Musings and Nuggets

And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid.  Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord , which He will accomplish for you today.  For the Egyptians whom you see today,  you shall see no more.  The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.                                                      Exodus 14: 13-14 ( NKJV) Perhaps you have been in a situation that seemed dire with no way out, just to watch God intervene and do what only He could do.  You were "set up" to witness and benefit from God fighting your battle for you.                                                       Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash When the children of Israel were trapped between ...

                                                      Photo by Benji Aird on Unsplash When a baby is born into a family, everybody is excited for this cute little human miracle. At birth, it can only tolerate milk, but as it gets older, it's body needs more than just milk to mature properly. If it does not get the proper nutrition, both its physical growth and brain development all are stunted.  When we first accept Christ as our Savior, we are excited and passionate about sharing the Good News with everybody!  In order for babes in the Lord to grow spiritually, they must be as passionate about maturing, as a hungry baby's demand for milk.    Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grown up into salvation.   1 Peter 2:2.     In order  to become a mature Christian, one must h...

                                                         To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:  Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV).                                                                                This is true in nature and in our journey of faith.                                                                       A time to be born, and A time to die ... Ecclesiastes 3:2.                ...

  Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.  But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.    1 Samuel 30:6 (NKJV) When David and his men returned home tired and weary to find that their  houses had been burned to the ground and their wives and children had been taken captive, all of them (including David) were devastated.  In their anger, his men wanted to stone David, who had to  encourage "himself in the Lord." Our circumstances may not be as dire as those of David in this scripture, but at some point in our journey each one of us will be faced with things that may shake us to our core.  One of the mistakes we sometimes make is that we look for others to encourage us, when we need to be able to encourage ourselves.  How? Through prayer, scripture, and reminding ourselves of God's faithfulness in the past. He h...

Jesus had just finished praying when the disciples asked Him to "teach them to pray" He gave them a hypothetical scenario to teach them that persistence in prayer is important.  Although the friend did not want to be inconvenienced, he knew that the person at the door making the request would not give up.  He got up, gave the friend the bread, but not out of the goodness of his heart. He knew that the friend would not stop bugging him until he complied.   His friend was the squeaky wheel.       I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.    Luke 11:8  (nkjv) The Oxford dictionary defines persistence as "firm or obstinate continuance of a course of action in inspite of difficulty or opposition".  Simply put, it means being too stubborn or desperate to give up. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to...

                                                  Photo by A aron Burden on Unsplash *Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6 (nkjv) I am always annoyed when someone says that "children are the church of tomorrow".  I totally disagree. If children are a not functioning part of the church today at some level and allowed/encouraged to participate, then they are apt to lose interest, being reduced to being a mere spectator. They will be ill prepared to be tomorrow's church leaders.   For example, a person who is always sitting "on the bench" and never allowed on the court to develop their skills, or build camaraderie with the team, cannot be expected to jump in at the last minute and be effective participant with any kind of confidence.  They are at a disadvantage....

  But as many as received Him, to them He gave  the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  John 1:12-13. (NKJV)   You've probably heard someone say that "we are all God's children!"   Perhaps you have actually said it yourself, but are we really a child of God just because our mother gave birth to us? According to the above scripture,  there is more to it than that.                                                                                                    Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash Each one of us has an equal "right"/opportunity to become a child o...