There is a phrase, “Things are looking up now”, you hear people say when their circumstances and situation is improving. Problems are decreasing and opportunities are increasing. The Gift of Christmas made it possible for things to start looking up in our lives. The shepherds lives changed when they started looking up to the heaven […]

How many of you know someone who only talks about how bad they have it? They are always telling you how bad the things are that they are going through? No doubt, some of their struggles are real and they need support as they deal with them, but their minds dwell only on the negative. […]

What or who is the biggest influence in your life? All of us have, or had, someone or something whom we have chosen to be like. Or, in some cases, our greatest influence in our life was someone or something we were determined not to be like or do. Either way, there was an inspiration […]

Winter is finally arriving in Alabama and it reminded me of something that happened a couple years back. My wife and I leave home rather early in the morning, so I got up and started my wife’s car and my truck so they could warm before leaving. I went back in and finished my devotion […]

Social media has made it popular to take pictures of ourselves doing almost everything you can imagine. A selfie is one of the more important pictures you can share because it shows you as you are. I am often asked the question, “What do you think about ___?” When was the last time someone asked […]

There was a popular bracelet worn a short time ago that had WWJD on it. The letters stood for WHAT WOULD JESUS DO and many displayed them on their arms. If you ask people if they are Christians, many will respond with where they attend church and what their beliefs are. Being a Christian goes […]

What do you focus on? I hear a lot of people who focus on the bad, their failures, the things they don’t do well, and other weaknesses. I am amazed how often, after playing a round of golf, we only focus on the things we do poorly. We seldom talk about all the good things […]

How often do we find ourselves comparing what we do with what others are able to do? As a young minister, I often found myself comparing my preaching to that of other preachers. I compared the way I pastor to the way other pastors handled things. As a golfer, I often compare my game to […]

In my school days, the teacher in a class would call roll every day to see who was present and who didn’t show. When you name was called you simply answered “here.” The response meant I am here again today to further my education. I’m ready to learn things that I didn’t know yesterday. There […]

The church is challenged like it has not been challenged before. It’s time we step up and have a voice in the communities where we live. The challenge is to get Christians to move out of the comfort zone we have been in over the last years and do something different. We have got to […]

I read a story this morning of a man who was offered a promotion that included a big pay raise and a rise in prestige with his company. The man turned the position down. Although he had a house to pay for, children to raise, and could have used the extra money, he said no […]

We often hear and use an expression to express appreciation for a good deed someone does for us. The phrase is “God Bless You.” I have used it often as a parting word when leaving a person or group of people. The phrase “God bless you” means “good word.” We are expressing the fact that […]

When I was a young married man, my co-worker and I ran out of gas two times in a Ford Pinto that got 35 miles to a gallon. We drove right by service stations with money in our pocket to buy gas and drove until we were out of gas. I remember when my children […]

Our world would be so much better if we spent half the time patting people on the back for their efforts that we spend beating them over the head for things we don’t like. Why is it so much easier for us to criticize than it is for us to encourage others? You would think […]

I have never been a very fast runner. In fact, I have always been a little over weight and slow of foot. I wanted so badly to be chosen to play on the team of some of the better players, but I was always one of the last ones chosen if speed was needed to […]

Many people have only one goal in life; that is to be happy. The problem is that we go about happiness the wrong way. God has given us a one verse way to enjoy true happiness in our lives. (Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, […]

We often portray God as a giving grandparent, our birthday fairy, or Santa Claus who gives us everything that our minds think of. How many times have you heard someone say that God promises to give us the desires of our hearts? The last part of one my Bible reading this morning says that God […]

How many times have you seen an incident, accident, or sickness cause a person to make a decision to live better. I’ve had people tell me they were going to live better when they got over their recovery. I watched people get a wake-up call, decide to do better, only to let the new decision […]

SEPTEMBER 23rd…WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING ON?? I witnessed another example of how unfair this life is. It is not easy to get through those times when you feel that you are doing your best and something bad happens anyway. The most important thing is not what is happening to you, but rather how we respond […]

How many times have you settled incidents with your children where one hit the other? One would say it was an accident and the other would say they did it on purpose. An accident is when something happens that you are not expecting. When you plan to do something, you do it on purpose. A […]

On a trip to our daughter’s house a few months ago, I was trying to figure out how to post pictures with my FB posts on my iPhone like I do with my desk top computer. I couldn’t figure it out the first day so I did my posts with no picture. The next day […]

I am amazed at the strong emotions that have run through me when someone did something that hurt my feeling, damaged my ego, or lowered my self esteem. The first thing that you want to do is retaliate. You want them to feel the same hurt and belittling that you felt. It is a natural […]

We watched an old country/comedy show when I was growing up called Hew Haw. In the program there was a segment where everyone asked Grandpaw “What’s for supper?” Everyone eats. I look at some of the FB posts of the meals some of my friends post and wish I had been invited for dinner. Our […]

I love to read about the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt. The courage and faith Moses showed is such a great example to all of us. The disregard for his own life and welfare by approaching the most powerful man in the world at the time and telling him that the slaves […]

Competition is something we are all familiar with. Culture teaches us to compare what we have to what other people have. Too many times, we judge ourselves by our level of financial and material success we have attained. I grew up competing with three other brothers, cousins, and neighbors in sports. Most were older than […]