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A New American Revolution

Day 221: IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT EVENTS IN AMERICA, HOW ARE WE TO LIVE OUR FAITH?  When we look back I dare say that these past weeks will go down in the history books as a pivotal time in American history.   Nine innocents were gunned down by a racist as they gathered to study the bible.   Prison guards aided the escape of two murders. Terrorist carried out three simultaneous attacks on our allies in three countries.   And the Supreme Court took the stunning and breathtaking step of redefining marriage. Historic? To say the very least.   Taken individually, any of these events has far reaching consequences, but together they seem to tell of a tragic and even terrifying trend. We are becoming a nation that has elevated the self above family, above community, above the law, and most alarming we have elevated self above God.   None of the recent events we have witnessed, not the landmark court decision, nor the rogue prison guards, nor the racist murders just happ
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Would God really send someone to Hell?

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Do you ever wonder how God can truly be loving but also send people to hell?  Wouldn't a loving God give people a second chance? If it seems crazy to you that God could be both loving and punishing, then you struggle with the same question all of us wrestle with: Would God really send "good" people to Hell? It is a big question that demands a big answer.  So click on this LINK and take a listen to what God thinks about Heaven and Hell and you decide if He is as loving as He claims to be - and what that means for you. 
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THAT MAKES NO SENSE

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DAY 174: Have you ever noticed how many nonsensical circumstances exist in our world?   Day in and day out we live with these conundrums and rarely stop to ponder their deep irony. On one level they make no sense, yet to most of us they are intrinsically understood. That may actually be the greatest irony.   Consider these: -Why does sour cream have an expiration date? Doesn’t “sour” say it all? -Why are they called buildings , when they're already finished? Shouldn't they be called “ builts ”? -Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? -Why are there 5 syllables in the word "monosyllabic"? -When it rains why don’t sheep shrink? My wool sweater did. -Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "LISP"? -If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches? -Why do you have to "put your two cents in"... but it's only a penny for your thoughts"?  -How come we
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THE EASY WAY OR THE HARD WAY

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DAY 173: “We can do it the easy way, or we can do it the hard way.” I remember hearing that declaration from my mother’s lips more than once when I was growing up.   The easy way meant I would simply do what I was told to do when I was told to do it – and all would be well.   The hard way meant, I would pitch a fit, have a tantrum, scream, whine, or otherwise delay the inevitable, but eventually Mom would have her way because, well, she was mom.   All these years later, I easily concede that her way was really the best way.     Why is it that only in hindsight does that kind of clarity come to us?   All grown up now, it isn’t my mom’s will I sometimes fight against, but my Father’s.   For all the moaning we do about “what is God’s will for my life” the truth is that most of His will is quite clear.   Love your neighbor. Forgive. Don’t complain. Share. The list of things that could occupy us “doing our Father’s will” goes on and on.   The problem isn’t that He isn’t clear, but tha
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THE RIGHT AND WRONG OF IT - Part 2

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DAY 172: Are you ready to pick up our “list of lessons” we began yesterday as we watched young King Hezekiah face his first big trial?   If you recall, up to this point, the good King had made it his practice to “do what was right in the sight of the Lord.”   Like everyone, he had the choice to be unfaithful, to go his own way, and to seek after his own desires.   But instead, Hezekiah chose a life of faithfulness as a servant of the Living God.   He knew the Word and Law of God and it was his pleasure to not only worship, follow and obey God, but as the leader, to also encourage faithfulness among the people.   Yet, for all his good choices, trials and difficulties came his way.   Rather than throwing up his hands and deciding “being good” just wasn’t worth it if he was still going to face troubles, Hezekiah   doubled-down on his faithfulness.   In that, there are lessons for us.   The most obvious is that life as one of God’s children is no guarantee that hardship, pain
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THE RIGHT AND WRONG OF IT ALL - Part 1

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DAY 171: I don’t always do the right thing. No surprise that “the wrong thing” has often brought me consequences that are unpleasant; the punishment fits the crime, as they say.   Suffering consequences works wonders for my motivation to walk the straight and narrow path – that is until I discovered that keeping to the more noble route is not a guarantee that we will be kept from unpleasantness.   Anyone who has lived long on this earth has discovered that rain falls on both the good and the evil. (Matthew 5:45) So what is our motivation then for keeping to the righteous path?   For me, I have found that what I have learned on that "righteous path" of making choices to be faithful to God in words and deeds have been the very things that have prepared me to weather the storm when the the rain does fall. Instead of an example from my life, let’s look at good King Hezekiah.   When last we saw him, he was “dong what was right in the sight of the Lord.”   He was 
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