Category: Life

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Bread for Critters

Recently, I was cooking some cheese toast to accompany my wife’s chili. I used up the last piece in an old bag and some from a new bag, leaving three end-pieces. I was about to throw the end-pieces in the garbage and suddenly I became convicted.

My friend, Mitchell Gibbs, had written a post about his daddy a few weeks ago. As a boy, Mitchell was about to throw a crust of bread into the fire and his daddy scolded him not to throw food away. If he didn’t want to eat it, there were a lot of hungry critters who would gladly eat his throw-aways.

So, instead of throwing my end-pieces in the garbage, I threw them where my yard meets the woods. A stray dog, possum, or bird would have a small feast on my throw-aways.

Bread has been called the staff of life. If you have bread, chances are you have something to put with it. I love bread and I love something to put on it. A PB&J has come close to saving my life.

When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, God gave them manna from Heaven. They ate it for forty years, eating manna sandwiches and manna pudding. Jesus told his listeners, that the manna was not the bread from Heaven, but He was. He even compared His flesh to the bread He broke with his disciples at the Last Supper.

I need physical bread and I need Jesus. He has been my staff of life for some time now. In our world of slop thrown out, He is the constant source of strength and nourishment for my soul. If I did not have Him, I would surely die from not enough.

I pray you have bread aplenty. I pray you have Jesus, the true and lasting Bread from Heaven.

God feeds even the birds of the air. The next time you have an end-piece, help Him with the task.

Rice and Beans for Haitian Children

We try in the ministry to which the Lord has set our hands, to give the Bread of Jesus to hungry souls and the bread from grain to hungry bellies. We are thankful for the whole loaves and even the end-pieces we receive to share with others.

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

Pathway Outreach Ministries

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Simplicity of the Cross

I love the Word of God. The gems of truth we can mine from its depths are invaluable treasures. When I can connect the dots between the Old Testament and the New Testament, it is the reward of the student. The strong truth of the Word comes at the right time bringing me back into alignment with the heart of God.

The message of the Cross of Christ is the simple message of salvation for all to embrace and believe.

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Chaos of the World

There is so much that seems to be out of control. Chaos abounds in the world at levels we have not seen in many decades. We have the first sniffs of possible nuclear war since the early sixties. Eggs cost about forty percent more than a year ago. There is a determined assault on families, the foundation of ordered society. Violence against the innocent and death by drugs have increased with only nominal attention from the media and little outrage from leaders.

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Be All You Want To Be—NOT!

Picture the scene: A slick speaker on a well-lit stage with a captivated audience hanging on every word. He gracefully paces across the stage, looking over the group when he emphatically declares, “Everyone of you can be all you want to be!”

So, anyone in the audience can be an NFL quarterback or maybe an author with a book on the New York Times bestseller list? Okay, what about a rock climber, rodeo bull rider, or maybe an astronaut?

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Waiting

No one likes to wait, yet we do a lot of waiting in our lives. One of the first things we learned in school was get in line—and wait.

While you are waiting, here are seven considerations about waiting:

Do not let anxiety spoil your patience. Waiting takes patience and waiting develops patience. Since you are going to do a lot of waiting in your life, you need to allow patience to grow without the burden of anxiety. Remember the old saying, “A watched pot never boils.”

Pray believing, wait in faith. You should not wait to pray; pray and wait. God can and does answer some prayers instantly. Other times, you will have to wait for God’s answer to materialize. If you have prayed about a certain thing, leave it in God’s hands. Worrying about the outcome is counterproductive to faith.

Stay busy while you wait. Maybe you have prayed about something big, yet there are smaller options within reach. If that is the case, while you wait on God for the big thing, do the smaller things. I believe God will honor those small steps.

Occupy your time, until it is your time. If you are not careful, you can wallow in the weariness of waiting while overlooking the opportunities within reach. “One bird in hand is of more value than two in the bush.”

Prepare yourself during the wait. There are many different quotes about opportunity and preparedness. Here is one I use (not sure if it is an original), “Opportunity is a door that opens for the prepared.” Whatever opportunity you are waiting on, prepare for it today.

Consider God’s timing in the wait. There will always be those who have a purpose from God, but their foolish zeal will cause them to step through the door too soon. They spoil the process and outcome of God’s purpose by their unwillingness to wait on God’s timing.

Is it worth the wait? It is sad but some folks wait for a happening that will never come. Unrealistic desires waste a lot of time and emotional energy on nothing. We need to be realistic about God’s desire versus our expectation. Do not wait on a pipe dream. Godly wisdom will separate the real and foolish dreams.

Do not waste a wait. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. No one has more or less than anyone else regardless of their status, income, education, or location. You should protect your time and current opportunities. It is important to do something while you wait, whether it is a short wait or a long one. Don’t miss the bus waiting on a plane.

My final word, I never have regretted waiting on Jesus, His timing is worth the wait and His purpose is eternal.

Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD! (Ps. 27:14 NKJV).

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

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Goodbye Ole Okra

My old lover of hot summers is about to fade as the sunny hours grow fewer and the hot begins to turn toward cold. I am a son of the South, so I love okra, that odd vegetable that fills our summer plates and occasionally takes some space in our soups. Our Louisiana cousins put it in gumbo, and we love it too.

Our regional preferred dish is breaded and fried. I am one of the odd ones who also loves it boiled, leaving it slimy and slick. It chews easy and goes down quick.

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Yesterday’s Door is Shut!

Regret is a bad dream on a never-ending replay loop. I think most of us have some of those past events or choices of which we regret. “I wish I hadn’t done that!” or “I wish I would have made a better choice there!”

I know this is a rhetorical question, but I must ask it anyway, “Can we go back and change it?” Of course, the answer is an emphatic, “NO!” There is nothing we can do to change the decision or the action of the past. That door is shut and cannot be opened.

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I Shine My Own Shoes

I recall as a small boy from the age of six or seven knowing how to shine my own shoes. Since that time, the only time I remember paying for a shoeshine was in Haiti and then only to help an industrious village youth trying to make a few gourdes.

Independence is probably a fault of mine. I had rather do something myself than to ask someone to do it. This has been one of my faults in life, not delegating tasks.

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Mindset of Jesus

Why do you think like that? We all have a pattern or direction of thought. Our minds are directed from something and directed to something. We all have a worldview, meaning our thinking is based on a set of principles or from a certain standpoint.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church, he encouraged them to have the “mind of Christ”. If we think that having the mind of Christ is a far jump for us, consider that the Greek word in Philippians is a verb meaning to be minded in a certain way. It is like having our thinking oriented like Jesus or the direction of our thoughts and life is like Him.

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