Living Real

No, this isn’t a post about vitamins, minerals and exercise, though it could help your health — your spiritual health. In Radical | Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, David Platt shares his ongoing journey into radically following Jesus. This young pastor of a megachurch in Birminham, Alabama challenges believers in America to [...]

Reading in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 we read a story that Jesus told, likening the Kingdom of Heaven to a field planted with good seed. The farmer planted good seeds, wheat. Then, that night, the farmer’s enemy came and planted weeds in the field with the wheat. The farmer’s loyal workers are all up in arms [...]

Americans are such racists. By and large, all of us are.  Whether you’re black, white, red, yellow or whatever. We argue amongst ourselves about racial equality — primarily between black and white. It’s amazing, however, to see how those racial lines seem to disappear into a form of unity when our American race is challenged. [...]

Reading through Hosea I found this in chapter 2, verse 16: “When that day comes,” says the Lord, ”you will call me `my husband’ instead of `my master.’” Okay. What’s that mean? Think about those words and what they mean to you. For me: Master ~ “I will serve you and follow you because I have to. [...]

I shared about the spiritual armor Paul talked about in Ephesians 6:11-18 last night. I was talking to some of the women inmates at the Blount County jail. We had just nailed down that James 4:17 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee.” as being truth and real and would actually work (another story [...]

Reading in Jeremiah this morning, I came across this verse: Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you. Jeremiah 20:12 Now, I can relate to that. Jerry’s been telling the people what God’s been saying and no one is listening — but even worse, now instead of just [...]

Do you ever wonder if God really cares about you personally? I mean, He's so busy with major things like earthquakes and tsunamis and poverty and slavery and all that stuff. Why would He even bother with your headache or your paltry problem with needing to find a different car or truck?  Let me assure [...]

I’ve heard people talk about how children shouldn’t be taken on mission and/or ministry visits with us older folks when we go. I’ve had the joy of seeing my grandson’s life changed because we have invited him to join us on our visits to serve the homeless and poor in Knoxville. He’s seven. He’s also [...]

I confess, when I first received this book to review, I put it on the back burner. What a mistake! When I finally opened the cover, I was captured. Published by Christianity Today magazines and based on articles written by some of today’s best Christian writers, this Bible study is far more than a question [...]

The voices you hear telling you that you are not a leader, that you don't measure up, there's no way you'll win this battle, you can't do what God has called you to… are they really yours? Is that really the way things are?  Look back at 2 Chronicles 32:1-19. Yeah, I know, that's Old [...]

Don't you love it when we do things to ourselves then get all bent out of shape when the consequences occur? I'm not talking about doing drugs. I'm talking about doing "good" things, even.  Let me explain. I tend to be a workaholic, but I justify it — I'm not "really" a workaholic, because I'm [...]

Jack and I had a talk yesterday about where we've been reading in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 19:11-16 we read about how Saul was after David and even sent soldiers to his home to catch him to kill him. Mind you, at this point, David was married to Saul's daughter, Michal. Fortunately enough, the [...]