What did one pickle say to the other? Dill with it.

If you haven’t noticed, life is full of problems. It wouldn’t matter if you were a Christian or not. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. However, for the just, trouble can have an eternal purpose.

Job 5:7

Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.

Psalm 34:6 

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Nahum 1:7 

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him.

You have to deal with it, but you don’t have to deal with it alone. Give it some thought.

Gary

A spacecraft, built and flown by the Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, landed near the moon’s south pole on Thursday. This was the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector. The spacecraft flipped over on its side, took some pictures and basically died, a monument to man’s ego. They considered it a success as 118 million dollars went down the drain.

Don’t be spending money and time on space travel. Invest in the blessed hope that God has promised every believer. Someday we are going to transverse this universe. The Apostle Paul had a trip there and couldn’t explain it.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

Get ready to fly away to vistas Captain Kirk never saw. Give it some thought.

Gary

A whimsical story is told of how boy scouts help little old ladies across the street. In this account, however, someone developed a vitamin so effective that a little old lady helped two boy scouts across the street. Now that pill would sell.

Let me suggest something that is not so whimsical, but actually attainable and that is what happens when one takes in the word of God. This ancient manuscript has energized a multitude effectively over the millenniums. This element once ingested can take you from here to eternity.

2 Timothy 3:16 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Romans 15:4 

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Take a certain amount every day and your life will be transformed.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Why is faith like Wi-Fi? At the heart of what we choose to believe is a source and/or higher power that is not detectable by our senses. Just like WI-FI, faith is invisible. And also, like WI-FI, connecting to this invisible force will give us what we need.

source unknown

Hebrews 11:6 

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

2 Corinthians 5:7 

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Make sure that dial is tuned to the right station that saves your soul and gives you direction as you navigate through life.

Give it some consideration.

Gary

 Can anyone work his way to heaven? No, that’s not possible. Does one have to work to maintain his salvation? No, that’s not possible either. Does a saving faith have works? Absolutely.

We have to understand the work started in the believer comes from God.

Philippians 2:12-13

 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

We need to understand we operate from our position in Christ.

James 2:14-17

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Give it some thought and go to work.

Gary

Back in the 1960s Diana Ross and the Supremes could really belt out the song, “Someday We’ll Be Together.” It was about a girl talking to her lover who was so far away. The song declared that, in spite of the past mistakes, the day would come when they would be together. Not a spiritual song, but it does remind me of the future for all believers.

Revelation 19:7-9 

Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Someday we’ll be there and we’ll say hello to all who are there because they embraced the finished work of Calvary.

Give it some thought.

Gary

What cigarette do doctors say causes less throat irritation? In the 1930s and 40s, tobacco companies would happily tell you it was theirs. In 1946, Reynolds launched an ad campaign with the slogan, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”

Lies sell products. Politicians and preachers are experts in the field of lying. Does the Bible address this phenomenon? Glad you asked.

2 Timothy 4:3 

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

Because there is a market for lies, there will be those who rise up for the occasion. The blind will lead the blind.

Give it some thought. Let’s smoke this thing.

Gary