Morningside Devotionals

The most remarkable thing about the truth of the power of God is that, when God wants to get your attention, God does.  http://www.informedfaith.com/cac/singlesermon/10010

View Site For This Poster CLICK HERE When you really care for somebody, think of them frequently, respect their opinion about things, honestly thrive on the time that you are able to be with them; they matter to you.  So it is when they are not in touch with you, or, you lose contact with them, that you notice the absence of them in your life. Fast forward that to how we react and act toward the church and church life, and even Christianity in the world today? For a moment put aside the grief you may think you can justify against this noble organization, rather, think of it based on the above, from the churches point of view?  What is horribly amusing is the rise of the behavior which used to be held at bay by the church, and how even those who profess to be against the church, find that they are in alignment with what the church would say.  A friend of mine, Chris Voss, just released a blog about sexting, an aberrant form of text video cellular that l...

The question gets asked often, as much as any other, that's for sure, and it's not unusual because we seem to believe that what a person does for a living is a large part of who they are?  Now you know me well enough to see ahead and know that I don't go that way in my thinking, even though I know on the surface such is true, when you dig beneath that surface appearance a bit, there is where you see what is real. Just this past Sunday a man stopped me in the hall and asked me, "hey I sit in class you with and you seem to be a pretty smart person, but what is it that you do, because it seems like folks really listen to you?" Well, he asked, so I told him. Hmm, wonder what he thought of that? For example, my friend Chris Voss who does " The Chris Voss ," show, seems on the surface to be a free-wheelin', fun lovin', let it roll, sort of guy.  But that's Chris's public persona, and here is what a little study of Chris re...

Mouthful isn't it, and it's the sum of what we are, we aren't what we were, but we aren't what we will be, either, we are in the present, and that's the only place we can be. That's a tough fact of life, and yet as we exist at that moment,  the moments that built up to it, have to be considered, else we'd never grasp any newness to life.  However we cannot live "back there," it doesn't exist, and we can't live for a future that isn't existing either.  Plan for it, anticipate it, if you must, certainly it's interesting to try, but ultimately, what we have is right here, right now, from both of those other perspectives.  It's not just the past, but also what you believe you want to have as a future that contribute to the person we see standing there, right now. That would be an exercise in semantics if it weren't for the fact that we who live out our faith know that we place a very significant amount of...

Click to Web Site of Image "What we have here is failure to communicate, now, that's not the way I wanted it, that's the way he wants it."   Those famous words are part of one of my favorite movies, "Cool Hand Luke," it has a lot to say to somebody who is wondering about life, hope and rules. "Cool Hand Luke," was a values based movie about values when such wasn't cool, it had a heavy moral within it, as does our Proverb for today, 22:6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7gzI9gj3eU We're putting together a deeper section on this, because it is so often mis-interpreted. How you raise your child, may, or, in this day and age, as at no other time in history, affect how they live. We live in a time when the power, raw power of the media, and social media, FaceBook, for example, are not only as influential as a parent, but many times are viewed as more influential. We can continue to deny that in main stream evangelical relig...

"Well my time is already tied up, so I just don't know where he thinks I can find the time to do that?"  Ever hear somebody saying something like this when asked if they could do something concerning church or volunteer work?  Now in this blog we're going to go into why church work and volunteer work, ought to be the same thing, and my hope is that some Christian's will read this and just get furious and write me all sorts of really mean and nasty stuff- do it, defend your way of life; anybody should, we all should, but when we're wrong, we ought to be big enough to admit it, and correct it (!) (NOTE I DIDN'T SAY MOVE ON- MOVE ON  ISN'T GODLY...we'll "scuss" about that in "taking it deeper")  Christian's need to correct it.  Do you correct it? When  you get mad at somebody, without cause, and they get mad at you, without cause, do you correct it, or let it sit?  Heat on ice...melts the ice and turns it in...

Moved, we say it about the people who "used to live next door," they moved; we say it about a time when we felt strongly about something, we were "moved." Interesting how they mean a transport to somewhere else, you either go there in your mind, or, you go there physically, but you transport, you are moved, we are moved, we become, moved- it's an active word. The Proverbs are designed to move you, you aren't supposed to just read the words and say, "wow that was nice," that's not the deal. The Proverbs are really meant to be read under the starry sky, with your heart open to the heavens so far above what any human might even consider; so enormous, and so full of promise, or, something else, but if you can look up at the starry sky and not be moved, then you can read Proverbs and not have a clue, the sayings must move you. Like the first time I heard this... (a video of Leonard Cohen "Hallelujah" should app...

Dr. James C. Taylor, co-authored a power work with Dr. Harold Bryson called "Building Sermons to Meet Peoples Needs," as a student of the great Dr. James C. Taylor, it is my pleasure to distinctly remember him and his wonderful, loving, Christian ways. As John would say of Jesus so would I say of Dr. James C. Taylor, I knew him, and was with him and know that today, he is with Jesus. So the greatness of us, who we really are, comes at us daily; but the sum will come back to us, from those whom we touch and reach and influence. Likely it will not come from the work that we do, unless that work touches people and that will last.  At 3 A.M., this morning it hit me how powerfully Nehemiah affected time and history. The mental blows came at me from Nehemiah chapter 11 and from teaching, from the past. Many times people who say that there is no God, they scoff at those of us who believe in God, and it hit me, Nehemiah chapter 11, verse 6- these men, stood, in th...

The first time you kissed someone, remember it, not a little peck, but a real grabber, that first real kiss?  For some of us, it's hard to get that memory to come back, but if we try, really hard, we can get it back. It is a great memory for just about anyone, and the question about that is, why?  Why is a first kiss significant, is it possibly because, for just about every person,  it is a moment they will remember? Relationships of the wise are based in such common ground of human meaning.  When you chose to make that first kiss, it was with the knowledge that others had kissed before, and they survived it, somewhere in the back of your mind was that certain knowledge of it being so, wasn't it? Now as you are contemplating that, because the answers are myriad as to what that is really all about, and they largely depend upon the viewing point of the person who is making the memory, let's switch gears ever so slightly and move into second gear, no not...

Cause and effect, we believe, that something happens and as a result of that something else happens.  Post Hoc Ergo Hoc - after this because of this, it is our reasoning.  So we presume that systems also fall into this mode, if you take a wall down, you make more space.  That's the post hoc ergo hoc way of seeing it.  A rarer style, however, sees the breakfast that you ate, where the eggs were done just right, and the coffee tasted great- and the orange juice actually had flavor, so when you got to the site ten minutes early, and the foreman said, "some of the designers think we should take this wall out."  You were receptive to the concept- all is a sum- the sum of all parts before hand- not that the sum is greater than the parts, we'll do that some other time, just for now, the sum of the parts beforehand. How many projects are you involved in for others as service only? The point of Proverbs is often to help us see things in a different light So ...

If you've ever walked down an alley late at night, and realized about halfway down that alley, that you were in a rough part of the town, and, alone, and it was late- you realize just how quickly safety can become much more of an issue than we'd like to believe.  If you've ever been driving along in your car and suddenly it gets bumpy and the steering gets funky-and you have to pull over- and you realize, it's a bad place to be - you realize quickly how safety can become much more of an issue than we believe. If you've ever been in an open forum discussing points of view and your point of view is not the one everybody else is sharing- wow wee, do you ever realize, quickly, how safety is an issue.  In your virtual life, on Facebook, or Twitter, or MySpace (practically dead as a social media tool now, from what I hear?) or on your cell phone with APPS (which is becoming much more popular amongst young folks or so I hear?) or YouTube- can your s...

Evangelical Lutheran Churches of America Proverbs 20:23 NIV: "The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him." It is without a doubt, one of the most difficult things to do and that is to be dishonest; you see, not only do you have to fool everybody, but you also have to live with yourself? Think about how sad it is for the evil people in life, they not only have to cheat themselves, and lie to themselves about how grand they are, and how grand their life is, as they cheat their way through it- but at the end of all that, they have to face God who is without partiality? The "ultimate and final truth, no you weren't fair, yes you could have been, no you didn't treat them fairly, yes you could have, no you didn't need that new car, yes you could have helped a person with that money, you chose not to- no you didn't need that additional home for a vacation home, you just wanted it, you didn't need it, you just wanted it...

FRESH FIRE As my body fell into the hole, rebar was every scavenging.wordpress.com 18 inches in a square pattern, so there is no way my body gets in between all of that rebar without an injury, not free falling as I did, and not without serious injury.  But it happened; and to this day, nobody can explain it.  Everybody who looked ashen face into that hole in the street said the same thing "if one of those would have gone ..oh my goodness," and they'd think of some precious spot, usually the head, which in my particular case, couldn't happen, too hard. So at eight years old, my life ended, if something didn't miraculously intervene?  But God did.  How do I know it was God, by faith, just ask my life, it will tell you that.  How about your life, does it say, "HEY Miracle HERE?"  Or have you fallen into another kind of hole? WELL GOOD... How do you know when you love someone, they have the power to hurt you, and frequently ...