Daily Devotions

 Parenting is hard work. It takes a lot of perseverance, dedication, and yes, blood, sweat and tears. As parents we use rewards and punishment in an effort to shape and mold children’s behavior that will serve our children well as adults. The prefer method is to use rewards because it’s fun all the way around. We like to bless our kids with good things when they do what is required of them. As a father of five very different children the methods change for each individual child but the goals and main methods remain the same. What will motivate one to good behavior will not motivate another. What will discourage one from bad behavior may have little to no effect on another. It’s a daunting task to say the least. Once in a while even parents get it wrong.  The harsh reality is that we sometimes get punished for doing right in this world. Jesus understood this and let’s us know that our good deeds will not go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father. He will take care of blessing us at t...

 We take it for granted that people have a certain level of common sense but when you see what gets posted on social media you quickly realize that’s not true. People even go to the extreme and do really dumb stuff because somebody somewhere said it was a challenge so for some unknown reason they take it very personally and actually record themselves on video doing crazy stuff on purpose.  It’s really amazing just how many people will believe whatever is sad. There are also people who think they’re smarter than everyone else and that they have some sort of secret insight into what is going on in our world right now because they saw this video that someone they trust sent to them so it must be true. Just stick the word “prophet” and all of a sudden you’ve got a ton of followers in the religious community. The word of God tells us that in the last days people will have itching ears and they will heap on to themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. Basically ...

 More than ever we need to practice this word daily. Too many are doing the opposite and stoking fear, repeating conspiracy theories, instigating insurrection, and seemingly pushing each other to the brink of a civil war. Others are running around like Chicken Little screaming, “the sky is falling!” Commercials for ready to eat meals that will stay good for 25 years are everywhere. Some people of faith have even been fooled and are now shopping for new social media apps and running scared from platform to platform. I wish someone would go back and re-read their bibles! This is not the day for men’s hearts to fail them for fear. At least not the heart of Christian men and women. All this scurrying about comes from putting all your eggs in the political and news baskets. Listen, this peace I have, the world didn’t give it to me and the world can’t take it away! Regardless of who the resident of the White House is my peace is secure. The biggest issue is the feeling of loss of control...

 Lord of the Rings is probably one of my all time favorite series of movies ever! It’s absolutely spectacular in the scenery, the characters, the battles scenes, the struggle between light and dark forces. We watch them several times each year. So many great quotes too! This story line was written many years ago and became classics. The work that had to be done to bring the stories to life from book to movies was a tremendous undertaking. The film had to be true to the books at least in being able to convey the truths without losing any of its power.  In today’s verse we see that the “Word became flesh and lived among us.” We had for millennia the written Word of God in an assortment of scrolls. Our bibles are a collection of books written over a span of 1400 years by over 40 different authors from every walk of life. Farmers and kings, prophets and priests, princes and fishermen, and more all penned at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit some of the most beautiful works of lit...

 Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back! There are tons of products out there that boast satisfaction. Oftentimes they can satisfy your need for a very specific item. Those times when they don’t can leave you feeling frustrated and misunderstood.  There is in us a craving, a desire for more. No matter how much we have we seem to always want more, better, bigger, newer. It is an endless cycle of temporary satisfaction and a craving for more. We eat the most delicious meal ever and ooh and ahh about how excellent it is and go on and on about it to others only to find ourselves hungry again within a few short hours. The belly is never fully satisfied. It’s not just food. It can be affection, love, money, power, influence, or a plethora of other needs and wants. We are creatures of craving. If we are not careful we will find ourselves miserable with unsatisfied cravings.  Jesus knew this about human nature. He understands us better than we understand ourselves. He gives u...

There is just something special about walking up to a fruit tree and picking off some delicious ripened fruit. There’s no feeling like that. We had a fig tree, a grapefruit tree, and a pecan tree in our own backyard growing up. We enjoyed being able to eat fruit right off our own trees. At just the right season I can take a walk around our church neighborhood and there is a huge fig tree with branches hanging way out into the sidewalk full of figs. Yes, I take a few and enjoy them on my walk. It’s so refreshing and energizing. People are like fruit trees. We are either barren, bearing good fruit, or bearing bad fruit. When we stay close to the Lord in our journey of faith we are able to produce good fruit. Peace, love, joy, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control, forgiveness, and more! In fact we can sometimes produce so much fruit that it naturally overflows to others who are blessed as well. Likewise we can bear bad fruit. Hate, selfishness, meanness, criticism, lust, envy, str...

 There are different levels of strength and courage. In leadership books and seminars we are often told to set scary goals. We’ve heard it said that if it doesn’t scare you then it’s not from God. We’ve been told that we should believe for the impossible. While there are some things we can take from all of this I beg to differ with this kind of “go big or go home” mentality to Christian living.  We are told if you are not living constantly at the precipice of failure or greatness you are somehow doing it wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth. I suspect that much of that kind of thinking is more about personal satisfaction, ego, pride, and human greatness. Somehow we think we are greater spiritual giants than others because we bought into this idea. Often being strong and courageous is found in daily living. Small acts of love, sacrifice, and service. You may never go into battle against overwhelming odds and come out the celebrated, conquering hero but you serve quiet...