Harry Whitt on the Journey with Jesus
The world lay in the sway of darkness, sin, and death. Man’s journey from the Garden was marked by a trail of death and tears. Each tomb was a reminder of every man’s fate. Death reigned in the world by a cruel master, Satan, whose very name meant “Adversary”. The Hebrew prophets of old had prophesied approximately seven centuries before of a coming Messiah who would save and deliver.
Continue reading “Jesus: Born a Man for Men”
How do we respond when good things come our way? We tend to pat ourselves on the back and gloat just a little bit. Pride begins to rise like the morning sun.
I’m not sure when it happened. The notion hit me one day to be thankful when the gloat bubble was floating to the surface. It’s not that hard. When pride begins to rise, capture that thought, and give Jesus thanks for the happening. It takes the emphasis from us and puts it rightly upon the Lord.
Continue reading “Thankfulness is the Remedy for Pride”
I often advocate for a balanced approach to life. People get a little dizzy when their lives get out of balance. Humans have a tendency to lean to the extremes. We can obsess over anything.
I have been pondering about being sufficient in God versus self-sufficiency. As Christians, there needs to be an overriding reliance upon God without becoming child-beggars. The things we can do with our hands and minds are only possible because of God. He gives us health, strength, knowledge, and the ability to reason and create.
When my children were small, they loved the frozen waffles Eggo®. At first, I cut them up with a fork and knife. Then I tried to teach them to use the utensils, but they were not coordinated enough. So, I made them tear them into pieces with their hands before we poured on the syrup. Just a wee lesson on being self-sufficient.
Good parents teach their children to grow up to be responsible adults with reasonable self-sufficiency.
God loves to see His children solve problems, build things, create, paint beautiful pictures, and play beautiful music. He is glorified when we see our own work and give Him the thanks for the ability we have. I’m sure your picture is on God’s refrigerator, but He has one of my coloring sheets on it.
God created us to create. God worked six days to make a place for us and to make us in His image. An aspect of that image is to create as He created. He made everything from nothing. We get to re-purpose pallets into all sorts of cool things.
When we were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God told mankind that man would eat by the sufficiency of his work. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19 NKJV).
“Much food is in the fallow [un-cultivated] ground of the poor” (Proverbs 13:23 NKJV). Many folks are sitting on potential.
Yes, our sufficiency is in God. Our next breath is in His hand. Our next logical thought is in His hand. Our very lives and our next day are in His hand. Yet, He loves to see His children be self-sufficient in life to the degree of being productive adults.
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5 NKJV).
Make God smile, get up and go do something!
Yours on the Journey,
Harry L. Whitt
You might enjoy a related blog I wrote years ago, “I Shine My Own Shoes.” You can read it here.
Continue reading “Balancing God and Self-Sufficiency”
We often complicate things too much. Lofty philosophical and theological ideas often leave no footprints in the dirt.
After trusting Christ as our Savior and Lord, what do we do to mature in our faith? Here are four basic points everyone needs to do consistently.
Continue reading “Four Pillars of Discipleship”
I remember in the late 1990’s having good intentions about door-to-door visitation. I, along with some fellow ministry workers, knocked on every door of a nearby city’s government housing projects. We had good intentions but nothing tangible resulted from it. Maybe one person visited our church but no new converts. I know we encouraged a few people, but we never saw a harvest of our efforts.
I learned that building relationships is more effective than cold-calling.
Churches and mission organizations are full of good intentions. We have to be honest and ask ourselves the question. Are our good intentions bearing fruit or do they just make us feel better about ourselves? We often learn by trial and error.
Continue reading “Good Intentions”
Jesus gave an analogy between natural vision and spiritual vision. “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23 NKJV).
Spiritual light enters our lives to bring vision. If our spiritual eyes are good, we will be filled with light (vision). If our spiritual eyes are not good, then we remain in darkness.
Continue reading “From Darkness to Light”
Most of us have read accounts of religious martyrdom in historical books and the Bible. Few of us have witnessed it with our own eyes. Recently, we saw Charlie Kirk killed at one of his events. Some would argue that this was a political hit, not a religious one. Whether you loved or hated him, he was an adamant Christian who never minced his words.
The original Greek New Testament word for martyr is the word ‘martus’ pronounced [mar’-toos]. Its basic meaning is witness. A martyr is a person killed for his witness.
It is estimated that over 70 million Christians have been martyred since Jesus Christ himself was martyred on the cross. Most of those have been in the 1900s under fascist and communist rulers. Depending on the historian, some estimates say that since 2000 there has been an average of 100,000 per year. Martyrdom is not just in biblical times but also in relative modern times.
Continue reading “Christian Martyrdom”
Most of us watched in horror as Charlie Kirk was assassinated before our eyes. Many of us viewed the footage where Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death on a Charlotte train with no provocation. Those of us with any sense of morality or common sense, ask the question, “Why?”
I am relieved to know that so many of us can’t fathom how these things can happen. It seems such a senseless act to destroy another human being—a being made in the very image of God. Our hearts cry and our reasoning minds can’t comprehend the depths of hate.
Continue reading “Murder Grows from the Seed of Hate”
We live our lives in the sunshine of the day. Then as darkness comes upon the earth we sleep on the backside of locked doors. Some folks watch horror films, so their broken world seems more normal. Others watch sitcoms so the stupid suddenly looks silly and funny.
There is a reality that people want to ignore. It is the reality of another dimension that is sightless to our eyes and soundless to our ears. The result of it is obvious to the perceptive watcher. It is the reality of a spiritual realm that has a direct correlation in the visual world. It is a realm of warfare, deception, intrigue, and supernatural persuasion. It is more than a little spooky.
Continue reading “Behind the Curtain”
Jesus never promised us an easy life. He did promise to be with us. Listen carefully to these words of Jesus. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation [trouble]; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NKJV).
How do we deal with the trouble of this world? Consider the next five points:
Continue reading “Five Spiritual Guidelines for Troubling Times”
Pathway Journey 