Morningside Devotionals

We are so used to shooting ourselves in the foot that we've lost track of what appealing means.  What appeals to someone who loves the Lord Jesus and is following Him, doesn't appeal to somebody who isn't like that- the world outside of Christ and church doesn't have a thing to do with spiritual matters.  Christian's have forgotten this, while not listening to the voice of Jesus on the matter.  What do you think feeding the five thousand was really all about?   Yes, it was a declaration in action of being the Messiah, the "bread of life," practically nobody can contest that, but is that it?  Of course not, look, lets get straight about something when it comes to miraculous events and how they are remembered - either Jesus (and Paul) meant it, or they didn't, either Jesus is good to His word on this one:  " Jhn 5:20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that y...

I've heard preachers talk about how Moses must've been sad not to cross into the promised land with his people- only, I'm not so sure about that - he was, 120 years old; anybody think like me on that one, that's a lot of years; and, God had provisioned a leader of faith, Joshua, to take Moses place- O.K., Joshua has the name that is the task of Christ, "Jehovah is Salvation," is what his name literally means, and Moses of course was the law, so at Mt. Nebo , the law was laid down and could not pass into the promised land that Joshua would lead the people into - it seems to be an easy archetype for Jesus leading those who are no longer under the law into the promised land?  It is easy to become morose about following Christ, years and tears take you down paths you never thought you'd go down, in ways you never thought you'd go; and the long road, oh the road gets long sometimes don't it? Well; I'm just not so sure Moses wasn't ready to be la...

Prayer - going to God to be with God in the most private of ways imaginable.  Believing God will hear you, and, knowing God will act on what you ask, and, then; listening to what God says in response to your prayer.  Reading the Bible every day, in a set fashion so that, if you are reading books of the Bible, or, sections, that in a set amount of time, you have read it through, so that at some point you have studied the entire scripture, end to end.  One of the claims of the secular world is that fundamentalist Christian's don't know the scripture.  The unfortunate truth is just that, so, don't allow yourself the luxury of saying "aw, Jesus will forgive me," that's not the point, your here as a remnant Christian to Heaven to let others know about Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to make disciples, not just to; so called "witness," there is an enormous difference, and if you aren't making disciples, you will get to explain to Christ why you aren't.  ...

 As old as man, and back beyond man, apparently, is a divine sense of the comedy which is life.  Only God with such a sense of what must be could construct such a way to do it.  People today don't have to do many things in order to ensure that they acquire heaven- that is, if you go by the beliefs of standard evangelicals, who have seen such a numeric downsizing during the last decade in the U.S. that now they are eclipsed by the rest of the world in worship practices attendance; to those evangelicals the issue is simplifying how to tell a person they don't have to go to hell.  What those evangelicals don't realize is people don't care about it- they don't believe that they are eternal, and they don't believe that there is a hell; except the one that they are living in; the daily grind where true leadership has been turned into a mockery and actual caring is as rare as finding a diamond stone when you get out of your car in the protected parking area, because se...

"And you run and you run, to catch up with the sun, but its sinking, racing around, to come up behind you again. The sun is same, in a relative way, but your older. Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." Pink Floyd, a band with enormous impact, a band which would record in the Beatles recording studio, Abbey Road, and a band whose album "Dark Side of the Moon," went on to become one of rock and rolls pantheon albums of all time, approaching the sales of the Beatles in popularity. Why do you suppose young folks connected so heavily to lyrics like these? Yes it's true the music was hauntigly different, but the lyrics themselves are known, repeated often, and if you ask a young person if they've heard of Pink Floyd, good chance that they have, and good chance they are familiar with these very words, they are some of Pink Floyd's most popular. Would it surprise you to know that they are, outlandish as it might sound, coming from principl...

One of the weirdest things about people is this thing that happens when they believe they have it "together," and don't need to learn or grow anymore. It is particularly weird when it concerns the area of God and relating to God, but what my experience has taught me is that a person who is arrogant in life about other things, is usually going to carry that same ignorant haughtiness into the realm of God. Such arrogance is distasteful, especially when you make an effort to share with the arrogant where they are shorting themselves of some blessings by being arrogant. If you've ever had the experience of studying some materials that are beyond belief in their wonder and majesty and you share with someone that actually could use the material about it, and they say, "well ya know - I just really don't have time for that, besides, I don't need to know stuff like that." It catches you up short a bit, because the correct answer ought always to be, ...

 So much of what we know about God, whether we like it or not, is mysterious; God clearly lets us know that His ways aren't our ways; no kidding- and His thoughts aren't our thoughts; when have any of us decided the best way to do things is to bring total destruction upon them?  God is above us, so far beyond our ability to see Him that at times just getting your brain around the fact that God is personal, can be, and should be a bit awe inspiring, and, scary?  But the God that we see in the Old Testament Hebrew seems somehow different from the impression we get of Christ?  If you note the subtle differences; God told Israel to totally wipe out groups of cities which were Baal oriented, Christ wouldn't wipe out men who had perverted the very nature of the Law which He authored?  So as you think on this, today, which historically we take as the day Jesus is entombed; as He would rise again, in three days; as you think on the power that you have within you; God in...