A Spiritual Twist

 Everything we do is influenced by what we can’t see.  There is an immediate evaluation made, a moral evaluation.  For instance, we look to others for approval.  We want to do the best to get promoted.  We want a good discussion, the right kind of boss, the best-looking wife, the nicest children in a proper neighborhood and so on.  Just the idea of making a good impression, not a bad one, is…

The Real Way to Change the World

Let’s start with Denis Prager’s insightful remarks:

“We were all taught that the most important battle we need to wage in life was with our own nature. Jews and Christians learned from the same Scripture that “the will of man’s heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21).”  I add, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had…

I Finally Realized Why the Left Really Hates America So Much

An article by Denis Prager (Prager University) in The Western Journal

As long ago as the 1970s, I came to a major realization. While watching fellow students at Columbia University demonstrate not just against the war in Vietnam but against America — “Amerika,” as many spelled it, the “imperialist,”…

From Outfit to Infit, Output to Input

 The Word calls us to start within to make genuine what is done without.  Jesus has just called disciples to follow Him.  A crowd has come to hear Him, and many were healed.  Early the next morning while it is still dark, He goes out to pray alone.  The disciples searched for Him because everyone was looking for Him.  When they did, He…

The Truth, Nothing but the Truth…….

 One of the great memories of my life was when my parents would take me to Maine in the Summer to fish.  It was not only the place but the excitement, the anticipation of the trip, taking the trip and arriving at the lake, the beautiful mountains, forests and just being in the out-of-doors.  A local railroad had a train stop at a clearing by the lake, where we were picked up by the…

The Atmosfear Within the Atmosphere

 When we consider that prophecy brought the specifics of what a Messiah, a Savior, would be like, sinful man changed it from being relational to a religion he could control; something he wanted, not what God wanted.  From Genesis on to Malachi, the Old Testament reveals man’s deeper nature being influenced by a self-centered maneuvering…

Like Father, Like Son 

Ultimately when we speak of truth it is not about common sense or worldly wisdom or intellectual accomplishment or balanced emotionality.  No, it’s not about those things.  Truth starts with spiritual understanding.  The very concept behind the word itself is spiritual.  Truth is derived spiritually and sourced in its author who is God.  When Jesus said He…

ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF RACE

by Audrey Smedley

Anthropology Newsletter, November 1997

Contemporary scholars agree that "race" was a recent invention and that it was essentially a folk idea, not a product of scientific research and discovery. This is not new to anthropologists. Since the 1940s when Ashley…

Paul and the Holy Spirit (cont.2)  Spiritual Gifts---How Disciples Function in the Body

Major theme for Paul, Gal.5:25, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

These are words that are written for each member of the Body.  But at the same time, they are written so that the members of the Body can function more freely in the gifts they have been…

How Do We Know Who and What to Follow?

 The question is best answered by first looking at Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 16:17-19.  Jesus has just asked Peter, Who do you say I am?  Peter says that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Jesus responds, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my…

The Bottom Line

 I can’t emphasize enough the spiritual dimension in which we live after we have accepted the Lord Jesus as personal Savior and Lord.  Consciousness of the spiritual dimension behind everything we see is the heart of life because that’s where real life, eternal life, is.  As we think spiritually, trust spiritually, and act spiritually, the result is the awareness…

Real Life is Like a Baked Potato

 I like baked potatoes.  When I get one, I eat it skins and all.  I can make a meal out of one.  When you go to a restaurant and ask for a baked potato the waiter usually asks, ‘Do you want it loaded?’ meaning, with sour cream, cheese, butter, bacon bits, etc.  Usually I will reply ‘just butter, thank you.’  Well I came across a verse this morning…

The Landscape is Calling Us

 I see a star in the east.  It is the only star in the breaking light of the morning sky.  Yes, every morning recently when I go out for my early walk there it is, the star in the east.  It is a reminder of a star appearing that wise men followed to find someone who was wiser.  Someone outside themselves who would be an answer to a search. But…

Heritage, the Unseen Blessing

 I just got a cup in the mail.  On it there are printed two flags.  Over the top one, the American, it says---My Nation.  Under the second one, the Norwegian---My Heritage.  Both of them carry a message with basic questions defining us; about where, what, when, why and how we came to be.  This is especially true if you are first-generation-born in a…

‘Now,’ The Lord’s Time and Our Time

‘Now’ is the present, the moment, the conscious awareness that we are.  When Jesus lifted His eyes to Heaven and prayed, “Father, the hour has come.”---this was his recognition that there is a conscious sense of being in the ‘now.’  However, His human time was to become a spiritual time; chronos to Kairos.  ‘Now’ was on the verge of being transformed into eternity. Jesus was…

Being Full Instead of -ful

 We have a lot of words that end in ‘ful’ like mindful, fruitful, powerful and so on.  But for us as believers, three stand out for me: careful, prayerful and dareful (my word I added because of what the first two led me to share).

 Careful, prayerful and dareful; three words that spur us on to being a witness.  They come alive when we look at…

The Old Flag in the Closet

Memories are not all accurate.  They’re like an old tattered flag coming through a fog.  They resemble the past but have become worn with time, rough weather and its mornings up and evenings down.  The flag of our memory has been embellished, patched and parts of its threads are in shreds.  It ends up in a closet tattered and wrinkled.  It’s like the old man in us being surveyed by the new…

Social Distancing?  We Need to Process It.

 But not for the reason you think.  On my morning walk today it was dark when I left and light when I returned.  While walking I was thinking about social distancing but not the media’s definition but the biblical rejection of it.  Follow me on this.  What we are really doing in this virus dilemma is not social but physical.  We…

“Houston, we have a problem.”

 You may remember those words when a space mission was in jeopardy a few years back.  If you use those words and apply them to our personal and relational lives, we could easily shout out to the world around us, “World, we have a problem.  We’re out here in spiritual space and up a creek without a paddle.  We’re all alone.  What do we do?  We’ve got…

If You Don’t Start With the Spirit, You Don’t Start

 One primary truth before we begin any discussion, teaching or explanation about human life:  God is Spirit.  Therefore, the entire process of life as we know it began spiritually, functions spiritually and has a spiritual purpose.  If we have a scientific appraisal of physical existence it gives us only half of the story, half…