Started February 6, 2026
“I love You, Lord for Your mercy never fails me. All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands. From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God”—Goodness of God, CeCe Winans.
The Lord’s Word has been very rich lately…even if it has been nothing more than a scripture that made me pause longer or to inquire of the Holy Spirit what He desires to reveal. So the following is just a shotgun of a number of scriptures with perhaps a word or two about each verse or passage. All scriptures will be New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.
“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved,” 1 Corinthians 10:31-33. How is the Word real in our lives? What reaction does it conjure inside of us? Are the Words life? Are His Words distant—conveniently close and needed when necessary, but conveniently distant when we desire ourselves more? And for those of us who—using the metaphor of the Bible being a sword—wield the sword, how is it handled? Is it within our grip to the point that our hand and the handle are one (2 Samuel 23:9-10)? Is it a surgical scalpel: intentional, deep as necessary, but oh so very sharp? Or is it blunt object to wield around wildly and tossed carelessly like a toddler with his mommy’s cell phone? In that specific verse, I see three words which have drawn my attention: give no offense. A complimentary portion of scripture is found in Matthew 18:6-7 (Jesus speaking) says, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” The second thing that caught my attention just as equally are the words, “not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many”. So how do we wield His sword? Do we casually insert scripture to support what we desire to say? Do we drop scriptures around like people drop F-bombs, to offend those around us? Do we spin a tapestry of words that even if Jesus were listening, He would cock His head slightly go reply, “Huh? What did he just say?” Are His words convenient when to apply toward others but quick to forgive and minimize our life choices? Are we (those who preach and/or teach His Word) the kind of preacher/teacher who for the sake of shock and awe, to garner likes, to turn heads the kind of person who will go to whatever levels or extremes to keep people glued to our words? What has been disappointingly sad—and it very prevalent and even found at times and in places of our Fellowship—is the power of ego (the ego of the preacher/teacher) that to get more attention, to draw in his sheep, to keep the focus on him more and less on other preachers (as if His Word and feeding His flock is a competition for who is the best shepherd) that we use illustrations or scriptures that have little to nothing for what is being said. Is His Word sufficient enough to stand on its own as being the only word or response and walk away or do we have to brandish our dagger out to get our two cents in? Recently a preacher illustrated during a sermon his readiness to hoop it up by taking off his jeans during his sermon to show to be ready. The illustration got the point across, but it offends. That is a very simplistic offense, but how does His Word—the character, the life we live and carry Christ with us wherever we go (as Francis of Assisi said, preach God but use words if necessary) meaning our exampleship—offend? Are we “do as I say but not as I do”? We say we have love but hurt others with our words or our silence? We involved people to pray with us and now the only thing between the two of them is ice. Do we play favorites with some by using soft words but toward others we are ready to toss them across the room? Does our life offend people that if and when it is ever discovered that we’re a Christian that they have to give it a second thought by thinking/saying, “Really? I never would had known/guessed.” And that is often due to our desire—thanks to modern preaching and music/songs sung—that feed our narcistic and ego-driven lives. It is no longer, what do You want me to do Lord. It is no longer, let’s go beat up on the Devil. It is no longer, amazing grace how sweet the sound. It is I can live however way I want, be however way I want toward others, even outright sin but that is ok because God is love, mercy, and ready to just keep overlooking sin and offenses…even to a fault of causing the lost to question: why should I want to be a Christian? I am more morally right and nicer than that Christian is. Jesus, You truly are real and present…So why do I live the life as if You don’t exist and I can live in the shadows of “so long as my spouse/friend or my pastor doesn’t know, then that allows my conscience to mellow that perhaps I won’t go to hell yet”? Why do I live in such as way that the lost don’t see You (Jesus) but they see me doing whatever I want to do in the name of the Lord but it offends them and You? Jesus, why is my heart so hardened that the only time and caring I have is for myself while I ignore, minimize, or get agitated toward others? Please Jesus, I repent. May whatever I say (and do) not cause offense. May my life, in the words of Keith Green, be a prayer to You.
Continued February 23, 2026
One of the most (if not THE most) bothersome plant on my grandparents’ former farm was the thorns. I am not referring to the one to four inch thorns that are on the Honey Locust trees in northern Missouri that are also in a couple of places on that farm. I am talking about the thorny vines that desire to wrap themselves around a person or at the very least serve as a deterrent while walking in the timber. They do not have very large thorns, but there are literally hundreds of thorns on each vine from ground level and this vines grow upward, outward, and in all kinds of directions to twist, entrap, snag, or at least deter anyone walking in that direction. About the only time of the year that it is permissible to go through them like a tank is during the winter time with the trees being bare enough that one could at least choose another path, but while it is bitterly cold but you’re wearing coveralls and perhaps insulated leather gloves, you can walk right through them without so much of an ouch while during late spring and summer it is a miserable time going around and through them. These vines serve little value to people and choke out any fun on a beautiful hike in the woods to listen to the birds chirp, the water in the creek flow, the wind blowing through the tops of the tall trees, or just the silence in the woods allowing a person to then hear the voice of God clearer. There is a singular reason these thorny vines grow: neglect. When trees are not cleared back, paths are not trodden on or maintained with a mower and saws, when the busyness of life take one away from where these vines grow, they grow quickly despite the soil being barely deep enough to cover rocks. Jesus, lifted from the Gospel of Mark, speaks of thorns in Mark 4:18-19 (KJV), “And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” I would like to couple these words of Jesus with another couple of verses found in Proverbs 24:30-32 (KJV), “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.” Lastly Hebrews 2:1, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” In these cases, I see similarities despite direct wording talks about thorns choking out and a stone wall crumbling and weeds took over because the man was lazy. The similarities are time and neglect. Passion, dedication, and determination drift. Pastor Jim Peña said that some of the sins of our lives or bad management of finances didn’t happen overnight. Thus, it probably may take more than overnight to remedy things. And that is a problem. We want quick solutions. We want Jesus to do all the work. We want Him to wave His magic wand for money to show up in great quantities; all our wrongs to be righted without loss, pain, or embarrassment on our part; and any bad relationships to be corrected instantaneously and/or very quickly. And that almost never happens instantly. Most of us converts gave our lives as a young adult to later in life. As a result, we have years or decades of poor choices, lies we’ve told, lies we’ve believed, friction in life, repaying wrongs with evil, etc. Some of us may had committed crimes prior to salvation. And despite some or many surface issues dealt with as a prayer at an altar or a prayer at a doorstep, there are deeper things that take time and WORK to rid ourselves of these offenses. God has to prune. God has to work on us. God has to align preachers, saved family and friends, unsaved family and friends to bring these deeper things to the surface so they can be surrendered. And the singular points I would like to bring are the two words: work and time (more about time later). It was time and neglect that the wall decayed. And it was time and lack of field/yard maintenance that allowed the vines, nettles, thorns to grow. And because of busyness, lack of concern, laziness, or by distraction these things grew in our lives over time. And whether in some of the downtown areas of St. Joseph, Missouri, or the back areas of Kingsville, Texas, or noticeable places where we all live, it is amazing how walls and fields get taken over or taken back to nature. Trees growing up through floors, weeds impeding sidewalks, vines climbing their way higher to squeeze and choke. To many who work with clearing land, buildings, or walls we are pleasantly surprised to discover a treasure: a beautiful yard, building, wall, field that can be used again or cleared completely out for a whole new purpose. Nonetheless, these literal things we see around us are similar in our lives. Neglect with reading His Word, diligent prayer (versus just heartless words and casual name dropping with ambiguous care/concern for who or what we are praying for), and allowing the Holy Spirit to work and deal on our lives is the only way our sinful ways are kept out from encroaching and choking our lives. We dismiss that “it is just one morning without prayer; God wouldn’t send me to hell for that, would He?” or “it is not convenient for me to spend time in His Word so I will get to it later” and before we know it a week goes by and not a chapter is read. We switch from involving the Holy Spirit in and through our lives—direction, tender-hearted, inspiration, motivation, passion, etc.—to running on flesh—emotion, charisma, strength, intelligence, normal behavior/business as usual—and before we know it: carnal words creep in, words of anxiety or fear seep in, angry or bitter words become our vocabulary. We say a prayer out of conviction/guilt/shame/embarrassment but we fail to address the elephant in the room that our core needs and desires are being neglected, overgrown, and falling down. Leviticus 17 says that the life of the flesh is in the blood. Not only can things in our lives choke out God, but Jesus’ redeeming, healing, life-rejuvenating, and anointed blood won’t be allowed to flow through us. This is why we need this singular vine in our lives (John 15:1-9, Jesus speaking): “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit…” I wish to stop for a moment to address this one thing: if we believe that it is sufficient enough to attend church when convenient or dutifully but only hear the messages, are not active in the activities of the church, neglect prayer and Bible reading, but most of all not applying EVERYTHING in and through our lives beyond the structured church things and events, then we are not bearing fruit. We cannot excuse it by saying “I have faith” and I play an instrument or whatever one thing we do as if that is our sufficient work to display our faith. Faith is displayed by what we say all the time, how we live all the time, what we do and not do all the time. Woe to many of us who may live this way as Matthew 7:21 may be the devastating words to us. I continue, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” I want to pause for something else. Presently there are a lot of messages “preached” feeding our flesh, our self, our narcistic desires that instead of our lives being used for God’s glory and it is all about God wanting to give and bless and love with no effort or work on our part. It is as if God is obligated toward us. I digress. Continuing, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
Something else has caught my attention in the scriptures—along with the matter of things taking time (more of that in the next writing after this coming one)—is what the Bible says in Mark 1 when Jesus called His men. Peter, Andrews, James, and John left their occupation to follow Jesus. James and John left their inherited business leaving their father alone to keep fishing. What is never said and only came by inspiration to me is Peter but specifically his wife. See these men were fishermen. They provided for their families. Leaving a father in his forties to keep working on the nets is one thing. But Peter going home eventually to face his wife to tell her, guess what Babe I quit fishing (my job) to follow Jesus. I am certain she didn’t respond in faith with “praise God, well get to it, and the Lord will provide”. Knowing wives (as I am married), she most likely was, “You what?!?!?!?!? How could you, Peter, do this? How will we have food? You know my mom was right about you…” There is a joke that the reason why Peter denied Jesus was because he was bitter at Jesus for healing his mother-in-law. Although scripture doesn’t directly say, but how did Peter’s wife and mother-in-law survive? You couldn’t just leave it up to Peter’s brother because Andrew (Peter’s brother) also followed Jesus. And with the mother-in-law in the house means that her husband passed away and Peter and his wife took in the mom. Nonetheless, God provided. Confirms what Hudson Taylor said, “God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s supply”.
One of the things we often overlook is the amount of time things take in the Word of God. This morning, I was reading of the events with Elijah challenging the false prophets of Baal to consume the offering (1 Kings 18). Elijah repaired, he dug, he…and all this required time. This is one of MANY examples found throughout the Bible. We often go from verse to verse and assume that people travelled on paved roads, in a vehicle traveling an average of 60 miles per hour with air conditioning, that people didn’t travel in groups but by themselves any time and even if they did travel alone that 25 miles or whatever was covered in a short time without realizing that 25 miles by chariot would take 2 days or one very, very long day. And what time did Elijah do this? At around 3:00pm (the altar work). Let’s say it wasn’t that much work but took three hours total (it does take time to kill an animal and prepare it), so that is 6pm. The fire goes down and the false prophets are killed. Even at quick work, that would take until 8-9pm. And then Ahab took off? Even if he took off the next morning with Elijah telling his servant to tell Ahab to go, that is either a very, very long day or two days. This is horse, in a desert, on a mountain, no rain, no water in creeks and rivers, dust has been blowing into people’s nostrils for months, etc. This horse isn’t going to be able to run at full speed that whole distance without tiring or needing water (anyone who knows about horses and riding them know that). The point is, that things take time. And it takes work which takes time. A couple of verses (albeit there could easily be a host of others) come to mind, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10). In both verses and in the examples provided above, we see work and time involved. God won’t poke buttons and instant disciple. God won’t poke buttons and instant Bible knowledge and application in our lives. God won’t poke buttons and instant faithful disciple to the things of God. God will take His time to take things out, to temper or mold things in our lives He wishes to keep, and add things in our lives. How long will this process take? Until we go to Heaven if we are wise. So we need to be at the pace that God has designed for us. We need to be about His work at His time table. And we need to believe God for His miracles, provision, healing, etc. His time and in His ways.
We often overlook things in the Word of God without either slowing down or truthfully and truly pondering what we just read. For us readers who have imagination, we perhaps see it in our head…even if we were aided sometime in our lives with cartoons or some Christian movie displaying these events as a point of reference. But we neglect to note things that God desires to show us in between the verses, what is being said that wasn’t said. So I encourage you, dig deep into His well (the Bible) of the living water. And when the well runs dry, get in there and dig out of the dirt and mud back down to the level of the flowing and living water again.