Morningside Devotionals

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...

The difference between success and no success in the online world is participation.  It's interesting because even the major "blogs" fight this same dilemma,  Dr. James C. Denison who runs the "Center for Informed Faith," which is based out of Dallas Tx has a listed membership in the hundreds of thousands- so certainly his mail list is quite a bit more extensive than ours, and yet, each day about 8 to 10 comments are monitored into the process- participation is absolutely key but participation is invoked, isn't it(?)- meaning that we have to raise issues that are stark enough that you feel compelled to answer. So moving quickly to the point - in Proverbs 22:4 we hear that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsYpUDJLKj0 How important is it to know where you are in terms of who you are and what you are about?  Humility in terms of who you are is possible without believing in God, but when you add the necessary understanding of who you are with God in the...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_Notice "Burn Notice" a highly touted and much well received television series starring Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Amwar, Bruce Campbell, and Sharon Gless.  While it sounds like sensationalism and a reach is it possible this show can teach Christian's something?  Does the public image of a spy have anything to say to modern Christian's?  If you take it to the ultimate, this show which has nothing to do with the practice of religion, actually does speak about something that does have to do with religion, and it says it brilliantly.  If you cook you know too much heat under something for too long a time can be a disaster. While that is obvious because we call it "burnt," isn't it amazing in modern Christian circles how we manage to miss it? Did God intend that you should burn; would seem not, he covered Moses so he wouldn't burn, and yet, God does control the cooking as we see him using coa...

"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...

NIV - Pro 21:23 - He who guards his mouth and his                              tongue keeps himself from calamity. The facts, how do you get to know the facts? You may see them, on the evening news, you may hear them, from the radio or T.V., if you are just listening, but more often than you realize, you get your news, or at least your sense of the news, from someone else. You hear them tell you what they thought they heard.  It is a perpetual and much faster paced rumor mill than at any other time in history.  Now that's not a terrible problem if we are talking about things that people say that are just moderately important, but when the depth of the item takes an another dimension, the rumor spread can cause absolute devastation, and people can lose not only money, but something much more important than money- they can...

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,...

After finishing a recent read, my week is five books a week , or more, and it's basically forced reading. Someone asked me once if I speed read, truthfully, no, wish I could get the hang of that, have tried, but just force myself to read; and so, absorb five books a week. My contention is that anyone who would force themselves to consume books, could easily do the same or more; and books are important. Someone mentioned once that the only things that count in a life are the people you know and the books you read? What do you think? Does that sound true? Would the Bible, do you think, have something to say about that (hint...in the Old Testament you'll see the word wisdom? Hmm) - anyway, we know if a subject is testable as to truth, we're gonna see it in the scripture. We've seen this time and again, subjects that people believe wouldn't be in the Bible, turn out to be in the Bible and be mentioned in a relevant way. It is not odd, it is sensible, given that...