Walking The Walk

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."   ~John 3:16 I have a t-shirt that says "I'm a whosoever!"  I saw that on a bumper sticker years ago, and I'd have to admit, I didn't get it at first.  I didn't make that connection to John 3:16.   Billy Graham said that John 3:16 was at the heart of the gospel message.  Whenever he tested a microphone before going on television, he'd recite John 3:16.  When somebody finally asked him why he did that, he said, "Because that way, if I am not able to communicate the gospel clearly during the interview at least the cameraman will have heard it." And what does it mean to believe? When we say we believe in Christ, it means we believe not only in the fact that he lived, but in the fact that He STILL lives.  We have trust in Him--complete confidence in Him.  We rely on Him.  That everything He says ...

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" ~John 9:2 When things go seriously wrong in our lives.  When we're dealing with a difficult situation.  When we're dealing with a tragedy or an unexpected emergency.  When we seem to be going through a string of hardship on after another.  Sometimes we feel like we're being punished.  Sometimes we feel like we are being punished.   When Jesus' disciples saw a blind man, according to the teachings at the time, they believed the man was being punished.  They asked Jesus if the man was being punished for his sins or for those of his parents.  And Jesus said, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned." We need to stop seeing things that happen to us or others as punishment and start recognizing that God doesn't punish us that way. Hardships are part of this broken world.  Challenges are inevitable.  But our faith is always strong enough to stand...

When I was beginning my career, I was anxious for a promotion.  An opportunity had opened for a store manager, and I had quickly made my interest known to my supervisor. My supervisor had simply declined to interview me for the job. I disagreed with his decision and we wound up having a long talk about it. He went over all the things a store manager does--there were a lot of things on that list I knew little about.  Scheduling. Inventory. Ordering. Banking.  Daily paperwork. Payroll.  He also pointed out to me the opportunities he had given me to learn about some of these things, which I had declined. He said I wasn't ready for it.   I knew he was right.  I decided then and there I was going to learn everything there was to know about running a store--and I did.  Six months later, that same position opened up again, and I didn't have to ask for an interview.  There was no interview.  The job was mine if I wanted it.  I wound up the top m...

"Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." John 14:1 CSB Last Wednesday was a typical day for me--at least it has become typical for me over the last four months.  I got up early.  I was in my study and on my computer by about 7 am.  I worked at my computer, taking a few breaks throughout the day until about 5.  After I quit working for the day I stayed right there at my desk and studied for another hour.  My wife came home, and we had dinner, and then I went back to my desk and attended an online Zoom seminary event for a couple hours.  I went to bed, watched TV and "socialized" on Facebook and finally went to sleep.  So I spend about 14 hours looking at one screen or another.  This will be the experience many of our children as they "go back to school" in the fall without actually going anywhere.  Isn't it wonderful how the Corona Virus Pandemic has taught us how much we can actually do on our screens without ev...

"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." ~John 1:16 We were looking forward to getting back to a fairly routine Sunday schedule.  After church (we watched it instead of going of course), we got in the car and went to Champaign.  Finally, Illinois is beginning to loosen some of the COVID restrictions.  The restaurants are loosening up some, and our mall and local stores opened up on Friday--Valerie and Katie were anxious to go have a look and visit their favorite stores.  We expected a nice day out! We went through the drive thru at one of our favorite Sunday lunch spots, then parked and made use of their outside tables.  It was a beautiful day to eat outside!  Then we went to the mall.  There weren't many stores open, but enough to satisfy our need to be outside the house for awhile.  Valerie and Katie split off and hit all their favorite places--Old Navy, Kohl's, etc.  I hit my favorite place at the mall--F...