The Pastor's Perspective

           In this one town there was these two hair dressers and like every business they wanted to get as many clients as possible. So as you might imagine there was some pretty good competition between these two hair dressers.      Each one tried to out do the other all so they might get a few more clients. If one of them dropped their price, then it was not long before the other hair dresser got wind of it and did the same. If one of them have a deal on shampoo, no matter if it hurt them to do it or not, the other one would try to give a better deal. This went on for months on end.      Well one day, one of the hair dressers became extremely busy with customers, a lot more than normal. Of course this hair dresser had her regulars but she started to notice that she was getting some clients that she knew went to her competitors shop.      Well this was not normal so she decided to do a bit of investigation of h...

    The Grace Reformed church in Washington D.C. had been the home church for president Theodore Roosevelt and he had attended quite regularly when he happened to be in town.      One day someone called the church and asked the pastor a interesting question that the pastor had never received before. The question was asked "Are you expecting the President in the church this Sunday?"      The pastor replied "I cannot promise, but we do expect God to be there and we hope that will be incentive enough for a reasonably large audience."     As a pastor myself I have to say that I approve of his answer.      Sometimes in our Christian lives we can often forget that the reason why we go to church is to draw closer to God. We sometimes forget the true meaning and purpose behind why we attend. We sometimes can lose sight on what real worship is. We like this man's question, can focus on who is going to be in the service. Or we can f...

     As a believer in Christ I have to admit that I am not always the best example of what a Christian should be. There are moments I catch my self talking or acting in ways that I think to myself "David that is not how a Christian should act". I wonder if I am the only one who has done that, but I am pretty sure I am not.      I think that if we will be honest with ourselves and allow ourselves to do a little bit of introspection. We will find that there are moments in our lives that what we say or what we just happen to be doing are not always in line with scripture. I am sure there are moments that you will find your life is not as Christ like as it should be. I am sure of these things because everyone of us are not perfect.      As hard as we might try to fight it. As good as we try to be. The fact of the matter is that we all mess up from time to time. We all say things we should not say. We all do things that we are not supposed to do. ...

     This is my second year working as a bus monitor. In that time I have seen several instances where people have lost control of there anger. Times when kids have become red in the face yelling and screaming for what appears to be nothing.      One time last year I was with a new driver who was driving a route neither me nor her had to much familiarity with. I was trying to give her the right directions, but I failed, and I led her down a dead end road. Now in a car or a truck that might not be a big deal. However we were in a large yellow bus and we were full of some of the wildest kids you can find. So to say that the bus driver was stressed would be an understatement.      She had to turn around and that meant backing up and pulling forward time and time again just to turn it around. Now to the bus drivers credit she kept her cool. However that can't be said for the old lady who came out of her house. You see as we started backing up we ...

    As a pastor I love to read about various revivals in history, because they give us a little light on how revival begins.      During the great Welsh revival there was a minister who was said to be very successful in sharing the gospel. Many individuals would respond to his message and they would repent of their sins and be saved. Hundreds of people were coming to Jesus Christ under this man's ministry.  What made this so interesting was that this minister preached the same sermon everywhere he went.      As news about this minister and his one very effected message came to the ears of another minister. The minister was interested in hearing this message for himself. This man wanted to know what was the secret.       So when this minister heard this preacher was going to preach in a near by city. He waisted no time to go and hear this powerful sermon. The minister traveled a great distant to get to the meeting. He sat t...

   A little girl was walking in the cemetery with her aunt one day. She was examining the various gravestones. When suddenly she cried out, "Oh, auntie, look here! Here is the tomb of some poor person who has not gone to heaven." This took the Aunt by surprise and she asked "Not gone to heaven?" She then turned to look at what her niece was referring to. The grave stone she was looking at was an elaborate monument with weeping angels sculptured in marble. The monument was very pretty and was decorated with various flowers. So the aunt being a bit confused asked  "Why, what do you mean?" "Well, auntie," said the child, "the person in the grave cannot have gone to heaven, or the angels would not be crying!"     Honestly, that girl was right.       There are a lot of things about heaven we really cannot know for sure. We can't know what exactly Heaven will look like. The bible gives us a few descriptions and while it is helpful the wor...

     If you have lived for any length of time you have had your fair share of grief. There have been loved one's who have passed on, jobs that you have lost, relationships ruined, the list could go on and on. Grief is sadly one of the problems that all of us face in this life.      The author Edgar Jackson in a few short words describes grief perfectly. He writes; Grief is a young widow trying to raise her three children, alone. Grief is the man so filled with shocked uncertainty and confusion that he strikes out at the nearest person. Grief is a mother walking daily to a nearby cemetery to stand quietly and alone a few minutes before going about the tasks of the day. She knows that part of her is in the cemetery, just as part of her is in her daily work. Grief is the silent, knife-like terror and sadness that comes a hundred times a day, when you start to speak to someone who is no longer there. Grief is the emptiness that comes when you eat alone after ea...

    Socrates of Constantinople was a church historian who once told about a man named Pambo. Pambo one day came to Socrates at his home with a request. He said "Teach me a Psalm or some part of Scripture"      Hearing this request Socrates began to read from Psalms 39 where it reads "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue"       After Socrates finished the first verse Pambo asked Socrates to close the bible. Pambo told Socrates "I want to learn what that verse means and master it before I hear anymore". With that Pambo  left Socrates home and said "I will be back when I have mastered that verse".      Weeks went by and Pambo never showed back at Socrates house. Until one day Socrates, happened to accidentally ran into him at the market. He asked Pambo "Why have you not come back Pambo?"      Pambo replied and said "I am still trying to learn that first lesson you taught me about m...

          There was at one time an Italian bishop who had been struggling with his health. He had for some time, been struggling with a great amount of pain due to his ailment. Family, friends and those who were close to the bishop knew the amount of pain and struggle it was just to get out of bed.      The bishops struggles lasted for year and years. He would labor on each day with the pain and hardships due to his declining health. Those who were around the bishop and knew the struggle he had to endure each and every day were all amazed. Despite all that the bishop had to go through and the vast amount of pain that he had to endure; the bishop always had a positive attitude. In the years that they had watched the bishop day in and day out, not once did the bishop seemed irritated, impatient or depressed.      Well one day one of the bishops closest friends asked him "Would you tell me your secret on being content in this life...

    There was some new construction going on in the new residential area in the polish town of Lubin. Everything was going according to schedule . Aug 10th 2023 seemed like just another day for the construction workers. That is until they made a terrifying discovery.      As one of the workers began digging he stumbled upon a very large metal object. This was unusual and unexpected. As the workers began removing the dirt from off the object it became clear that they now had a problem on there hands. This rusted metal object just happened to be a 550 pound bomb that had been left there since WWII.      It just so happened that the place in which they were working was used as a labor and prisoner of war camp in WWII. It was believed that this place had been cleaned up and perfectly safe, a belief that was in fact misplaced.      Now the question came what are we going to do about this situation? Immediately the local officials took ac...

       This blog post is not so much as a devotion as it is just a testimony. Which I believe can be a blessing to the reader just as much as it has been for me experiencing it.     You really never know how the things God does in your life will be used until you get a chance to look back and see the hand of God in it.      That certainly is the case for me as I look back on the past several months. It was about this time last year that my car which I had only had for 2 years decided to quit on me. This led me and my family having to break down and go and purchase a new car. This meant that we had to do something we had not had to do for nearly 20 years and that is get a loan. Until then we had always paid our cars out in cash.      Looking at the finances we quickly realized we need to make a little bit more to stay a float. My wife had just stated a job working as a bus monitor for the school. I knew that they were always hir...

     There was a problem a few years back in a county near by Ashmore, where I live. Turned out that some of the first-responders, firefighters and police officers were having trouble communicating in certain parts of the county. Apparently, there were certain dead zones in the county where the radios was unable to receive or transmit a signal. There were several areas in the county where the signal would be weak, making it difficult for the people to understand one another.    I know that I have times when I would be talking to someone and the signal would not be great and the call is dropped. That kind of thing can be frustrating, especially when you don't know when it was dropped and you find your self talking to your self, that is until you realize the call was dropped. That alone is frustrating.     However i t's one thing to be on the phone with someone and all of a sudden you lose connection. It is something entirely different when you are tryin...

    On October 15th 2009 something tragic happened to a Colorado family that got national attention. Falcon Heene the family's six year old son had gotten trapped in a homemade Helium balloon and it had accidently floated away.      For two hours the authorities and media outlets tracked down the balloon's flight path. Many people were fearing the worst and were worried about the fate of Falcon. The fears were relieved when the balloon eventually landed about 50 miles from the family's home and it was discovered that the boy was not inside the balloon, but instead it was discovered that the boy had been hiding in the attic the entire time.   Tragedy was averted. A family has been reunited. A terrifying story with a story book ending.      However the relief turned into disappointment and outrage when it was later came out that the entire thing was nothing more than a elaborate hoax orchestrated by the parents. The parents of Falcon Heene...