Month: September 2025

Do you place value in the opinions of other people? If your friends rave about a movie they’ve seen, are you inclined to go see it? If they recommend a restaurant they’ve been to, does it influence you to try it? Most of us trust and accept the credibility of our friends and family. If they tell us something is true, we usually believe it.

So it is only logical that if you tell someone you know of the benefits of a relationship with Jesus, the fellowship of a good church, the rewards of a godly lifestyle, they just might be persuaded to try it. You don’t have to be a skilled preacher or an academic theologian. Just tell them what you know.

He will do the rest.

We’re hearing a lot these days about artificial intelligence. Can it be our greatest tool? Or our greatest threat? AI can be used to teach children to read, to diagnose disease, and to drive our cars safely. It can also be used to simulate our voices, and even our images, to scam people out of their life savings.

God give us the wisdom to use it wisely.

I could even feed all of my blogs into an AI application, have it learn my writing style, and instruct it to write my blogs for me. You would never be able to tell if it was really me writing this, or if it was actually written by a machine…..machine…..machine…)*T_(+(*+…..machine….masheen……mucheen…..

It’s hard to break bad habits. Takes a lot of work and determination. And it takes time. Years ago I was determined to switch from sugary drinks to diet soda. At first the taste of the diet colas seemed so flat and bitter. But I wouldn’t give up. It took a while, but today I love diet drinks. The regular Cokes and such seem so repugnantly sweet, I can’t stand them.

Now I am determined to switch from diet drinks to water. Again, the water seems so flat and tasteless, especially when I try to drink it with burgers or pizza (perhaps I need to drop those as well, but that’s a challenge for another day). It will take a while, but I’m going to make myself a water drinker.

What’s your bad habit? Whatever it is, you can change it. And you don’t have to do it alone. Ask God for the power. He’s on your side.

One of the consequences of growing old is losing the ability to do certain things. The other day I was walking at the gym when I saw a basketball lying on the gym floor. On a whim, I picked it up and fired a jump shot at the nearest net. When I landed I felt painful shock waves run through both of my knees. It was then that I realized, I can no longer jump.

This shouldn’t have been a big deal, since I don’t really have occasion to jump anyway these days. But just knowing that I can no longer do this simple thing seemed to get me down. Another concession to my mortality.

God, give us the courage to face the challenges of aging and to look forward to our eventual reward.

I couldn’t sleep the other night, so I got up to go to the bathroom. I didn’t want to turn on a light because I didn’t want to wake Sharon. But as I felt my way through the dark, I stubbed my toe on the corner of my dresser. It hurt like crazy! My first inclination was to shout out a curse word at the top of my voice. Somehow, I managed to tone it down to just an unintelligible, quiet grumble as I limped into the bathroom.

Why is it, I wonder, that we are inclined to curse when we experience sudden pain or frustration? Did God cause me to stub my toe? Doubtful. Why do we express anger by taking His name in vain? Maybe it’s because we don’t want to blame ourselves for doing something stupid or foolish. We can’t blame other people because they’ll just get mad at us. So God is an easy target.

Except He is the one thing you surely don’t want to displease. Better to work hard at controlling your tongue. Even when it hurts.

I feel sorry for dentists. Nobody wants to see them. Nobody wants to go to the dentist. Nobody enjoys sitting there helpless while he maneuvers sharp instruments around your teeth, tongue and gums. Something he does is going to hurt. Or at least scare you into thinking you’re hurt.

Yet dental care is critical to the health of your teeth. God only gives you so many of them, and once they’re gone, nothing is quite the same. The dentist knows you don’t want to see him (or her). But he also knows he is performing a service that will spare you much pain and inconvenience in the long run.

The dentist understands that sometimes you have to do the hard, unpleasant thing to accomplish something good in the future. We all need to learn that.

I spent almost ten years volunteering at the information desk of my local hospital. My job was to direct visitors to the right location. At first I found this difficult to do. The hospital campus was so large and there were so many areas to remember. But it became much easier after I walked the campus myself.

I walked to the surgery waiting area, the emergency room, the heart and lung centers, radiology, cancer treatment center, the cafeteria, the restrooms, the elevators, everywhere, taking notes along the way. I could now explain to folks how to get where they wanted to go because I had been through it myself.

Your Christian walk works the same way. It’s so much easier to witness your faith to others when you are modeling it yourself. When you have called upon God to help you through difficult times. When you have experienced His replies.

You never know when you might get an opportunity to work at His information desk.

We need a dashboard for life. Something that operates like the dashboard in our modern cars. Any looming danger in our vehicles is quickly indicated to us on the display. Tire pressure running low? Seat belt unfastened? Door not closed? Gas running out? Battery status, oil pressure, lights left on, there’s an icon or a sound or both to let you know.

We need a dashboard like that to navigate through the potential dangers of life. We need an icon to flash if we are being lied to, or if a friend is going to hurt our feelings, or if we are about to get some bad news, or if we are about to encounter an unexpected expense, or if we are going to have one of those days where everything goes wrong. We need some warning. Something to alert us to prepare for adversity.

Hey, maybe that’s why God wrote the Bible.

It’s easy to underestimate the ability of children to remember stuff. This is particularly true when it comes to things we have said to them. I will be doing something with my young grandkids when suddenly they will remind me of something I told them years ago. Something I thought was completely inconsequential and long forgotten.

Not to them. They absorbed it, and made it part of who they are, or how they should feel about something, or how they should respond to a situation. Wow, I think. They are actually learning from me. Everything I do and say to them, and in the presence of them, is being observed and retained, and it makes a difference as to what kind of person they are, and will become.

Being a role model may not be what you signed up for, but you are one like it or not. If you want your kids and grandkids to grow up to be good people, you had better be one yourself.

There are certain foods that always give me indigestion pain. An hour or so after I have eaten them I get that sharp, pushing pain in my chest. The pain will eventually recede but not before a few hours of real discomfort. Over the counter pills don’t seem to help much. You just have to ride it out.

One such food is popcorn. Which is a shame, because I love popcorn. I can eat it by the bucket (which may be the reason for the indigestion). Must be the oil or something, but this delicious snack always comes back to hurt me later. Yet I keep eating popcorn. Knowing full well I will pay for it. I regret it when the pain comes, but apparently not enough to give up my favorite nosh.

Sinful thoughts and activities often work like that. You crave the sin so much you are willing to endure the eventual pain and punishment you know will come eventually. This is a dangerous way to live. There will come a time when we will be judged for all eternity. That’s when we will find out our guilty pleasures were not worth it.