The Pastor's Perspective

    A couple of years back I had done something I have never done in my life. I replaced a thermostat at the church.     Now I had installed other things in the past, things like a new light fixture, or setting up a new TV. If those past experiences taught me anything, it taught me that the first thing I need to do is grab the instructions. Yes it has taken me nearly 40 years of my life to learn that lesson, but I have finally learned that it is better to read the instructions instead of trying to figure things out my self.      So that is what I did before I tried to figure out by trail and error how to put the thermostats in. I took a little time to read the instructions.      Now everything went fairly smoothly as I recall that is until I came to a problem. There was one thermostat that was giving me some problems. I had wired it just like the others and I had checked and rechecked what I had done with the instructions I was given. Ho...

     Someone once asked an elderly Christian woman what her favorite scripture was.  Without hesitation the elderly woman said "It came to pass". The person responded 'Out of all the passages of scripture why that one?"  She smiled and said "Because it does not say it came to stay"      There are some days so wonderful and so joyful that you wish time would stand still just a little longer. There are moments in life you wish you could return to, or repeat because they were wonderful experience's in you life.      A few Sunday's ago me and my wife went out and ate at Cracker barrel and beside us was a family with a small child. The mother laid out a place mat for the child and put a bib around his neck. The mother gave the boy some mashed potatoes and a hand full of cheerios.     Both me and my wife were reminded of when our children were that age. We remember with fondness of how cute our kids were when they were that litt...

   It has been 4 years now since we had to deal with COVID and the "New Normal". Since that time we have endured a great many changes. Now some of these changes were good, and some were not.      For me one of the positive changes has been me using Amazon Prime to purchase various items online. Prior to COVID I had never used Amazon prime and rarely did I purchase items online. I never really felt the need to use it. However with the demands of social distancing we were forced to use more online shopping options. Since that time I have been using Amazon prime for a variety of reasons. I have bought everything from coffee, tools, and even some country ham.      If you have ever used Amazon prime, or you have ever bought anything online, or even the Shopping Home Network you know that it will take a couple of days before your item's arrive. Normally it will tell you when you can expect your items to arrive at your house.      Now ther...

  In America we have laws in place that prevent companies from doing what is called deceptive packaging. What this means is that companies can not try to sell a product by keeping back certain information. They have to make sure that the product they are advertising is the same product that they are actually selling.       So if there product is known to be harmful in someway they have to put a warning label on that product so that the customer is aware of the danger.  If there product is supposed to look a certain way, than any of the pictures that they use must accurately represent the product they are selling. If the product is a certain size but they want to use is a close up image they have to put a statement that says that this picture is not the actual size of the product and is used to show the texture of there product.     So why were these laws put in place? Why are companies forced to make these accommodations? These laws are important ...

    There was  man from Brooklyn who went to court to change his last name from Kelly to Feinberg. Then a year later he went back to the same court to change is name again. This time he changed his name to Garibaldi.      It was at this time the judge asked the man "Mr. Feinberg this is the second time you have petitioned this court to change your last name with in a year. Now I must ask you are you trying to make the court confused or foolish?"      The man replied "No not at all your Honor"      "Well then why are you changing your name then" asked the judge     The man replied "Because your Honor my neighborhood keeps changing"  We live in a world full of change do we not. From culture, to technology, to style, to politics nothing stays the same. In our church we have a wonderful godly lady who is 101 years old I can't imagine the changes she has seen in her lifetime. She used to teach in a one room school hou...

    For the past several months we have been going through the book of Revelation, and one night a few weeks ago we got into a discussion about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and it led to us discussing the Trinity.        Now what I find interesting and what seems to be the number one argument when it comes to the doctrine of the trinity is that the word Trinity cannot be found in the bible. Many will say things like "How can you believe in a doctrine when the word for that doctrine cannot be found anywhere in scripture.      The truth is that they are correct in saying that the word Trinity cannot found anywhere in any of the 66 books of the bible. But does that mean that the doctrine is incorrect or that it is a false doctrine?  Well to answer that question I would say No. Just because the word trinity is not found in the bible does not mean the doctrine is not found in scripture. Just like you can read throughout...

     Not to long ago the President of the United States delivered his State of the Union Address. This is a time when the president can boast about his accomplishments, challenge his critics, and inform the public about the direction the country is taking. It is broadcast on all the major news outlets, and can be watched on your computer. The goal and the idea is so that everyone can hear what the president is saying, and what the president is doing.      Now I think we could all agree that if the president of the united states wrote you a personal hand written letter telling you about what he had been doing, and the direction he was taking our country. It would be a bit different than the State of the Union Address he delivers to the entire world. It would probably be a bit more personal, there would probably be more specific information.      When we talk about God speaking with us there really are two main ways God does this. The first way...

     There was this boy who was playing outside one day. He was throwing his ball out in the back yard. It just so happened that this boy had thrown a little too hard and the ball landed on top of the roof of his home. The ball rolled down the roof and the boy was hoping that the ball would just simply fall down. Unfortunately however the ball got stuck in the gutter.      Well this was a real problem for the boy and he began to think about what he could do to fix this situation and get his ball back. He looked around and saw a large branch from a near by tree and He thought that he might be able to use it to push the ball off. Sadly the branch did not quite reach the ball.      Next the boy thought about the large ladder in his fathers garage. "Surely it is tall enough for me to use to climb up on the roof and retrieve my ball.      So off the boy goes into the garage to retrieve the ladder. The boy struggled under its weight ...

  Go down the cereal isle this week and you will find several different boxes of cereal that look similar. The color scheme is similar, the nutritional information is similar, and the overall taste many times is similar.  Sometimes the generic brands are just as good and there is little to no diffrence to the taste. (Except for Oreo's! I don't know what they put in those cookies to make them taste the way they do, but the generic chocolate sandwich cookies just are not the same. But I digress.) You see for the most part there is very little diffrence between the cereals except one might say "Honey Nut Cheerios" and the other might say "Honey Nut Scooters".  That's because one of the cereal's is name brand and the other is generic.      Now the generic brands tend to design their product after the name brand product they are mimicking. They are trying to entice you to try there product that they are claiming is just as good as the other only its not a...

    I believe we all have something that we are proud of.  It might be some accomplishment or some reward we received at one time in our life.   It might be a talent or a skill that we have. It might be the accomplishments of our children, or grandchildren.       No matter what it might be we all have something that we are proud of.  One of the ways you can tell what someone is proud of is by seeing what they love to talk about. People often love to share the things they are most proud of with others. Parents who are beaming with pride with the accomplishments of their children share posts on Facebook. Individuals who are proud of their scholastic accomplishments post the pictures of there degrees and awards. When we have a great recipe for some great dessert we have found we share it with others. We share what we are proud of, and what we are proud of is what we like to share.   Capt. Edward John Smith     The bible ...

 A professor of theology once asked his students to get a sheet of paper and divide the sheet into three columns.  In the first column they were to write every passage where Christ is spoken of as God-Man; in the second column they were to write all the passages where Christ is spoken of as God alone; and in the third, all the passages where Christ is spoken of as man alone. The professor told the students that they needed to have this paper finished when they came back to class the following week.  So the students throughout  the weekend started rifling through the New Testament trying to find these different references for Jesus. The students found that first and second columns filled right up, but as to the third column, the one where Christ was mentioned as man alone, it remained blank. This was true for every single student. No one could find a single passage that even alluded to Christ being man alone.  So the students were a bit worried as they came into ...

       Since the early 1900's when Psychology was in its infancy. Psychologists had sought ways to try to test for intelligence. This had led to a number of different tests and methods.      In 1905 the Binet-Simon was the first to formalize a test for intelligence in children. Since that time there have been a variety of tests developed.      When I was in school I had been tested many times for my dyslexia and dyscalculia (a learning disability with reading and math).      Students today have to take a series of test that are designed to test where they are academically. High school students must take either the ACT or SAT. In order to join the military every, you will have to go through a series of test, one of which is the ASFAB.       When we talk about God and as we study the bible one of the things we can see is that God is in fact in intellectual being. God is in fact knowledgeable.   ...