Morningside Devotionals

Every year we have the friends over for a little party, about six of them, think it is, anywho, it's nice to see how they have changed and how the world has changed, together, every year; it's a nice measuring stick.  What do you use? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTYIAp0GrLA

Click Here To Image Site Oh please, tell me that you aren't a RUSH fan, I can just hear it now.  So the deal is, if you listen to that stuff you just can't be a Christian, please, that's so archaic it makes my teeth hurt, and when my teeth hurt, you can tell it in my writing!  Goodness- how far ahead of their time is the rock band RUSH, I'm not even sure they have a time, but of this I am certain, they found the techno alienation of this world and made the message of their songs speak to it, and people by the millions and millions world wide, responded to it.  In this one album, which came up out of the grass roots of Canada, "2112," predicted a cold world possessed by priests who only seek to maintain the status quo, no matter what.  And what did the album indicate was the hook point of that control, the freedom of people to play music, well, it might sound simplistic but the voice of the prophet comes in all sorts of flavors, and I take the...

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...

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 ...

Gutsy- or- Convinced? Do you ever wonder about Paul  of the New Testament writings?  Beaten nearly to death on more  than one occasion- left off the face of the earth at sea in storms that would have scared most people away for good, viciously  lied about in his ministry, and  treated like an outcast by his own people- Paul undoubtedly knew what it was to be in trouble,  wouldn't you agree?  Even non Christian atheistic types  have to respect Paul because  they know in their guts if  someone grabbed them out of their house and dragged them half naked through the  streets and then plastered them bent over onto a tree stump in the town sqaure and proceeded to beat the livin' daylights out of them- they'd lose their obstinant ways  in a hurry- and so would I, and so likely would many who lie like a big dog when they claim they wouldn't!  Being  beaten nearly to death, at that point, my friend,...

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.

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 ...

"Gone to the dogs," another saying that we don't know the origin of but the suspicion is that dogs of the Germanic Europe weren't liked by the Roman invading armies, and so, they were kept outside the camps and when someone went outside the camp; you know, to do what they needed to do, the saying was they'd "gone to the dogs." It has come to mean something negative in our culture, when it shouldn't, my dogs behave far better than many of my so called Christian friends. You may have had a similar experience, which is unfortunate, have to admit it's rare, but there are too many times when my dogs seem to get the whole thing about loving, but Christian's?  Well you get the point. Right now Mopsey, who came to us as an abused dog, she weighed in then at skin and bones twenty pounds, most of her fur had been kicked or torn off, she looked like she had the mange- and so Debbie took her to the vet, and $150.00 later we found ou...

In the time when Jesus ministered the lives in the villages were being ruined by two branches of community life leadership.  Poor religious, to non-existent religious leadership, the people kept their mind to God because they spoke of, remembered in song and tales, their God and His actions; but the leaders, were fast becoming paid enforcement officials of "what ought to be done," note that difference, it is as if though they knew.  The second life leading force that was against the people was the government in which they were held, Israel, was captive to Rome; and Rome was, watch this one, overtaxing them, abusing them by use of the law to their disadvantage; and terrorizing them to live in fear of the power of the enforcement of the Roman Law (Pax Romana).  One Pastor has said that America seems a lot like that today?  In my humble opinion America today looks more like another nation, France, prior to the revolution therein, we have many of the characteristics worl...

We spoke yesterday of the test about love and the Body of Christ; how you did on that exam, tells you a lot, you see it is between you and God where you stand with the Body of Christ, but it is between you and the world where it will stand for eternity.  Loving without presence, isn't loving.  One of my associates heard someone say, "Love people use things, don't use things and love people," but when asked where that quote came from, in other words the presence, they didn't know- Dr. Covey, whom it's been my thrilling pleasure to have met on two occasions, both unannounced and both, without getting his autograph, but by meeting him, he allowed me to move into his presence.  Dr. Covey brought that, to love people, use things; to everyone's attention when he was explaining to them that they needed to expand the fences that guarded their hearts in their lives.  Dr. Covey uses a famous story about the man who gets on the subway train on Sunday morning in New Y...

Ever take a test where you got an A, but you knew good and well that one of your answers was incomplete? It may seem hard to believe, have you ever been asked a question that you thought you knew the answer to, so you gave it, and it was right, but later, you realized, the answer was not totally right, even though it satisfied the question? This is the harder aspect of what we are walking in today, as Christian's, we're being fooled into believing we are doing what is right, that we are following Christ, but what's happening is we are being led along a path that is not the path Christ wants us, Christian's to take, and the way that we know this is two fold - 1) Does the path you are taking agree with Jesus teaching in the New Testament- and - 2) When you listen very carefully in your prayer time, does the still small voice confirm it? The test you see, of Christianity is conflict, any time that anything conflicts with Christianity, that conflict is a measure of the...

"We can't possibly be that stupid," what sort of measure would you use?  Humankind has now built cities that stretch up into the heavens- the worlds tallest building, (we might see it painted in the blood of those who shed their valiant blood on the sand to pay for the oil that built it)  at present in Dubai, shows so clearly how cities get bigger and taller and yet, oddly, don't they become, less habitable, which you can read as - SMOG- pollution and the offshoot of what we call, progress.  God called it gardening, and in the grand design lacking greed God would have had us plant and manage and work under His guidance.  Today we strive mightily to ignore God 24/7 except when there is a personal or larger disaster, then we cry about God and ask with arrogant stupidity- "how can God allow this to happen."  God doesn't allow "this to happen," God has been trying for centuries to get the free will of man to understand His control; and we resist. ...

Someone said the other day, "I read your writing," which usually I take as a compliment, but what I didn't know was what was coming next when they said, "and I don't agree with what you said, and here is why," now I was really loving it, because this is what anybody who writes desires, that those who differ with them would say so, and say why.  This is also, in my heart, what Jesus did, which is why, those who worship Him as the savior, are so splendid in how they do what they do, and those who don't, revere Him anyway.  Can the same be said of you and your conduct?  Would someone say, I know them, and I don't like them, but I do respect what they represent?  Read the statement and then... FREE PC/Laptop Speed UP "drd's" Blog Ooh Visit Our Twitter Group 1000 plus strong and growing! Visit our Facebook effort, it will make ya smile! Visit our MySpace effort, it will make you glad you did! Visit our YouTube- it is truly, goin...

History is a day by day event, when you are living it, if your life reaches the place where you develop a legacy, then it takes on whole new meanings. Imagine that, what if the life you are passing off today, as having little or no future reference, is about to be catapulted into a future of legacy? What would you do different, anything? Do you, first off, believe Issac was a real Patriarch- not just a made up name? The Old Testament is today examined for it's veracity, as nothing ever has been, so, while you might, as one of the readers of this writing believe Issac was real, I'm here to tell you that you exist in a world which increasingly says that the Patriarch's, not just Issac, are all, made up stories to give us morality lessons. Folks, I'm not making this stuff up, it is being challenged like you wouldn't believe, and that's the weirdest thing of all, because, if anybody kept a vocal history of their lineage, it was, the Jews. So do you imagine tha...

Freedom is a tough issue, because, it bears the marks of pain on the backs of those who seek it. Freedom it turns out, isn't free, unless Jesus is right; in which case it is, but if that is the case, then we really should look closely at what sort of doctrine approach we take toward those who aren't able to make it on their own? Right now the approach from many Christian's is, "let the lazy so and so get a job, like me!" Which is an interesting expression of love, what that really says is, "I'm not really thrilled with that I'm doing to make my way in this world, so I want you to come join me in my miserable condition." Being honest about it, that's really what is being said, and being honest about it, that is not what Jesus said at all, and they know it. What then do we do? The hard response is, we turn to Christ and as simple as it seems, we seek His will in the matter, but here is what He will say: Jhn 6:28 Then said they unto him, ...

Why do you suppose God had the people meet him on a mountain? Have you ever considered that of all the places that Jesus could have transfigured Himself, He chose a mountain? What is it about mountains? Singularly, they are - up. That is a fact about them that it is impossible to get away from- they are, up. When a person moves from the hateful basis for life of the world, which believes in what it can see, hear, feel or touch (Eros love, physical love) into the sacrificial sort of love, (Agapeo', Godlike love), they often move through brotherly or Phileo (American's get the word Philadelphia the city of brotherly love from this) love to get to the higher form of love. The mountaintop kind of love, the sort of love where you would do anything, go anywhere, become anything, move through anything, face any challenge, lose fear at any level- just to have the knowing that the one toward whom you felt this love, knew it. Sacrificial love doesn't think of itself, it consid...

Nobody who knows me believes I can do this, but, each day in October we will review one mind boggling theological concept in one paragraph. That's the part nobody can buy, they know I have a big mouth and write like I speak. But here is what they don't know, a person who is in love, can do remarkable things, and this is written for you, and, I love you. God, you know, is love. Consider that, the Bible doesn't say God knows about love, that would be obvious, or that God approves of love, or even that God, who made us in His image, wonders about love when it comes to humankind whom He created, but who apparently don't get it. No the Bible says, God is love, and that, is water to water, water is water, dirt is dirt, electricity is shocking, but electricity is electricity- so while you are trying to dig your head out of it, let's take this first mind boggling theological truth and absorb it from this one paragraph, "God is love." (1 John 4:8) drd's Blog...

The video on the "Revelation Song," so passionately and with anointing, done by Kari Jode, exemplifies what worship can become. We have become familiar with worship as connecting to God, a place where you and God are together, it is as if, you and God are there and no other person is present, that sense of His presence invades your heart, touches your soul, and as you listen to the truth of adoring Jesus, and the power of that adoration; the heart of worship develops. It is that heart which can love, it is the forgiving and understanding, and compassionate heart, it is the heart of love. It is that heart which God gives you. One of the deepest mysteries of faith in my life is to see people who believe they are born again, yet they have not had this change take place in their heart? Someone asked me how a person can know that they are a Christian, and near as I can tell, the answer isn't hard, their heart won't be; because the heart of God, the new heart which God p...

"Four"- it's what golfers shout to let people on the fairway know they have hit a tee shot. It means,"Watch out I don't hit straight!" No actually it means "Beware!" which is what part four of our spiritual questions journey will bring in today... (4)You see the trees everyday, but on this morning, the greens seem somehow more brilliant? The blue of the sky seems more intense, the clouds are wispy and brilliant white, and you smile, for no particular reason, you smile. Situation four is subjective - we as people are entirely subjective- you can eat a meal on Tuesday when you are feeling good, and having a good day, and it will taste great, Thursday of a week later, same exact meal, but this day you are stressed and don't feel good and didn't sleep well, and it will not taste good. We are subjective. God, being God, isn't. God is God- not subject to anything. I know people who preach an interesting legal non sense that God is boun...