Finishing Well

I've always heard that we must hate the sin and love the sinner. Ok, that's easy to do as long as that sin hasn't affected you. In those cases, it gets a bit harder - a drunk driver kills your child, for instance.  Love is not the same thing as tolerance. I love because Christ loved me. I tolerate because I'm told I have to. Love is a choice I can make because I realize Holy God loved me first. God doesn't tolerate sin. When my children disobeyed, it wasn't tolerated.   I cannot say to God, ok God, I'm going to go my way and live in sin until I'm ready to quit. Actually I can, and quite often do - but at some point I realize my sin is offensive to Him and I repent and stop the sin.  So often in our culture today, sin is not regarded as sin. But a Sovereign, Holy God gave us boundaries as written in His Book, and He expects us to live accordingly. His love for us has not changed, He still died to save us all. His character has not changed either, He as...

Saints and sinners, huh?  Church is full of shined up, polished, masked people pretending they're good and righteous, right? Well, I'm a sinner and sometimes I'm not very shiny and often I wear a mask, but I love my church. I love that sometimes I can be real enough with people so they can see that. And sometimes, that might encourage others to be vulnerable and real so their neighbors can see. But Christian, we miss a lot of dirty smelly people because we appear too perfect, too clean. Didn't Jesus sit down and eat with the roughnecks?  Do we embrace the lost, the ones who don't look like us? Do we shake their hand and run back to comfy? Actually, we're the ones who stinketh. In 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 we are told that to the lost we are the aroma of death. It all comes down to love. Are we really willing to love the lost and dying people who won't come inside our building? Can we love the smelly sinner? Do we show them a changed life? I wrote this poem o...

I love throw back Thursday, seeing how people enjoyed their lives with friends and family. You get a little glimpse of sweeter times, especially if you know the things that have brought them to now.   The now may be harder days, or bittersweet, but the memories can be displayed happily with a simple snapshot of old.  My mother's life ended with Alzheimer's disease, and while she was able I asked a lot of questions about her life. She grew up in Bowling Green, and I have precious memories of her Dad and brother and cousins there.  She drove Pop's Model T to school when she was 12, on a nickel's worth of gas. She had a pony cart and often hauled many kids around the farm there.  When I see TBT pictures, I realize there's a great story behind each one and I smile at each one because it takes me back to a "time".  I'm sure some people wish we would stop posting personal sentimental pictures, but I for one enjoy them all.  Makes me ponder what legacy ...

What does the sheep say?  In the Bible, Isaiah says that all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  (Is53:6) We are sheep - yes, they are dumb, but don't we follow blindly anything that comes our way?Sometimes without a thought, let alone a prayer, we go to the next thing, play the next game, read the next book..... We have no direction without the God who created us. We have no help without God's arm against the assault of the devil, who seeks to destroy all good. But God, He has given us defensive armor (Eph. 6). He has given us redemption through the sacrifice of His Son Christ Jesus. What a Savior. What way shall we go? Pray. What deed shall we do? Pray. James tells us if we need wisdom, we ask for it, asking in faith, believing. And don't give up but ask, seek, knock. And then we must be still, choose to listen, and then most importantly, be obedient.