Musings

08/03/2026
I was reading again in Proverbs this morning and came across this:

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts. (Proverbs 17:3)

I often pray for my heart to be more like Jesus, but I don’t stop to think about what that really looks like. God doesn’t just snap his fingers and make it happen. He does it through life. It’s clear in both the Scriptures and in life that God works most often through circumstance and giving us the opportunity to change through how we respond. If I really want a heart more like His, I must be willing to endure the trials and choose to respond as He did. Otherwise, it won’t happen. He provides the opportunity; I must choose what I do with it.

07/08/2026
I was reading in Proverbs this morning and this hit me like a rock:

Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? (Proverbs 1:20-22)

Could it be any clearer? God does not hide his wisdom. It “cries in the streets” and “at the head of the noisy streets”. God is flashing it right in front of our faces – if we will only stop and listen. But most do not seek it. Most are content in their complacency (i.e., they “love being simple”). And worse, “scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge.” Many simply do not want to know the truth – despite what they say. They like where they are. And they dislike anyone who tries to disturb that complacency with the truth.
But, lest we become blind ourselves, let us Christians acknowledge that often we are guilty of the same error. Too often we rely on ourselves and react in the flesh and fall into sin ourselves rather than pausing and seeking God’s wisdom before we react. (Painful for me to write that because as I write it many things flash through my mind where I have done exactly that.) May we learn to more consistently turn to Him for wisdom before we choose our own way and represent him poorly before others.

04/20/2026
Last Sunday I was sitting in church listening to the sermon. The pastor was making a point about something and in the process he mentioned that Jesus raised several people from the dead. His reference to it was casual as it was incidental to the particular point he was making at the time, but it caught my attention. My mind began to wander.
If someone today told you that somebody had raised someone from the dead (and they were serious) you’d think they’d lost their mind. And you’d be right. But Christians (including pastors) mention this almost in passing about Jesus and simply take it at face value. Hold on! What? Have we grown so used to hearing or reading this that it’s lost its impact? The scriptures claim that Jesus actually raised several real people from the dead. (And there are zero – yes, that’s zero – non-Christian writings contemporary to the scriptures [or anywhere in ancient writings for that matter*] which disclaim or refute these claims.) That is stunning!
If you’re not Christian, I strongly suggest you ponder this. Something so outrageous as this, which spread like wildfire throughout the ancient Roman world and beyond, and there’s not one single written rebuttal? Anywhere? Does that not strike you as beyond strange?
If you are Christian, I strongly suggest you also ponder this. If this is true (and if you claim Christianity then you are claiming it is), then think about it. We worship a God who can literally raise people from the dead! Then why do we worry so much about things in life so much smaller and fear nothing can be done about it? (Yes, I’m speaking to myself also.)
Stop worrying. With God, ALL things are possible.

* The only document ever really referenced by anyone is Celsus’ comprehensive critique of Christianity titled The True Doctrine (or The True Word, c. 175-180 A.D.). In this earliest known comprehensive, written attack on Christian claims even Celsus didn’t claim the raisings didn’t happen; in fact, he acknowledged that they did but attempted to attribute them to sorcery or Egyptian “magic”.

04/02/2026
I was listening to a podcast recently (I don’t do that much) and the speaker gave an analogy that really hit me hard. He was referring to how us Christians can often tend to talk a good game but fail to actually live it out. (Guilty as charged.) He compared it to telling his daughter, “Please go clean your room.” But instead of going to clean her room, she prayed about it. Then she started a weekly small group with her Christian friends to study cleaning her room and signed up for an upcoming conference featuring a big-name speaker who was scheduled to talk about cleaning your room. But she never actually went upstairs and cleaned her room. Sound familiar? I must admit it struck a nerve with me. I have been guilty more times than I care to remember. But the positive was that it encouraged me to guard myself and continually seek God’s help to actually live out what he tells me to do. Nothing wrong with studying and learning – in fact it’s essential. But it’s incomplete. As James wrote,

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25 ESV)

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

May we all be doers and not simply talkers.