A view about manhood

   Lately (more than usual), I having been asking God for direction and purpose for my life. I have been blessed much more than I deserve so far in my life. God has given me more than I need. I have been blessed by the people He has surrounded me with. I am amazed by the life I've lived.  In asking for this direction, I have been much more aware of my surroundings and how they impact how I am living. I have also questioned how my time is spent and how I can make that time more efficient. Also looking at how I am spending my money. A I living as God wants me to live.    The life I live as I would describe it is good. There are no glaring weaknesses in my life. We all have struggles, and I do as well, but overall my life is very good. It is a life that exceeds any expectation I had in my earlier years. I have a job that provides for my family and meets our needs. In my spare time I am able to serve in our church which gives me great satisfaction. Do I need to ch...

My thoughts have centered on time lately, how God is not bound by time and also how I am restricted by time. We each are given a fixed amount of time on this earth. How we use each moment of time is determined by each of us. We can use it to work to run ourselves until we have no energy or sit not accomplishing anything. The key is to find the balancing point of working and resting. Each one of us is designed with differences in each. Someone may be designed with a tremendous amount of drive and energy. Another designed with a greater amount of rest needed. The driven person can easily "drive" himself (or herself) out of energy if taken to the extreme. The laid back person can do just the opposite and sit around and not be motivated to do anything. The following two Bible verses have been brought to my attention in this matter.  Psalm 46: (ESV) “Be still, and know that I am God.   I will be exalted among the nations,   I will be exalted in the earth!” 2...

  Webster defines faith as the allegiance to duty or a person. A second definition is a belief and trust in and loyalty to God or a firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Or further yet something that is believed especially with strong conviction. The Bible speaks much on the idea of faith. Hebrews chapter 11 speaks about those who "By faith" acted in accordance with their faith. We have all been placed in unique situations and circumstances. We have different things we face every day. we have different diseases to deal with, a different set of financial restraints, or many different personal relationships. How we deal we these represents our faith. We can choose to take on these situations alone as they come up. We can look to God for advice or direction in a certain financial, health or relationship issue- and then choose how far we want to trust Him (by faith). Better yet we can turn it all over to Him and follow what he wants us to do.    My life has...

I am a sports fan. I enjoy watching baseball, football- The American type, and auto racing. With the three overlapping over the past couple of months I haven't been focused on other more important things. It's difficult to prepare for studies that I lead- at least getting started- once I'm started the focus comes easily- but getting started is the issue. Now I have fewer excuses for starting but I'm sure the distractions will find me- or I'll continue to find them. Lately, I have been reading the Psalms. It's been about 5 and a half months since I started my reading time hasn't been very long (per day) but it has brought me to a greater understanding of God's power and His compassion on us. Sometimes I'll read a Psalm multiple times if I don't get a grasp of what the writer is trying to communicate. Within 1 week I should finish and am thinking about what type of reading to do next. Should I do something similar and focus on few words? Should I ...

This evening my wife and I went into a local bar and grill to eat dinner. We pulled into the parking lot and there were a half dozen or so cars in the parking lot. We hadn't been into this location before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I opened the door for her and we went in. The first thing I noticed was that most of the patrons were seated at the bar engaged in conversation. We were greeted with a sign that said seat yourself. I've always felt uneasy about the level of service at an establishment with a sign like this. My thought is that are they "too busy" to help you to find a place to sit sown. We had frequented a different location of this bar and grill in Lawrence and had always had a pleasant experience along with good food. We started to walk to the left but none of the tables looked like they had been cleaned off so we went around the other way passing the bar area. We passed a man and I greeted him and he just looked at me like I had two heads. Oh we...

    My family has been through some changes over the last 3 years. Three years ago this past week I found out the lumberyard which I had been managing for the past 15 years was going to be at the end of the business day, which was about 90 minutes later. A few hours earlier the owner of the chain of yards had stopped by to tell me that he was no longer in control of the yards and didn't know what the future held in that regard. Our lifestyle would require an involuntary reduction in spending. Three years later we are living comfortably on about 60% less than what we were before. We live in a smaller home, which still has "more than average" room, and are far from starving for food.     The past week I spent in West Virginia I was reminded of how much I have in terms of material assets. I was surrounded by those with less (material wise) than I have, but still consider themselves fortunate. My thought today is, could I make some changes to live on less today? This wo...

If you had the chance to say something lasting to one person, what would it be? Suppose you had the same opportunity with 100 people. What kind of influence would you have? Next think what would happen if that person shared the same thing with 1 other person each year. Now suppose this chain reaction kept happening over the course of 30 years? This person you told (if each told someone different) would reach over 500 million people. (1 becomes 2, then 4, then 8 ,etc.)What kind of influence could you have? If each believer over the course of history told someone about what Christ has done for them, what influence would we have on the world? We are called to do this, and if we were just 10% successful we could reach the entire world in 240 years. At this 10% rate, if that's cut by 1%, 900,000,000 people don't hear about Jesus Christ.