Making It Plain

Announcements are usually made when something good is about to happen. When someone says, "I have an announcement to make", we look towards that person in expectation. When the announcement is, I have good and bad news, I ask for the bad news first so that the good can over shadow the bad and not make it seem so. Announcing that there is a new baby about to enter into this world is supposed to be a good thing ( Psalm 127:3 AMP ). Who would cringe at hearing this wonderful news, this blessing from God, the bundle of joy developing even as you read this? The answer to this question is obvious to those that have been through it. But not so much to the young girl that wondered why she was feeling ill all day long and has had stomach cramps for weeks waiting for the doctor to speak in front of her parents. Its not too obvious for the young man that was having a little fun one evening after a party. Its definitely not the thing a single Christian is wishing to hear or say to ...

Sympathy, empathy, passion, and compassion; these are feelings or emotions we have not only as Christians but as people. People believe, as Christians, we received an extra dose and they will try to use these emotions against us. Having the idea to do such a thing is evil. Entertaining such evil and making plans, even within one's mind, gives residence to the enemy ( Proverbs 24:1-3 KJV ). As true believers, you have to be aware of such devices ( Proverbs 10:23 KJV ). You have taken the time to study the Word and repeat a variety of verses that would serve you in everyday application. That which you desired came about, some didn't, and created an obstacle against what you expected. You learned to do as the Word tells you and examined yourself. In so doing, you saw your spots and /or wrinkles in your armor, garment, mind, and/or spirit and did some crucial housekeeping so that you could be found blameless in that day. That process is pleasing to God. You can sense that ( Hagga...

Learning of the new technologies that are on the market today is just fascinating. Once you get use to one product, a few weeks later something else is invented to perfect the thing you just got. Reading all of the instruction manuals to keep it all straight is a course all of its own, still, no less fascinating. USB  One of the things I have learned over the years is to protect my USB. I might have a large storage of memory on my hard drive but the travel sized storage isn't something I can just hook onto a pair of keys or throw in my purse without making sure the top of it is covered with a cap, in a specialty bag or something. I am finding the same is true when using it in various PCs or any other device that will receive it. I can't just stick it anywhere and expect for it to work for me each and every time I try to retrieve the information. I was in the library trying to do some research when I heard a woman asking the librarian for some computer help. She was tryi...

I was thinking about those wonderful couples that seem absolutely precious. She is hanging on his every word and he looks at her as if there is no other woman on the face of the planet. How did they get that way and how is it that those sorts of couples that can work out their differences and stay together for actually the rest of their lives? Its effortless for them to resist the temptation of others and divorce was never an option. What did they do that the rest didn't get? Can we get it now? Would you like a marriage that can last forever? Can you see yourself with the same person FOREVER ? I suppose if you aren't actually infatuated with someone right now as you are reading this, it just doesn't seem plausible. Even if you did entertain the idea, who could you see yourself with? A better question, who could see themselves with you? While you ponder through that, I had to get real with myself. I thought about the possibility of being married to someone for the rest of...

Many, many times I listen to ministers begin each and every sermon with,"I would like to thank this or that...blah-blah... and I count this being here as an honor and a privilege to minster to you this morning..." And indeed, as I thought about it, it is an honor to be chosen to preach to God's people. God in as much trusts that speaker to say what He has given the speaker to say. This person has studied, prayed and is well equip to say and pray the way God has instructed him/her to do. The speaker has taken his position seriously and is not just saying what he thinks sounds good just to increase CD sales and to get a hefty love offering in the end. He/she is not just pulling at the heart strings of emotion for the majority of the congregation to run around the church and be all out of breath to trick them in believing that the church service was really good only to try to make account of the words spoken and it was all fluff and nothing to sustain them for the week....

I have been studying Paul's writing for quite sometime. There were many passages that left me in a quandary and I either went back over them to meditate on or just left it alone until I could grow up in the Spirit for a better understanding. Marriage was one of those quandaries by which my inner response was, "how could Paul teach something that he has no experience and no knowledge of what the institution consists of?" His rules seemed too strict and bordered on contradiction of the original text (Old Testament). Tried as I could, I still liked my own ideals more than what Paul was trying to teach. The rules that began frustrating me had nothing to do with if you don't have a wife don't try to find one (1 Corinthians 7:27 KJV). Nor was it that if you do marry, you didn't sin; though when you put the two verses together your entire expression would be a question mark. The problem I was having was if I marry I would no longer try to be pleasing to God but ...