The Hungry Disciple

My husband and I recently refinanced our mortgage. The sheets of legal mumbo-jumbo produced was impressive. We read through every page of it diligently.....just kidding!  We didn't even contemplate doing that. We thought we understood what we were doing because we somewhat understood what the loan officers, bankers and other experts told us, but one thing we knew for sure. If we started to read those pages we would be hopelessly confused.  I just had a discussion with some believers who were hopelessly confused about the Ten Commandments and Grace. Even unbelievers revere the Ten Commandments, I mean Charlton Heston as Moses branded God giving  the commandments into our retinas, and preachers, teachers and parents have branded them into our minds and sometimes backsides over the years, so we all have issues with casting those sacred tablets aside. Most believers vacillate between Grace and Commandments. As one woman in the discussion said, "our society would c...

I love snow and living in Virginia's Southside means I don't see it very often. I flew to the windows this morning hoping for snow and, be still my heart, the sunlight was glittering off that pearly white stuff everywhere I looked! First thing I did was open all the curtains and pull up all the blinds in my house so I could see the brilliant winter beauty everywhere I went. Then I set about making me some hot tea and raisin toast. It didn't take long for me to notice that my clean kitchen wasn't really clean. My wood floor was covered with dust and specks of cracker crumbs and other debris of life. I am not a OCD kind of homemaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I could not stand looking at that floor and headed to the broom closet. As I waited for my toast to pop up I noticed my counters weren't all that clean either, but littered with toast crumbs and smudges, so while I could see I wiped down all the counters. As I took my tea and toa...

Jesus talked about treasure and riches, wealth and mammon. He didn't shy away from using the most valuable thing in our world as an object lesson in His teaching. One of His most personal teachings, found in Luke 6:45 gives us a profound way to know what is buried deep in our heart.  Jesus says, " a good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good talk while an evil man out of the evil treasure in his heart produces evil talk."   Jesus says it's our heart that does our talking.. The word Jesus uses, treasure, can mean a jewelry box or a coffin. The Bible speaks specifically of treasure because the word implies something that is hidden or buried.. Jesus is painting a picture of our heart, our most valuable organ, the seat of our feelings and their origins, as both chests of buried treasure and coffins full of dead garbage. We have many ways to excuse the things that come out of our mouths. Often after saying something ugly, vile or unkin...