More than a prayer, it is a conversation with God that most of us should be having.

I received an email from a friend yesterday and thought it was well worth sharing. This is in 2 parts, the prayer in the plum color, and God’s responses in green.

Our Father Who Art In Heaven. Yes? Don’t interrupt me. I’m praying. But — you called ME! Called you? No, I didn’t call you. I’m praying. Our Father who art in Heaven. There — you did it again! Did what? Called ME. You said, “Our Father who art in Heaven” Well, here I am.. What’s on your mind? But I didn’t mean anything by it. I was, you know, just saying my prayers for the day. I always say the Lord’s Prayer. It makes me feel good, kind of like fulfilling a duty. Well, all right. Go on.

Okay, Hallowed be thy name . Hold it right there. What do you mean by that? By what? By “Hallowed be thy name”? It means, it means . . good grief, I don’t know what it means. How in the world should I know? It’s just a part of the prayer. By the way, what does it mean? It means honored, holy, wonderful. Hey, that makes sense.. I never thought about what ‘hallowed’ meant before. Thanks.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Do you really mean that? (more…)

When I see a shining example of the way we were meant to be, I can’t help myself… I just have to promote it.

I have always believed that there is enough abundance in this world for everyone to have it all.  The difficulty has always been how to get the resources to where they need to be.

Portraits for Patriots is a shining example of how this can be done.

Human ingenuity is not to be underestimated, and this effort proves the point.  It is a win – win approach to moving much needed resources to wounded warrior charities to help improve the lives of those that have given more than their time in service to our country.

Portraits for Patriots will provide photographers for your event to capture the memories, and offer the portraits for sale online.  When a portrait is purchased, all proceeds over the cost of printing and shipping are donated.   Eron Iler of GPS Fleet Solutions in Wesley Chapel, FL, is the shining example responsible for this project.  His vision is to assist photographers across the nation to take up the cause and provide Portraits for Patriots in their own communities.

The bible teaches us that we are each gifted with God given talents that we are to use for the benefit of others.  The apostle Paul wrote, (more…)

Battlefield reports on the news are a constant reminder that all is not well.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            In a time when so many of our young men and women are serving on battlefields far from home, it is still difficult for us to relate to the reasons and purposes being served.  It all seems so far away.  How can we begin to understand our place in a world filled with war when we do not physically see the battlefield?

I have heard preachers of many denominations speak about the battlefield being threefold.

They say it is in, around, and above us.  They say there is  a battle within, being our struggle with our sinful nature, a battle around us as we struggle against temptation, and a larger battlefield above us in the heavens where countless legions of those opposed to God and those loyal to Him battle to possess the souls of Christ’s church.   Some may simplify it and describe the struggle as being in mind, body, and spirit, but I have grown to see these as only three facets of a many faceted battlefield.

Our newscasters water it down for us, speaking of things like the “war in the middle east”,  but there are many wars in the middle east.  And there is not just  a war behind the war, but many wars behind and within each of these wars.   There are many dimensions to the struggle.  Nation against nation, power against power, riches against riches, politician against politician, religion against religion, race against race, even sect against sect and denomination against denomination!  Behind every concept of the battlefield we attempt to comprehend, there seems to lie another more sinister manipulation going on.  In truth, even those on foreign soil in the midst of the battlefield only glimpse at the surface of the real battle being fought.   How far we have wandered from the plans our God of peace (shalom) intended for us, but WHY? (more…)

In the biblical account of the Exodus, Moses leads a multitude out of Egypt.

This multitude followed Moses for 40 years, wandering in the desert being cleansed and made ready to receive the things that God had promised to Abraham, Issac and Jacob. I touched on something in my last post, What Color or Race Are Gods Chosen People, that was purely speculation on my part. Writing that post was an emotionally draining experience because I was determined to boldly convey what I felt to be true, but I was ever conscious of the sensitivity of the subject and the potential to offend. After the fact, I felt a need to dig deeper into the historical record to better understand who the people were that Moses led out of Egypt, carrying with them the spoils of this once powerful kingdom, and to find within this story the pearls of wisdom we can apply to our lives today.

This is the biblical account from Exodus 12:37-38 KJV

“And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.”

Whew! Apparently my speculation was well grounded, and not just something stuck in my brain from the narration of Cecil B. DeMille’s version of The Ten Commandments. I was still curious what the historians had to say on the subject and was able to find some great background material that puts the exodus out of Egypt in a historical perspective.

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