Category: Gods Love

12/1/2021 1 Comment

Fire

When was the last time you sat beside a fire, alone, and able to think and meditate? The previous home owners left me a gift of numerous piles of dead branches all over the property. I guess they didn’t have time to burn anything but I still would label their actions a gift because they gave me plenty of reason to clear away brush piles and, in the process, burn. There is something mesmerizing (and therapeutic) about sitting next to a fire and watching it reduce large masses to smoldering ashes. No branch escapes. All that feel the hot fury of flame are engulfed and reduced to residue.

6/25/2021 0 Comments

I Identify As . . .

While at a golf fundraising event I saw a marine veteran wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed, “I Identify As Vaccinated.” It radiated humor but was actually rather brilliant. It subtly broadcast with absurdity the politically-correct notion that someone can identify as whatever gender they desire. As the federal government moves to require schools to accommodate transgender students not surprisingly there is an immediate push back. College of the Ozarks is suing President Joe Biden because his executive order on “gender identity” violates the school’s religious freedom by compelling it to force their students to share dorms and shower facilities with members of the opposite sex.[1] So let’s take a closer, deeper look at the whole issue of identity.

5/31/2021 0 Comments

Wilderness Lessons

If one were to find a synonym for wilderness in the Bible it would be fairly safe to substitute hardship. The Holman Christian Standard Bible uses the term wilderness 150 times.[1] The majority of references applied to Israel wandering through deserts that resulted in all but two adults over 40 dying and a whole lot of complaining and suffering. The fascinating thing is that God has a penchant for leading His people through wildernesses, to include His own Son (Matthew 4:1). Why does He do this?

11/24/2020 1 Comment

Thankful

It will go down in history as perhaps mankind’s most bizarre year. Never has the entire globe in unison shut down because of a virus. Restrictions in travel, work, recreation, size of gatherings etc., have ruined businesses, increased the number of suicides and deaths for those with other ailments who cannot be hospitalized, amped fear to unprecedented levels, and created a huge divide in opinion over what should or should not be done. Meanwhile political unrest, rolling waves of violence, storms and disasters add to the cacophony of 2020.

7/9/2020 1 Comment

Crushed!

While working on getting a book published I still lacked the artwork and so I called Bruce,* my project manager, to find out the status. When he answered the phone, it was obvious by the tone in his voice that he was stressed. Instead of diving into my request, I asked him how he was doing. Bruce sighed and then shared. “I’m going through a divorce . . . my house flooded and I’m having to replace the flooring in several rooms and it is not covered by insurance. I’m not sure if I can get a loan. I have an ulcer . . . my mother died and left me her house in a trust but one of the trustees was dishonest and it turned out that there is a lien on the home for unpaid debt . . .

7/3/2020 1 Comment

Sharing Hope

Yesterday I had the privilege of leading a former Navy veteran, Wanda* to Christ. Her journey was pitted with pain, betrayal and enough hurt to stain a landfill. But what was equally troublesome to me was when she shared that she had met many Christian counselors and self-described Christians in her pursuit for help and their singular advice was to read her Bible. Certainly it is important to read God’s Word. But when one is wallowing in confusion what is needed most is not a homework assignment—one needs the clarion gospel message.

6/18/2020 1 Comment

Despair: The Lord's Hand is Against Me

Ten times the word despair is used in the Holman Bible. Fittingly Job is the source of one third of them. The Psalmist cried out, “Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I waited for sympathy, but there was none; for comforters, but found no one” (Psa. 69:20). Despair is the stuff of hopelessness. It is a sinking feeling that saps one’s resolve. If not properly addressed it becomes the lingering glue of gloom.

5/15/2020 0 Comments

These Are Your Promises

In hard times, the assurance of help is a cold glass of water to a parched soul. Isn’t it great to know that no matter the circumstances that surround us, God’s promises are real, present, and cannot be defeated? Joy comes when we live in God’s fulfilled word—word that is for us so that we might live in victory.

3/31/2020 0 Comments

Numbers

The fourth book of the Bible is Numbers which is a translation of Arithmoi, from the Septuagint. It is titled as such because the book contains two census counts, numerous statistics, tribal and priestly figures, and other numerical data. The Hebrew name is included in the first sentence of the book and means “in the desert of ”; an accurate description of the book’s content, which follows the Israelites through almost forty years of desert wandering.[1]
The story began in the second year of the Israelites escape from Egypt, as they camped in the Wilderness of Sinai around 1444 BC. It ends 38 years later “in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho” (36:13) in 1406 BC.[2]

3/25/2020 1 Comment

Scared and Sustained

Have you ever been so afraid that you dropped everything you were doing and left everyone you knew to run and hide? Elijah did that and his petrified escape is an amazing story.

12/24/2019 1 Comment

Johnny's Christmas

Silently a small figure sat shivering on the soft pine-covered earth tucked away from the wind in a grove of blue spruce. His tear-filled eyes gazed out across a small meadow where remnants of snow from the last storm lingered. He opened his knapsack and took out the curved white candle and remembered the last words of his frail mother. “Johnny, I love you so much. I’m proud of you. I want you to take this candle and keep it and remember—you are to be a light. No matter what happens, you keep shining? Promise?”

11/10/2019 0 Comments

Uncommon Kindness

Alex is a high school student in Vancouver, Washington. One day he was driving on a job when he was rear-ended by another driver. Alex took a photo of the man’s driver’s license so he could report it to his insurance company. He noticed that the man held a commercial license. In conversing with him he found out that he was married and a father and that this was his second accident in less than a month. The man was upset that he had been so careless.

10/29/2019 0 Comments

Bright Eyes

On Sunday mornings when I’m in town and able to attend church, after the service ends I stand at the front of the sanctuary to pray for anyone needing prayer. This past Sunday, a woman walked slowly forward with a slight stoop in posture. Her teeth were black and badly rotted and it was obvious she had suffered a great deal—probably from drugs. But what caught my attention was her bright eyes—they radiated warmth. I asked what I could pray for her and she said she was suffering from liver disease. After I finished praying she gave me a hug and shared how much she loved our church and how being there filled her with peace.

6/29/2019 1 Comment

I Have What I Need

Meditation
Psalm 23:1—The LORD is my shepherd; I have what I need. (CSB)

As I read Psalm 23 for my devotions I was struck in a new way by verse one. What David declares is very powerful for several reasons.

6/7/2019 0 Comments

Hail

Hail is mentioned 36 times in the Bible. The majority (16x) are recorded in the book of Exodus. Thirty-one times hail is used as an instrument of God’s anger and judgment. We see this particularly evident when God devastated Egypt with hail as one of the ten plagues to force Pharaoh to release the Israelites from captivity. Forty some years later, God used hail to wipe out the armies of five Amorite kings who attacked Israel.

4/19/2019 1 Comment

Confession Liturgy

Sarah Tegtmeier (Dan York's daughter) with her family L-R Jadon, Luca, Leili, Mark, Simeon

Meditation
Psalm 85:15--But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth

9/18/2018 0 Comments

Power of the Word

John George graduated into heaven recently. He was a man for whom I will eternally be grateful. At a time when I was a cocky senior at West Point, he accurately confronted me about pride and forever changed my life. John knew that the Bible warns us in Proverbs 16:18 that “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” His exhortation scared me to death that God would not use me for His kingdom.

6/8/2018 0 Comments

Bliss

Part of the retirement process when leaving the military is to make sure that one’s physical maladies or challenges are all reviewed by the Veterans Administration to determine if the veteran may be owed compensation. I had to undergo a battery of tests to see if past injuries or problems with my Achilles tendon, ankles, knees, hips, lower back, shoulder, hearing, sinuses, hair loss and sleep deprivation were service-related. I was asked all kinds of personal questions by the sleep psych0logist I met with to see if anxiety, depression, any kind of drug or chemical addiction etc. were preventing me from falling asleep. I mentioned multiple times that my problem getting to sleep is lifelong and has to do with an overactive brain that does not shut off easily. I assured her that even though it is a battle for me to rest, I am mostly full of joy and did not blame the military for my condition. I don’t think she was expecting that answer.

5/31/2018 0 Comments

Do Not Fear

Meditation
Zephaniah 3:15,16--The Lord has removed your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you; you need no longer fear harm. On that day it will be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, do not let your hands grow weak.

4/13/2018 0 Comments

24/7

What causes people to be downcast? I would surmise in most cases it is because of unfavorable circumstances. We want something that does not materialize. We deal with sickness. An enemy is a relentless grief-flinger. “Sixty students who had attempted suicide were asked why they had wanted to end their lives. The majority, 85 percent, said they had tried to kill themselves because their lives seemed meaningless and without purpose . . . Without purpose we lose motivation and sometimes lose health and even lose life.”[1] Without understanding God’s ever-present love we are destined for despair.

There is a passage in the Talmud that says, “We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.” It is easy to be pessimistic if our perspective is rooted in the wrong place.

Photo used under Creative Commons from Rachel Maxey Miles