But did you die?

“And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ Matthew 25:45 This past week was a missions week at church.  To those who don't know, once a year my church brings in many of the missionaries that we support.  They share their struggles, triumphs, and plans.  It help bring home that what we do as a church matters. I was reminded this week that I have changed. I remember when I was young that I couldn't watch one of those "help the children" commercials without tearing up.  Now however, I found that in many instances I just didn't really care.  I would try to justify myself by saying that I am focusing on my families needs or that we already give financially, but really I have just hardened my heart.  I don't really pray for those I've committed to pray for as much as I should.  I don't really think about Valerine, the child we help support Ghana, t...

Several months ago I had an idea.   I found myself skimming over whole passages in the Old Testament and I began to wonder why. Are they boring?  No. Am I missing the context?  Sometimes. Is it because they were stories that I had heard hundreds of times?  Yep. I then realized that there are probably plenty of people like me, people who find it easy to skip whole sections of the Bible because they were stories they had heard before. I began to wonder if there was a way I could help myself and others read these stories with "with new eyes." The idea that I came up was to retell these "old stories" in a new way; a way that hopefully people could relate to.  This is the first section of the prologue in my upcoming novel based on the book of Jonah.  I hope you enjoy and would love any feedback. ********************             He looked at himself in the mirror.   When did I get so old?  The p...

How many things do we do out of habit? Really think about it.  Many activities may have a purpose (like brushing our teeth or taking out the garbage) but do we really think about what we are doing?  Are we doing them with a deliberate purpose? This week I was wrecked.  I have been taking a Bible study on the book of Isaiah and had been finding it quite interesting.  If you get through this short history lesson I will explain why I have been lamenting.  The gist of the book was that the Israelites had been treating God like trash.  This book is split into three parts. Part one: screw you, God They made their sacrifices and checked the boxes that they felt they had to do to be "good" people, but went ahead and did whatever they wanted afterword.  They worshiped other gods and, as a whole, only followed the letter of laws that God gave them.   They missed the point. Part two: lay in the bed you made God had given them chanc...