Morningside Devotionals

GET REAL--- Just finished reading one of the most profound and profoundly disturbing writings ever- Ann Rice, the world renowned and internationally recognized author - has disclaimed the church- but has claimed Christ!   Look what author Rice says, with respect, is she has fought the hypocrisy of the church about issues which are close to her heart, and she's just tired of the plastic way that they are handling it- so- she says that she is going to follow Jesus- not the hypocrits? WOW- people can we please take this as a valid wake up call? Oh Boy- here we go... This isn't one of those blistering attack articles on the church- Ann Rice, has said - really, all that needs to be said there - and we all feel the issues.  I don't know a single Christian who doesn't honestly evaluate where they stand.  Yes I do know some folks who frankly are better at acting the act than being in the show- if you know what that means- you ain' one- because when you a...

Scientific American Heart Power... It wasn't long - if you think about it, between then time it occurred to you that this whole oil spill mess was a bigger deal than anyone thought; and, it began to seep into your life, through the media, through your friends conversations, and through the heightened fear of what would take place.  It wasn't long, was it?  We're pretty sensitive to each others hearts, and that makes your heart and our heart, powerful. If your browswer doesn't allow this video click here to see it We Are Family... Power of the Heart and You is about who you are, not alone, just you, but who you are when you  combine the family that you belong to, which is you and other Christian's, with the larger, much larger family you have that exists in a place that  is beyond comprehension in it's beauty- the ancients called it shamayim- the place which was the abode of God.  It takes a strong heart and much power to get up there, it ...

Walkin' with a friend - they asked me- jesuscaritas.info "so do you pray every day?" Now- they know me- so they know- it ain' just once a day, and every day, it's like 7,000 million times a day- get real!  Good grief, people who are like me- have to spend serious knee time!  And- in the end, all that knee time, will be good for my knees, unlike other stuff that I do which they tell me ain' good for my knees. NOW- what were you thinkin' just now, hmm?  See even a totally serious evangelistic type dude, can have a little sense of humor?  My wife tells me that I shouldn't try to tell jokes, which is a pretty good indicator that I'm actually hilarious...look I live in a world where there are three dogs, five cats and my wife and daughter...NOW- you figure it out- do I pray---oh yeah...I pray alright... Well here is one you may not have put together because we so focus on the God of joyless overwhelming power- ya know, smite yo...

         Deadly Truth   Ever wonder why it is that after the cold is over you get the sniffles and the runny nose? You probably know, what is happening is that the cold virus, Rhino, entered your body, you weren't aware of it, but your bodies defenses went to work attacking the invaders and what we see in the end result is the cold. As the anti-bodies of that battle result, your body has to get rid of them, and they have to exit - and we see that as the symptoms we call, a cold. You're Getting Warmer... In the last decade we've seen an enormous change in the belief systems of Christianity.  Catholicism has been challenged from within and without by circumstances of it's own creating; and some which aren't,priest's who prove to be all too human, and sinful; and without by the way that society responds to such.  Isn't it odd, however, that with all the churches that go on, day in, day out, running soup kitchens and...

Image from Holy waters blog Imagine feeling so in touch with God that you knew what God was doing?  So that the distance between you and God were so small that you knew what God was up to?  You'd be smiling, and walking around saying "well that makes sense, because I know what God is up to,"  you'd have a sense of being in a family that was moving toward an accomplishment and you'd have fewer doubts about how the direction was going, because you'd know, "yup, that's God, He told me this is what He was going to do." After about a week or two- you'd become familiar with God- you'd know precisely what He was going to do- and God, would become, family.  Think about that- because according to what the New Testament says that is precisely how close you and God are supposed to be.  What that means is, if one of you has moved, it might not be God? The distance one travels from home is what often determines the closeness or ...

The Wave- a sports attendance, and I'd guess, concert attendance spectacle, the person next to you jumps up and you do to- and as everbody does this, all over the stadium, it turns into a graphic wave when seen from a distance.  What a modern phenomenon of what has been taking place since time immemorial, a gigantic wave of those who decide, consciously decide to give up their pride and arrogance toward their maker and come on board- the wave.  Why do we say pride and arrogance have to go?  The problems which come with displaced pride interfere with the growth of a disciple.  The problem of arrogance blinds a disciple to service.  Being a disciple simply means that you will learn from the one doing the teaching.  But it is there, at the concept of learning, where most discipling today, breaks down- because you can't pretend to learn, you either learn or you do not- it's not a gray area where you can pretend that you get it, but you don...

You know I love my atheists - first off, they're in a really bad spot- you see, if they are right- I'm an idiot who has eaten good food, had some really cool friends, experienced respect on massive levels, felt emotions that are so deep and so profound that children cry with me- AND- loved and been loved beyond belief- none of which because I'm in any way cool at all- but because my Savior- our Savior- and they're Savior if they'd smart up, Jesus, died on the cross. So if they're right- well, tough life I've had- but if I'm right- it will not be a happy Sulphuric smell which fills their nostrils after they hear the trumpet and they will hear it- oh then, well now, won't be a happy time for their prideful mouths which laugh at us and curse at us now- will it?  So I say "bless them- they sure are smart, and wow- are we ever stupid who believe in the name of Jesus!"  Now here is where they usually jump off and start ranti...

Leadership is a learned art, it can be modified, it can be taught.  Jesus taught 12 men now to be leaders, one of those men decided he didn't buy it- the other eleven bought it to such an extent that they died as a result of the teaching and changed the world forever.  This teaching at this link  [CLICK HERE] is by a leader in the field of how to get people to cope with crisis- but more importantly to Christian's today- how to adaptively lead.  Professor Heifetz is amazing in his insight and ability to make a very difficult subject make sense.

Atheists are some of my best contacts of late, at least they are honest- when they don't like you, they just say so, right to your face, up front and honest. Now that's not how Christian's are being, of late, they have been rather subtle, the animosity that some feel toward others isn't being addressed, instead, what is being said, is far more damaging- because it isn't being said to Christian's - it's being said to non Christian's like my atheist buddies. "Well she might think she's serving God acting like that, but all's she's doing is making herself look good." - Wanna take a guess who that was about? Might shock you- the lady they were discussing has an internationally recognized ministry to millions world wide. What am I saying- what my Pastor said from the pulpit this morning- Billy Graham has asked aloud if the churches of America are filled with saved people, or, people who can't admit they don...

Suppose Hell came on slowly- not quickly, abruptly- like a person who has cancer, they've had it for a while, they don't know it, they go to the doctor, the doctor says, "we've found (note that-found) a tumor," huh, that's almost now a standard sentence that we all recognize; isn't it? Did it happen over- night, no, it begins with a cell that goes rogue (note that title- it's important) and starts to continue to grow, without ceasing, a rampant, out of control cell- a cell without regulation (note that concept) a cell which won't stop growing. OK- there we are- the whole Enchilada - it looks to the doctor and the patient, like it's just now happened, but the doctor knows, it's been growing for some time. Suppose Hell came on slowly- not abruptly what might that look like? The Bible does describe Hell- and then people with keen senses of power, and other motives, take over and begin to tell you what the Bible says- now...

The young man in this video is Nick Vujicic, who inspires those who have normal bodies, because he does not.  So they look at Nick and wonder how in the world does he do what he does.  But the truth is, what he is talking about has nothing to do with external things at all: What makes hope? Where does hope come from? Nick is talking about the nature of the inner person? Are you in touch with that person who won't give up? The message you need to take with you today is- finish strong.

There are a few things that make sense given our current climate of faith - and especially among those who like to believe they are evangelical Christian's; a rough house form of fundamental Christian known for being active and actively outspoken about Christ. Like those who write in and say how much they enjoy this writing and reasoning and want to share it with their friends, or even send me an email to send it to- which is you, isn't it? It makes sense that they would share their faith, somehow? That just makes sense, if we're going to proclaim the faith, then it ought to be that we would be sharing that with others?  Another thing that is known, and would seem to make sense, we take a stand, when something is obviously way out of line with what we believe , we take a stand. Don't we take that stand, now and again? And most fundamental Christian's have seen times when such became necessary.  So one thing that doesn't make sense is what Jim Rohn...

Don't you judge the worth of what you get by how it is? The end result?  Forget the buying, although those who do the "live the moment," thing would have you be all giddy while you are shopping, let's be the other way, normal, and realize we like the end product to be real and good and worthwhile.  All over this nation of America folks are waking up to the challenge of being real, and getting involved or losing what we've worked so hard to achieve.  So that we have good - what might be best, and what is better? Last night the Mocha frappe machine at McDonald's ran out just as it was my turn, so they gave me a full frappe for the price of a medium, and apologized because the machine ran out and it was time to clean it!  Liked that end result.  What might happen if the hypocrit machine, call that normal church culture in America, on love in God through Christ toward us and us toward loving others, ran out(!) and we gave them a full instead of ...

You have probably not heard too many people say it like this, because most folks who believe in the ministry of Jesus, believe it was three years long; I don't, here's why- careful reading of the scriptures reveals that Jesus called disciples, then began his ministry, with a sign. Near as I can tell, the usual preparation for the betrothed Jewish male, was one year, roughly, depending upon when the father of the husband determined that the room he prepared for his bride, was ready.  Numerous times in the New Testament, Jesus refers to no man knowing the time of His return, except the Father- seems to me Jesus was very conscious of the fact that His ministry needed to coincide with the way that people would understand the real marriage taking place.  "Yes," you ask, "but what about the disciples, he was with them three years..."  My take on this is a very hard one but it seems to me He called them before His ministry actually began, the...

So many times you and I have heard people preach sermons speaking of vision as if though it were bad- or, not a part of faith?  Now here my word means the literal act of beholding- of looking, of taking in an image and processing it.  You and I live in a world where such is necessary for us to live and survive- unless we learn a set of skills which are no longer involving the use of sight. Many preachers and teachers make the mistake of separating the Bible and it's truths out of the realm of the senses- insisting, as it were, that the Bible is extrasensory and God demands extrasensory behavior. Such statements aren't in the Bible, which contains a great many statements about the use of our faculties, to the glory of God.  In fact let me go so far as to say that the Bible insists that we marshal all our energy into the realm of hearing and believing God that is defined by the things which ought to be, but aren't. That really, finally and ultimately this ...

I used to laugh as a pastor and tell people from the pulpit that if they were "stabbin me in the back, it was cool, I had a big back, and they weren't stabbin somebody else, who maybe couldn't handle it as well."  Only guess what, not everybody is big and just comes right up to your face and says, "hey, I don't like you and what you said, (or did)."  Now what happens is, they do something on the sly, they tell little inuendos about you.  Nothing big where someone would get all excited and say, "well gosh I can't believe you'd say something like that about them."  No no, they are much slicker than that, they jab the blade in a little at a time- makes 'em feel big I guess, I don't know- I try not to go down that road - but- and here's where it gets weird- it's hard not to. This is maybe something that you face as a person who wants to walk with Christ.  As you get closer to Christ, the forces which can seek t...

She had always said that he was lazy, he hadn't fought with her about it, he knew in some ways she might be right; but he also knew that there is a difference between being occupied in a mental problem, and lazy.  Being occupied in a mental problem, is one thing that appears to others as if though you aren't doing anything, ever been there?  Ever struggled with a mental problem moving it to this side, and then to the other, trying to find a different angle where it will work?  For our foreign readers you may not relate to the dissapearing middle class, but right now in America a lot of people are having to really concentrate mentally on funds that are getting slowly eroded.  To someone who didn't realize the mental strain they were under they'd look like they were, lazy. It isn't just that appearances can fool us, we are fooled by plenty of things, loud sounds can fool us, beliefs in things that go bump in the night, can lead to us believing all...

She said, through her teary eyed spasmed breathing, that she hadn't intended that they have that fight; they always fought about money, and she hadn't wanted to say anything to him about it, but last night when the electrical bill came in and it was so high; she just "lost it," and so this morning, she cried, the last thing I said to him was; "why can't you get a decent job you're a bum." As he drove off to his job as a janitor. Often in life we honestly think we have lots of time to say and do nice and good things, an associate dropped bye the other day and said that they knew someone wasn't feeling well, and rather than drive off, we stopped right then and took a moment to pray for them.  Another close associate said that it seemed like things were turning around in my life, and without even thinking or having to think, it was easy to explain to him that praying friends were the reason. One of my close associates is underg...