I’ve heard this so many times after someone’s death, “God must have needed another angel.” That’s like saying you can make a ’51 Studebaker out of a monkey. You see, angels are angels and humans are humans. God made both. However, if you don’t know Scripture, you might embrace something fanciful.

2 Timothy 2:15 

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of Truth.

Acts 17:11 

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Don’t swallow poison Kool-Aid. Give it some thought.

Gary

“Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell tells the story of an aspiring country singer’s journey to make it big. One-line states, “There is a lot of compromising on the road to my horizon.”

Most people don’t understand that, down the road, the cost of compromising comes due. Does the Bible teach that? Glad you asked.

 James 4:17 

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Galatians 5:16 

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

1 John 3:4 

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Be careful on the road to your horizon. Don’t let compromising catch up to you. Give it some thought.

Gary

“I Will Remember You” is a pop-rock song by Sarah McLachlan. It’s about a girl wondering if some past love still remembers her. How many middle-age people have those thoughts?  Maybe to them, it’s just a horrible memory they wish would just go away.

Now the one who does have a good memory is God. Thankfully, He is willing to erase those actions and thoughts that are contrary to His holiness, if we but ask.

Hebrews 10:17 

Then He adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Here are some things we shouldn’t forget:

• He remembered Noah and blessed him.
• He remembered the Israelites in bondage and sent a deliverer to them.
• He remembered Jonah and delivered him.
• He always remembered His people and heard and responded to their cries.
• He remembered us by sending His only begotten Son to save us.
• He remembers, now, His new covenant, made through the blood of His Son on the cross. This is a covenant in which He promises to forgive and cleanse us continually by His grace.
• He remembers that Christ assured His followers that they would rise at the moment of death to a place in glory prepared by Him.
• And, He will remember to return and take us to Himself.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Have you noticed that life is made up of a series of happenings?  It’s like changing the stage settings in a four-act play.

The word “happened” appears 222 times in the Bible. Those are a lot of happenings to examine in Scripture. This brings me to the question, what’s happening in your life? Who’s setting the stage for the next act?

Psalm 119:105 

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 32:8 

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

Do you think there are plays you really shouldn’t be acting in? Give it some consideration.

Gary

Michael Card recorded the song, Why.

Why did it have to be a friend
Who chose to betray the Lord?
And why did he use a kiss to show them?
That’s not what a kiss is for!
Only a friend can betray a friend.
A stranger has nothing to gain.
And only a friend comes close enough
To ever cause so much pain!

James 2:23 

And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

John 15:14-15 

You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Do you know the pain of betrayal? Certainly, the betrayal of a friend produces greater pain. Don’t do it to Him. Give it some thought.

Gary

The phrase “I’ve gotta get a message to you” generally means someone needs to convey important information to another person, often with a sense of urgency. It certainly made a lot of money for the Bee Gees in 1968. However, I don’t think his wife got the message from her husband who murdered her lover and was now in his final hour on death row.

God has recorded thousands of messages for you. The question is how many have you received and how have you responded?

2 Timothy 3:1-7 

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. …

This is but one message of thousands. Give it some thought.

Gary

The phrase “He leads through deep waters“ often appears in religious contexts, particularly within Christianity, and is frequently associated with the Bible verse Isaiah 43:2. 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.

We’ve gone through some waters, and we know from experience, those conditions will be repeated. The knowledge that God is the same today, yesterday and forever keeps us on sure footing. When the outcome is death, for the believer, he or she has just been gathered home.  How about you? Give it some careful consideration.

Gary