The Periodically

There is something about exhausting yourself working outdoors. I periodically head out to my Dad and stepmom's place to help them with their sheep. Today was to give injections and worming paste. Sadie often comes with me and keeps track of which sheep we've done based on their tags. Dad has them in the barn before we get there. We bring in an extra fence and Dad keeps guard of the entrance. He'll grab one by the back leg, hand it to me for me to drag out and ready it for the shot and paste. My stepmom, Sally, is waiting with shot in hand. Once done, the sheep flee out the doors as fast as they can. They don't realize that their temporary suffering (me holding their heads tight and the pain of the injection and paste squeezed down their throats) is for their greater good. I've heard pastors call sheep "dumb," but I don't think we are much different. We go through suffering, and we are upset that we have to go through it. We question why...

The Gospel & Your Identity [i] Incredibly Wealthy Slave In Colonial US the story is told of a wealthy plantation owner who died and left an exorbitant inheritance of $50K to his chief of slaves.  The money was deposited in the local bank in the slave’s name, and several months passed without the slave making any draw on the money. Finally the banker called the slave to remind him that this huge wealth of money was available to him in his own account at the bank, and when he finally convinced the man that this wealth was indeed legally his… the slave meekly asked, “Then do you think it possible for me to have 50 cents to purchase a bag of cornmeal?”  This man was living in severe poverty while at the same time possessing a great fortune beyond his understanding! The Blessed Beggar I got off at the Pennsylvania depot as a tramp, and for a year I begged on the streets for a living.  One day I touched a man on the shoulder and said, “Hey, mist...

 A few weeks ago we had our annual counseling conference at BCC. This year we had a special Youth and Young Adult track titled Pathway to Life. In this track we covered 5 main topics which we are now going over during our IMAGE Sunday School class. Next week’s topic will be “Wisdom: How to Make Big (& Small) Decisions” so I wanted to discuss it a bit more for our youth parents this week. There seem to be a few common, yet faulty views on decision making we tend to fall into. The first is when making a decision we should simply do whatever we want or “feels” right. While yielding quick results and conclusions, this way leads down a very hard path (Prov 13:15, Jer 17: 5-10). God does not intend for us to live life apart from Him and His direction. Joy, peace, purpose, & direction all flow from that. The second seems to be the complete antitheses. Someone making decisions from this view, rather than ignoring God’s direction, would hyper-spiritualize receiving God’s dir...