Our Lighted Path

  I believe my childhood baptism was a christening instead of baptism. I believe childhood baptism or christening worked to promise me to God's care, no matter what evil would happen in life. Then, in older years, I was baptized in whole. My whole life became God's through new faith in Jesus.  The day I was baptized in wholeness (fullness) of faith, there were a number of strangers who received the alter call at the same time I did, and who went on to be counseled a little. A few of those strangers made a Spirit-led decision, like I did, to be baptized. We received the Holy Spirit, like the first of the church at Pentecost. When I stood waiting at the baptism pool, a member of the church told me she sensed the Holy Spirit on the baptismal water. And, before that, an associate pastor had counseled us a long while, unlike the brief counsel after we had left the prayer alter. The pastor didn't only talk about simple faith in God through Jesus. He counseled against any hell an...

If anyone ever has wanted refreshing in Jesus, her thirsts have changed from whatever tears the body down, to pure thirsts: clean milk from cattle (for humanity, not so much for cats), not too much honey, purified waters from fresh streams, the unadulterated Bible word — all of which flow from the pure freedom Jesus offered all the world when He gave His life at Calvary. Some may waste all the faith they could have had on what isn't exactly the provision Heaven believed for us to have . When Jesus gave His blood, it was to alter men's appetite for murder among mankind. And don't some men put their own bodies to death through illicit sex, ungodly drugs, and sometimes drunkenness even today? ... I always remember fondly that my grandpa asked me if I drank [alcoholic drinks]. I know he knew the answer (even if it was only sometimes), and that I shouldn't, anymore. That was only one step toward recognizing the salvation Jesus paid for me at Calvary. Some may feel like Jesus...

  "But he answered and said, It is written, [Mankind lives] not by bread alone, but   by every word   that proceeds out of the   of the mouth of God." —  Matthew 4:4 When we each open a Bible, and we prayerfully want peace in heart, with all our soul, we're going to seek God in Jesus; and we're going to do that steadfastly, year after year. We may struggle with one problem or another, but, deep in heart, we never want to abandon the assembling of ourselves together not as tribes but as the body of the church. As His body, we look forward to saying, altogether, that we need everything Jesus finished for us on the cross at Calvary, the running water of His word and His spiritual giving of blood — everything of Him that helps us examine ourselves in heart ( 1 Corinthians 11:28-29 ) and cleanses away our sins. By the way, the symbolic taking of physical bread at Communion is not enough for physical hunger, and it may seem we each are eating of a separate layer ...

  I like this scripture image from DailyVerses. It's a comforting reminder that only Heaven knows what seasons ahead will hold, and that we're not to worry nor forget His abundant Grace. What is His Grace? What is Heaven's Grace in Jesus but to understand God is good? To walk in His Grace is not to worry. It's knowing you've been faithful, despite any error in your way. And it's knowing that when the enemy's pattern of diminishing all increase takes our heart to cheerfully place our offerings, God is still good. It's knowing He is blessed and fatherly enough not to reward willful supplanting, although He forgives and makes each step of the way sure (sure of that Grace), no matter how this world may disparage us or see us. Dear Loved One: I'm praying His Grace, the same Grace that shut even the mouths of lions, will ease our way  out of every lie, destructive deed, foul-smelling trick of the enemy, and ill report.

  Part of a cheerful commentary about summer missions , this photo is a beautiful reminder that many parts of the world have mastered walking by faith instead of living by bare eyesight. When Jesus' brother James cautioned a church not to "become judges with evil thoughts," it was because the church had a heart to praise men in fine clothes and to be unkind toward people who might be treated like dirt, dirt kind of like making enemies your footstool. When I first knew Jesus had rescued me from being lost, I realized God had something more in store than how I was living at the time. I didn't realize, at that time, how much Heaven wanted me to learn. I did, however, recognize it was time to part with clothes that were from what I knew in heart was a wretched, lost way of life. I can say that today, because I got saved and had a right heart. I was whole in Jesus for the first time, ever. And I didn't want to wear any reminder of how lost I had been. Instead, I was oh...

This blog,  Our Lighted Path , is dedicated to Christian understanding. Although this blog was intended to be only scriptural, it may be time now for a departure from scripture commentary -- just to talk about one of many problems parts of the church have struggled to end. The Bible says people perish for lack of knowledge, and that may include, today, some medical or health knowledge. It was more than a decade ago now, when some of our young people began thinking things in error about the HPV vaccine. Too many thought that when parents took them to be vaccinated, or when they were vaccinated more independently, as college students, that was absolute protection against consequences for vices like oral promiscuity. Many are adults now, with children of their own. So it stands to reason that we speak reason to what has become a kind of traditional problem, the kind of tradition Jesus says is "iniquity." But more than Heavenly scolding, we need to air some facts. Anyone who has ...