Rewired for the Journey

  A popular arcade game called Whack-a-Mole where you hit a mole's head that pops up and there are several popping up here and there on this cabinet box. You hit them with this huge foam-padded mallet. It is great to get your frustrations out playing this game. Each time you hit a mole you get a point. If you get the chance to play it sometime it is fun. I was reading in Lamentations 3:22-23 which says 22. Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. 23. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  This made me realize that God is so good to us and wants to bless us. Sometimes in the Christian faith, we get the feeling that God is just watching us waiting to hit us with a big spiritual mallet when we sin. Let us call it "Whack-a-Saint" and it is a sad way to view God.  My dog Cali has taught me so much about faith and God and love. I know that Cali is not perfect but I love her and I know she will get into things an

  We live in a culture that is heavy on physical fitness. Athletics is big business with all the training and proper gear to wear. You have people who are into certain diets to boost energy and others to gain muscle mass. There is a big market for personal trainers. But what about being spiritually fit? First, make sure you are getting proper sleep. Secondly, get a proper meal for yourself. Hard to hear God with a growling stomach.  I am a gym rat and I love to bodybuild and walk on the treadmill three or four times a week. I will start doing Pickleball soon. I used to run cross-country and play basketball in school many decades ago. Being physically fit I believe helps us be spiritually fit also. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NRSVue 19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20. For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. When you physically feel good you have the energy to

  Sometimes stories about people who become Christians and then their lives completely changed for the better in big flashy ways can be discouraging to Christians who did not have that complete over the top change. It makes Christians who did not have a big miraculous change wonder if they really are saved. Secondly, they could wonder what they are doing wrong when they struggle with sin and the other Christians don't seem to struggle at all with sin. Let's first address the big parade of miraculous change stories. No doubt big changes happen with people who convert to Jesus Christ. But realize it does not happen with everyone. I would say it is the exception to the rule. The key here is that some people open themselves up to Jesus with a stronger drive of commitment than others. I would also say that in some cases God wants to use their big change to draw others to regeneration through the Holy Spirit. Their big change witness brings hope for others and gives God the glory. No

  Entertain me, please! This seems to be the mantra of American congregations to preachers. In a capitalistic society if you can be an entertaining preacher you can keep that paycheck going from week to week. Maybe better yet you can get a TV show to jump around in front of your audience with all sorts of props and offer free glow-in-the-dark crosses for only a seed offering of twenty-five dollars. Free? This Placebo preaching is just to please people and get their wallets open but it does not teach them sound doctrine. Sadly, what is really lost is the preaching of solid Biblical doctrine. This creates just feel-good Christians with no sound understanding of their faith or what Jesus truly is requiring of them. The slightest problem or crisis that comes along and it knocks them off their spiritual feet like a leaf on a branch in a Fall breeze. How can a Christian share the gospel if they do not know what or why that gospel is and why Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 which says "Alw

  In today's world, it is very hard to trust anything. Famous words we hear in the last eight years are "fake news." But long before Pres. Trump started saying this mantra, Lucifer was saying fake news in the Garden of Eden. Satan is the father of lies and with his lies, he had Eve confused about what was the real truth. She believed the handful of lies Satan gave her and there was the downfall of humanity. Check out Genesis chapter 3 and see how deceptive Satan is in dealing with humans. Now Satan did not stop lying in Genesis but he has kept going since then in the Heavens and on Earth. Now Satan was so prideful that he thought he could deceive Jesus the very Messiah. He tried to get Jesus to doubt that He was the Son of Man. He lied, brided, and tried to sow seeds of doubt but to no avail. Jesus had Satan's number and dealt with him accordingly. You can read this for yourself in Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4. So the question is, "Where is truth, who has

I like to write because it gives me an opportunity to figure out where I am and what I believe, feel, and think about life through the spiritual lens of my faith in Jesus Christ and my understanding of the Holy Bible. Writing slows me down to not rush what I want to share. Sometimes that sharing is with me on a world platform. Writing is therapy for me and if I somehow share something that helps someone else then all the better. Like working out in a gym to keep in shape and get stronger you have to be consistent and writing is the same to be a very good writer you have to be consistent. I am trying Substack because I want to reach more people. My faith is evolving as I move through life on earth. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I epically fail. But I get back up and try to regroup and move forward walking with Jesus. I hope I can encourage, give hope, and put a smile on your face and maybe even a good laugh.  What you should know is labels don’t always explain the whole story o

  I watch with amazement that no matter how often we leave and come home our puppy Cali greets us with the most enthusiastic welcome home. She wiggles and squeals and jumps around with a ruff-ruff. She will flop on her back as we then give her a little belly rub and tell her how much we love and miss her too! An unconditional love that can bring me to tears and a smile. This brought to my mind what the celebration will be like when we enter Heaven and are greeted by Jesus and our loved ones and others. It will be a magnificent celebration of epic proportions. Matthew 19:14 says, "Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs." I have thought about that verse and I think it is because children when happy will dance and sing and love without any concern about who is watching or listening or what anyone will think of them for they are completely in the moment.  I believe we will all have that child-like innocence

  I just cringed when people would say to me the Bible has contradictions in it. I would just about pass out when they would say, "Not everything in the Bible is true." A big one that scared me to death was if they told me the Bible is not infallible! Run Forrest Run! Be gone foul spirit! Now I grew up being taught the Holy Bible is God's word to the world. This is true. But the other part was nothing is wrong with the Bible because God dictated to men He choose on earth in a trance under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to write down what He said word for word. (did they have shorthand back then?) Most important of all is to never ever question the Holy Bible! Now the fear came in when I was taught to never see the Bible in any other way or you are not a Christian and are not saved. If I did not believe the Holy Bible in the right and proper way then my salvation could in some way be in jeopardy. That was very scary to me because I do want to go to Heaven and hang out wit

  As an Anglican, I use The Book of Common Prayer at different times when I pray. Now there are times I pray just from the heart as moved upon by the Holy Spirit. Now there have been moments where I had no words to pray and I groaned or sighed and just sat or kneeled in place waiting upon the Lord.  Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. 27. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Some of my most powerful prayers have been without words but silence before the all sovereign God the Father. Isaiah 40:31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Other times I use the beautiful ancient prayers of the Holy Bible and some of the great saints

  Have you heard the old saying, "I am too old to change" when speaking with an older adult? Have you said it yourself? I find as I am growing older that I don't want my age to stop me from learning and growing as a person, in my faith, or in other areas of my life. Every day I wake up I am excited for another new adventure in living life. Now recently I learned another lesson on interaction with people. I sometimes come at people like a blunt instrument. Texting, emailing, and Messenger are great forms of communicating but not completely because you cannot see the person you are talking to and their facial expressions or body language. You also cannot hear the tone of voice so things can become misunderstood. The best communication is face to face. Now when that is not possible be very careful how you word what you are saying so as not to be misunderstood. If you pour new wine into an old wineskin the wineskin will swell and break. Fortunate that when new ideas and under

After seventeen years of no dog, we finally broke down and got a miniature Goldendoodle. She is a precious little puppy named Cali. We went with a Goldendoodle because I used to have two Golden Retrievers and they were the most loving dog I have ever experienced. Secondly, they are hypo-allergenic and they are absolute cuteness overload! Finally, we went with the miniature size because as we are getting older we did not want to deal with handling a big dog anymore. It was the right choice and checked all the boxes. We have had her now for four weeks and I realized Cali is teaching me and reminding me in tangible ways of the sovereign ways of God. And to add to that Cali reminds me of the great providential care of our Heavenly Father. When Cali is being a good puppy I am full of love and pride in my beloved pup. Now when she misbehaves and is creating messes I am disappointed in Cali and her behavior. But as I look at her I realize no matter the frustration she causes me I still love h

  If you read or watch or listen to the news there are many stories of government bodies and legislation trying to pass laws to save humans, animals, and the environment from one thing or another. Some are good laws but in the big picture, they are not going to completely save this world in general. Many people also advocate saving humans, animals, and the earth through education. Now again education can be good and helpful but in the big picture, education cannot completely save this world in general.  So now I might sound jaded but we must ask, "What is the most important thing that must be saved in this world?" It would be the souls of mankind.  This morning I was reading Matthew 19:23-26 which is addressing saving people. Jesus was telling his disciples that it is hard for a rich person to enter Heaven. The disciples were then shocked by hearing this and asked Jesus who can be saved? In verse 26 Jesus answers them, "With man this is impossible." Clearly, Jesus i

  The world has always been crashing and burning all around us in every era of history. Each new generation adds to this dark and violent sin fallen world. Now, this does not mean there are no good and beautiful things in this world. But as Satan has lost the war against God and Heaven he is leaving behind mayhem in his anger. The Holy Bible tells us in John 10:10  The thief comes only to steal and  kill and destroy. Right now he is doing a fine job at it in the lives of people, families, churches, countries, and even nature. This is a child throwing a tantrum because he did not get his way.  But the good news about this is that God loved us enough to clean this mess up that started in the Garden of Eden. God took all the necessary steps to stop Satan and to pull us back into alignment with the Lord. It was a smashing success with Jesus Christ cleaning us up with His own atoning blood. God in His wisdom left the throne of His majestic kingdom and took on human nature. The second half o

  I have been thinking about those who have influenced my Christian walk with Jesus Christ. These people molded and shaped my theology and how I have viewed the world. They have helped me as I have strived for sound doctrine.  First, reading and praying the Holy Spirit has illuminated my understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Also witnessing to my soul that Jesus is the Christ and there is no other god that can save me from sin's death grip. Jesus came down from Heaven, died for our sins, rose from the grave, went back to Heaven, and will come back for us who have faith in HIm. How hard can it be? Simply put faith (belief) in Jesus as Savior of the world. Jesus has already done the heavy lifting. No other religion in the world has an answer to sin. Now secondly, Billy Graham has had a big impact on my life. I was fourteen when the irresistible grace of Jesus captured my soul. I used to get Decision Magazine from the Billy Graham Association which helped me see the power and joy o

  When I was a young man Billy Graham helped shape my faith along with John Wesley who started the Methodist Movement. This being the case for most of my life I believed my salvation was in my own hands and my eternal destiny depended on my own decision. Now having that mindset on how salvation works put me into a tailspin of thinking the right church would seal the deal. So I went to a multitude of churches thinking if I am in the "right" faith tradition it would somehow secure my salvation. Talk about frustration and sadly I put myself in that churchy hamster wheel.  Now about a year and a half ago I started researching Reformed Theology. We are talking about reading about Martin Luther of course but also John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Alistair Begg, R.C. Sproul, and others. At first, I thought they were absolutely crazy to believe that you can do "NOTHING" for your salvation. Jesus Christ did all that was necessary for my salvation. Yes, but wha

  I KNOW THAT SOME PEOPLE WILL READ THAT TITLE AND JUST CRINGE! BUT it is the truth and in a day and age of no absolute truth trying to poison the minds of all humanity, it is not popular. I am not interested in being popular at the expense of lies and trying to look and sound hip and intellectual. For over half a century I have studied the ancient book called the Holy Bible and it has so much truth in every area of life and faith that it is like the study of the enormous oceans of the world, endless.  If the people of the world would try to follow Jesus there would be a whole lot more peace, more bellies full, more emotionally healthy people, mental health would increase, and physical health would increase if people would just try to follow even half of what the Bible teaches. Faith would be enriched and appreciated far more. There would be more countries at peace with one another. Governments would actually help their people for the right reasons instead of power holds and increased

  This blog sounds like it is a blog for electricians and I am going to explain how to rewire a music system. Electronic equipment and also appliances sometimes need to be reset when they are not working properly or a new update has been added to the computer and you have to either turn it off or unplug it and plug it back in or turn it back on depending on the system you are dealing with and what it requires. Other times you just hit the reset button and it takes the system back to the original beginning of its program.  What I am talking about is doing a spiritual rewiring and reset. If you have an active faith life you will find that throughout your life your faith will hopefully mature and evolve. If it is stagnant then you will remain in an infantile stage of your faith. Christians were meant to grow or shall I say mature in the faith.  1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. One of the reasons the Lord wants u

  I have been contemplating Jeremiah 17:9 which says:   The heart is deceitful above all things,  and desperately sick;  who can understand it? As I have lived over half my life as a Christian I have struggled with my mind telling me one thing and my heart telling me another thing. Depending on which one I listened to would either help me or get me into trouble and sometimes deep trouble! There were times when if I had just taken the time to look for an answer in the Holy Bible I might have found the answer as to what to do. The question is whether I would have obeyed the answer given? If I had taken the time and pray and then time for silence to listen for God's response certain times and events might have turned out better. At this point, I will never know unless across the Veil I am given an understanding for me to mature into the eternities.  I have been very disappointed in myself many times when I just listened to my heart only.  But I have come to realize that the vast major