The King's Tea

Repentance is another name for aspiration.  –Henry Ward Beecher.

The first time I read that I disagreed.  Then I began to think of salvation and a desire to be all God has in HIS heart for me to be.  At that point I realized that to live a live aware of the need for daily repentance would be the only way that aspiration could be filled. 

So often we think of repentance as the thing we do when we are convicted by the Holy Spirit that we need to come forward for salvation.    But as I thought on that I…

The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing. -- Leslie Dixon Weatherhead

The above quote hit me hard when I came across it.  I began to think of the church in America over the past 40 years or so.  As we have been influenced by the culture we live in and have lowered our standard of holy living in the name of political correctness we have become immune to the truth of God’s Word and Spirit.

In fact, what was once…

Walter Bagehot once said, “An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failing of mankind”. 

Am I the only person who finds it difficult to sit quietly before the Lord?  I go into my time with the Lord with the intention to sit quietly until HE speaks.  But often after a few minutes I reach for my Bible thinking I will read something that will be HIS direction for the day.  When I do it is as if there are no words on the page.  Then I think HE must want me to pray so I set about my laundry list…

Frances Bacon once said, “Custom is the principle magistrate of man’s life.”

I was thinking recently of the two disciples on their way to the temple to pray.  Many translation insert, “as was their custom”.   We often have good intentions but when we get to the end of our day we find that what we have made a custom of is what was done during the day.  How does the old saying go?  The road to hell is paved with good intentions?

I want to encourage you to look at areas of your walk with God and see which…

In order to know whether a human being is young or old, offer it food of different kinds in short intervals.  If young, it will eat anything at any hour of the day or night.  If old, it observes stated periods. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes.

When I ran across this quote I thought how it applies in the spiritual.  As young Christians often we can be swayed by each position presented by someone.  We go with what “feels” right.  But the Word tells us that mature believers not easily swayed.  They have learned to…

Due to a neurological episode over the holidays I have had to begin the process of retaining my brain.  Functions that used to be automatic now often take a moment of thought.  The good news is God has provided the method to have the brain reprogram things and regain the function that was lost.

As I have been going through this process I have compared it to spiritual things.  We have events that come into our lives that upset our normal methods of interacting within the Kingdom.  It seems we are “off…

Can you believe in a week it will be Christmas.  I encourage you to obey the scripture when it states, “let not your heart be troubled”.   As the festive day approaches often we get blindsided by feelings of inadequacy or failure for what we thought we should be able to do and were not able to do them.

Even mundane things can become monsters such as getting the house just right for guest to appear and concern the meal will not be cooked to perfection.  Or heaven forbid we bought a gift that was not…

We are all familiar with the portion of scripture above.  It usually indicated an event that had been foretold and at that point is being fulfilled.  But we have also adapted the saying in an effort to encourage ourselves about unpleasant things we might be going through.  When confronted with a dire circumstance we will say, this too came to pass, meaning it is temporary.

I want to encourage each of us to have that view on life.  Not only for the situations that arise but our lives in general.  They all…

I know this weekend is famously called Black Friday meaning the one day a business is sure to be “in the black” or profitable.  But I often think of it being black Friday for another reason. 

When Ray became ill in 1986 I went to work in retail.  Personally I believe everyone should work retail for a portion of their life because it gives a view of human nature you just can’t get anywhere else.  The first black Friday I experienced left me scarred for life.  In fact it was so brutal I have very little…

I was thinking last evening about the three prominent holidays for believers in the US.  They seem to be Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.  Of all of these, only Thanksgiving is all about our hearts.  At Christmas we can mask feelings with shopping and social gatherings, Easter brings its own distractions with egg hunts and new outfits for the family and trying to squeeze into an already crowded church service.  But Thanksgiving stands alone in its emphasis.  While there may certainly be a larger meal…