Book Review

      As most of you who read the blog know, one of my jobs is working as a freelance writer. I've done that since I graduated from college. When I started writing, my friend Toby was an old dog, but we got to spend a couple of great years together. I was at home working on writing, and we could be together all throughout the day. They were two of the best years of my life. 

     The book that I am reviewing today is about a writer who tells us about her dog and about other writers and their dogs. Helen Humphreys is the author of "And A Dog Called Fig". This book deals with the solitude of the writing life, and how a dog can be a great companion in what can be an isolating occupation. The author tells about her first days with a new puppy, and that is an interesting part of the book. What I most enjoyed about this book is the fact that the author tells us about many of the dogs that were part of the lives of other famous authors. 

     This is a well-written book, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. I really don't think this book would be enjoyed by the average person who reads a dog book. It is more of an interest to those who are writers, artists and others who work by themselves. I may be wrong in this, but if you enjoy think that you would enjoy reading about writers and their dogs, this is the book for you. 

Prayer Request

      There are supposed to be some pretty strong storms here in the midwest tonight. Please pray that they will not be bad and that they won't cause damage and flooding. Thank you. 

Verses For The Week

 I Kings 8:57 -- "May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers, may He not leave us nor forsake us."

John 14:18 -- "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you."

Haggai 1:13b -- "I am with you declares the Lord."

A Saturday Post About Various Things

     Today, I want to update about a few things that I am working on and ask for your prayers in a couple of matters. First of all, I want to let you know that I am currently working on a book project about the Minor Prophets. When that is complete, I will post the entire book here on the blog so that those who want to read it can have it at no cost. I hope to have it finished by the end of the year. 

     I have a few more sermons to go in the Way of Jesus series. After that, I think that I am going to focus on going through another book of the Bible possibly I Thessalonians. 

     I need your prayers today and in the coming days. Something has happened at my job, and it looks like I might be out of a job starting as soon as today. I may have to resign. I'm not sure what is going to happen. I am already looking for another job, and I have an interview scheduled. Please pray for me during this time. 

     As many of you know, I've had a lot of health problems since I was born. I've not been bad lately, but I am starting to have a lot of problems again. Please pray that I will be OK. Also, I am going to try to get  my house sold. Please pray that I can get this done by the end of the Summer. I thank you all for your prayers. 

Weekend Sermon -- The Way of Jesus -- Part 4

      Welcome to this week's sermon. I want to thank all of you who read the blog on a regular basis. After my two sermons about music, several people stopped reading the blog. For those who are still reading the sermons, thanks for continuing to read them. I put a lot of thought into the sermons and into the other posts. I try to post sermons that will help people draw closer to the Lord. I also try to post what I feel the Lord is wanting me to communicate. I also like to post about books that I like especially dog books as dogs mean a lot to me. 

     Over the course of the last few weeks, we've been in a series of messages on the way of Jesus. We have seen that the way of Jesus is the way of love and the way of radical forgiveness. In our message for today, I want us to focus on the fact that following the way of Jesus means not being hypocritical. 

     If you read the Gospels, you will soon find out that the religious leaders of the day were the ones who gave Jesus the most problems. They were constantly trying to find fault with Him, and they were always out trying to trap Him into saying something that would cause Him to lose His reputation with the people who were following Him. Of course, they were never able to entrap Jesus nor accuse Him of any sin. 

     Jesus had plenty to say about these religious leaders. One of the Lord's most extended critiques of them is found in Matthew 23. One of the major problems that Jesus had with the religious leaders is that they did not practice what they preached. Here is what Jesus said, "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach." Jesus will go on in this chapter to explain that the Pharisees and religious leaders practiced an outward religion in order to show the people how wonderful and holy they were. However, inwardly, they were filled with sin. Jesus said that they were like whitewashed tombs. They looked good on the outside, but on the inside, they were filled with dead men's bones. According to Jesus, when it came down to doing what God really commanded, the religious leaders found some way of getting out of it. 

     Hypocrisy was one of the sins that Jesus condemned the most while He was here on this earth. So, following the way of Jesus means that we must not be hypocritical. We have to be those who practice what we preach. 

     I believe that Jesus was so adamant in regard to hypocrisy because He knew that it was a big turn off. When people see those who say that they believe in Jesus acting in the exact opposite way of what Jesus taught, it causes them to want to reject the Lord and not come to Him. 

    One of the ways that I've experienced hypocrisy among Christians is in the matter of business. I've had the misfortune of dealing with some contractors who were big church goers and who made a lot out of their faith in Jesus in their advertising. These people turned out to be less than reputable. They did poor work, and they tried to get a lot more money out of my Dad than what they originally said the jobs would cost. My Dad was a really upright man. He always tried to give his business to fellow Christians. However, after having so many bad experiences with Christian business owners, my Dad made it a practice in his later life to never call a plumber, electrician or have anyone work on the car or our house who said in their advertising that the business was Christian owned and operated. Now if hypocrisy caused my Dad who was a believer in Jesus to do this, think about how hypocrisy among Christians causes others who don't know Jesus to react. It is a big turn off. 

     Over the course of history, hypocrisy has caused the Christian faith to get a bad reputation among many. For instance, Jesus taught the way of peace. However, His supposed followers have fought wars with each other over the hundreds of years of history. This shouldn't be, and it is one of the reasons that many don't want to have anything to do with the Lord. 

     Recently, there have been many who have been abused by members of the clergy. What terrible hypocrisy. Some of those who have been abused have been damaged for life. Why would they ever want to have anything to do with the church when they've been treated so horribly?

     If we are going to follow the way of Jesus, we have to resist hypocrisy and practice what we preach. We aren't always perfect. I certainly am not, but we have to strive to really be those who do what we say and if we say that we are followers of the Jesus we need to act like it and do what He did and what He taught us to do. 

    One of the best ways that I know to combat hypocrisy in our lives is to study the Word of the Lord thoroughly. If we know the Word, then we know what to do. But, as James tells us, we have to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. We have to implement in our lives what the Word of the Lord tells us to do. 

     As always, Jesus is our ultimate example. He always lived out what He taught. He taught the way of love, and His love led Him to a cross. He preached forgiveness, and He forgave those who crucified Him. He taught non-violence, and when He was mocked and abused, He did not retaliate and He turned the other cheek. 

     Let us always follow Jesus as our example. If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will not act in a hypocritical manner that drives people away from the faith. 

     Now, just a word to those who have been hurt by hypocritical people. I know that it is hard not to allow the behavior of those who say they follow Jesus to cloud what you think about Jesus Himself. All I can say is Jesus is not like those who have hurt you. People make a lot of mistakes and do stupid and evil things. Jesus does not. He loves you. Read the Gospels and look at what Jesus did and what He taught. You will know that you can trust in Him. He will never lead you astray. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

    Thank you to those who prayed about the storms in my area. We had a lot of rain, but there was no flooding. Thanks be to God. Unfortunately, there were many tornados in the southern US. Please pray that the people will be able to get the aid and the help that they need. 

    We need to continue to pray for peace in Ukraine. Pray for the refugees. I am glad that Poland, Slovakia, Romania and others have been so willing to help. 

     Continue to pray for peace in the other war torn areas of the world. Syria, Ethiopia, Yemen and Libya are just a few of the places that need our prayers. 

     Pray for Tonga, Madagascar, Japan and Mozambique as these places are recovering from natural disasters. 

    For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in Suriname and Somalia. Pray that many will come to know Jesus.

  Next week, we will continue with our current sermon series. I will post the verses on Monday, and I will have a dog book review midweek. May God bless you all. 

     

Some Short Poems

      I am just finishing up a few dog and animal books that I will be reviewing here on the blog starting next week. This week, I am posting a few short poems that I hope you enjoy. 

Around the tower

slender fingers of ivy

reach out for the sky.

Foxes playing games

leap through vine covered fences

'neath silver moonbeams

Magnolia blooms fall

ascending to warming earth

alive in the hopes of Spring.

Verses For The Week and Prayer Requests

 Isaiah 41:13 -- "For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you."

I Peter 5:7 -- "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."

Please continue to pray for peace in Ukraine. 

Please pray that the storms predicted for my area for the next two days will not be bad. 

Weekend Sermon -- The Way of Jesus -- Part 3

     Welcome to this week's Weekend Sermon. Thanks for taking the time to read the message this week. I hope that you are all doing well. 

     

     As you probably know, we are in a series of messages that I've entitled The Way of Jesus. The series is about what it means to follow Jesus. The early followers of Jesus were know as those who follow the Way. They followed Jesus as their example, and they followed the path and the way that He taught. 

  

     Last week, we saw that one thing that Jesus practiced and taught His disciples to practice was the way of love. We are called to love God with all that is within us, and we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

     There is something about love that I didn't mention last week that I want to touch on today. Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment when He taught them in the Upper Room on the night that He was betrayed. In John 15:12, we read that Jesus told His disciples to love one another even as He had loved them. Jesus calls us to do that as well. Jesus loved sacrificially. He gave His life out of love that we might be redeemed. When we emulate the love of Jesus, we love others and sacrifice for them. We love them in the way that Jesus loved by thinking of others and not Himself. His was a selfless love. 

     Now, on to our topic for today. Jesus taught love and His Way is also the way of forgiveness. Jesus both taught and practiced radical forgiveness. In Matthew 6, Jesus told us that if we forgive others, we will be forgiven. However, if we are not willing to forgive others, we will not be forgiven. 

     On one occasion, Peter came to Jesus and asked Him if he should forgive someone who sinned against him up to seven times. Jesus said no. Peter should forgive 70 x 7 times. In other words, Jesus was calling on Peter to practice radical forgiveness. Whenever we are wronged, we must forgive others. Jesus told us why in a parable. 

     Jesus said that there was a servant who owed an extraordinary debt that he could never repay. He begged that the debt might be forgiven, and the master forgave the servant's entire debt. Later, that servant was approached by a fellow servant who owed him a small amount of money. When the servant who was forgiven was asked to forgive his fellow servant's debt, he wouldn't do it. When word of this got back to the master, he revoked the servant's forgiveness. 

     We owed a great debt to God. We had sinned against Him. There was no way that we could ever atone for our own sins. God sent His Son so that we could be forgiven. That should motivate us to forgive others who owe us so little compared to what we owed to the Lord. If we can't forgive others after we have been forgiven of so much, how can the love of God dwell within our hearts. 

     Now, let me say, it is not always easy to forgive some people. They are really nasty and hard to deal with. Some have been really hurt in life. I understand. I do know that Jesus left us an extraordinary example of forgiveness. When He was on the cross, Jesus asked that those who crucified Him might be forgiven. That is truly a tremendous act of forgiveness. As those who follow the way of Jesus, let us follow His example and forgive others as we are empowered to do so by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

Please pray that the rain in my area will not cause any problems. Also, my health is not so good right now, and I would ask for your prayers. 

We need to keep praying for peace in Ukraine. Let us pray for the refugees fleeing from the war and devastation. 

Let us pray for peace in the other troubled areas of the world. Syria, Yemen and Ethiopia are just a few of the areas that need our prayers. 

Pray for those in Japan affected by the earthquake. Pray that they will receive the aid that they need. 

Continue to pray that those in Tonga affected by the volcano will receive the aid that they need. 

For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those who live in Benin and Bangladesh. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

Next week, we will continue with our current sermon series. I will post the verses on Monday, and I will try to have a midweek post. May God bless you all. 

Some Thoughts This Thursday

      I've mentioned here on the blog before that in addition to my work as a writer, I also work at another job. That job requires a lot of interaction with the public. This last week has been very difficult. It seems that many people are becoming more and more rude. 

      Last night, I had a customer take off on me for no reason whatsoever. I found the entire episode very upsetting. On top of all that, one of the supervisors has been making nasty comments about a health problem that I have. It has been a hard week. 

     As I was thinking about all of this, it came to my mind that Jesus knows all about what I'm going through because He experienced it while He was here on the earth. The religious leaders were constantly giving Him problems and ridiculing Him. The people in His hometown rejected Him, and for awhile, some members of His family didn't believe in Him. 

     Jesus knows how I feel. Just coming to understand this and ponder this more has made me feel better about the situation that I am dealing with at work. I have to remember that Jesus is with me. Ultimately, all that matters in life is what Jesus thinks about me. He knows all about me, and He knows my heart. I am glad that I have the Lord to walk with me each day. 

PS -- Please pray that the heavy rains forecast for my area are not bad. Thank you. Remember that Jesus is always with you, and He understands what you are going through. 

Verses For The Week

 Hebrews 1:3 -- "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Colossians 1:3 -- "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son."

Weekend Sermon -- The Way Of Jesus -- Part 2

     Welcome to this week's Weekend Sermon. I hope that you are all doing well. 

     Last week, we began a new series of messages that I am calling the way of Jesus. We saw that in the book of Acts, the first believers were called those who followed The Way. They followed the way that Jesus set before them. We also discussed that following the way of Jesus means doing what He did and following His example as we live our lives in this world. Following the way of Jesus also means obeying the teachings and the commandments that He has set out for us to follow in our lives. 

     Today, I want us to look at one aspect of following the way of Jesus. One thing that I believe all of us can agree on is the the way that Jesus taught us to follow is the way of love. The entire reason that Jesus came to this earth was because of love. He loved us so much that He came to this earth as a human being. He suffered and died for us so that we might be redeemed. He loved us, and He wanted us to be with Him for all eternity. 

     While He was on this earth, Jesus demonstrated that His was the way of love by the things that He did. For instance, Jesus demonstrated His love through His compassion. When Jesus saw people who were sick, He met their need. He healed those who were afflicted. In many cases, He freed them from ailments and disabilities that had beset them for their entire lives. 

     Jesus showed His love in other ways. He fed the hungry. On one occasion, Jesus fed 5,000, and at another time, He fed 4,000. He knew that they were hungry, and He did not want to send them away without eating lest some of them should faint on the way back to their homes. He loved people, and He wanted to make sure that their basic needs were taken care of. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that when we help the least among us, it is as if we were doing it unto Him. 

     Jesus made some important statements about the importance of love. He told us that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. That means that we are to love God with everything that is within us. Our hearts deepest desire is to know God and to do those things that please the Lord. 

     Jesus went on to say that there was another very important commandment about love. He said that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. That includes everyone. In order to illustrate this point, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, the Good Samaritan is the only one who loved his neighbor. The others in the parable just walked on by and never provided the help that the robbed and beaten man needed. 

    Jesus demonstrated His love  to those who were the outcasts and those who were looked down on by the rest of society. He dined with sinners and tax collectors. He told the disciples to let the children come to Him for of such were the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus allowed women to be among His disciples and He entrusted a woman with being the first one to share the good news that He had risen from the dead. This wasn't done in Jesus day. Women and children were considered second-class citizens, but Jesus didn't see it that way. Jesus touched the lepers who were despised and associated with shepherds and others of what were considered lowly occupations. 

     Jesus loved and loves everyone. He invited everyone to come to Him and experience His love. He said that whoever would come to Him, He would not cast them out. 

     What does all this mean for us today as we try to follow the way of Jesus? It means that we should love God with all that we have. We should put Him first because we put first in our lives what and who we love the most. We should be willing out of our love for the Lord to do what is pleasing to Him. 

     All of us need to love our neighbor as ourselves. We need to reach out and help others when we see them in need. That includes providing for them so that they have enough food, clothing and shelter. It means helping those who are sick and those who have a whole host of other needs that we can help to meet. 

    Following Jesus' way of love means loving everyone and inviting all to come to faith in Jesus. We must reach out to those who others pass by and let them know that Jesus cares about them. They may not feel that they are worthy of Jesus' love, but Jesus loves them. He loves you and He loves me. 

    All of us need to be filled with the love Jesus so that we can then spread the love of Jesus into this hurting world. We need to spread the love of Jesus in our families and into our friendships and other relationships. Jesus was the man of love who gave His life for us. He calls us to love others as He loved and to demonstrate His love in this world. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

     Please continue to pray for peace in Ukraine. 

     Let us also pray for peace in the other troubled areas of the world including Syria, Yemen and Ethiopia. 

     Keep praying for Tonga. They are still trying to recover from the damage done by the volcanic eruption. 

     Pray that cases of coronavirus will continue to go down. Pray that those who are sick will recover. 

     Pray that the oppression of the poor and weak by those who think they are better than others will stop. 

    For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Cambodia and Saudi Arabia. Pray that many will come to know the love of Jesus. 

     Next week, we will continue with our current series. I will try to post a review or something midweek. I will post the verses on Monday. May God bless you all. 

Good Dog, Cat, and Animal Movies

     From the title of this post, you can tell that I haven't finished any books to review. However, I did want to post a list of some of the dog, cat and animal movies that I've enjoyed over the years. I did this a few years ago, but here is an updated version. 

Favorite Animal Movies

The Bear -- This is my favorite animal movie. It is incredibly well done.

The Last Lions -- Jeremy Irons narration is great

Two Brothers -- A film from the same director as The Bear

Hidalgo -- A film about a horse and a great race

Seabiscuit -- Another movie about a great horse

Babe -- Excellent

Favorite Cat Movie

Harry and Tonto -- A man and his cat travel across the country

Favorite Dog Movies

Red Dog -- One of my very favorites

Red Dog True Blue

Call of the Wild -- This is the one starring Rutger Hauer -- It is hard to find

My Dog Skip

Turner and Hooch

K9

White Fang

White Fang 2

Iron Will

Hachiko

Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog

Alpha -- I know this is about a boy and wolf, but it is a story of how the first dog was domesticated

Lassie -- 2005 version

Verses For The Week

 Proverbs 18:24 -- "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Amos 3:3 -- " Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?"

John 15:15 -- "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from the Father I have made known to you."

Weekend Sermon -- The Way Of Jesus -- Part 1

      I hope that you are all doing well today. Thank you for taking some time to read the sermon this week. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to post this message.

     Today, we are beginning a new series of messages. The title of this series is The Way of Jesus. In this first message in the series, I want to introduce the idea of Jesus being the way, and what it means to follow the way of Jesus. 

     After Jesus ascended into Heaven, 120 followers of Jesus met in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. On the Day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. From that time on, those who would follow Jesus became more numerous as daily the Apostles were preaching and people were coming to faith in Jesus Christ. 

     The term Christian was not used by the first followers of Jesus. This term only began to be used several years later among the believers in the city of Antioch. Before this, those who trusted in Jesus were known as followers of The Way. This is mentioned several times in the book of Acts. In Acts 9:2, Saul was given permission to arrest followers of The Way. Believers are also referred to as followers of The Way in Acts 19:23 and in Acts 24. 

     I believe that there are two reasons that the early believers were known as The Way. First of all, I believe that it refers to the fact that Jesus referred to Himself in John 14:6 as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus was the way to the Father. We have a atonement and redemption through His death and bodily resurrection. 

     There is another reason I believe for the designation of  The Way. Knowing Jesus means following Him. It means following His way of life. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:2 that we are to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus. 

     Jesus came to save the world from its sins, but He also came to show us how that we are supposed to live in this world. He is our perfect example of a life that is pleasing to the Father in Heaven. We can read in the Scriptures and see the way that Jesus lived. We can read about what He taught and what He expects out of those who claim Him as their Savior and Lord. 

     Being a Christian is not just saying a prayer and becoming "saved". Being a Christian means that we come to Jesus and follow Him. He becomes the Lord of our life. We are to follow Him and do that which He has shown us and told us to do. 

     Over the course of the next few weeks, I want us to examine the components of following the way of Jesus. I want us to look at how Jesus lived in this world, and how we can follow His example in our day and age. How is the way of Jesus different from the way of the world? What is unique about the way of Jesus? What does Jesus teach is necessary to follow His way?

     Before someone can follow the way of Jesus, a person has to come to a realization. A person must realize that they are a sinner and our separated from God. They must recognize that Jesus died on the cross to save them from their sin. A person must believe that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. In order to begin to follow Jesus, we must repentant of our sins and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. From that point, we begin the journey of following in the footsteps of Jesus. We look to Him, His example and His teachings in order to know what He wants us to do and to be in this world. Let us all seek to follow the way of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer Requests

     The first thing on my mind is the war in Ukraine. Let us all pray for an end to this conflict. Let us pray for peace. Also, let us remember that there are several other conflicts in this world that are devastating people's lives. Let us continue to pray for end to the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia just to name a few. As Jesus taught us, we must persevere in prayer and not lose heart. 

     Continue to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. In my country, the case numbers are dropping, and many are now not wearing masks. Let us pray that there is no resurgence of the virus. Let us thank God that there are vaccines and treatments now available. 

     Continue to pray for Tonga. That country still needs help and assistance. Let us pray that they receive that help that they need. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us focus our prayers on Bhutan and Tunisia. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, we will continue with or new sermon series. I will post the verses on Monday. I hope to post a review on Wednesday. I hope. May God bless you all. 

     

Some Thoughts On Wednesday

       I am very much behind on my reading, so there won't be a review this week even though I really wanted to be able to get one posted. However, it is not to be this week. Hopefully, next week. 

     Today, I want to focus on a couple of things. First of all, today is the beginning of the Lenten season. It is a time to prepare our hearts for the events of Holy Week. During these days, let each of us examine our lives. Let us confess our sins and find ways to serve the Lord with all of our hearts. 

     We all need to be praying for peace in Ukraine. I am praying with all of my heart that this war will cease. Please be in prayer.