Thoughts from Within

If you are married, the title of this blog probably caught your attention. Well, with Valentine's Day soon approaching and with "love being in the air"... these are my thoughts from within ... The general opinion of marriage today is that it is difficult. It takes a lot of hard work to sustain. That it is not always so blissful. In fact, the hard work that is said it takes to make a marriage work is often cited as the reason so many marriages end in divorce. After our wedding, I remember a certain couple who- week after week- kept asking my wife and I if "the honeymoon was over," suggesting that the happiness we were enjoying would wane over time. Both my wife and I were very disheartened at this suggestion. Not because we feared our joy would lessen over time, but because everyone else- it seemed- shared the same outlook on their marriage. But for my wife and me, it hasn't come to that. In thirteen years, our passion for each other hasn't weaken...

"One of the hardest duties to handle as a leader is that of delegation; because- too often- the passion he has for seeing a task performed exceptionally well is not shared by those to whom he has delegated it. But a good leader will recognize his limitations and delegate anyway, always taking note of who can be trusted and who cannot. So, if one is called upon over and over again to assigned tasks... he should consider that a compliment and a testament of his trustworthy character. Conversely, if he is never called upon for a delegated task, perhaps his trustworthiness has been called into question." --Anonymous Having worked in a leadership position of a ministry for thirteen years, I haven't always had an easy time giving over responsibility to others. I get it honestly. My dad, a pastor of 30 years, had a difficult time with this for the first half of his service. His mindset -as was mine- was: "If you want something done right, just do it yourself." The...

  "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because his deeds were evil . For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." --John 3:19-21 We cannot expect those who don't believe physical truth to accept spiritual truth, yet we, as Christians, shake our heads in disappointment when our lost society embraces sin. The fact of the matter is that their conformity to sinful standards should be expected. No greater examples of this can be given than recent news headliners Bruce Jenner, Rachel Dolezal and our Supreme Court. Here's the physical truth: Bruce Jenner is a man . Rachel Dolezal is white and our Supreme Court justices are not law-makers. Jenner was created a man. Dolezal was created white. The Supreme Court was create...

  The Trainer and His Objective The role of a trainer is to prepare another participant for a future engagement. Trainers are to provide the trainee with tools for interacting during that engagement when it arises. If successfully trained, the trainee will use those tools to effect the outcome desired of the trainer . Therefore, it can be assumed that the trainee's performance is a direct reflection of his training, but even more so of the one providing the training... the trainer . The Christian Trainer If you, as a believer, have children, then you are a spiritual trainer regardless of whether or not you desire to be. The parent is either training proactively by obeying God's Word, or he is training myopically (unwittingly) by ignoring God's Word. So often we hear Proverbs 22:6-- "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" -- and we tie it to Biblical obedience. We all understand that the verse denotes that...

I fail God everyday. There are days I fail Him by sinning willfully and there are days I sin and don't even realize it. We've all been there, I'm sure. When we sin willfully, we understand it and we can choose to correct the behavior at our own inclination. But how can we change the pattern of sin of which we are unaware? A few days ago in my morning devotions, I came across Psalms 19:12. It says, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults." It struck me, and humbled me as I read, re-read, and pored over it in meditation. Here King David enlightens the believer to recognize that there are sinful actions, thoughts and behavior of which we are completely oblivious. In fact, we are repeat offenders because these sins have not been revealed to us. It got me to thinking, "what are my secret faults?" I'm sure those who observe me closely can tell me, and I could very easily return the favor because it's always easier to poi...

The year 2014 was a roller coaster ride for me and my family, and as with any roller coaster, you start at the bottom. Our ride began in January, homeless and living with my in-laws. It sounds way worse that it played out. Being homeless was actually an answer to prayer. We owned our own home for seven years before we outgrew it. It sold quickly and, to make a long story short, we needed a place to crash until we found a new house. My in-laws were actually very hospitable and patient with us during our tenure there. February was looking up. But that's the only direction it could have headed after receiving news that my dad had prostrate cancer. We spotted a home online, did some research and made an offer. By month's end, we signed paperwork and the house was ours. This was a miracle in itself, seeing the home had been repossessed and was government-owned. The process on houses like this normally takes months and months, but God worked it all out. March w...

As we strive to project the Gospel in our daily lives, we are to display boldness. Boldness is simply taking a stand without fearing the repercussions or consequences of that stand. The Bible says in Acts 4:31, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." Boldness is a good trait to have in light of spreading the Gospel; in fact, it is a trait most leaders possess. However, being bold can be used as a tool of discouragement if abused. It can empower the tongue (or keypad) to voice opinions and judgments that are contrary to the will of God, and when that happens, we lose credibility for the Gospel.  I recently ran across something very helpful on the internet the other day that I am going to try to keep in mind. I did expound on them a bit. Here they are: Boldness doesn't justify: Poor planning. Why plan? The bold individual has i...