Nearly always, it’s easier to see religiousness in others well before seeing it in yourself. This is not only true of religious tendencies, but all manner of shortcomings and undesirable personal qualities.
Scrutinizing others and holding yourself harmless is quite nearly a universal tendency.
Just because you can see the hollowness of ceremony in others, does it mean you are above it or free from such? No.
Continue reading “Visible Religion”
Men, in order for your family to realize their potential, you must reach yours as a husband and father. It is altogether unlikely they will escape your influence. And their future will be limited by your present. This is a part of your God given responsibility, and you’ll not escape it. In fact, properly embracing this fact and acting on it, you can establish your family with this impact lasting for generations.
This is tricky, and we can react to this awareness in ways that are counterproductive.
Continue reading “Realizing Potential”
We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen… 1Corinthians
I was honored by an invitation to speak to a men’s meeting that a friend was hosting recently. I prayed and thought about what would be appropriate to share. Later on while I was mowing, this inspiration came to me.
We are building an invisible house. Sometimes the visible things around us compete with that reality, including our natural “house” or accumulations. These two, as far as focus or priorities go, can be mutually exclusive and at a minimum tend to struggle with each other for first place. Keeping the most important thing as primary will go a long way toward a fruitful and peace filled life. If we focus solely on natural things and accumulations, it will undermine and steal the opportunity away from the construction of our spiritual lives. That is why we must realize that “consumerism” or materialism is a deadly weapon to our effectual faith, especially so in our post modern culture.
Continue reading “An Invisible House”
Before I went to kindergarten, I had my first spiritual experience. How precocious, right? Well.. This spiritual encounter was actually from the devil. I was between 2 & 3 yrs old. I remember it, grant you. Not sure forgetting that is possible. I was in the middle bedroom at my grandmother’s house, where we were living due to my parent’s recent divorce. It was little kid nap time, and Mammaw Hill had laid me down for a nap. To the left side of the bed he appeared at some stage in nap time. It was a classic depiction of the devil, maybe I’d seen him on “deviled” ham cans, but there was no mistaking who was there. The jest of the encounter was this; he was (falsely) claiming me as his own. This experience was not from God and was accompanied by a payload of fear, with a side of attempted control and deception. I never wanted to nap in that room again.
Humans are Spiritual Beings
“Keep a man from food and he will gobble poison”, CS Lewis astutely declared. In this exploration of things spiritual, I hope to help you discern between the food and the poison. Discernment is the needed key ingredient, which we appear to be very nearly devoid of in our times. Discernment of spirits as it’s called in the old KJV, is as much for discerning the true as it is the false. We are lacking the discernment of the true just as much as we are the false. “Don’t be deceived” is a recurring phrase in the scripture and not without reason. Absent vigilance, and growing skill, deception is unavoidable. We might even slip so far as to call the good, evil and the evil, good. Woe to us!
Continue reading “Not Everything Spiritual is Holy”
