Today, I want to write a more personal blog rather than the style I have been writing because I want to share my week. I had a really testing week this week. I wasn’t tragically tested. My test this week was more about not quite reaching a major family goal.

With the end of summer upon us, another school year begins. Our children are back at school. Many of our young adults are off to institutions of higher learning or out in the work force trying to make a place for themselves in this world. As they embark on their journeys this year in a world vastly different from forty, thirty, or even twenty years ago, what place does righteous character have in today’s secular, fast-paced, lawless, postmodern world? 

I spend a lot of time every spring and summer digging up weeds from my lawn and mulching them in my garden.  The weed I dig up the most is the dandelion.  It and its pretty yellow flowers just don’t belong in my front yard.

I would like to ask a question: How many people do you think feel satisfaction with their lives? How many of you are self-satisfied with your life? Is there anything you wish you could change?

My wife’s uncle used to run cattle, and whenever we visited him, he would take us to his acreage in his old Jeep and we would drive around looking for the livestock.

I was soon to learn that he had a unique way of finding the cattle and we never even had to go inside the fence.  He pulled up to his barn, walked over to the gate, and Uncle Sammy simply cranked up his lungs and yelled, "Calves!  Calves!"  In a just a few minutes a dozen or so beasts appeared over the top of the rise and came right up to the fence, where he fed them a nutritional treat. Read More...

We must have endurance if we want to reach any type of goal. When I am getting my garden ready, I can’t just throw some seeds outside on top of the ground, and hope that I will have an awesome garden. No, I have to till the ground first, make rows, then plant the seeds, and after that is done, there is watering, weeding, and waiting for growth. Work and endurance, the desire to keep going even when we are tired and frustrated, have to go together in order to create a good work. Read More...

“Fool! This day your life will be required of you!” (Luke 12:20)

Once there was a rich fool, Jesus tells us. We don’t know if he started off as a fool, but for certain something happened that made him that way. One year his farm was so productive that his barns were full, his storage bins were full, and his silo was full. His harvest was so great that he was dumping it on big heaps on the ground. Read More...

The news these days has been rather disturbing and depressing. I found myself really feeling anxiety this week with all that is going on in the world. In fact, I think I am going to take a break from the news for a while because it seems that 99 percent of it does not have the traits that are listed in Philippians 4:8. In fact, usually the news is just a joy stealer. Read More...

We won’t always get it right, so why do we try to reach perfection? Isn’t this self-seeking idea what the serpent promised Eve in the garden? If we were to become perfect at everything, then why would we need salvation? Therefore, since we are not perfect, and we seriously need grace and favor from God, then we need to accept the reality of the situation; we won’t reach perfection right now. Read More...

Have you ever known someone who, if they didn’t have anything to worry about, would worry about not having anything to worry about? I know I sometimes find myself wondering when the “next shoe is going to drop.” But that isn’t how we are supposed to live our lives. Read More...

Is it really true that “God will not make you go through more than you can handle”? You may not agree with me, but I do not think this is true. The idea comes from 1 Corinthians 10:13. Let’s look at what it really says Read More...

How do we keep hope within us when it seems that the world around us is falling apart? Since the Scriptures state that there is “nothing new under the sun,” then we are not experiencing anything worse than generations prior to us. So, how do we become “set apart” from the world around us? Read More...

Learning that the world does not revolve around us is sometimes hard to accept. It is difficult to realize that we will not always get what we want, for God’s “thoughts are not [our] thoughts, neither are [our] ways [His] ways” (Isa 55: 8). Yet, we must trust Him, for He knows what is best for us. Read More...

Every day there are stories in the news that make our hearts slump. Stories that make us realize that we live in an evil world. I have found myself wondering why things have to be the way they are. I have been asked by my friends that do not have complete faith, that if God is so loving, why does He allow all this evil to happen? Read More...

I have been asked many times, “Why do you keep the Sabbath?” In the past, I would give scriptural reasons of why I keep the Sabbath, and there are a lot of scriptures to back up the Sabbath. Yet, the other day, it hit me that I do not think I ever shared how much I enjoy the Sabbath as one of my reasons to honor it. So, I want to share why, for me, the Sabbath is a delight. Read More...

Have you ever witnessed someone saying something that they know is going to be controversial, but they say it anyway, causing an argument to happen? Some try to justify this kind of behavior by citing the “iron sharpens iron” principle of Proverbs 27:17. I really don’t think that is what this scripture means, and there is a definite line between “iron sharpening iron” and sowing discord. Read More...