“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; Legacy Standard Bible All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

“Oh you have to see this!” Katie said. These days, seeing something usually means it’s on her phone. To see ‘it,’ she sends it to me by email or text. That’s just the way things are done now. Opening it up, I knew that I too had to ‘share.’ The description on the picture goes along with today’s Bible verse. Being one of the first Bible Verses I learned, it’s a favorite of mine.

I remember fond memories of my father in his ‘study’ as he worked feverishly on the sermon, almost all day Saturday, for Sunday. It was a ritual. He hadn’t known the Bible very well when he was miraculously led into the ministry. In fact, he hadn’t even graduated High School! So Saturday was a long, slow, studying, thinking, writing, pondering, practicing kind of day.

Today’s verse was one of HIS first he studied and learned. Over the years, the longer he served, the more he studied… AND the more settled he became in hard times. Knowing The Word in my heart means I carry it with me wherever I go. Having read it so much, it is always with me. And like a cell phone, it’s my direct line to Home and my resource in dark, hard days.

There is no way to explain ‘peace that passes understanding.’ Though I’ve got it! But I got it the long, hard way… through repetitive use and application. It doesn’t ALWAYS have the answers for my troubles. But the Faith it teaches has never failed, and now wobbles even less over time. Do YOU have that kind of faith or want it? Try using your Bible like a cell phone!

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” Psalm 32:8

“Where’d they go?” I had just gotten to the church and was unpacking my backpack… computer, checkbook, pen, Bible, sermon… SERMON!!! Uh-Oh! I didn’t even have to look hard. Inside my Bible, where I’d left my sermon notes, I had mindlessly placed my notes to a different talk. Too late to call Katie, I just bowed my head and talked to The Great Shepherd!

Having preached and spoken THOUSANDS of messages over my life, It wasn’t the first time. I’m sure it won’t be the last. Though a little concerned, I wasn’t worried. I had it all right there in the top of my head and in my heart… right where it needed to be. I felt like Noah on the ark. When it started to get dark, he suddenly remembered he had Flood Lights!

Having been a Christian a long time, and having ‘been there’ before, the reminder that the life I live is not mine easily can become a comfort. Apart from Him, I really don’t have anything to say anyway. The message that had come to me had actually been dropped in my lap, from above, in a miraculous kind of way. So I knew that The Author… HAD this!

Freaking out is a common occurrence in this life. It had taken a LOT of years to realize that, even when a sheep is lost… 2 facts ring through the seemingly dark forest. First, God is never surprised. And second, God still knows where that sheep is! There have been a LOT of times that I had gone off in my own direction, only to discover ‘I’ was the one who was lost!

The rules for walking with God do not change. First I must change focus. Then I must call to Him and ask for directions, being willing to DO what He says and GO where he sends! Then… the follow through. Reading The Word brings the Holy Spirit into my sphere of attention. His unseen eye, coupled with His wisdom, just seems to happen. All that is left is to go and DO what He says!

God has a job for me. A task. A divine appointment. Someone I ‘bump’ into might need a word from The One guiding ME. It is ALWAYS miraculous and ALWAYS fulfilling. Eye watching is NEVER boring. Are YOU paying attention to the Great Shepherd and following through? He just might be sending a lost sheep in your direction!  DO ya follow?

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1

Winner Winner! That is the ultimate conclusion the mailing SCREAMED at me when I pulled the tab to reveal ‘MY’ number! But it did EXACTLY what I figured it WOULD do BEFORE I “pull(ed) the tab to activate…” It LIT UP! WINNER WINNER! Experience has taught me that when an ad like this comes, it’s best to just trash it. No sense in getting my hopes up!

The typical ploy is to fill the recipient with the question… ‘But what if?’ By looking at the prizes, I may agree that there is SOMETHING on that mailing that I WANT. Pulling the tab simply certifies that fact. If ‘want’ goes on to form an action, it might move me to go to the dealer, where a salesman will be all too happy to show me how easily I can GET my want!

Reading today’s Bible verse was fun because I didn’t go LOOKING for it. It just happened to show up in my reading about Jesus in Matthew. A CROSS reference sent me there. Having read it hundreds of times before, I felt that ‘Spirit Nudge’ moving me to go back and read it again. Then again… till I saw it! When I did… it was even better than that winning flier.

Do YOU see it? Probably not. Because when I felt the nudge to go LOOKING for it in other translations, it isn’t there!!!! Because THIS version leads me to believe that a QUESTION is coming. Except… the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence is ‘!’ and not ‘?’! ‘HOW GREAT IS’ is a QUESTION. And it’s a question that doesn’t get a specific measurable amount!

The punctuation and statements make it clear. I AM A LAVISHLY LOVED, CHILD OF GOD! It is NOT a question… nor is it simply a remark. It is an EXCLAMATION! My Bible was sitting beside that winning flier, and I had NO question as to which of those pieces of paper was most true and important! The next sentence says that the WORLD doesn’t even know! Hmmmm!

Now, I am a FIRED UP WINNER WINNER! God LOVES me and has taken me into His Kingdom. But before I go there, it is my mission to go tell the world so that they TOO can become winner winners! And THIS is NOT a SCAM! So are YOU a winner? Does He excite you from the inside out? Are you showing it off, like a shiny new car… to the WORLD? Go show off!

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9

“SERIOUSLY??” Having just opened the box containing a new computer.  I figured it wouldn’t take long to plug it in, turn it on, then write and send an email. I had NO idea ‘the box’ was going to get so personal! An hour into “this should only take a few moments,” I wasn’t even past the setup menu! Having other things more important to do, I executed MY super power… and turned it OFF!

My first sales job was selling computers around 1984. Back then, the only computers available for home use was the Apple II. IBM didn’t exist for homes, and Microsoft had just cut it’s umbilical cord! For 4 years I watched the computer world explode! Having sold hundreds of computers, starting, installing and running the operating system usually took about 20 minutes. Not now!

The questions that were asked of me were VERY personal. ‘Not being an idiot,’ I could tell that it was channeling me into a direction the computer and software companies WANTED me to go. The internet browser I use wasn’t even available, and it had already loaded a bunch of programs I didn’t want! When it asked me to agree to allow the collection of my personal data… OFF it went!

The ‘not being an idiot’ is a very important and critic-al statement. It’s important because God doesn’t CREATE idiots! In fact, unless there’s some kind of birth defect that severely affects my brain, God’s Word tells me that He MADE me to understand that I AM defective! Great Grampa Adam’s original stamp of sin made EVERYONE’S DNA that way. I need a Savior… and I KNOW it!

God’s Son, Jesus, came to die for MY sin, not His own… cuz He didn’t have any! Sin is personal and I am guilty of it. Now HIS perfect life, when received and believed, can make MY life perfect in God’s eyes as well. Now, God and I have that sin-forgiveness thing down… but I have ZERO intention of giving a computer company the intimate details of my life… or ‘YOUR ‘contact info’ for that matter.

Yea Yea… I get it. I’m going to have to turn it back on and take the time to get the new computer going. The one I’m using now is ancient, slow and broken in places… like me! If I could, I’d ask the computer if IT wanted eternal life.  Tho ‘A.I.’ is just around the corner! But so is Jesus! Do YOU believe in Him? Are YOU saved and have eternal life? Just ASK Him! He forgets your sin right after you do. 

“Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.” Haggai 1:5

“HEYYYYYY!!!!!! DUDE!!!!!!!! I’M STILL HERE!!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!!” I KNOW that’s what the little electronic gizmo thingy on my dashboard would be screaming… if it had a VOICE! Which it doesn’t. It just sits there in the ‘ON’ position… being annoying. ALL THE TIME! Well… at least when I start up the truck. I took it serious once and blew up the tire that was low, but it’s still on! “HEYYYY!”

I’ve been driving a long time and KNOW when I have a flat tire, so I KNEW it wasn’t flat. Kinda! I thought, ‘maybe tires are like me sometimes… a little down, depressed, deflated, overrun and under pressure.’ Blowing it up to the specific PSI, I thought it would leave me alone! It didn’t! I got frustrated, pushing every button to turn it off. It took 5 minutes to find and turn off my flashers!

All I can think is that the warning light apparently has connections! Its creator must have programmed it to acknowledge something to the master computer before the warning goes away! Finally… after looking carefully, I noticed I have a nail in 1 tire! “Hmmm!” I thought! “It makes sense now!” Then got in the truck and drove off thinking, “I’ll deal with it later! Hey.. I have skills!

I have a tire plug kit in my garage… or, my son in law could do it for me if I take it to him. The problem with the first thing is plugging takes time! The second costs time AND money. So for now, I have simply thought about it. ‘If’ I get stuck, I can call my wife or a friend to come help. I’m banking that I’ll get this thing fixed before something REALLY bad happens. I guess I’m simply a gambler!

Like my truck, I have an owners manual. And in it, five times in the Book of Haggai alone, God tells Israel to, “Give careful thought…” to “your ways” or “to the day!” The folks the warning was meant for… didn’t! Looking today at the state of Israel and the world… It appears that if ALL of us don’t start paying more careful attention to what God is trying to tell us, the world is going to get flattened!

Are YOU giving careful thought to your ways? Do you seek God every day by reading His Word and talking to Him? Do you hang out with fellow God Thinkers to learn more about what God is trying to tell you and to get help when you need it? We ALL MIGHT want to take His suggestion more seriously… at least more than I do the light on my dash!

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:23-25

“AHHHH!” It had happened THAT FAST! And it freaked me, right out! Driving home yesterday I was jammin’ to the radio! You know… feelin’ good! But the next song wasn’t nearly AS good. Now I have a VERY fancy radio in my truck! It has more presents than I have set! I ALSO have SIRIUS XM, a gift from my wife. Looking at the radio to change presets… a big truck darted across my front bumper!

I was in the far right lane of 3 lanes going about 45mph. A car in front of me was in the middle lane… and about 100 feet ahead. It took about 1 second to hit the radio button and look up. When I did, the tail end of another truck was JUST clearing my front right bumper! I hadn’t even seen him sitting there, when he just shot out in front of us! ONE SECOND! “Thank You Jesus!” was all I could say!

Now I’m not crediting Jesus with keeping me from a wreck… though He may have! But there is a danger in thinking, “It doesn’t really matter what I do, cuz Jesus has my back… Nuh-UH!” That is NOT the correct direction of responsibility God expects. Today’s verses prove it! The subject of EVERY ONE of those statements in the Bible… is ME! ‘I’ am to guard ‘my’ heart, mouth, eyes and thoughts!

There is no doubt that if there had been a wreck, and a police officer was called, that the OTHER truck driver would have gotten the ticket! But “I” STILL would have some shame to bear. Cuz I HADN’T been paying FULL attention to my driving. Had I been on a cell phone, evidence would prove that I was culpable! Had I been on my old motorcycle, I’d probably be dead saying “Hi” to Jesus!!

Proverbs 4 tells what it takes to ‘Get Wisdom!’ And it doesn’t come by osmosis! In fact, ALL 31 Chapters of Proverbs are the instructions on HOW to ‘Get Wisdom’… if I WANT it! But like pushing a button on a radio, versus paying attention to the road, it is ‘MY’ choice to do what ‘I’ want! I’m just glad I WASN’T on my cell phone… and that I sold my motorcycle! Do YOU have… and do YOU apply… God’s Wisdom to YOUR life?

“Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble.” 1 Corinthians 10:31-32

I was on it before I was in it, she got off it until I got through it! We were riding the ATV and my wife was all bundled up for the cold. She had insisted that, even though the weather was chilly, she wanted to go for a nice and easy ride through the mountains to see the foliage. A friend was leading the way and she made sure to tell him… NO ROUGH STUFF! It was going BEAUTIFULLY… for a while!

He was keeping to the main, mountain roads, when he veered off and hit what I might call a ‘dude trail.’ That’s one where the wife stays home while I ride alone with the crazy guys. That doesn’t make it a man only trail… because my daughter likes them too! “But dude!!!” You get the idea. Suddenly, I was on it and in it when she cried, “STOP!” And she got off it! It was hairy, but I eventually got through it!

My lovely wife was none too happy when she got back on the ATV. The rough trail got even rougher, and she had to command me to let her off a couple of times! After a while we got back to the main roads and she chided the guy who was leading the way. He said, “I’m so sorry. It wasn’t that bad when I rode it a few years ago!” All was forgiven and we continued on… having learned a thing or two.

I like to think I’m a pretty good driver. But that trail caught me by surprise! Going a little too fast to catch up, I didn’t see what was coming to form a good plan. Caught by surprise, I was in it before I really knew what to do. After that, it was mostly ‘winging it’ to get through it, while Katie waited… wanting NOTHING to do with IT! Which is kind of an example of how life simply goes sometimes.

God gives us His Word so that we can know Him better. That knowledge is a trail that, when followed, will get us closer to Him than where we were. But sometimes it takes us through situations that we don’t like, are ill prepared for, or simply just don’t want to go through. Sometimes he leads us to rough patches. Sometimes we land there because we’re following our own way.

Today’s verse reminds me that no matter WHAT I face, I can count on Him to get me through. Tough times help me learn the hard way, how to NOT make someone else stumble… AND how to help others out when they do. Are YOU Glorifying God in YOUR circumstances… no matter how difficult? Are YOU learning to lean on Him to keep out of, or get through the rough patches?

“Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Corinthians 5:2-4

“WOW!!” What else COULD someone say when they see that picture? Katie and I had the pleasure and honor to take a few days and head to our mountain cabin in the Pa. Mountains. As soon as we landed, we KNEW we were in a different place. Having just left Florida with a temperature of 93 degrees, we landed in Pittsburgh where it was 47 degrees! We reached for our jackets right away!

It was about 12:30am when we reached the cabin, having driven in the dark the whole 2.5 hours. From the lights of the rental car, we could only get GLIMPSES of the color of the leaves, only a hint as to what the full season would bring. The FIRST thing we did was to unlock the cabin and turn on the heater! The next day we woke up and walked outside to look at the mountain before us… “WOW!”

Such extreme changes, when they happen so fast, can take me by surprise! The mountain forest before us cried out, “HERE YA GO!” We deliberately had gone there to see EXACTLY what we had EXPECTED to see. FALL! And we weren’t the ONLY ones to do it. Asking an airport worker if it was ALWAYS this busy, he was surprised at the volume of people this week. I told him. “It’s the leaves!”

The craziest thing the whole time was talking to the locals who live there. They weren’t as infatuated with the beauty. “Yup! That’s fall for ya! Guess we’ll have to start raking soon!” The ‘WOW!’ Seemed to be missing because time had stolen it’s impact. Sitting in the yard at the base of the mountain, all I could do was thank God, and then tell Him how much I loved Him for His Life in me.

It’s been a long life, and this trip reminded me of some of the MANY blessings… I MAY have been taking for granted. WHERE I live and work can get kind of hot and crazy. I try to remind myself that one day it will all change for the BETTER… FOREVER! And that I am FALLing into His hands with every breath… changing daily into the image of His Son… My Savior! One day, I will take a trip back HOME!

Are YOU prepared for THAT DAY? Are YOUR eyes glued to The Savior in admiration, beauty and love? Do you long to serve Him no matter what or where He sends you? Because Fall is coming.. and it’s looking pretty good over there!  

“Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” Hosea 10:12

Looking over my front yard I was very unhappy. Different kinds of weeds had made themselves a home, right before my very eyes. As those weeds grew and spread out, they killed the GOOD grass in their destructive, invasive path. I could allow them to continue, or I could put a stop to it! I chose to sit in the yard and start pulling them out by the roots… one by one. As I did, it left many bare spots.

Gazing over a yard of green, LARGE spots of brown and gray stood out. I knew I needed to do SOMETHING to get grass to grow there, or lose it all. Seeing my neighbor hadn’t cut his grass in a while, I joked with him about it. He told me he was letting it ‘go to seed’ so It would grow back! After asking a lawn guy if that would work, after he said yes. I rethought & stopped my weed work!

Instead of pulling weeds, people driving could see me bending over, with scissors… cutting stems of grass with seeds on top. I took them over to the bare spots, dispersed the seeds, raked them in and then watered them. God helped when it started to rain! It’s going to take some time!

What you have just read in a simple story is the Story of Israel… AND AMERICA… as we watch the lawn in our both countries… die! God has principles and techniques that come from inside His very own heart of love. Both countries, founded on GOD’s Principles from His Word, grew into prosperous and mighty nations… until arrogance, pride and idolatry invaded… taking our land. It’s decision time!

What am I, as a Believer in Almighty God, to DO? Today’s Bible verse gives up the recipe for health… it is MY responsibility and duty to DO IT! God’s heart is a loving chasing heart. He WILL come through and take His rightful place at MY and OUR REQUESTS. But WE must first TURN from our own ways of arrogance and sin… and SEEK HIM! HE will… if WE will! The question is… will YOU join me?