Food For Thought Fridays

This is a painting by the famous artist, Rembrandt. He included himself as one of the figures in the scene.

Many painters have included themselves in renderings of the crucifixion. Usually, as spectators.

Where would you be if you painted yourself in the scene?

Rembrandt placed himself right in the center: as a man helping to raise the cross.

We tend not to take sin very seriously. Especially our own.

You know, the pet sin that really isn't that bad. The pride, the unforgiving attitude, the little lie, the whatever.

Well, that little "whatever" caused the extremely violent killing of God's son.

And that is the severity of sin. So, why do we treat it so carelessly?

1 Timothy 1:15 says, "This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" - and I am the worst of them!"

Never forget the cost paid for you!

USS North Carolina

US North Carolina, originally uploaded by DocUNC.

We recently took a field trip to the US North Carolina in Wilmington. The boys enjoyed seeing the guns, canons, and planes. They really had a great time.

Pumpkin Patch Kids

We took Caleb and Isaiah to the Morris Pumpkin Patch. They picked out some pumpkins for the front porch and found some gourds that they thought were cool.

We took a few pictures. Isaiah didn't mind too much. But, Caleb is obviously getting a little old for the pumpkin patch picture session.

Food For Thought Fridays

Last Saturday, Caleb and Isaiah had a soccer game.

I started thinking about the little saying, "there is no I in TEAM."

When you think about it, that is a funny little statement. In one sense, it is very true and in another, it is very false.

If one player tries to win the game all by himself, he soon finds out he is going to get clobbered.

But, if I don't do my part for the team, the lack of my "I" will cause the team to fail.

Sometimes you hear people in churches saying, "WE have a good little church." "WE have a great youth ministry at my church." "WE have a wonderful outreach program." "WE have an amazing prayer team." "WE, WE, WE."

I was just wondering, how do WE spell WE? Many of us spell "WE" without an "I".

"We preach the gospel." Did you?
"We do this" "We do that" What part did you take?

Ephesians 6:13 says, "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

This is what "YOU" need to do for the "TEAM".

Honestly, we need to be people that are willing to pick up the mop and the broom, put on our shoes and open our mouths, stand with the sword and the shield.

We need people who will do these things before they talk about "WE" and "OUR".

How do you spell "WE"?

Super Hero Porch Punkins

We decided to try carving pumpkins this year. We went and let the boys pick out their pumpkins and we found some stencils online.

I wanted to do the Darth Vader. Had to do the hardest thing imaginable for our very first time carving pumpkins. It took about an hour, but it was fun.

Caleb and Isaiah want to know every night if the pumpkins are "lighted" up.

Food For Thought Fridays

Last Saturday afternoon, we decided to play a little baseball in the backyard. Caleb and Isaiah were taking turns swinging at pitches until it was too dark to see.

Caleb was up to bat and Amanda tossed a nice underhand pitch right across the plate. Caleb took a huge Babe Ruth cut at the ball and made contact. The ball went up high in the air and Caleb's eyes followed the ball until it landed.

Right BEHIND him.

He turned around and instead of being disappointed, he shouted, "HOME RUN! HOME RUN!"

In the eyes of a lesser baseball enthusiast, his home run would have been called a foul ball.

Romans 8: 35-39 says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sometimes we let life, the trouble, the hardship, the persecution, the bills, our health, our job, our family, our kids, . . . basically we allow all of the foul balls in our lives to interfere with our trust and dependence on Jesus.

We have to remember that no foul ball will keep us from shouting that we have the HOME RUN love of Jesus Christ and we are more than conquerors because His love hit a HOME RUN for us.

Keep swinging.

Food For Thought Fridays

Have you ever thought about the things you do every day without even thinking about it?

Things like getting your shoes on or putting your keys away when you get home.

What about kissing your spouse and telling them, "I love you" when you are leaving?

Is it routine? Is it mindless? Or is it special?

Is that "I love you!" a real message from your heart to theirs?

Psalm 19: 1-2 says:
1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
2 Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.

In everything, God wrote, "I love you!"

In the sky, on the ground, in the water, everything is screaming, "I LOVE YOU!" He has written it everywhere.

Not in the meaningless way most of us say it as we walk out the door going to work, but He has written in His creation.

The way fish swim, the way dogs run, the way birds migrate, the way stars twinkle. It is all shouting, "I LOVE YOU!"

God made everything to reflect Him like a giant mirror. He wants us to see just how magnificent He really is and how magnificently He loves us.

The question is this: Do you know God is saying from His heart to yours, "I LOVE YOU!" or are you just walking out the door going to work?