Meditation and Application

I will keep on obeying your instructions
    forever and ever.
I will walk in freedom,
    for I have devoted myself to Your commandments.
I will speak to kings about Your laws,
    and I will not be ashamed.
How I delight in Your commands!
    How I love them!
I honor and love Your commands.
    I meditate on Your decrees. Psalm 119:44-48
 
What am I going to do in 2019? There were many milestones that I reached last year.  One was making it
to twenty years at Thomson Reuters.  Not too shabby for a person who had not stayed anywhere longer Read more…

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Unshakable Faith

Building a lasting connection and a strong bond with someone takes being persistent. It’s a lot of work. You go through good times and bad times. Understanding how another person is wired and why they act a certain way and do the things they do can turn us upside down. Our world has changed drastically over the years. What one generation perceives as normal, another generation has a whole different take on it. When we love someone we have to keep the connection in tact. Sometimes obstacles get in the way, we just have to fight harder. Generations are different, people are different. Loving somebody with all Read more…

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The Still Small Voice

This blog may become like what Seinfeld became – a tv show (or a blog, in my case) about “nothing”. I tend to ask God to lay on my heart what He wants me to write about, and in some instances, things will just happen and I’ll get an idea and start writing. Other times, I just get nothing. Nothing. Right now, I have nothing.
 
“How am I supposed to write a blog, God, if I’m not getting anything from you to write about?”
 
Well, it’s clear this is a struggle for me, because my life is so busy that when I ask, do I actually quiet myself and listen?? I like to say that I do, but do I really?? I’ll sit for 2 minutes quietly waiting, and then my mind starts wandering off somewhere, and then I Read more…

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Answered Prayer

I never used to give it a second thought, but as my prayer life grew, I started realizing all the answered prayers I have been blessed to receive. I also found out that prayers aren’t always answered the way you expect. What we desire and ask God for may not be in our best interest and God has a different direction that He’s leading us in. Often times He will lead us through something we don’t understand. We find blessings quite often through enduring trials. Developing a relationship with God through my prayer life has taught me to be patient and to trust God. Receiving the “feel good” answer from God isn’t always the best for me. He knows Read more…

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Faith in the Doubt

Remember when Mary found favor with God? Remember the angel told Mary that she was going to conceive and give birth to the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32)? What was Mary’s initial response? Was it “Thank you God for bestowing upon me this blessing?”. No, it wasn’t that. What about “Thank you God for allowing me to conceive the One who will be called the “Most HIgh”?” No, that wasn’t it either. It was “How can this happen?” Mary knew how this worked. How was this going to happen, and how was this happening?
 
Luke 1:29-34 NLT “Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Read more…

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His Righteous Anger

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for
sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He
said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have
turned it into a den of thieves!” Matthew‬ 21:12-13

Is it ever right to display anger? As I am raising my youngest child, I have found that there are typically
four levels of dealing with things she has done wrong. There is the first level where I must talk about
where she went wrong, and going forward, provide guidance on the right way. In these cases, it is not Read more…

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The Drone

Written by: Mark Culp
 
The story I would like to share with you happened to me very recently and I hope to honor God in the sharing of it.
 
My wife and I were driving home one afternoon last week when we both saw something bounce off the car ahead of us and land right in the middle of the road in front of us. There was a fair amount of traffic and there was no way to stop, so we kept on driving – but right before we drove over it, my eye caught a glimpse of light coming off it. I told Melinda that we Read more…

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Giving

We enjoy the Christmas season because we celebrate the birth of our Savior. When we were blessed with our Savior, we were blessed with the most wonderful gift we could ever receive. Because of this world that we live in, we fall short every day of pleasing God. We turned our backs on Him, but He never turned His back on us. Through the birth of Jesus, God gave us a way to redeem ourselves. Jesus teaches us everything we need to know about giving. He is the Ultimate Giver. He gave everything for us so that we could have the best gift of all, which is spending eternity with Him.
 
When we think about Christmas and giving, sometimes we can get caught up in the stress of feeling obligated to give something. Feeling that way steals joy from us. Christmas is a time for happiness and gratitude and Read more…

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Unbelievable!

As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.  So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. 1 Samuel 17:48-50
 
They say in broadcasting that the great call of the announcer becomes part of the actual event, and when a truly historic event happens, the great call becomes as iconic as the moment itself. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to appreciate one such moment. Read more…

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Loving Difficult People

We love with all of our hearts and we pray with all of our strength. Sometimes we can feel like we’re just not getting through to someone, then there’s a glimpse of hope. When we finally see that window cracked open, we see that glimpse of hope, we know God is answering our prayers. Loving someone difficult can really take it’s toll on us. We exhaust ourselves trying to figure out why this person is so resisting. We have to take a step back and understand that God loves this person as much as He loves us. We’ve finally got the window cracked opened. We have to stay focused on God and let Him work through us to reach this Read more…

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