thoughts from the trail

     James 3:13-18   God’s wisdom vs. worldly wisdom.   One of the sad things many studies and people have been noticing lately is the noticeable decline in mental health, especially amongst the younger generations.  This was going on before Covid but the Covid lockdowns really accelerated this.   People are more anxious and depressed than ever before.  What’s going on?   

   One of the concepts being taught to kids today is the idea of ‘fragility.’   It’s the idea that wh

thoughts from the trail

    We recently had St. Patrick’s day, a real man who after escaping a life as a slave, went back to Ireland and fearlessly preached the gospel and was said to have started over 300 churches!   I gave a talk mentioning 10 strands of ancient Celtic Christianity.  Here are three of them.

    They loved God’s word.  Ps. 119:46-48    The Bible was greatly loved and memorized. Patrick himself wrote two little works that have survived to our day; yet in these short letters you ca

thoughts from the trail

  Hopelessness is one of the almost unspoken plagues of our day.   Do you matter?  Yes, you do.  You matter more than you realize.  You matter to your families, your friends; and above all, no matter where you go, no matter how young or old, no matter how healthy or unhealthy, no matter how productive or if you feel unproductive, you matter to God.   For God has not forgotten about you.  He sees you. He even knows your very thoughts better than you do.     Jer. 29:11    So

thoughts from the trail

     God’s kind of unconditional, 1 Cor. 13 kind of love doesn’t come naturally to us.  By nature, we are takers, we are selfish. It’s pretty obvious when you look at little toddlers, they unashamedly are takers; at that point in their development, they are only capable of thinking about themselves. 

  A two-year old’s favorite word is: ‘mine, mine’.  That’s okay at 2, but if they are still saying that at 16, there’s a problem.

   Fortunately, education, civilization helps

thoughts from the trail

     One great relationship guideline is: 'Don’t let the sun go down on your anger'. Eph. 4:26.  I can remember times early in our marriage when Debbie and I would disagree about something and then we’d try to go to sleep.  You know, one person would be facing this way and the other person facing the other way.  Almost always, one or both of us wouldn’t sleep well at all that night. 

       Once this happened, as I was lying there, it’s like I felt a tap on my shoulder, and

thoughts from the trail

  Are you giving ‘God room’?     I remember one of our first giving God room experiences with Pathways church.  We had just started the church a few months before.  Then one of our first members said he knew of a church building that we might be able to use, (the one we are now in.)    A church had been in it earlier, but after a couple of years, closed down.  The C&MA owned the building.   So we contacted them to see if we could rent it.  They agreed.  We moved in right b

thoughts from the trail

  Unspoiled, the new year lies before us, 355 days left now of great opportunity. We stand at the dividing of two paths, one called yesterday and the other, tomorrow. We know every bend and turn in the path called yesterday, but the path called tomorrow stretches out before us into an unknown future.

    We are living in a world that keeps constantly changing.  Our world is vastly different than it was even 5,10 years ago. We look around and we see that we are living in tro

thoughts from the trail

   Faith, hope and love.  1 Thess. 1:3   Three simple words, but very profound words. These three words can be the foundation and even the measure of our spiritual progress.  By the way, how is your spiritual progress?   Are you steadily advancing with joy, or are you treading water, just trying to keep your head up or are you starting to slide backwards, for all kinds of reasons?

   Developing these 3 great traits will make a person more like Jesus, the greatest person eve

thoughts from the trail

  Genesis 1:1.  It is fashionable today to disbelieve in miracles. But if you accept the first sentence of the Bible, there would be no difficulty in believing in God and in His ability to do miracles.   For what is mentioned in this first verse is so incredible that all the later miracles, would be quite easy in comparison!  I mean, if He can create the world, He can easily feed 5000.   This first sentence would also do away with many of the false ideas that people have

thoughts from the trail

  Our society has certain standards designed to guard purity and thus, our lives. The Food and Drug Administration functions as a watchdog for purity.  However, their guidelines for purity may surprise you. 

Here is one of their guidelines:   Apple butter: If apple butter averages 5 or more whole insects not counting mites or aphids, (which apparently are okay with the FDA), the FDA will pull it from the shelves. But if any less than that, it can go right on your bagel!   O

thoughts from the trail

  Accept one another.  Rom. 15:7       

    We need to be willing to accept our spouses and friends for who they are, different from us and actually wired that way for God’s good reasons.     Do you believe that?   

   We are to accept one another and enjoy the differences!    Yet so many people enter marriage thinking a marriage license is like a sculptor’s license and it is now their role in life to remake the other person in their own image.  We try to get the other to be

thoughts from the trail

  God’s Holy Spirit is our daily guide.  Acts 16:6,7   Paul thought it would be a good idea to go to Asia and preach the gospel there, certainly a noble idea, but the Holy Spirit said ‘no’.  Then he tried to go north to Bithynia, and the Spirit said ‘no.’   Then God did show them where to go next.  The Holy Spirit, as we are open to His leading, doing the things we know we should be doing, like Paul was, God is well able to lead us.  Be patient, give Him time, but at the m

thoughts from the trail

    The sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 is like the constitution to God’s kingdom.  It is to be like a plumb line that you can hold up to your life and see how you stack up.   Is your life plumb, or is it starting to get out of whack?  This message by Jesus is very counter-cultural.    It is considered weird and radical by our culture. 

    Our world doesn’t want to live this way.   Our world wants to look out for number one, get all you can for yourself, then sit on tha

thoughts from the trail

  Another source of wisdom, besides our only infallible source-the Bible, is the historical church of God, nature, books and yes, even the internet when used carefully; another source in a healthy information diet is: beauty.

    You might wonder about this one but let me briefly explain.  Beauty is a mysterious thing. Yet we all can know it when we see it, hear it, taste it, touch it.  It has a way of stirring our souls. It reflects the beauty of God and of what He has mad

Thoughts from the trail

  I used to fly single engine aircraft and basically, I was taught to fly by the seat of your pants.  For example, if the plane is climbing, it pushes you down in your seat a little harder and you feel that so you know you are climbing. If you are descending, you can actually feel lighter on your seat so you know you are losing altitude. If you are turning, if your cup slides to one side, then actually you feel more pressure on that side so you know you are turning.  You a