This week’s blog is encouraged by my reflection as a parent. At this season in our lives, my wife and I are “embracing the empty nest.” God in His fabulous favor and magnanimous mercy gave us three sons who are now 28, 27 and 26 years of age. Like all parents we wanted nothing but the best for them. Specifically, a rich, real and rewarding relationship with God in which they trust and travel in the truth, are framed, focused and fearless in their faith and finally, sound, suited-up and strong in the spirit of God. I love my sons and intensely desire that they walk with the Lord.
Read MoreMaybe you have heard the adage that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. But what happens if a woman is a poor cook or perhaps the man is a better cook? Or what if she is trying to win the affections of a world renowned chief from Paris? As you can see to travel down this path in hopes of winning someone’s heart is misguided and problematic. To be frank: it is fleshly.
Read MoreJust the other day several men and I from my church went down to Hard Rock Stadium located in Miami Gardens Florida to watch a college football game between my alumni the Syracuse Orange and the 8thranked Miami Hurricanes. After a brief shower the sun appeared and we were hammered by the humidity! The temperature was 85 degrees but it felt like 92 degrees! Too bad the play of the Orange in the first half was not as hot as the weather! However, they did make a game of it trailing only 20 to 19 with a little less than 2 minutes and 43 seconds left in regulation. At the end of the game the Hurricanes squeezed out a victory with a final score of 27-19.
Read MoreLast week, I reminded us that as God’s people we are the Kings of Bling because we trust and obey the King of Kings! However, those who are recipients of the Chain of God’s Grace engage in personal effort. Now for clarification I am not calling for or encouraging a work-oriented faith but faith without works is dead. That is, your work for God comes from God being in you! “The proof is in the pudding!” Jesus is the pudding that people will be able to touch and taste in our lives.
Read MoreAs a former high school, collegiate, and professional football player as well as a high school coach I have very fond memories of both receiving incentives and giving incentives for players performing well in games. The word incentive is defined as something that incites or tends to incite to action or greater effort as a reward offered for increased productivity. Football coaches on all levels have utilized everything from stickers on Helmets, lunch pails, wrestling belts, big sticks etc. as incentives for their players. This year’s NCAA College football season has a team that has taken motivational tools or incentives to a new level via something called the “Turnover Chain.”
Read MoreOver the past couple of weeks, we have been considering three principles to practice that will promote intimacy with God. The first principle was watch and pray. We must be watching and praying if we want our will to reveal that we desire a relationship with God and are interested in Him. Second, we should also be walking in wisdom to know how to please the Lord and walk in His ways. Finally, we will discuss advancing Godly words or speech.
Read More“Getting to Know You" is a show tune from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. In the show, Anna, a British schoolteacher who has been employed as a governess, sings the song as she endeavors to engage an inviting and affectionate relationship with the children and the wives of the King of Siam. In the opening verse of the song she sings:
Getting to know you
Getting to know all about you
Getting to like you
Getting to hope you like me...
Most of us are familiar with the idiomatic question: Who made the bigger investment: the chicken that gave us eggs or the pig that gave us the bacon? Obviously the pig offered his life for his offering so he would be the one that made the greater investment...
Read MoreI thought I would pick up from where we left off in last week’s blog entry with the lyrics of 1982 Grammy award winning artist Patrice Rushen hit single: “Sending You Forget Me Nots”:
Sending you forget me nots
To help me to remember
Baby please forget me not
I want you to remember...
Usually the opening statement in this passage of Scripture speaks from a soul that is arrested with appreciation or gripped with a generous gratitude. Do you remember telling God that you will never forget what He has done for you? Better yet do you tell him on a consistent basis “I will never forget what you have done for me”? By the way, the practice of blessing the Lord and refusing to forget His favor in our lives purges our prejudices against God. These prejudices are produced by a heart heavy with pride, complacency, selfishness, discontentment, pessimism and a fountain of fleshly issues that pollute our perspective of God.
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