upward & inward

Re-post from 2008 : A long time ago, in a land far away, a peculiar people returned to their wasted homeland – wasted from war and destruction, wasted from sin. This land we now call the Holy Land, was far from holy. It had been neglected by the Israelites and became a place where pagans lived in place of God’s holy people. Over the span of two centuries, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were conquered, scattered, and assimilated into other cultures until God held the land in a state of rest – awaiting the Jews’ return. Once again, God showed His perfect love, grace, and mercy to those not deserving. Just as He shows His love to us now through His Son, so He showed His love to the returning Jews. They were but a remnant – a focused, passionate band of those willing to give up all they had known (for they had been away in exile for many years) so that they could return to the land given them by God. Against great opposition, God enabled them under the direction of Zer...

Funny, yet informative, video!

Reading Tim Stevens' blog posting on charitable giving was interesting. I'm not sure what disappoints me more: the lack of charitable giving by our leading candidates or the lack of media attention on this matter. Be sure to read the comments from this posting and the initial posting referenced specific to Mr. Biden. Again, interesting perspectives. Another bit of information on this subject: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/hbc-90003001 . Question: is charitable giving something to be considered when deciding to vote for a candidate?

In the movie "City Slickers", Jack Palance plays a ranch hand that gives a city slicker played by Billy Crystal some odd advice. Basically, the advice is to pick your most important priority and stick with it. Well, readers, this is hard for me. It's real easy to get distracted and lose focus and, well, just lose - time, energy, opportunities... Distractions can even cause us to lose much more - our relationships, health, jobs, reputation. By the way, distractions come in all shapes and sizes, both good and evil. They remain, however, distractions from that "one thing"... I spoke with someone recently who reminded me to take seriously my priorities as I reminded him of the same thing. So, with hat in hand, I come to the Lord and tell Him what He already knows about me... Lord, I give You my life, such that it is. It's really not much to speak of without You. You have made it wonderful, so it's not even mine to give, but I give it nonetheless. This is a f...

(Going through some files looking for the title to one of our cars (oh, the joys of moving!), I came across this article I wrote back in 2004 while I was Council President of PEAK Community Church. Sometimes, we forget the biblical basis for tithing (that is, regularly giving to the church a percentage of income) and need reminding. My apologies for the extended length of this posting....) A long time ago, in a land far away, a peculiar people returned to their wasted homeland – wasted from war and destruction, wasted from sin. This land we now call the Holy Land, was far from holy. It had been neglected by the Israelites and became a place where pagans lived in place of God’s holy people. Over the span of two centuries, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were conquered, scattered, and assimilated into other cultures until God held the land in a state of rest – awaiting the Jews’ return. Once again, God showed His perfect love, grace, and mercy to those not deserving. Just as He shows Hi...