Inspirations

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters , and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”   Revelation 21:8   As I was growing up,  I never thought about this verse very much.    It has only been lately that I even realized it was there.    Then I began to wrestle with the question of why these groups were singled out.    More importantly, why liars?    I mean, who among us has never lied?    Over the past year, I have been dealing with this issue.      I began to think again about this verse,  and I was reminded of a dialogue that Jesus had with the religious leaders of his day.    They were discussing ancestry and Jesus makes this statement.    “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.  He ...

  You are the  salt  of the earth. But if the  salt  loses its  salt iness, how can it be made  salt y again? As you can see, I have been thinking about salt.   Salt is Good.   The body of Christ needs salt, in the same way, our physical body needs salt.   Without it, we would surely die both physically and spiritually.    As I was thinking about salt and all of its many uses, I was drawn into the second part of this verse.   "If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?"   At one time, I had a box of salt that had lost its saltiness.   Let me tell you it was very disappointing.   No matter how much salt I used there was no flavor.   It did not do its job of cleansing or preserving.    There was no way to fix that problem.   I had to throw the salt out.   As Christians, we must heed the warning of Jesus in this ver...

The other day I was making some chili for supper.   As I was cooking, I tasted the Hamburg and decided that it needed some salt.   I grabbed the box of salt and poured a pinch into my hand.   Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I had a small papercut I had on my finger.   Some of that salt had worked its way into the wound.   While salt makes food taste amazing, salt has another quality as well.   It has an antiseptic effect.   The salt that made the food delicious, hurt like crazy in the cut.   Although it was cleaning out the lesion, it caused much pain.    Jesus says his children are the salt of the earth.   We can have a cleansing effect on the earth.   As Christians, we often have a purifying outcome.   As we live for God, others in the body of Christ may be convicted   and like salt in a wound possibly they will be cleansed of their sin. ...

  “You are the  salt  of the earth.  Salt.  It adds flavor. A bag of popcorn without salt is kind of boring, But add some salt and it makes the bag delicious. In fact, many dishes are better when a pinch of salt is added. One of the things that we as children of God are supposed to do is add flavor. Like the salt added to food,  we should make the world a much kinder and better place. When we taste food without salt,  most of us immediately grab for the salt shaker. We want that salty taste. When people of the world are around us do they get the flavor of Christ? Once, I bought a box of salt that was not salty. It was not pretty.   I ended up throwing the whole box away. It was no good.  My Friends, let's ask God to make us the salt that others need.

I am reading from the book of Genesis.  In Genesis 13, Lot set up his tents near Sodom  and that Sodom was evil.  In Genesis 14, in the account of Abraham coming to Lot's rescue, it says that Lot was living in Sodom.  I find it interesting that, although we have no idea how long the time-lapse  was between the two chapters, we do know that, during that time, Lot had moved from near Sodom to  in Sodom.   Why Is that important?  Well, because of the lifestyle of the city of Sodom.  Sodom was  wicked.  I am reminded that we do not usually walk into sin all at once.  Often, we are led into sin  when we get too close to those living there.  When we set up our lives too close to sin, It is easy to pick  up the bad habits of those living near us.  We do not mean to, but it happens none-the-less.  I suppose  that we tell ourselves that we can live there and be ok.  However, we get sucked into the...

              It's the beginning of a new year.   If you're like me, you have been pushed and stretched.   You have been kicked, slapped, and beaten.  You are ready for this year to be over.   We all hope that this year will be better.   As I/ we contemplate the beginning of the new year,  I am reminded that if we want different results,  we expect this year to be different from last year.   One of my favorite quotes is,  "The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results."   Most of us want and hope that our life will be different.   We hope to change things, whether it's our finances, our weight or health, or something else.   However, we must be willing to make changes  that allow things to be different for those things to change.   This year, I do not want a repeat of last year. ...

 It is good to have a thankful heart, When we are feeling down, discouraged, and defeated. We can focus on the things for which we are grateful. Often when storms roll in, we forget that we have many blessings  because all we can see is the storm Somehow when we remind ourselves of what God has done,  we find a reason to sing and be happy. We find a "God" perspective. We realize that we don't need  to have things to be happy. We choose to be happy regardless of outward circumstances. Often the best blessings are not things  that can be measured by human standards. When we stop and reflect on our blessings we can't help but be encouraged and strengthened because whether we admit it or not we all enjoy a little, ok many, of God's blessings. In fact, for me, if God were not blessing me, I probably would not be here   and I would not likely be writing these devotional blogs. As a Christian, his blessings  don't end with this life. Every day comes...