The Leading of Longings

Who might you be and what would you have become if you were born in another country and in a different culture and time? Reading biographies can give us glimpses into the many possibilities. I’d like to quote today from the life story of one of the last century’s most breath-taking individuals.

Born in 1909 into poverty in eastern Europe and soon orphaned, he was nurtured on the food of atheism — be it food or poison.  He did not believe in God. He did not believe in Christ. He did not believe in religion. To this young man, all such beliefs were “harmful for the human mind.” Continue reading

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Monsoons: Sheets of Rain and Heritage

This week, we experienced the first monsoon rain of the season here in the highlands of Arizona.  Drama in the sky. Billowing clouds a building, fluffy and white, turning gray and black, spreading. Nothing comes of them the first day. Maybe not the second day. We smell humidity in the air. Ahh, yes, the monsoons are a comin’. But not today. Continue reading

Categories: Parenting, Spiritual Growth | Tags: | 2 Comments

The Rest of Dad’s Poem

I’ve been sitting on my recliner, reading my father’s poetry and his grandfather’s poetry. My dad — Marion R. Thomas. My great-grandfather — Daniel Driver Thomas. I never met Daniel Driver, but I heard about him from my father. Dad loved and respected his family members. Dad loved and enjoyed God’s world. I even found a poem he wrote entitled, ” Come, Celebrate Grass” ( 40 lines about his lawn, written around 1987).  Two posts ago, I gave you the beginning of Dad’s poem entitled, “Suppose.” Here is the entire poem, written in the 1940’s: Continue reading

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Everything For Our Enjoyment

I was struck this morning by this clause in I Timothy 6:17: “…God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” He provides for more than our needs; He provides for our joy.  Our five senses do more than inform us. I hear music — soothing or invigorating. I see colors in interesting patterns with light and shadow — delighting and inspiring.  I smell, I feel, I taste…. While my senses can respond in crass carnality, He designed them to point me to Himself, the Creator, and to cause me to joy.  This joy is a worshipful response of confident trust in and extreme admiration for our LORD. Selah

The Indwelt Word + Experience = Christ-living. So this morning, Continue reading

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Getting Home Before Dark

Some of the best reads for any of us are the journals and writings of our ancestors.  My father died ten years ago this July. Does that make Dad my ancestor?  According to Webster’s, yes.   I tend to think of ancestors as people who lived generations ago, not my own dad — the man whose expressive face is as clear as the sound of his hearty laughter saved in my mind, the man who picked me up and carried me to the house when I fell off my bike, the man on whom I leaned my head and rested as he drove us home after church on Sunday evenings. . . .

Dad is now my ancestor, certainly my children’s and grandsons’ ancestor. So, his writings are now more valuable. Here is one of his poems Continue reading

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Oil of Gladness: Recommendation and Recipes

How about an easy read today. Something light, if you call oil something light. Well, the Bible speaks of the “oil of gladness,” so this topic will be light-hearted and nutritious.  I’ve been wanting to get to a health topic. Continue reading

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When Overwhelmed, Distracted, Frenzied, What to do, What to do?

So many things to think about, so many things to do, so many things to read, so many viewing options, so much world conflict, so much local trouble, so many broken souls, so many fractured lives, too many broken promises, too few believable voices, too many options at the grocery store, so many restaurants to enjoy, so many toxins in food and environment, too few reliable sources of anything, so much disappointment through experience, yet so much hope in youthful vigor, too few stable anchors, but then only One is needed.

Take a breath!

Most generations concur: Continue reading

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This Incredibly Extravagant Generosity of God

Here is a beautiful description of God’s grace and the gospel of Christ:  “This incredibly extravagant generosity of God.”  From Acts 20:24, this is the way an older pastor and Bible scholar interprets-translates the ending of Acts 20:24, describing the Apostle Paul’s gospel-sharing calling. 1

The Via Dolorosa – The Way of Christ’s Suffering                                                                                                              Via Dolorosa: The Way of Christ’s Suffering

Continue reading

Categories: Joy & Suffering -- Good & Evil, Spiritual Growth | Tags: | 4 Comments

Jesus In; His Attributes Coming Out

Hello!!!! “I’m back from the Front, Old Top!”

That is an old saying from World War I. I learned it from my dad who heard it from his dad who was a WWI vet. When a soldier said it, he’d hit his friend on his back, then his front, and then would pat his head — “I’m back from the Front, Old Top!” I too say it occasionally, but without the gestures.

Paul sharing the gospel with a young man who prayed to receive Christ at the mission's Salsa Festival on March 29.

Paul sharing the gospel with a young man who prayed to receive Christ at the mission’s Salsa Festival on March 29.

So, we’re back from Florida where we spent 17 days at the Good Samaritan Mission. Wow! Continue reading

Categories: Being Like Jesus, Spiritual Growth | Tags: | 3 Comments

The Makings of a Christian Mind

Harry Blarmires, Charlotte (from Charlotte’s Web), and Frank Lloyd Wright. What do they have in common?

In my last post, I closed by asking, “Do you have a truly Christian mind?”  In this post, I simply want to list the six characteristics of a Christian mind that Harry Blarmires describes in his book, The Christian Mind (first published in 1963). Continue reading

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