Surrender to God – Pathway Journey

March 22, 2023March 22, 2023

Praying for Rain

The year was 1824 and we had moved from Tennessee to the foothills in Alabama after our crops in Tennessee had been gathered in. I had bought 20 acres of land in the valley below the mountain plateau I first crossed with General Jackson in 1812.

When we were settling into the new homestead, we immediately began cutting logs for a small cabin. We figured the land on the downside of the mountain would be the richest ground. So that’s where we cut the first trees for our house, gaining logs, and clearing a cornfield at the same time.

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.

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.

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.

December 6, 2022December 6, 2022

Song of My Soul

How could I say that I have accepted Jesus, chose Yahweh to be my God, and Holy Spirit to fill me? As if I was shopping for a god and thought they were a great bargain.

No—the realization that He chose me. He came to me in my brokenness, revealing His completeness and perfection. At the time, I could not have articulated these words, but in retrospect I can see Him coming to me, instead of me going to Him.

October 19, 2022October 18, 2022

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.

October 11, 2022October 22, 2022

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?

August 25, 2022August 25, 2022

Something To Live For

If you look around to the craziness around you, you could easy get depressed and say, “What’s the use?” People in every era and in most lives lived could say at one point, “What’s the use?”

Throughout every point of history there have been people who have given up even though they had it relatively easier than most people around them. The difference was their lack of hope and purpose.

August 9, 2022August 9, 2022

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.