My Online Faith Journal

  The little prophetic book of Zechariah has some fantastic visions in it.  We lose a lot of the meaning in the present day because so much of it is symbolic.  Zechariah lived during a time of economic and political upheaval for the promise land.  The Jewish people were coming back from captivity from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and their country.  Much like Iraq has been the last couple of years, the nation was vulnerable to attack and corruption.   Zechariah has a vision in the night in Zechariah one and he says, "During the night I had a vision-ahd there before me was a man riding a red horse! He ws standing amongh the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown, and white horses." Zech 1:8  I believe this is significant that the rider was down in a ravine.  It represents the low place that Israel finds itself in this period.  The rider is Jesus Himself, a preincarnate vision of the Son of God.  The fact that he is down in the ravine suggests that God is there

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1    It seems that Christians are more often known for what they are against than what they are for.  They seem to be thought of by many people as rigid and judgmental.  Maybe that is because we sometimes are and sometimes fight over things that seem petty to others outside the church, like whether or not to have a softball team or an Easter Egg Hunt.  But, it seems to me that christians should be a most forgiving lot since we have been forgiven so much.      If I ever do come across as judgmental, I would say that the person I have the least amount of grace towards is myself.  I tend to dwell on past mistakes and sins long after I have asked for forgiveness.  So, these words in Romans 8 (in fact the whole chapter is beautiful) reminds me that God no longer condemns me.  Those sins have been placed on and nailed to the cross.  It is great if I want to learn from my mistakes, but I don'

The New Life Daily Devotional quotes James 3:5-10 regarding the power of our words. http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/NewLife/11633477/    In the book of James, James reminds us that the words that we use can do great damage.  Among other things, James calls it a "flame of fire".  We would do well to remember the damage that it can do.  I heard about a woman who came up to Dwight Moody and told him that "I don't have problems with my tongue.  I just go off and then it is done."  Dwight replied, "Yes, and so does a shotgun and look at the damage that it does."   Many people grow up hearing only how stupid or ugly they are from parents or other people who should be loving them and not tearing them down.  Other people might not hear anything at all, but are treated like dirt and abused.  In the absence of encouraging words, a person will start to believe negative hurtful comments even if they are not true.  Where I work in the mental health field,

  This week we heard about a statute in Ohio of Jesus that literally burned down from lightning strike.  A article I found stated: "The "King of Kings" statue, one of Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati. The 62ft tall 40ft wide sculpture, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown in a game of football." see rest of article here:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7831077/60ft-Jesus-statue-burns-to-ground.html    When I first saw this article, I thought about it and wondered to myself when is it expressing reverence and when it is it a graven image?  In Exodus 20:4 it says, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not

"you want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives." James 4:2-3    This week I had some prayers of mine answered.  It was a great encouragement for me to keep  praying for those things that I want to happen that have not yet.  In thinking about the situation, I realized that I went for a long time hoping, but not praying about my concerns.  James was telling his readers that there were two main reasons they were not getting what they wanted.  One they were asking with wrong motives.  But, also there were times when they were not asking at all.  They preferred to do things their own way rather than humble themselves and pray.   Over and over again, the Bible encourages us to lift up our hearts concerns to God.  In Philippians 4:6 it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and pet

   Today was one of those days where I just wanted to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep.  I am not sure why I felt that way.  Nothing actually bad happened all day.  I actually felt okay and my blood sugar was normal all day.  In fact, it was 86 when I came home from work which is right in the middle of normal.    So, after seeing one of my clients and feeling pretty good about the visit, I came home and mowed my lawn.  I hate mowing my lawn because it has a lot of hilly spots on it.  In fact, the backyard has a huge hill that is great for sledding down if it snows, but otherwise is not a good thing.  After mowing, I notice that my cat Tootsie had a baby rabbit (brown) in her mouth.  She was going across the street with it presumably to eat it.  Of our three cats, Tootsie is the only female and the hunter of the group.   Anyway, I stopped Tootsie and took the rabbit out of her mouth and let it go.  I took Tootsie inside to get her away from it and th

"If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." Psalm 139:8, NIV    In Psalm 139, the psalmist writes about how God is all powerful and all knowing.  He tells us that there is nowhere that we can go to escape the attention of God.  There is nothing that we can think of or know that God has not seen.  There is no secrets with God, no  unknowns.     A coach at Sam Houston State University for the football team came and spoke at our BSU and referred to this chapter.  It was the first time that I had had any exposure to this chapter that I can recall.  That was also the first year that I realized that I had problems with fatigue and possible blood sugar problems.  To me, when I look at this chapter, I think of those times.  It tells me that there is nothing that I am going through that God