Keeping things given to us by God simple, even though we live in a very complicated world.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Free Byrd


In this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer, Terry Pluto reviews a book written by Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd, titled Free Byrd. The book tells about Byrd's struggle as a pro athlete and Christian.

Pluto wrote a real good review of the book, starting out discussing when Byrd would be spending long nights in a hotel room looking at his computer screen, wondering if he would give in to looking at porn, a problem Terry Pluto himself has confessed to having had.

Another part of the review I liked and one that I could identify with is Byrd being a young Christian and being too aggressive with evangelistic efforts and turning people off to the Lord.

It blesses my heart when a local sports figure professes his faith and writes a testimony about it. This is definitely a book I have got to check out.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Praise the Lord

Psalm 150


1-6 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship,
praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
Hallelujah!

This version of Psalm 150 comes from The Message.

I have no comment except enjoy the scripture and go out and Praise the Lord.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Come unto me

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 KJV

As those who read my blogs know, I have been somewhat under the weather this weekend, so I haven't been blogging as much as usual. I have however been emailing a fellow blogger, and this topic came into my heart as a result.

There are many who have gone through much in recent times. We can tell others and we sometimes get a shoulder to cry on, other times we may find we are in competition with others, as they launch into a game of "can you top this." As a result of struggles, many question their religion.

Jesus says "Come onto me." He doesn't say come unto the Pentecostals, the Baptists, the Catholics, the Lutherans, The Methodists, etc. This is where our childlike faith comes in. We are to come unto Jesus. He wants us to take HIS yoke upon us. He wants to take our load upon Himself and help us. He wants to lighten our burden. He wants to give our souls rest.

Jesus is here for us when others aren't. When we are alone and afraid, He is the still small voice in the night that gives us comfort.

There are many good Christians, but we all are human, and as such, we may fail. We are to be like Christ and reach out to others. We are to help others carry their load.

I am going to end this post by giving the same text, Matthew 11:28-30, from the version known as The Message:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."



Saturday, July 5, 2008

How do you handle hard times?

Hard times. We all have them. This year my brother passed away and my father in law is having some health problems which are making my wife feel helpless.

We read about people losing their jobs, their homes being foreclosed on. People around the country are dealing with natural disasters. And the future could be cloudy to us.

But we serve a Lord who cares for us. He knows tomorrow because he created tomorrow.

My favorite faith columnist, Terry Pluto, has written a column in this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer called "In hard times, trusting God means trusting yourself."

I suggest you give the story a read. If you've not been through hard times, you probably someday will.