The Pastor's Perspective

       Imagine going to a garage sale and finding a unique item and buying for a few bucks only to later find out what you bought was not just some worthless item but one that was worth far more than you paid for it. That is one of the things I love about watching shows like the Antique Roadshow. I love hearing individuals who have found some item for a few dollars, thinking it was worth very little. Then learning that what they had in there possessions was museum worthy.       That’s precisely what happened to a man by the name of  Donald Scheer. He purchased a picture for a mere four dollars. He was drawn by the attractiveness of the frame and really did not care much for the picture that it held. Little did he know, tucked away inside, was an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Of the approximately 300 copies made on July 5, 1776, only 24 remain today. Donald's discovery was one of them, eventually selling at auction for a st...

       We've all witnessed it. The campaign speeches filled with bold pronouncements, the unwavering commitments made with conviction. Yet, as the dust settles and the realities of governance take hold, those promises often seem to evaporate like morning mist, don't they. It sometimes leaves you wondering "Hey have you forgot about what you said just a few months ago?"        We hear explanations, justifications about "evolving circumstances," and needing to reach across the isle. Sometimes we hear things about how they don't have enough votes anyway. Or a thousand other reasons why they can't do the very things that they promised they would do. It can leave us all feeling a bit used, and frustrated.        Machiavelli, once said "the promise given was a necessity of the past; the word broken is the necessity of the present," that sadly seems to echo in the halls of capital hill today. We've become accustomed to a cer...

   President Theodore Roosevelt  Have you ever heard the old saying, "the pen is mightier than the sword"? Well, in this case, it was the words that saved a life!      On October 14, 1912, President Theodore Roosevelt was on the campaign trail, seeking re-election. That same day, an angry bartender fired a shot at him, hitting him in the chest. Most would have expected the president to fall, but what happened next was nothing short of miraculous.      Despite being shot, President Roosevelt insisted on delivering his scheduled speech. He spoke for 90 minutes to a captivated crowd before heading to the hospital. How did he manage to survive such an ordeal, you might ask?      It turns out that the president, known to be long winded, had placed his 50-page speech in his coat pocket. The thick stack of papers significantly slowed the bullet, preventing it from causing serious harm. Instead of a fatal injury, Roosevelt only suff...

          Imagine if you will there is a married couple and they are madly in love. with one another. Things are going great in there marriage and it would appear that their relationship will last.     However one day the husband gets news from his boss that he has to go for a year overseas to a job site and unfortunately he will have to go alone. He goes home and talks it over with his wife. While she is not particularly fond of the idea of her husband leaving she knows that he has to do it to keep his job. He packs his bags and kisses his wife good bye and boards the plane. Before he leaves he promises his wife that he will write her every day.      Sure enough the Husband is devoted to writing a letter to his wife every day. He spends time sharing in his letters all that he is doing, how much he misses her. He spends money every week getting stamps and rushes out send to the mail room.      There is just one proble...

   L ast week as I happened to come to a interesting article   published by Popular Mechanics. This article was about a new scientific discovery where they said they found the light source that literally turned on the Universe.  You can find this article here:  Astronomers Found the Ancient Light Source That Literally Turned On the Universe       I want to just share the first portion of that article because I found it very interesting.   " For hundreds of a millions of years, the universe existed in the dark ages—an epoch when only primordial gasses existed.  Then, a period of reionization, cleared away this foggy existence an introduced light into the universe.  Now, an international team of scientists at the helm of the James Webb Space Telescope have analyzed eight of the faintest dwarf galaxies that existed during this time, and determined that these galaxies produced enough radiation to kickstart the reionization process....

    I believe that many of us love to be in control. No I don't mean to be a boss or own a company per say. What I mean is simply this, all of us want to feel like we have a say in what happens with our lives. We want to manage our own life and think that we can make our own decisions. We don't like it when we are told what to do, or even worse we are told what we have to do. However, if are made to feel like it is our idea, not only will we do it, but we will do it putting all of our energy to it. Why? because we like to feel like it was our idea, our decision. We want to be in control.      Nothing has taught this better than my experiences with teaching my two daughters how to drive a car. To be forced to sit in that passenger seat with no breaks, no steering wheel has stretched both my faith, and challenged my patience. There has been many times as my daughters have started to learn to drive that I have pumped the imaginary breaks on my side of the car....

     Some years ago there was a counselor on the first night of church camp who was about to shut off the lights to the boy's cabin. However as the camp counselor went to shut off the light one of boy's screamed out "NO, DON'T TURN OFF THE LIGHT!!"      The counselor was startled and asked the boy if he was scared of the dark. The young camper said, "No." "Well why don't you want the lights turned off them" the counselor asked. The boy replied "I don't want to the killer rabbits to kill me" When the boy said that there were several boys in the cabin that started snickering, because it turned out that the other boys had tried to scare this boy and told him that at night there are killer bunny's that come into the cabin when the lights are turned off.      That boy was scared, but being fearful is not just for children. There are a lot of people today that live in fear. There are moments in our lives when we can become worri...

     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...

    There once was a man who one day decided to go to church. This man was not really religious. In fact this man had not darkened the door way  of a church since he was a boy. However one of his co-workers who he was good friends with had invited him. So the man decided to go out of respect for his friend.      The man sat there as the service went on. Nothing unusual went on that day. They sang songs and some of them the man remembered from childhood memories. The preacher preached on what it meant to truly surrender to Jesus Christ. The preacher shared how to be a true follower of Christ will mean a great deal of changes and hardships that you will have to face.      As the sermon drawn to a close the pastor bowed his head and prayed a simple prayer. The pastor prayed "O Lord, you know we can trust the man that died for us" The prayer was simple, but it was the one thing that got this man's attention.      As the man headed ...

   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...

    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...