A couple of weeks ago I was having some doubts about writing this Blog (You can read the full story here) and I started praying to God asking Him to show me a four-leafed clover if he really was calling me to this type of ministry. That same day he placed a friend in my life who shared his testimony with me. (You can find one of his stories here.)
This morning I was praying while I was walking the dogs and my eyes kept drifting over to a newly mowed field in the subdivision where we usually walk. For the first time I noticed that this particular field had quite a bit of clover in it. I’d never noticed it there before since the grass was so much taller than the clover. Usually I keep the dogs out of tall grass when we are walking since they always seem to find something wet or nasty to rub up against in the high weeds, but since someone had come by and mowed the field last evening I figured that I’d let the dogs explore a bit. Continue reading
Month: May 2015
Jack’s Trumpet Angel
My friend Jack is a woodcarver who also plays the trumpet. Recently he shared a story of his testimony with me and it was so amazing I asked him for his permission to write it down and pass it. To set up the back story a bit it is important to note that my friend is a re-enactor who was participating in a Rendezvous. He had a Christmas tree set up decorated with his carvings and one of those carvings was an angel blowing a trumpet. After he’d set up his campsite he realized that he didn’t have a fire poker and he went over to the blacksmith’s camp to ask him to make one for him. At the time Jack didn’t have any cash with him, but in keeping with the true spirit of a Rendezvous he explained that he was a woodcarver and bargained with the blacksmith for a new fire-poker. Eventually when the blacksmith inspected Jack’s work hanging on the campsite Christmas tree he told Jack that he’d make him a new poker in exchange for the angel blowing the trumpet. Continue reading
Doubting God
Have you ever felt that God has called you to do something, but then started to doubt whether that calling was really from God? To be honest… I have. I know that the enemy is always there trying to get inside of your head. His name means “The Accuser” and he’s always prepared to try to convince you that we are failing; particularly when we are trying to do something that God wants us to do. This past week has been that way for me. I’d actually started to wonder whether this blog was really what God wanted me to do or whether my fleshly self was trying to win God’s favor through works. Doubts kept coming into my mind every time I began thinking about it. All week long I’d been praying to God about those doubts, but the more I thought about them the stronger they seemed to get. Yesterday in frustration I cried out to God saying, “God, You have to show me what to do to get rid of these doubts!” As soon as I asked He answered. Continue reading
Sowing Seeds
I was blessed by an interesting insight into the parable of the Sower of the seed and it came from a completely unexpected direction. Yesterday I mowed the lawn and when I was finished I went inside to get cleaned up and eat supper (my fantastic wife made Asian Tacos YUM!) I got so distracted by the food and other household chores that I forgot that I’d planned on putting out some new grass seed. Since it wasn’t quite dark yet I went back outside to sow the grass seed around the lawn. While I was spreading this seed the parabale of the sower who sows seed in the different soils kept running through my mind. I fantasized about what it would have been like to be a farmer who had to spread his seed by hand. Every time I felt the seeds leaving my hand as I strew them across bare patches of ground I felt a sense of satisfaction, peace, and accomplishment. Unfortunately, the local mosquitos obviously felt that it was their duty to interrupt my peace of mind since they called all of their friends and descended upon me in hordes; or at least that’s the way that it felt when I started to get bitten by them. Continue reading
False Teachings Causing Dissension In The Church
False teachings abound in the world today so why are we so surprised when someone in the church says something that doesn’t sound quite right? This weekend I had the opportunity to talk with a lady who was struggling with exactly this kind of situation in her church. Apparently her church had invited someone to speak before their congregation and during part of his sermon he appears to have spoken about there being multiple paths to God. This statement confused one of the women in the congregation and at a later date she asked a question that she hoped would clarify the point that the speaker had been trying to make. Unfortunately, her simple question for clarification appears to have opened a doorway of dissension within their church whereby a number of people began making negative comments about her! Continue reading
Sojourner's Tales 