Get Real! That's the call coming from those who can sense something false is going on in another person. Get a grip! That's another phrase that gets the same point across. Then there's always “Get a life!” That tops off the other two.

The first, 'Get real!' is a call to be honest. The second, 'Get a grip!' is a challenge to start trusting. The third, 'Get a life!' is a final charge to shuck all your past attempts at controlling your life, drop all pretense and take a totally different…

“Make a name for yourself” is the world's demand. James Baldwin from his ethnic perspective wrote a book entitled “Nobody Knows My Name.” Andy Warhol thought it would be good for everybody to have their “fifteen minutes of fame.” William Saroyan wrote a one act play “Hello Out There” depicting a young man alone in a jail cell wondering how he got there. It seems that one of the most underlying human fears is being ultimately anonymous. Anonymity is seen as being alone, having no recognition,…

Easter 33 The Resurrection; Getting a Handle on Attitude

You know, when you talk about attitude, as we just did in the last section, one thing leads to another and you have to pursue it. Especially when you might hear someone say, “Boy, does that person have an attitude.” It has come to be used negatively. Perfectly good words can have a double meaning. Think about words like passion, love, desire, birth, life, death, man, woman, marriage, sexuality and who really is able to define…

Since we have talked about mission it's really necessary to recognize what affects the way we undertake our mission. It's our attitude. Attitude is a reflection of the heart. It is comprised of the invisible conclusions about who we are, who other people are and the way we choose to exhibit those conclusions. The problem too is that our conclusions are usually reinforced with emotions. And people pick those up fairly quickly. So we need to look at the roots of our attitude. Where they begin…

Having made the point that the Resurrection of Jesus changed the course of history it should be clear that it was not something to make us look back but to know that it is our future He had in mind. But not only while we are in this world but for when we reach His eternal present where there is no past or future. This is the reason for the constant repetition of the phrase 'every next moment.' It is so easy for us to look back and wish for the comfortable things in our past reminiscing about…

Heb.11:1 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”

This is a heart-filled quote that comes as a summary of all that has gone in the ten chapters before in a letter to Hebrew Christians. It is not just a statement about faith in general but a very specific follow-up to the one unique faith that is a gift to us and that is the faith of Jesus, the faith with which Jesus went to the Cross. This Epistle is built around the faith of Jesus and makes a…

No matter how hard atheists, agnostics, intellectuals, and religionists try and destroy belief in Jesus there is no way anyone can deny He is the pivotal point in the development of modern history. The growth of science, education, medicine, economics and civilization itself erupted from the event of His life and its impact on the hearts of mankind. But what made His life such a force was the volcano that blew the roof off of the sinful human heart, His Resurrection. He dug in where no one…

The last two mornings on Sugar Mountain, July 5th and 6th, 47F., clear sky, the sun rising over the ridge across the valley, the fullness of the surrounding greenery, birds gathering their feed and a great weekend to celebrate the Lord's hand having initiated the beginning of a nation dedicated to Him. Isn't that what this nation we live in is all about really? Mountains give you that sense of formation, something being formed out of nothing. Creation. They force you to look up, see the sky,…

People who run marathons talk about what happens when they reach the last few miles of their race. “They hit the wall.” This means their bodies run out of the necessary physical means to finish the race. What they do is to reach down deep and try to finish the best they can. Keep this in mind as we continue.

The quest for the meaning of life, why we are here and all those philosophical questions, is not found in pursuit of an answer that causes me to search within but in putting those…