Scrambled Eggs & Corn Flakes

"Come, follow me" Jesus said., "and I will send you out to fish for people". At once, they left their nets and followed him. - Matthew 4:19-20. What if Jesus asked me to give up my career? What would I say? What would I do? How would I explain it to my wife and family? Would I say no? The disciples here literally drop everything they know and are comfortable with at Jesus' offer. I have always been amazed by this. They were giving up their livelihoods, their means of sustenance, and what they had been doing from an early age to live a life of uncertainty. They were definitely leaving their comfort zones and safety nets to follow. I do not do well with uncertainty. I am an accountant. I like organization, schedules, plans, and consistency. I love being in my comfort zone. Don't dare get me out of it, I might go crazy. I am a person who needs things to go a certain way - a life of predictability. In a way, I believe we are all like that. We don't like...

Quite a provocative title there? Usually when talking about God, we tend to stress about inviting God to be a larger presence in our hearts. Here I am saying making God smaller. Am I saying that God is too big? No, not at all. (Actually He's so much more bigger than any of us can comprehend) What am I saying here? What I am saying and is something I am guilty of at times is only turning to God for the big events of my life or into situations that are beyond my expertise. Medical emergencies, earthly disasters, deaths of loved ones, needing my house to sell, changes in my career - these are situations that I have no problem placing at the throne of God. He can handle this, I cannot. I know this because I neither have the expertise or power to make a change to these situations. I readily express my inability to solve these issues. It's easy to turn these over to God. I am not saying that we shouldn't come to God in these scenarios. As a matter of fact, I would highly recom...

Every now and then, God will press something important in my life. Some lesson, perhaps some healing. But, there is one place that God keeps bringing me back to during the last few years. I wander, sometimes God wants to show me something else that's important - but once done, he brings me back here. Where he is - is the passage John 6: 8-9. "Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 'Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" I have written about Andrew in the past and how I identify with him. He's a background character for the most part, included in the apostle roll call - but never usually front & center like Peter or Paul. Here in this passage is one of the few times Andrew takes a starring role in the story. We know this story because it is the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand. A story I have known backwards and forwards since I was a small child in ...

"One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: 'Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked him 'Don't you fear God' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong' Then he said 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise" Luke 23: 39-43 The passage from Good Friday brings a tear to my eye especially what Jesus says. To me, this speaks a lot into where my standing is with Jesus at times and I suspect where a lot of Christians are as well. Are we the first criminal that insults Jesus? Or, are we the second one? It can be argued, like most things, we are both at separate times in our lives. Like the first criminal, we can totally miss who Jesus is and overlook who we are. Also, we can be incredibl...

What kinds of things get in the way of you being involved in different ministries at your church? Is it work? Your family? Feeling inadequate in your knowledge or abilities? Being under the weather? Life throws a lot at us. It moves at full speed, we have lots of responsibilities, and there are many things vying for our attention. And a lot of these things are really important, I am not saying they aren't. I am also not saying that we need to get everything right and be perfect in what we do. That way leads to a stress filled life dependent on our actions and words. That will never lead to perfection and the pursuit of that by our own strength will drive us crazy. The key is to keep your eyes and ears open when the Lord is calling you to something. As I have said before, God is not going to place you in a situation where you will not be protected by his grace and mercy. There will be a way to get you through any situation life tends to throw at you. I am not writing this stuff ...

Some of us have been there before. We may all have our own stories. Being involved with churches (some heavily) and then getting hurt emotionally and spiritually. Getting wounded from what we consider a safe haven can have a life long impact. I know of people whose faith was shaken to the point of foregoing church anywhere due to wounds received from the church they were a part of. We all get wounded in our relationships at some point in our lives. Some are superficial and easily heal, some cause deep bruising, while others leave us in pain for years. This can happen in any kind of relationship. Friendships, marriages, and families. At some point, you will get hurt. Humans are that way, whether intentional or not. Churches are no different. The pain from a church can feel different. As I said, we tend to look at them as safe havens. We feel everyone there is the same, with the same motivations. Believers who are in lock step together. Believing the same God and following His ...

My testimony is not all that particularly exciting. My childhood was great. Both my parents stayed together. They provided for our needs and encouraged my sister and I in our pursuits. I didn't get involved with the wrong crowd, abuse drugs/alcohol, skip out on school, etc.. I had a very nice childhood for which I was blessed with. My mom took us to church when we were little, I grew up in the church and in college, gave my life to Christ. End of story. Now that I have put you to sleep. We know of other testimonies where people went through trials and misery, some self inflicted. They reached rock bottom and God rescued them from that existence. Powerful stuff and speaks to how great our God is. That we can become so far lost in the eyes of the world and be a hopeless cause and yet God can lift us from that. Both paths to God are valid. Neither is better than the other. God works differently in different people's lives with the same goal. To bring us in reconciliation to Him...

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get'. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner'" Luke 18: 10-13. Most of us have read or heard this story before. We can all assume that we should not act like the arrogant Pharisee. Thanks God immediately for not being like others, who I assume, he feels are inferior to him. He names names and speaks highly of himself. Feeling the need to proclaim his accomplishments to God. Somehow by stating that, makes him a better person. I'm sure he made sure that the tax collector heard his prayer. We can get a good chuckle as we read this. Thinking to ourselves that we don'...

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me" John 10:27. I have always found it interesting that Jesus spoke to over thousands of people during the Sermon on the Mount without the benefit of modern technology and no one apparently had any problem hearing or understanding Him. No microphone, no speakers, no sound system. Just his voice and the natural acoustics. And, he talked at great lengths under these conditions with an audience that was kept enraptured. That's pretty amazing when you actually think about all that. This scenario was touched upon in Monty Python's Life of Brian (funny movie, not as funny as Holy Grail though). During the Sermon on the Mount, one of the actors asks "Blessed are the cheesemakers? What's so special about them?" Didn't hear him say peacemakers. It's a humorous statement, but it's one that got me thinking. Jesus speaks clear as day to over five thousand people without the aid of technology...

Billy Joel is another one of my favorite musical acts. Love a ton of the music he has put out over the years. Never seen him in concert before but hoping to. He is coming to Progressive Field this summer but I was unable to secure tickets (still hoping though). There are many songs of his which I enjoy. My favorites include "Pressure", "Longest Time", "Tell Her About It", and "It's Still Rock n Roll to Me" I believe his album Glass Houses was the first cassette tape I ever owned. (If you don't know what a cassette tape is - you'll need to google it - also means I am old) Now, Billy's music is not worship music and I don't exactly know what his faith is. He's not doing worship songs and they just happen to hit the Top 40. Yet, as I have said in the past, God sometimes speaks to me with words, images, and music to drive home a point. A song or lyric can make me contemplate some greater truth that God reveals. That's wh...

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" John 3:17. Condemn: To say in a strong and definitive way that someone or something is bad or wrong; to give (someone) a unusually severe punishment; to cause (someone) to suffer or live in difficult or unpleasant conditions. Many people can quote the prior verse John 3:16. You see people holding signs with it written at sporting events. It is probably the most recited and memorized verse in the Bible. Even those who don't read the Bible at all seem to know that verse. But, I am not going to talk about that verse today. I don't know if I can add anything new or revealing about it (maybe someday). I am going to touch on the next verse and talk about it for a little bit. One that lives in the shadow of John 3:16. To be honest, God wanted me to talk about this verse. It links rather well to the previous verse where it states that God so loved the world that He gave ...

Dear Friends, Can I borrow your bibles? No, I mean, seriously I would like to read what you are reading. I have been confused for some time regarding the rhetoric I hear from conservatives on TV and Facebook. There are things that I hear that make me question if I am reading from the same Scriptures. Maybe, I am reading from the wrong Bible? Some of the things I read and hear from Christians seem to fly in the face of Jesus' teachings. The way we treat others whose lifestyles or religion we disagree with, the venom we use, our ideas of "persecution", and Christianity in America. I am just confused. Why does it seem that those who call themselves Christians seem the most angry, paranoid and bitter? And, don't get me started on the raving hypocrisy. The election of 2016 and its aftermath proved that to me. Where is all this coming from? Are we following Jesus or are we making Him follow us? Where is the love? Where is the grace? Where is mercy? Hell, where is listen...

1. I've been gone for a few weeks - Have you missed me? 2. Funny, we celebrate Halloween, move on to Christmas, and forget about Thanksgiving. Not as much celebrating in giving thanks. 3. Thanksgiving is the day before Black Friday if that helps. 4. Nope, not going to discuss politics today. 5. Ok, I'm a little hypocritical. I will say I enjoyed hearing Christmas music on my Sirius XM starting November 1st. 6. The comic book collection now numbers past 20,000 for those of you keeping score. 7. The Bo Jackson tecmo bowl commercials (for Kia) are pretty darn funny and make me feel old. 8. Sometimes, I fall into the trap of feeling that if I fail at something that I am curtailing God's plans for me and those around me. That I am somehow hindering God's plans. 9. My childhood took a huge beating in 2015 and 2016. Carrie Fisher, George Michael, Alan Rickman, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, and Prince in 2016. Here's hoping 2017 leaves my childhood alone. 10. We migh...

Scrambled Eggs and Corn Flakes? I don't consider myself an excellent writer or that much of a speaker. When I speak to someone, I am very nervous that I will ramble on or not give the other party a chance to speak. I am a person who prefers to stay quiet and let others approach me if they are interested. Rarely, if ever, will I make the first move in a situation. It is true that I warm up quickly once I get to know you, but it's that initial encounter that leaves me nervous. It's one of the reasons I became an accountant. We plug along happy doing our work with minimal contact with others. Truth be told, at my current job, I can go several days in a row and have no interaction my boss. I joke that I can just skip a day of work and no one would notice (I haven't tested that theory yet). This is not to say I have a terrible job. They trust me with minimal supervision to get the job done. I have yet to prove them wrong and I do well in this kind of situation. With that...