Our Lighted Path

You are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13-16 Some of my favorite Bible stories continue to be a few of those memories of when Jesus walked again after death. Some may think the disciples only imagined that He was on the seashore one morning, telling them to throw their fishing nets on the opposite side of the place where they had been fishing all night. But that story doesn't end with Jesus standing far off from them on the seashore. Walking the earth again, Jesus called them to shore. And although He asked them to provide a few of the fish that they did wind up catching that morning, Jesus proved He already had, for them, what was needed that day. When the disciples made it to shore, Jesus was altered in appearance but very much there with them, and He already   had prepared a meal over a fire by the sea . That may be my favorite faith memory. We don't have anyway of knowing whether that meal was well seasoned, with vegetables, beneficial herbs, and mineral-rich salt vital t...

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 So much is happening in our world now. Just a few days ago, a news segment aired on a major TV network, attempting to define something that doctors, now, are calling "gender dysphoria." This news piece featured an ordinary young woman but suggested that she is among those who have gender dysphoria, maybe because she was born with a chimera trait that gave her a little male tissue where there should be only female tissues. Because of that chimera error, as science used to call it, someone labeled her "male" at her birth, leaving her to feel, as an adult, that gender is just arbitrary. But gender is not arbitrary. Heaven was so very intentional about creating two distinct genders that make up mankind. Somewhere along the way, mankind, through experimentation, did introduce various biological "errors," including problems that cause abnormalit...

When Jesus ministered to more than 5,000 people on a hillside one day, the people had walked long distances, because they wanted to hear what He would say to them. Jesus did speak to the people that day, and the Bible says that, when He had finished speaking, He felt pity toward them, because they had walked so far and had not eaten. So, He asked for a little food that could be multiplied and given to the people in small groups that day. But that Christian fellowship over a meal, was not communion. Communion is something else. Communion is a different form of fellowship; it's about being filled "in the Spirit," instead of filled by the food that we need each day to live. In fact, the apostle Paul once told a church that, if they wanted food, then to eat at home. That was kind of mean, but something had apparently gotten out of hand with that church congregation. "Taste and see that the Lord is good," David wrote in Old Testament times. David was always thankful...

After a difficult year, Easter in 2021 seemed so uncertain. But I was thankful, glancing at Baptist Press news articles, to know Heaven made the way for many of our church services. The service I was able to attend was here in Shreveport, Louisiana, at Hollywood Baptist Church, where the pastor preached that God sacrificed Jesus in exchange for our freedom. But he didn't preach the whole message of his heart on Easter day. Ten days after the Easter service, at the mid-week Bible study, he preached all over again: In terms of going to Heaven one day, Jesus acquits (saves from damnation) even the guilty who trust and accept salvation in Him . To save our souls from hell, Jesus have Himself in exchange for our release, he made clear. Heaven also placed it on my heart to say God put the Savior on the cross at Calvary, so sinful men would not be crucified (condemned to hell!) again and again. "For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, ...

On Pinterest some months ago, I posted a picture of a Trump t-shirt, not because I thought wearing a Trump shirt was a good idea, but because I felt as if politics in my country almost forces the idea of allegiance to one political movement or another, without any regard for who we are as individuals and persons of faith. At that time, a Trump supporter had declared, on Twitter, that the then-president would "crush" his opponents. And I was feeling, then, like the lives and will of American citizens like me, were being crushed; so I posted that t-shirt with the thought that politics is killing us. I posted that idea on my Gone Too Soon board on Pinterest. Unfortunately, Pinterest deleted the idea I expressed, and left the picture of the t-shirt and the Trump supporter's declaration, which made it seem as if I was some extremist. But I'm not a Trump supporter, let alone an extremist. So, I'm saying again today, that whether through Trump or someone else, politics ...

Whole books and dissertations have been written about the apostle Paul's messages on circumcision. But this is only a simple note about why Paul preached on circumcision, and why he mentioned castration. A short answer to that question is that people in ancient times, same as many people today, believed that cutting away the flesh helped people to be clean and to stop sinning. But Paul's message, from Heaven, was that cutting flesh away may have some affect but that it doesn't save anyone from going to hell. Cutting away flesh doesn't save souls. Cutting away flesh doesn't give anyone a heart for Jesus. Jesus taught that, when people are very prone to sin, it's best to cast them away from the church. That's what he meant in saying that, if your eye or hand offend, to cast it away. Jesus referred to members of the church as parts of His body, and He described some members as the eye of the church body, and other members as the hands of the church body. Paul d...