I can remember commercials on television or newspaper hawking products that would make you handsome or tall. You look back at this and laugh. Because it was so ridicules that you wonder how people could believe it in the first place. People have always wanted conveniences that would help them in their daily life. Look at the simple things we have. How would you like to live on a dirt road that washes out every time it rains. Or how would you like to go to an outhouse in the dead of winter. Having flowing water in the house is a relatively new convenience. Or having a telephone on a party line where you could only talk every so often. Or having to saddle a horse to go to the store 10 miles away. The industrial revolution has created many things that we take for granted. There are very few department stores that are over 50 years old. When my parents talked about walking to school they weren’t kidding. My mother lived 5 miles down a gravel road from her school. By the time she was ready to go to school, her father was in the cotton field working with the only horses they had. Yet today that is considered old fashion and out of date. Yet being self-sufficient never get old. There are many commercials about planning for retirement. And they ask pertinent questions about our future. What happens to us if the infrastructure fails and it did after Hurricane Katrina? That storm moved a 1.5 million people and shut down a city which is still struggling to come after 10 years. As God says, “but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

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What is your comfort zone? How far can you go without being put into a situation that becomes uncomfortable? Why do we have to be uncomfortable anyway? Our comfort zone is a place where we like to be. It is free from conflict and any activity that we don’t want. I like to camp, but I don’t like wilderness camping. I don’t have to have a cellphone, but I don’t like to live off the land. I like sleeping in a sleeping bag. Waking up at the break of dawn to watch a sunrise in the woods is exciting to me. Preparing food and drink over a campfire is fun. This is my comfort zone. I like animals. Most domestic ones, cats and dogs, even gerbils are interesting. I don’t like snakes. I can be at home with most any animal. Some people take me out of my comfort zone. I don’t mind talking to most any stranger. It has always been interesting to me to find out about people.  So why do we have a comfort zone? What is that all about? How many times you have wanted to accomplish a goal? And you knew that you couldn’t do this inside your comfort zone. You had to go until the task was completed. And where it took you, you would never normally go. It meant that you had to go through every emotion in the book. I hate to be embarrassed, because I feel like a fool. But I know that many times the only way to accomplish my goals is through it. Each time that things happen to me I grow. This is the only way I can move forward in my life. God says that we go through temptations all of our life. And with each different temptation God always makes a way of escape. He does this so we are able to bear the temptation in our lives. So press through your comfort zone and find out what is out there for you.

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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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