Worthy Words

Two friends expressed their views on traveling through West Texas .  After coming home from recent trips, they both described their time in West Texas quite differently.  The first friend thought the drive was pretty boring – nothing to see or to do on the road in that part of the state.  He found the sole purpose of the drive to be getting through as quick as you can, to arrive where you really want to be. The second friend saw her drive quite differently, noting the jackrabbits and armadillos, mesas, cactus and canyons, dry riverbeds and underground caverns, to name a few treasures along the way.  This friend saw West Texas as a place where one can think, hear God’s voice, and there’s enough room to stretch out and not worry so much about what you’re wearing or driving. These reports on West Texas reminded me that God has created hidden treasures for His people to find and experience.  Just like these hidden splendors of West Texas , there are ...

Most of us don't like something about ourselves—usually something we had nothing to do with or can do nothing about. Such as: "Why can't I be taller, skinnier, better-looking? Why couldn't I have been born rich? Why couldn't I have been born in another place, or another time? Why couldn't I have a more pleasant singing voice or a better jump shot?"  You might be dissatisfied with the raw material you were given to work with, but the Bible says that God made you just as you are, and he specifically had you in mind at the time. Here's how David expressed it. “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.   You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!” (Psalm ...

As I get older and my metabolism slows, I am starting to pay the price for not paying attention to what is known as “empty calories.”  Empty calories are foods that offer little to no nutritional value.  While I try to make arguments about the dairy found in ice cream or the protein found in the nuts of a bag of M&M’s, for the most part those foods offer nothing of nutritional value for the healthy maintenance of my body (although, I must say, at times, I do think they help my mental state! LOL!).   Empty calories leave us feeling full, but eventually they turn to fat and can lead to our depriving ourselves of the minerals we truly need.  At times, we must admit we are guilty of this even in our spiritual lives.  We go through the motions, skim off the top of a sermon, pray only when we need something, or simply sit and wait to be fed instead of seeking truth, digesting sermons and small group interaction, and spending quiet times with God in order...

John 3:16 is one of the most famous of all Bible verses.  It owes its recognition partly to a fanatic sports fan that spent over a decade holding huge John 3:16 posters at hundreds of sporting events.  Due to the crazy colored wig and colorful personality, he was called the “Rainbow Man”.  His mission was simple.  He wanted to reach the masses with the saving message of Jesus Christ.  He was the most famous sports fan through the 80’s, even appearing on Saturday Night Live.  The question, however, is did he send the right message?   On September 22, 1992 the Rainbow Man’s sports days came to an end when he held a maid hostage in a hotel room in LA.  When asked why he held the woman hostage his answer was simple.  He wanted camera time to share his message of Jesus Christ on the national news.  His act landed him in jail convicted with three counts of hostage taking—each one of those counts carried a life sentence as the consequenc...