Category Archives: Off the cuff

Blogs in this category are more about the personal issues, trials, temptations, and victories I’ve gone through and the demonstration of God’s grace through them.

Sunrise – each day is a new beginning

Posted on March 18, 2015 by | Comments Off on Sunrise – each day is a new beginning

sunriseSunrises are something that many of us simply take for granted as we go about our daily tasks. This morning, as a part of my morning routine, I happened to look out the front door about the time the sun was rising above the rooftops in my neighborhood. Within that moment, I was taken in by the deep hues of color, the splashes of golden sunlight, and the contrast of the dark and empty tree trunks stretching to catch the sun’s light and warmth. I pulled out my phone and took the picture to the left to capture the beauty and majesty of the moment.  It began to remind me of God’s mercy and grace and how the Bible tells us, This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness (Lamentations 3:21-23).

Sunrise – Each new day is a gift

One of the repeated teachings of both the Old and New Testaments is that there is no promise for tomorrow. Even Jesus used a parable to teach this very thing: And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:15-20). This man thought he had tomorrow and even made great plans for his future. This man didn’t know that he only had today and that today was his last day. Even the apostle James wrote on this very concept: Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away (James 4:13-14).

It is not that these verses are discouraging us from planning for our future; the apostle Paul wrote, But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel (1 Timothy 5:8) and the Old Testament teaches A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just (Proverbs 13:22). However, what the Lord is discouraging us from doing is investing so much of our time planning for tomorrow that we forget about what we have today. We all know people who were in pursuit of their future that they really missed out on the blessings that God had given them; this is not just something that the lost deals with, but something that affects Christians as well. In fact, this very topic is exposed even in both Christian and secular music; Casting Crowns, a popular contemporary Christian group sings about this in their song, American Dream. A secular and very popular song in the mid 1970s, Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin, focuses how our children will adopt our attitudes towards family, work, and their future. Both songs focus on the reality that there have been scores of people who have lost the most precious gift – today – trying to live for tomorrow.

Each sunrise is a new beginning

I know I already shared this verse above, but I believe it is worth repeating:  This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness (Lamentations 3:21-23). It doesn’t matter how bad yesterday was; today is a new day. Yesterday can’t be helped or changed. Each morning we are given a new opportunity and God gives us new mercies and blessings. If you’re lost, never trusted the Lord as your personal savior, He has given you this day to come to Him and to accept the gift of eternal life He offers. If you’re one of His, today is another opportunity to serve Him in love. It is also another opportunity to focus on the things that matters, such as our family and friends. No matter what happened yesterday, today does not have to follow in the footsteps of yesterday’s sins, heartaches, disappointments, and hurts. Even the scriptures about the return, Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh (Matthew 24:40-44) teach that His coming could happen at any moment. This is another clear sign that we are to live each day – each moment – as it could be our last.

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An answer to an emailed comment (2)

Posted on March 16, 2015 by | Comments Off on An answer to an emailed comment (2)

New message receivedThis morning before I headed off to class, I checked my email to discover a comment from a disgruntled reader who used the prayer list contact form to send me a few comments about this blog. Normally, as I have shared in the past, I do not respond to many of these types of emails because there is normally no point in doing so. Since reading the comments and after taking the time to teach my morning class, I was able to clear my head and to pray about how to handle the situation. I now feel the need to answer the complaints that this person had against this blog. My answers are based off my understanding of scripture and the common-sense approach I take towards my faith.

What right do I have to have such a hard stand against lifestyle choices?

This is a question that faces all Christians and it usually has to do with the traditional and fundamentalist view on homosexuality. Although the person I received the comment from did not name if this was what they were upset about, I am simply taking a guess based on the sensitivity of this topic. To be completely honest, the Bible teaches us, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). For me, it is not my place to question what the Bible, what the Lord has set as being acceptable and unacceptable. As a Christian, I have to accept the reality that the apostle Paul wrote about in two places in his first letter to the church in Corinth: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:20) and  Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men (1 Corinthians 7:23). Paul also urged through his letter to the church at Rome, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1). With these verses alone, it is important to understand that if we make the claim to be a Christian then it is not by our own rules, standards, or morals we are to live by. Even the apostle Peter understood the calling for the children of God to live to a higher authority than themselves:  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy (1 Peter 1:13-16).

When we seek to follow after the Lord and live according to His standards, not out of a demand for our obedience, but out of our love for Him, we begin to understand just how sinful we are. As Christians, we should forsake our sins – this means to turn away from them and ask for forgiveness, and avoid the situations that could cause us to yield to that temptation. Too many simply focus on the Biblical view of homosexuality, but there are other sins, other “lifestyle choices” that God finds just as distasteful that both Christians and the lost engage in. God finds gluttony (overeating) sinful: For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple (Romans 16:18), and For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags (Proverbs 23:21). Then there’s the list of sins that Paul mentions often in his writings, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). All of these are sins and lifestyle choices that people often make and when we consider what the apostle James wrote, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10), it is clear that all sins are equal in the sight of God. Homosexuality, overeating, adultery, and the other “lifestyle choices” mentioned by Paul are all sins – equally.

As a Christian, my goal is to hear my Lord and Savior tell me those words Jesus told the crowd in a parable: Well done, thou good and faithful servant… (Matthew 25:21b); I don’t want to be ashamed and stand amid ashes when I stand before Jesus. Paul wrote to the church in Jerusalem: Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth (Hebrews 12:4-6). In other words, I should resist the temptation to sin as a child of God; when I choose to continue in sin, I choose the rebuke and chastening of the Lord. The apostle John wrote, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Yes, God will forgive us of our sins when we ask forgiveness but the consequences of our choice to sin will remain.

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The spiritual danger of inattention

Posted on March 6, 2015 by | Comments Off on The spiritual danger of inattention

Interstate 40March 4th and 5th of this year will be remembered for the massive winter storm that gripped most of the nation in snow, ice, and record cold temperatures. Yesterday morning, at 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time, I began my journey home from North Carolina. Normally, when I have made the trip in the past, it has taken me between ten and eleven hours to make it home. Yesterday’s trip was different. It took me fifteen and a half hours. The first third of the trip was fairly normal. There was no ice or snow – just rain. But as I began to cross the Smoky Mountains, gradually the rain was replaced with a wintry mix, then sleet and freezing rain. Halfway between Nashville and Knoxville everything changed over to snow. The last half of the trip, which normally takes five hours, would be close to ten hours long.

As the weather continued to deteriorate, I began to really become aware of the situation around me. When the rain began to turn to freezing rain and sleet, I decided to slow down, turn off the radio, and to pay attention to what was going on around me. With all the distractions out-of-the-way, I became more aware of how dangerous the situation actually was. Ice and slush covered the interstate, there was low visibility in some places, and already there were many of accidents on both sides of the road. I also became more aware of the actions of the other drivers; many of them were acting as if it were a normal day – they continued to drive at higher than safe speeds, talking on cell phones, and zipping down the highway. They were unaware of the real danger of inattention as they continued on their journey.

There were a few times I watched cars pass by me at high rates of speed, just to be passed by me a little while later. Where I had been slower, more deliberate in my driving, they had become victims of the danger to inattention – a couple had slid off the road into the median and there were a couple that had come upon an accident too fast to avoid becoming part of it. As I watched and continued to make my way slowly across the state of Tennessee, a verse came to mind: And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares (Luke 21:34). As I continued my slow pace through the ice and snow, I began to think that just as these drivers had not even considered the danger of inattention that morning during their trip, there are many people who are unaware of the spiritual danger of inattention.

Spiritual danger of inattention

There are a number of phrases used throughout the Bible that are designed and crafted by the Holy Spirit that reminds us of the importance of paying attention and being aware of what is happening us around us. Take heed, consider, regard, watch, and be vigilant are found throughout the Bible and remind us that we are to be aware of what is going on around us and what we are doing. There are a lot of Christians today who are now experiencing problems, trials, and even temptations because of the spiritual danger of inattention. There are churches who are experiencing hardships because of the danger of inattention. If we just take the one phrase, take heed, there are sixty-four verses where the Holy Spirit instructs us to do just that – to take heed, to be aware, to be cautious, to be observant of what is going on around us. On my trip to and from North Carolina, I listened to a lot of AM Christian radio stations because the CD player in my car no longer works. I was listening to the sermon of a local church broadcasting out of Nashville and heard the pastor say that there were a number of young teenage girls in their congregation had went on a trip and now found themselves pregnant. He was bemoaning that how could this happen at the church – and the answer that the Holy Spirit gives is the danger of inattention.

Using the church broadcasting on the radio as an example, its problems did not begin with a field trip taken by a local group. The problems did not begin when the teenage girls engaged in premarital and unwed sex – this was the result of the problem. The problem is that this church and these families had not been aware of what was going on around the young girls. There is a very real spiritual danger of inattention. I once heard a sermon while living in Louisiana where the pastor said a simple but profound statement: “there are people who are so heavenly minded they do no earthly good!” It is not enough to preach against immorality and sin, it is not enough to ignore the taunting and teasing of the world and somehow expect our young people to go through life unscathed by sin. There is no reward for being inattentive to the things the world offers. Simply believing “not my daughter” or “not my son” is not enough to prevent them from falling into temptation – and it is not just about how they face sex, but alcohol, drugs, and any number of conversations we often choose to ignore because of the sensitivity of the topic. There are real spiritual dangers out there; we compound them when we are not paying attention to what is going on around us, our families, and the members of the congregation.

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