TODAY'S PROMISE

"The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear? the Lord is the 

strength of my life; of whom shall I

be afraid?"

(Psalms 27:1)

DIY RELIGION

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Proud of yourself.

Made up your own traffic laws.

How did they hold up before the judge

in traffic court?

Did you also make up your own laws about

what is right and wrong?

How are they going to hold up when you stand

before God?

"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,

and seeking to establish their own righteousness,

have not submitted to the righteousness of God."

(Romans 10:3 NKJV)   

TODAY'S QUOTE

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"Disappointment:

God's way of dimming the glamour

of the world and deepening our ability

to enjoy Him. (Psalm 119:37) 

-Bill Gothard

A SHORT MEDITATION

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There are a number of things I thoroughly enjoy in life

besides eating.  One of them is watching the hawks in

this area soar around the sky.  Another is being outside

when a storm front comes in. [If it is not too cold.]

This morning sitting on the front porch, enjoying the 

incoming storm front, I saw a hawk soaring above having

a great time.  It was not high, giving me as good look.

I noticed that it keep it's self pointed into the wind, or

the storm if you prefer.  It was taking advantage of the 

storm for it's self.  Shortly more hawks joined it.  There

were a total of seven hawks in a group out for a "joy

fly" in the storm.

What do I learn from this?

God said through St. James:

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you

encounter various trials, knowing that the

testing of your faith produces endurance.  And

let endurance have its perfect result, so that you

may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

(James 1:2-4 NASB)  

Yesterday was just such a day for me.  It was Monday.

You know about Mondays.  It seemed that everything

I touched went wrong, backwards, to the dogs.  Each

machine gave me trouble and seemed to have other

problems in addition the the one I was attempting to

repair.

But I did remember the above admonition.  It was 

tough.  But throughout the day I kept reminding 

myself of the above Scripture and endured. (Sort of) 

Then last night after some rest and refreshments,

it came back to me real clearly.  On two different

machines that were driving me nuts, God (Not my

mind) clearly lead me in directions that were not 

even in my thinking.  You and I both know that

they begin to work properly then.

When the day was over,

I was able to count it all joy.

PRIDE

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"Pride goes before destruction.

And a haughty spirit before stumbling."

(Proverbs16:18 NASB)

I worked for a man one time that was a nice guy.

Working for him again would be just fine.  But, let's

 just say that he had an excess of "self esteem".

I remember well when he bought the company waiting

for the new business cards to come out.  For some 

reason my interest was in seeing the one for my 

department head, or my boss - not the owner's card.

When the new cards came out it was overwhelming

the way the new owner's pride showed through on the 

card to the exclusion of the department heads position

on the card.

Being acquainted with the truth above, I was stunned

recognizing in an instant that the days of that company

were limited.

The company lasted possibly five or six years.

Then this man's next venture did not succeed.

And the last time I talked to him he was back to

working for some else.

Pride does go before failure.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous:

but the Lord will deliver him out of 

them all."

(Psalms 34;19)

IT'S NOT THE MONEY

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"Better is a little with righteousness

Than great income with injustice."

(Proverbs 16:8 NASB)

You nor I know anything abut the homeless man above,

or the owner of the yacht below.

BUT IF,

when their life is over:

the homeless man above has a personal relationship with

Jesus Christ and is walking a Godly life

but

the owner of the yacht has gained his wealth by injustice,

unfairness or wrong doing.

Then the homeless man will be ten thousand times

better off than the wealthy man. 

TODAY'S QUOTE

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"How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its

resemblance to things of which we do not admire

the originals.'

-Blaise Pascal

POWER OF THE TONGUE

POWER OF THE TONGUE

Did you know that there is a lot of power in our tongue.

Power to help or power to destroy.

The "Good Book" [The Holy Bible] tells us:

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue,"

(Proverbs 18:21 NASB)   

The problem is that by our natural nature the tongue

is:

"And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity;

the tongue is set among our members as that which 

defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of

our life, and is set on fire by hell."

(James 3:6 NASB)   

In the natural state our tongue is set on fire by the very

forces of hell it's self.  That is why we need to turn our

life over to God and invite Jesus Christ to come in and

take control giving us a new nature.  THEN, or tongue

can be a tongue of:

"But the tongue of the wise brings healing."

"The tongue of the wise makes knowledge

acceptable,"

"A soothing tongue is a tree of life."

(Proverbs 12:18, 15:2, 4 NASB)    

FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS

For over twenty five years I was a technician at a 

Lincoln Mercury dealership.  It would surprise you

 how many people over the years come in with their

cars not knowing how to make something work.

You know why as well as I do.

No body reads the owner's manual.

It is in the manual if you will just read it.

You know, the book the manufacture puts 

in the glove box for your convenience.

Is life not going well for you?

Have you read the manual?

Your manufacture or the giver of your life -

God himself - gave us a owner's manual.

THE HOLY BIBLE.

Do you want your life turned around?

The answer is in that book.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"The fear of man brings a snare,

But he who trusts in the Lord

will be exalted." 

(Proverbs 29:25 NASB)

UNDER ATTACK

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Under attack -AGAIN.

It started the other night.  There is something I dislike

and it was really getting to me.  Most of the time I can 

tolerate it, but that time it was almost more than I could

handle.

Then yesterday something kept me on edge all day.

I did not finish the day well.

Today it was continuing.  I just was not myself.

Then God woke me up to the fact - I am under 

the attack of the devil - AGAIN.

WELL, PRAISE GOD.

It is good to know what is going on.

What an encouragement.  Yes, encouragement.

The devil don't like the way my life is going.

Even Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil.

You know about his being tempted by the devil

in the wilderness for 40 days.  Then, when it was

over:

"When the devil had finished every temptation,

he left Him until an opportune time."

(Luke 4:13 NASB)  

Do you see that?  The devil left him until an

opportune time.  Just like you and me, Jesus

Christ was tempted time after time while he 

was here on earth - except, He did not fail.

God tells us through old brother James:

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you

encounter various trials, knowing that the

testing of your faith produces endurance."

(James 1:2,3 NASB)   

Is it any wonder that time after time through

the Bible we see "To him who overcomes,..."

or he that "conquers". 

 Jesus, take my hand and

lets get going.

FAKE NEWS

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Fake news.  It is one of the big issues of the day.

One site or source I often see on Facebook I can never

trust.  It is always "Breaking News".  And usually something

that could be an encouragement.  For example:

Kim Jong Un.  The whole world would be better off

without this guy.  I read that he and most of his "top

brass" had been killed my navy seals.  But apparently

they did not do a good job of killing this guy.

So, latter I read that he had been killed in a terrible accident.

He had been given a snowmobile by Putin as a gift and ran

into a tree, or something killing him again.  

But, it seems that Kim Jong Un does not know that he

is supposed to be dead.

But fake news is not something new.  Christ himself told

us:

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise

and will show great signs and wonders, so as to

mislead, if possible, even the elect"

(Matthew 24:24 NASB)  

Hey!

That is today.

I know.  You say there are people you can trust.

That is true.  And there have been many people

in my life time that I could trust.  But, sometimes

they have been fed false or fake information.  So,

they faithfully feed you the false information.

However,

there is one thing you can trust - the HOLY BIBLE

Pick one up and you can read tomorrows news.

It will tell you what is going to happen - and it

will happen.  It will tell you what is going to 

happen to you - and it will.

FUTILITY

This is a picture of futility.

It is made with corn, potatoes and other stuff.

My wife found a recipe that sounded good to her.

Sounded fine to me too.  That is, if she made it.

She started on it the other day.  It was plain old

every day had work.  Husking the corn.  Then cutting

the corn off the cob.  Pealing and cutting up the potatoes,

cooking it for about a day and a half, etc, etc, etc.

In fact, it was so much work she decided she would

never make it again - no matter how it tasted.

It finished up this after noon.  After tasting it -

she threw the recipe away.  I ate a bowl full.

Yes, she did the right thing when she threw the

recipe away.

All the hard work for nothing.  Futility.

I have no idea how much money and time I have

wasted on cars, motorcycles, tools, cameras and other

toys.  All of it was futility.

Years ago I heard a saying that went something like this:

"Only one life it will soon be past,

only what's done for Christ will

last."  

How true.  How true.

So much that I have done over my lifetime was wasted -

futile.  Some day I am going to stand before God and

give an account of my life.  With God's help I want to

make what is left of life count for him.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the defense of my life;

Whom shall I dread?

Though a host encamp against me,

My heart will not fear;

Though war arise against me,

In spit of this I shall be confident."

(Psalms 27:1,3 NASB)

THE REAL THING

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My best hour of the day is my first one.

I get out of bed anyway that I can and go

turn the coffee pot on.  Then while dressing

the coffee is getting ready for me.

I will be up before daylight and before anyone

else.  That way, with only the night light on

I can casually drink my coffee and have a 

cookie or two while waiting for the coffee

to take effect.  Slow easy way to start the day

and I love it.

The other day I noticed something was not 

right with my first cup of coffee.  It was tasteless,

insipid and not satisfying at all.

Turning the light on I found out why.  There 

was only hot water in the cup.  I had forgotten

to put coffee in the pot.

That cup of coffee had lost its power to do

anything for me.

Most religion is the same way.  We are told 

by the prophet of old that in the last days

people will be: "holding the form of 

religion but denying the power of it."

(2 Timothy 3:5 RSV) 

If you have a religion that does not have

Jesus Christ at the beginning, the middle

and the end of it.  You have a religion

that has no more power than yourself.

TODAY'S QUOTE

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"Whatever your heart clings to and 

confides in, that is really your God." 

-Martin Luther  

IT'S IN THE ROOTS

My wife tells me this plant is a "squash".

I would not know.  But my wife knows.

I do know that whatever it is, it came up

what they call "volunteer".  At least that 

is what I think they call it.  I had nothing

to do with it.  And, there has never been a

plant like that in that location before.  It

just came up all by it's self.

In fact, I have never watered it or even said

hello to it.  The only thing I have done was

pull a couple of weeds out of the way so you

could see what I am talking about.

But, I noticed something about this plant.

The picture above was taken at about 4:00 p.m.

And the picture below was taken about 7:30 a.m.

the next morning.

This happens every day on the hot days.

[Except rainy days.]  It wilts down in the

after noon, and sprouts back out by the next

morning.  All this without my help or even

a rain.

We both know this is because of the roots

it has.  The roots go down into the soil and

get moisture and nourishment for the plant.

So, what's the point.

You and I are the same way.  If we do not

have roots that are down into "good soil",

we will not be able to recover from the 

heat and droughts of life.

We need to daily get our roots down into

the nourishment of God's word the,

HOLY BIBLE.

If we do not, some day we will dry up

completely and blow away.  Our very

existence in this life and the eternity to

come depends on it.

SCRABBLE BOARD THEOLOGY

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Several of the most popular doctrines or teachings 

in the "Christian" world today were arrived at by

"scrabble board theology".

They take a hand full of letters, or verses, and arrange

them in the order they want and -BEHOLD - a doctrine

that is very pleasing to themselves and every one else. 

Unfortunately, just because these "proof texts" come

out of the Bible, it does not make it a Bible truth.

How do we know what is right then?

I am glad you ask that question.  It's very simple.  Pull the 

old Berean trick on them.  It has worked for several thousand

years.

"Now these were more noble-minded than those in

Thessalonica, for they receive the word with great

eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see

whether these things were so."

(Acts 17:11 NASB) 

There you have it.  Just three simple steps.

1.  Pick up your Bible and put it in your hands.

2. Read it.

3.  Leave it in the order God put it.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"How blessed is he who considers the helpless;

The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.

The Lord will protect him and keep him alive,

And he shall be called blessed upon the earth;

And do not give him over to the desire of his 

enemies."

(Psalms 41:1,2 NASB)

THE LAST DAYS

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God has been faithful in warning us of what is coming.

Almost two thousand years ago he revealed to the apostle

Paul what the people of the last days would be like.  God

through the apostle Paul said:

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times 

shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves,

covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to

parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection,

truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, 

despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady,

high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers

of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the

power thereof: ..."

(2 Timothy 3:1 - 5a. KJV)    

Have you ever seen a more accurate description of the 

people of today?

But, that is not the end of it.

There is more to come.  God said so.  It is all part 

of his plan and it will get much, much worse.

Why am I saying all this.

Because if we do not pay attention to God's warning,

we will be totally destroyed.  It is time to seek God

like never before.  God in his love came down in the

form of a man - Jesus Christ- and died for us; if we

will accept the fact.  So we need to grab ahold of 

Jesus and hang on tight.  There is a rough ride coming.

TODAY'S QUOTE

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"A safe stronghold our God is still,

A trusty shield and weapon." 

-Martin Luther