Kingdom of God – Pathway Journey

March 15, 2023March 14, 2023

Redemption Parable

I remember as a child singing the hymn written by James Rowe and titled “Redeemed” with the refrain bouncing off the walls of our country church and settling into my spirit,

I’m redeemed by love divine!
Glory, glory! Christ is mine, Christ is mine!
All to Him I now resign, resign
I have been redeemed, redeemed!

Redemption Parable
One day vicious raiders from the north country raided our village. They broke into all our houses, stealing all the precious items our families had worked hard to provide. The men were ruthless and merciless.

March 7, 2023March 6, 2023

Higher Purpose

It is crazy for an atheist to say he has a purpose. One cannot have a purpose if they are only an accidental biological blob careening through space and time.

We can only have purpose because of God. God has a plan based on a purpose.

February 21, 2023February 21, 2023

Keep Your Hands Out of Your Pockets!

When I was in college preparing to be a teacher, we were required to visit schools and observe real-life classroom instruction. I remember visiting a shop class in a school just south of Auburn. The instructor was an older gentlemen not far from retirement with a lot of hard-earned wisdom. I never forgot his instruction to his students, “When we go into the shop, I better not see any of you with your hands in your pockets. You never go on a worksite with your hands in your pockets. Be ready to work and be ready to protect yourself. You hear me! Keep your eyes open and keep your hands out of your pockets! I better not catch any of you with your hands in your pockets!”

February 8, 2023February 8, 2023

The Wind

Growing up in the South without air conditioning in the 50’s and 60’s was normal for most folks. You do not bemoan the lack of anything if you never have had it; most people in those decades did not have air conditioning in their houses or cars. We had window fans, that gave us a little reprieve on the dog days of summer. Our vehicles had only “4-60” air conditioning—roll all the windows down and drive 60 mph.

January 25, 2023January 24, 2023

More Than Enough

I remember taking my beloved Christian brother, Pastor Baptiste, who lives in Haiti, to one of our American all-you-can-eat buffets. There were stations after stations of food. He was amazed at the quantity of food and that he could eat all he wanted. When I was with him in Haiti, I discovered he had told many of his friends about his unbelievable experience at the bountiful restaurant.

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023

Stand Still, Don’t Move!

I’m sure the phrase, “Stand still, don’t move” has been said million of times in thousands of circumstances. I can hear one of my older brothers using that phrase when we were squirrel hunting. I’m sure a young soldier has heard similar words in a mine field. Perhaps a hiker has heard the same when a rattlesnake was within striking distance of his leg.

January 10, 2023January 9, 2023

Staying Warm (An Analogy)

I was raised in a farmhouse built in the late forties. When I was a teenager, my room was in the very back of the house equipped with a space-heater. I preferred to sleep without the heater. Fortunately, my mother was a quilter, so there was an unlimited supply of quilts. When it was very cold, I slept with a big pile of quilts on me. I felt so warm and cozy under all those quilts. On a rainy winter morning with the rain making music on the metal roof, it was difficult to crawl out and hit the cold floor.

January 4, 2023January 3, 2023

Pressing Forward

Difficulties and hard times can either be a ball-and-chain of the past dragging us down or a catapult to launch us forward into the future. We all have made bad decisions, took some wrong turns and yes, sinned.

All of us have had some hard knocks brought on by no fault of our own, some delivered by bad people meaning us harm and sometimes even good people making bad decisions.

December 29, 2022December 29, 2022

Tick-Tock (not TikTok)

I remember as a child hearing the tick-tock of an old mantel clock in the home of one of our elderly kinfolks. At the top of the hour, the clock would make a gong for the number of the hour. It was always a little creepy to me. The passing of time is kind of weird when you think about it, like the whittling off of your life second by second.

December 20, 2022December 20, 2022

Alone in a Crowd

Have you ever been in a room full of people, and you knew for all practical purposes you were alone? A few times, I have traveled internationally alone. It is an interesting feeling walking down a foreign airport concourse some 5,000 miles away from anyone you know. It doesn’t really bother me. I love people, but I can also handle solitude.