President Franklin Roosevelt in one of his famous speeches said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. We live with fear all of our lives. Some fear is necessary for us to function in the world. There is a response that keep us safe from harm. It is the fight or flight response. When we are frightened, our body produces this response. We have learned that putting our hand into fire hurts. So we develop a fear of fire. This is a natural response. When my oldest son was 6-7 years old, we took to a firework display. He had developed a fear of the dark. When the fireworks started to explode, he drove for my arms. He was terrified. I asked who made the night. He said God did. Then if He did make the night, there is nothing to be afraid of. He began to turn and look at the fireworks. He enjoyed the firework display and never was afraid of the dark again. Fear can be unreasonable. People can fear things that don’t exist. It can become so bad that they don’t leave their home for fear. Fear can stop you in your tracks for no reason. President Roosevelt was speaking to the nation about the fear of the depression. He wanted to show people that it can be turned around. God also talks about fear and what it is used for. He said that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. God also said that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He also said the because of the fear of death, people are held in bondage all of the lives. Jesus said that to whom is set free, is free indeed. Let God set you free from fear to live the life that He has planned for you.

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From a young age, we are taught that we must judge what is good or not. To survive in this world we must judge what is right or wrong. But we apply this to every part of our lives. Before we could speak, we were judging what food we needed to eat. Judging has become a part of all of our life. We like what we like and don’t want or need anything different. Do you know why you crave the same chocolate candy? Or you want to go to your favorite food place for your favorite foods. Mine is a freshly cooked beef hamburger fully dressed with fried onion rings. But if I ate only that food I would probably get sick from malnutrition and die. I have to eat the correct foods to maintain a proper diet. My wife’s food of choice is seafood. With the same discrimination we pick and choose all the things in our life. And many times it is applied to people because they are different from us. Everybody thinks that it is on the line of race, creed or color. But it goes way beyond that. Sometimes it is because they smell bad. Or it could be because they are poor. Or maybe they are not educated. Jesus would go the tax collector’s home to eat. Their friends were the local prostitutes. The religious leaders would condemn Jesus for going into a house of unclean people. Jesus told them that the well don’t need a physician. I came to seek and save that which was lost. People are people. God made every one of them. And He has called all to His dinner table. When you begin to think that you are more important than anyone else, I tell you a truth. You have lost your way and it is time for you to come back to God.

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It is having the ability to believe in someone or something. As I have been keeping track of current events, I have noticed a shift in attitudes toward people. There has been an attack on believability. People have been making a pretense of telling the truth. Then turning around and calling everyone a liar. One event comes to mind of Dan Rather and the CBS evening news. All you have to do is follow the presidential race and the media says Republicans bad and Democrats good. There is very little news coverage that is worth wasting my time listening to. But you have to remember that anyone isn’t all bad or all good. There is a happy medium in there, somewhere. I want to be an optimist about our future. But I can’t find anything that man is doing that is righteous. When Paul traveled the world teaching about Jesus, he always encountered people who agreed and disagreed. It seemed that the people that disagreed were more vocal than the others. That is why they stoned him, imprisoned him and chased him out of every major city. Because he really spoke the truth which most people don’t want to hear? It hasn’t changed much in 2000 years. Man is still the same. He would rather believe a lie than have to deal with the truth. Believing takes faith and hope. If those parts are not there, there isn’t much believing going on. It takes faith that what is being said is true and will help you. The hope is wanting to change and be different or better than before. God says that if you want a person to change, you have to tell him the truth. Because with the truth, God can deal with the person.

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Contentment is being satisfied with who you are and what you have. In today’s world this seems like a tall order. Everybody is pushing to get the latest craze. If it isn’t a new phone, it is a new watch, phone, and a computer put together. Then there is the new car syndrome. If your car isn’t 6 months old or less, you haven’t succeeded. Let us not forget clothes. If you don’t have the latest clothes, you just can’t go out of you house. And if your house is not up to date, Lord have mercy on my soul. There seems to be a driving need to acquire things. We must acquire bigger things or better things or our life isn’t worth living. That idea is a total lie straight out of the pits of hell. It is an idea to make you discontented with your life and everyone and thing in it too. Do you remember when one toy at Christmas was a real blessing? Or do you remember going to get an ice cream cone with your family? I can remember going with my family to get a cold mug of root beer. It was so much fun and I was with my family. Your life is what you make it. If you don’t participate in it, it still goes on without you. That is even sadder than being greedy. Take back your life and be who you are supposed to be. Don’t let everybody else tell you what you are supposed to be. It is for your self-worth and inner peace that you need to do this. Don’t let the world dictate to you what is important to you. Stand up and be yourself. For as God has said that contentment and Godliness is great gain.

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All my life I have been interested in patchwork quilts. Some have been very simple while some are very complicated. It is taking some material that has been discarded and using it again to make something beautiful and practical. Today we don’t look at old cloth as something of value. But at one time woven fabric was priceless. There was very little of it and the cost was very prohibitive. So people would save old shirts, dresses or pants and reuse them. They would take this mismatched group of fabric and create a very practical and beautiful work of art. It was in the form of a quilt. Usually the quilt was something that the women in a family got together and made. It started as making a quilt for a wedding gift. It would take many man-hours of work to complete a quilt. Depending on the design of the quilt is depending on how long it took to make it. You couldn’t go to the store and buy a quilt. Many people just couldn’t afford to purchase it anyway. So this was a real gift to a couple just starting out. Today they are real works of art, even the ones from 100’s of years ago. And they are very valuable. I have always wanted to do this work. It takes time and patience to complete a quilt. It is the same with God. He takes the old discarded parts of our lives. He sews them back together in a way so that we look and feel like a work of art. Then we become something of beauty and very practical. Or I should say we become functional. Let God create in our lives that beautiful and practical patchwork quilt. Then people will admire and value your life. All you have to do is ask.

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It is French for left and right. The word droit not only means right, but correct, straight, careful, skillful, nimble, able and expect. The word gauche not only means left, but clumsy, awkward, ungainly, left-handed and sinister. That is an unusual meaning of a word. It really isn’t if you knew where the word came from. We use the words gauche and adroit in English as well as French. There are many words that are in both languages at the same time. America is called the melting pot of the world. There is many words from all over the world that are used in American English. But getting back to the two words, gauche and droit. Left and right are used everywhere. Our hands are left and right. Does that mean that our left hand is sinister? Or that our right hand is an expert? Or could we say that our left hand is ungainly or awkward? Or maybe is the right hand that is handsome? How can you tell which is which? Do they look different from the other? The words don’t mean that our hands have any ability one way or the other. They are just hands. But it does speak to which way our heart is going in. You have to go back to the original meaning of the words to understand what they mean. The words come from the bible and are referring to the two thieves that hung on the cross next to Jesus. The thief on the right asked Jesus to be with him when He entered His kingdom. Jesus said today you will be with Me in paradise. The thief on the left just cursed he way into eternity. The thief on the right became righteous and the thief on the left became sinister. Which are you? Will you ask God today and become righteous or will you curse your way into hell?

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Jesus turned to Peter and asked him, “do you love Me?” Peter answered I love you like a brother. Then Jesus asked him again, do you love me? Again, Peter said, I love you like a brother. For the third time, Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. Peter was hurt that Jesus would ask him three times. But Peter knew what Jesus wanted. And Peter said to Jesus, I love you as God loves you. Jesus feed my sheep. Jesus was showing Peter that you needed the love of God to work with people. Only then can you see the people as they really are. The love of God shows you the wounds, the hurts, the betrayals, and all the pain people suffer. It is necessary to begin to work with people. I have walked up to people and asked them a question about their past. Something specific. They ask how did I know that. I would tell them God told me. And this would begin a discussion about God. Loving people isn’t temporary. It isn’t love, cut and run. That is nothing and it will drain your life away. The love of God is permanent. It never goes away. God love man, even if he chooses to go to hell. God will love you no matter what you do. This earth is temporary. It will disappear in the end. There is nothing permanent on this earth, except us. but we are walking through. Jesus said, greater things shall you do because I go to my Father. The love of God will change everything you do on this earth for the better. Love like God does to make this a better world.

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To receive a kind word from someone. When people actually speak to us about what we have done or said. This means more than most people think. Our lives are always out there. People look at things we do, even when we don’t see it. Sometimes we don’t want them to see what we are doing. But people are out there. Now they are with cellphones with cameras recording anything and everything. It is just nice to have someone appreciate what we do. Friday after work I was coming home and stopped to get supper from a favorite place. This young woman waited on me. She was efficient and friendly. She didn’t say an awful lot to me. She was working hard at getting it right. So I spoke to her and encourage her. Tears came down her face as I spoke to her. She appreciate someone acknowledging her hard work. My wife and I went to a wedding yesterday. It was a lovely service in a 200 year old church. Afterwards at the reception, I went to the priest and told him how much a appreciated his sermon. He spoke to the young couple’s heart and blessed me also. You never know when someone will do something that will touch your life. When it happens, say something to the person who did it. Everybody is always ready to cuss and fuss at someone for stupid mistakes. Try encouraging someone and see what happens in their life. Being a blessing is what we are supposed to do here on earth. Take time to watch a sunrise or sunset. They are always beautiful and know the God is in heavens there encouraging us.

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Years ago, I was working for a Christian Radio station. I went to a grocery store and there was a people from the local TV station interviewing people. Our wonderful Congress had done something questionable and the people were at an all-time low. They pointed the mike and camera at me and asked if I still believed in America. I said, Patriotism doesn’t die just because our government does the wrong thing. This is our home. If we lost it, where would we go? Believing isn’t affected by circumstances. We believe and trust in the people of this country. It is the only way to stay strong. Governments come and go. If we lose faith in ourselves, our country will fall. Even our money is based on faith of the people. We may be attacked, but history has shown that America comes together and is strong as ever. Today is Veteran’s Day. A day set aside to honor the men and women who served our country. My military family history dates back to the militia in the 1600’s. Young men and women who left their homes to defend a way of life. Some never came back. When the men and boys lined up at Concord, they were carrying squirrel rifles. Today, I am proud of my sons, who served in the military. So, show your patriotism and put up a flag in honor of the service given freely to our country.

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How many of you have a brother? How many brothers are close to each other? How many of you have a friend that is as close to you as a brother? Family is family and they are blood kind. But that doesn’t mean that they are close to each other. I have known some families that wouldn’t talk to each other. I know some families that live next to each other all their lives. Mom and her two sisters were very close to each other. We would always have Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter at one of their houses. We continued this until unfortunately mom and her two sisters died. Now that we don’t get together, we miss the fellowship we had with each other. But that didn’t make us close to each other. I love my brothers and their families. But sometimes I just wanted to be alone. When I was a young man and looking for acceptance in my life, I didn’t find it in my family. My family still loves me, but their love is brotherly. It was never like God’s love, wholly committed. I was looking for a girlfriend that would love me wholly. But that didn’t happen. There were several reasons why. At one point in my life, I was totally unlovable. I was so angry and bitter that people steered clear of me. I wanted the peace of knowing that I could love someone with my whole heart and they would reciprocate that love. I searched for a long time, until a friend introduce me to the only person who would. His name is Jesus. He loved me when I was unlovable. And He had never stopped. As much as I have be a pain to Him, He has never stopped loving me. This is what I was looking for all my life. And I am not alone in this for Jesus loves everyone that same. All you have to do is call on His name.

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