses me on this blog. Thank you, God for your presence in my life and for choosing me to be part of your earthly kingdom! You are awesome!