You can count real friends on your fingers!

If you are like many people, you don’t have many friends. 

We may be surrounded by people with whom we socialize, most of them are not our friends.

The old timer’s definition of a friend is one who “Knows enough secrets about you to destroy you and doesn’t, and knows the worst things about you, and still seeks your best interest anyway.”

Well, using that as a definition, our number of friends shrinks pretty fast. In some cases, there are family members who are not our friends. There are husbands and wives who are not friends. There are sisters and brothers who hate each other.

Friends hurt when they see you doing something wrong or making a mistake. They don’t endorse our bad decisions, but they help us in every way they can.

Friends help when we are in trouble or when we are troubled. You don’t have to ask they are just there. They don’t ask, “If there is anything I can do, call me.” They know you, they hang around and do what needs to be done, without waiting for you to ask.

What many people call friends are actually associates, acquaintances, business partners, sorority sisters, or frat brothers, but most of them are a long way from being friends.

When it gets down to it, all we really have is a couple of friends and Jesus. We count them all on the fingers of one hand.

Look at Proverbs 18:24 says, "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

What a friend we have Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear..

He’s our best friend.

Good laughs, ribs, and chicken legs happen when the family gathers

 There are a few times a year when all of the family members gather and fellowship.

There are few people who are the life of the gathering because they make everyone laugh. They seem to remember the details of every mischievous deed that was done years ago. If the time the church deacon spiked the punch was supposed to be a secret, the family members who know "who did what and when"tell it all.

When they tell it on themselves and everybody else, they are sometimes loud and act really crazy.

When that crazy uncle shows up, you know it's going to be plenty of laughter and memories, especially if that crazy aunt shows up too. 

Don’t let there be a family gathering with four or five of the lively ones present at the same time. People laugh harder they have laughed in a long time with a bar-be-que rib in one hand and a chicken leg in the other.

It's funny watching granny eat ribs and corn on the comb with no teeth. 

It’s really funny watching the old-timers try to dance, especially those who haven’t noticed that it's been five decades since the Twist was the latest dance.

Whether it's Memorial Day, family reunion, or the Fourth of July, family gatherings are lots of fun. There is always plenty of food and laughter.

Since we deal with so much trouble, problems, and challenges, the company of loving family members who share funny stories, sentimental memories, and good times is just good medicine.

Proverbs 17:22 says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." 

When the family gets together in this life, there is joy. Just think about the day, when we will all get to heaven, that will be an even better time.

Everybody will be there... even that crazy uncle without the brown paper bag and the chicken leg

What a time, what a time.

If you only had one magic wish, what would it be?

In elementary school, we read a set of stories called the “Arabian Nights.”  There were two that I remember: “Alibaba and the 40 thieves” and “Alladin and Magical Lamp.”

The lamp story was cool. Anyone who rubbed the magic lamp caused a geni to pop up and grant three wishes. In school, the teacher told the students to tell about our three wishes if we had the lamp. We had fun. We wished for No school, big motorcycles, rollercoasters in our back yards. 

I forgot my first two wishes, but I remember my last one. I wished that I would have three more wishes. The students laughed, but the teacher didn't

As adults, all of us have things we want out of life. Most of us have three big dreams and we spend our lives chasing them. For some they are like the pot of God at the end of the rainbow; the closer we get to them the farther they are away.

If you could ask the Lord for just one thing, and be assured that you would receive it, what would it be? 

How we answer that question defines priorities. It’s what motivates us and explains why we do the things we do. Hopefully, God will be pleased with our one wish.

David wrote about that one big request in Psalm 27:4, which says, "One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple."

God is not a geni in a bottle, but he does hear and answers prayer whenever we call him.

And if the one thing we ask him for is according to his will for our lives...it will be done.

Just be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. 

I've seen God do the impossible, don't give up

In the course of my years, I have seen the power of God work in so many unbelievable ways that nearly nothing phases me. I am convinced that no condition is beyond the power of God.

I have seen car wreck victims hooked up on ventilators, with tubes running down their throats, wires attached to their arms and chests.  I have heard the beeping sound of hospital monitors and watched the rise a fall of hundreds of beds.

I have watched scores of people go into surgeries, and wake up drowsy in recovery rooms.

I have seen cancer, gunshot wounds, infant deaths, suicides, murders, brain tumors, and just about every “itis” in the books.

What makes me so confident is that I have seen more people healed than anyone thought. In fact, I have seen more healed than otherwise.

Sometimes the shock of what we hear from doctors makes us afraid. We are even warier when we see all of the medicines prescribed for us along with therapies, rehabilitation, and what seems like scores of tests. The whole process wears you down.

What brings confidence is that every week I talk with people who were once deathly sick, but are now fully recovered. 

The key is that they did not give up on God and they had a spouse or at least one friend who would not allow them to give up on themselves.

When you have seen God work as much as I have, you really believe that prayer changes things. We also believe that if we ask for a healing and he chooses to do so, it doesn’t matter how bad the situation looks, God can do it.

Of course, sometimes what we ask for is not in God’s plan. We accept that too, but we ask anyway because we also know that God has been known to change his mind

Mark this verse in your Bible for inspiration: Jeremiah 30:17: "But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD" 

Add the "Devil Alert" to your alarm list

We are surrounded by alarms, alerts. There are so many of them that they can really get on your nerves.

I have a video alarm system on all of the entrances and exits to my house. There are motion detectors inside and out. When anyone passes close to my house or crosses my yard, I get an alert.

The cats trip it off. A dog. A bird. If a butterfly gets too close it sends an alert.

At my office, there are security lights around my building and there are cameras with infra-red lights recording everything inside and outside.

There are alarms on my car, alarms on my watch, and there are alarms at the church that often get routed to me when they go off.

There are smoke detector alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and alarms to let you know when the batteries in the alarms are getting low.

Just when I think I have all of the alarms controlled, right in the middle of my favorite episode of Gunsmoke there is an emergency alert that interrupts to test the National Emergency System.

The alarms are designed that we can be aware when there is a breach of safety or when a predator is nearby. It's good to have them, even if they are a nuisance sometimes.

The Bible says that we should always be awake and on guard because the devil is on his job 24 hours a day.

We should stay prayed up because the Holy Spirit is our Devil Alarm. He helps us to know when the devil is trying to do us harm and gives us ample warning and time to get away or to avoid loss or temptation.

Luke 21:36 tells us to stay alert. It says, "But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

It's good to know that the Lord watches over us 24 hours a day. He never slumbers or sleeps. If something goes wrong, he'll speak to our spirit and warn us and give us a chance to avoid danger.

Pray keeps your Devil Alarm charged.

To keep alert, stay prayed up.

I like the Temptations, but I love "Amazing Grace"

We all have favorite singers. I have several, depending on the genre.

Among R & B Singers I am a fan of the Temptations and The Ojays. I like the lyrics of their songs. I'm a James Brown fan, although he didn't do much singing; the rhythm of his music caught my attention in my youth.

I like Isaac Hayes and Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, their mix of strings and instruments catches my ear. I like the acapella harmony of "Take Six" and the tight harmony of Earth, Wind, and Fire. My wife has made me a fan of Luther Vandross.

I also like the classics. I listen to Handel's Messiah regularly. I like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and James Cleveland's Gospel Music Workshop Choir. Among the quartets, it would have to be the Mighty Clouds of Joy.

I like dramatic hymns like the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the beautiful harmony of True Praise. Negro Spirituals rank high on my list, too.

Hymns and Anthems are my favorites. The words speak of the grace of God, his majesty, and point me to his return. When I'm alone, my Spotify account finds them all and I absorb the simple melodies and lyrics.

I'm not to keen on the modern Prosperity "bless me" songs or the "I want your body" type Hip Hop songs.

Each to his own.

Each of us has a favorite song, but when it comes to songs about the Lord, I like the majestic songs that sing about his power and his "Amazing Grace."

These songs reflect the spirit of Isaiah 24:14 “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.”

We all have songs that reflect our spirit, but there is a special place in our heart for one special song we sang when we were children.

Yes Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so.

Keep that song on your lips and never forget its lyrics.

They will bring you peace.

They wanted a co-signer, it took me a while to figure out why

 I remember my first car. A man sold it to me for $75.00 in 1968. After about two weeks, I found out why he sold it so cheap; the engine was bad.

The loan company praised me, raised my hopes to get another car. To get the car, all I needed was a co-cosigner. I didn't know what co-signer meant, so my stepfather signed with me. I later learned that the loan for the car was made to my stepfather and not me.

He stood for me to help me get started. I paid the note $65 note each month, but I didn't know the car was really in his name.

I worked hard to make sure the note was paid every month. Then two months later, the transmission went out.

My stepfather said nothing. I worked double hard to pay for the transmission repair and worked hard to make sure that I paid the $65.00 every month on time.

It took me two years to pay for that car and I felt great to get the title put in my name. My stepfather gave me a chance to prove myself and assumed the risk if I messed up.

I did pretty good paying off that first car, but when I stood on my own, I went crazy. I charged up everything, got myself deep in debt, and by the time I was 25 I had to file bankruptcy. Despite the bankruptcy, I paid off all of my creditors. It took 12 years to pay them all.

My stepfather gave me a chance to establish credit. I blew it and had to learn a hard lesson.

Most of us learned some hard lessons along the way. We really messed up in life, love, marriage, and even faith. Thank goodness, our savior gives us second, third, fourth, and even the 490th chance.

What I learned in the school of life is something the Bible teaches us all in Ecclesiastes 5:5, "It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay."

Thank God for second chances.

Cats get stuck in trees, we do too; Jesus can help us down

 My house seems to be a magnet for the neighborhood's stray cats. They seem to come from everywhere, probably because I feed them.

Cats are fast and agile and if they are chasing after something that scrambles up a tree, they can get into high gear and climb right behind them. They get can climb pretty high and sometimes get out on a limb.

I find it strange that while cats can climb up a tree, but it's rare to see a cat climb down. Everything about them seems made to climb up; they have claws on their feet and strong hind legs. They can climb down, it's just rare that they do; they usually just jump.

If they climb too high to jump to the ground; they just sit there.

Like cats, we often find that we have run ourselves up trees and we are sitting there, out on a limb. Like cats, we often just sit there, stuck.

When cats get stuck, we either climb up and bring them down or call the fire department. However, when we get stuck in depressed states in which we feel like a B.B. King blues lyric, nothing but the Lord can bring us down.

In our pity party, the voice of Christ speaks to us. If we listen we can hear him say, "Servant, come down out of that tree." Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Come down, let's have a little talk and work it out.

An old song says, "Jesus a little take with Jesus makes it right."

Think on this passage. Luke 19: 4-6 "And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. 5And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

If you've found yourself up a tree, don't jump, let the Lord talk you down.

Meow!

Does a sleep study, listen when you snore?

What keeps you up at night walking the floors without sleep?

People study just about everything these days, they even study how and when we sleep.

The doctors say a growing number of folks have what they call "sleep disorders." Some don't get enough sleep or sleep too long.

If they do sleep then they frequently wake up and can't get back to sleep.

Some people sleep all night long and are tired when they wake up.

The doctors say a lack of sleep saps your energy level, work performance, and quality of life.

Some can't sleep because of worry, or stress. Some just have bad mattresses.

On the flip side, There may be people who can't sleep but there are a lot of people who can't stay awake. They sleep at work, in their favorite chair, while they drive their cars or even at church.

No wonder why they have sleep studies. I wonder do they study whether we snore?

I don't require but about four hours of sleep a day to fully recharge. You may take seven or eight hours to be fully recharged. Everybody has a different level.

What's for sure is that you sleep better when you are at peace, feel safe, without disturbances. That's good sleep, no matter how long it is.

Psalms 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

At the end of your day, put what worries you in God's hands and get ready for the best sleep you've ever had.

The folks who are studying your sleep will never know how you did it.

God has saved us from our frenemies

 If you are like most people who have been through a few tough scraps. Some of those fights involved people who were dead set opposing you one way or the other.

There were some who wanted your job.

Some wanted to stop you from succeeding in a project.

Some dug ditches to make you fall in them and give up.

There are some cruel people out there who are prepared to do battle against you, your spouse, and your children. 

Some just don’t like the way you look. No matter what you do, they will never consider you a friend.

Thank Goodness the Lord has been on our side. He has helped us sidestep the tricks of our enemies and not only survive but thrive!

This is the thought in 2 Samuel 22:4 “I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies.”

Every day we give thanks to God for standing as our fortress and strength. It is he alone that has brought us thus far.

 

That’s why he worthy of praise.

He saved our souls and stands with us every day as we work to fulfill his will for our lives.

Fakes have been wearing masks for some time now

    Just about everywhere you go people are wearing masks. Whether it's Walmart or the hospital you can't really go far without bumping into someone wearing a mask, mostly because of safety measures related to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

   However, many people, including church folks,  were wearing masks long before we learned about the Pandemic.

   Of course, I’m thinking about deceptions and disguises, not physical masks.

   Our masks are the faces that we show to the public to hide something we want to keep secret.

   The battered wife hides behind a mask of denial to hide her abusive husband.

   Cheaters wear masks to fool their spouses they’ve been faithful. Thieves, murderers, and adulterers wear masks to hide their deceptions.

   It'd not just Health concerns that motivate us to wear our masks, our desire to keep something secret plays a part, too.

  We should all read Luke 12:2 Which says, "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”  - Mask or no mask, God sees everything.

  God sees our hearts and he knows the thoughts of our minds. We can’t hide from him.

  He knows who we are even if we try to hide what we are behind a mask.

  That’s a warning and promise. We can’t hide from him, but no matter how we try to hide it from others behind our masks, he knows what we need and provides it every day.

My three boys were PKs, "Preacher's Kids" -They turned out pretty good

I guess my sons had it tough being PKs (Preacher’s kids). I hope I wasn't too tough.

My wife and I tried to allow them to grow into young men on their own with Christian core values, but let them have some fun within limits.

They went to Sunday school and Church. They had to attend Bible School.

They only listened to religious music on Sundays. They had church clothes.

They participated in church-based activities such as retreats, sleepovers, picnics, and encampments. All three of them became Eagle Scouts.

They had days when we allowed them to listen to the radio, not much TV, they participated in school activities, but they were rarely unchaperoned.

When they left home for school most morning there was a family prayer at the front door. They had chores.

We read the Christmas story before they opened gifts on Christmas Day.  We spent time raising money for the poor and providing food for the needy.

We tried to teach them by example 24 hours a day.

The Bible in Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it."

All three are grown men now. They have their own businesses and households, no children out of wedlock, and all work in the church somewhere. Unless they are fooling me, they look to be pretty happy.

I hope it wasn't too bad for them being PKs, but when you think about it, most Christian households probably have similar routines even their parents are not in ministry.

If you don’t have something along those lines in place for your children, maybe you should give it some thought.

It's never too late to start.

Guide our steps Lord, because Life gets slippery when its wet

  We move through life one step at a time.

  However, when we walk through uncertain terrain we are careful where we step because we don’t know what lies beneath. 

  There could be a puddle of water, beneath a patch of leaves.

  The steps of a ladder may look secure, but we are not sure because they may be weak or unable to carry our weight.

  A rock or a pebble underfoot can cause us to slide down a hill.

  And the best, most secure floors are slippery when they are wet.

  Every day we move through life, we step into the unknown depending on God to guide us around rough spots and help us to make it through a day filled with land mines without injury. 

  We can’t do it without him.

  Psalm 37:23 reminds us of this truth. It says,  "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.

  We Thank God for Guiding our steps daily. We trust him completely and he will show us the way.

God's grace will not cease

 Regardless of our life situation, the pendulum of good times and bad times will continue. 

No matter how much trouble we face, "trouble don't last always." Our period of growth is coming, but it will most certainly be followed by a challenging period at some point. 

The seasons of our lives come and go, so each of us should give God praise in either season.

We praise him because while the seasons of life will come and go, the blessings of God will come regardless of the season cease. 

That's why Ezekiel 34:26 says "I will cause the shower to come down in his season." 

Regardless to the season, there will still be a shower of blessings sufficient to sustain us.

Just because it gets hot in the summer does not mean that the blessings stop in the summer. Just because it gets cold in the winter or there is snow on the ground, does not mean that our blessings stop coming.

It may be snow on the ground, but that doesn't stop the shower of blessings we have been promised by God. They will not cease.

When we have God's grace, we never enter any season without God's grace; it will not cease!

When you mourn, you're not alone

There are times when the best of us mourn our losses. 

Only those who can empathize can truly mourn. Sympathizers express concern for your loss, but those who mourn can put themselves in your shoes and in some small way feel what you feel. They share your loss.

When we think of people we know who have fallen victim to the Coronavirus during the Pandemic, we silently mourn.

We also mourn over the losses of life through tragedy, sickness, and other causes. Those who mourn with us, feel our pain.

Those of us who believe in God know that we never mourn alone. We know Jesus cares and his heart is touched because John 11:35 says “Jesus wept.” He was saddened by the death of Lazarus and emphasized with Mary and Martha.

But our faith brings us hope, too. That’s why you are blessed when you mourn with a person who is mourning. You are because you remind them that God is with them that despite their loss they are not alone.

It’s a blessing to have someone who mourns with you.

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

If you have moments when you feel a little low because of a loss, remember you not alone. 

Christ mourns with you, but goes one step further, he offers us the promise of tomorrow.

Tomorrow!

That’s a great word with which to end each day! 

Christ promises us eternal life without morning in the land of tomorrow.

When it looks like the world is against you..

  There are times when it appears that everything and everyone is against you.

Whether it's on the job, at school, or at home we all face situations that seem to be against us.

We make plans with a checklist to be sure that we don’t miss anything, and then something happens that's not on the list.

A storm.

A sickness.

A cancellation.

A Loss.

On top of all of that your critics, competitors, and haters are second-guessing everything you do from the smallest to the largest.

Everywhere you turn, it seems something or someone is against you.

We have one hope that encourages us; if our plans are according to God’s will and he has blessed them, all of the things that are against won’t amount to a hill of beans, because we have the big man on your side.

Romans 8:31 says, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Approach each day confident that as long as you are doing what is right and God has blessed what you are doing, that’s all that matters. God will make it happen.

Be at peace.

God always comes through

 Sometimes we worry about the things we don’t have, but even as we worry, things seem to work out for us to get what we need.

It doesn’t matter what it is, God figures out a way to bless us and he does it big!

We go to the doctor expecting to hear the worse, then we are surprised to learn that what we worried about wasn’t that bad; in some cases wasn’t bad at all.

In the same way, we worry about a whole lot of things, only to learn that we may have come up short on one end, but had so much in the other end that it made up for what we lost.

Sometimes, when times are tough, we just plain forget that our God is great all of the time. If we are trying to do good work, God will come on time.

It doesn’t mean things will always turn out the way we want them, but it does mean that when we look at the mix of things, in the long run, God will bless the faithful with everything we need.

That's what 2 Corinthians 9:8 teaches: And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

If you are doing good work for your community, family or friend, God’s going to bless you and the work; even if it’s just to give you a little more energy to keep on keeping on.

Remember our verse says God will bless you abundantly in all things, at all times.

That just about covers everything.

Be at peace.

Mama told us, but we didn't believe it

   Parents try to warn their children about dangers ahead, but youth is often deaf to sound advice. At the time, it seems that the words of wisdom that come from our parents are old and foggy from a bygone generation.

Mothers, for example, often try to warn children the world is unforgiving and owes them nothing.

  They also try to tell us that days will come when they will be disappointed and will experience failure.

  Mothers also try to tell their children that the days will come when the things we enjoy will bring us frustration and trouble.

  They try to warn us about betrayal, lost love, and disillusionment.

  They also tell us that to pray for strength for the days ahead. They remind us never to give up and stay close to the Lord.

  Even our present struggle was predicted;  mama told us there would be days like this. And because she told us, we now know what to do.

  What she said is what Jesus said in John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

We can recall all of the great things mama told us for days like this. She warned us about the trouble, but she kept saying that trouble don’t last always.

Keep your hand in God’s hand and you will overcome.

Jesus said, “I have overcome the world” and so will you.

Mothers created memories that live forever

 Mothers know the value of precious moments

Think about all of the precious moments that are important to you now; those moments were created by your mother or the person who you know as mother.

Look at all the time that mothers spent planning birthday parties for you. The decorations, food, invitations, the clean up afterward cost her time and money. She could have taken a shortcut. She could have just said “Happy birthday” but she went through the trouble of creating a memory that will be with you all of your life

She did the same thing for Christmas. She could have given you a gift in a paper bag, but she wrapped it, decorated a tree, with lights, and baked and cooked.  She created a memory for you.

She did the same at Easter, and for school activities.

When we think of mother, we think of a thousand moments that created, from kissing a hurt finger to heal it, to helping you ride your first bicycle or to drive a car.

There were crazy moments like the times she acted a fool screaming for you at the football game, or cried at your wedding.

In fact, she spends most of her life creating moments and pleasant memories for you. 

And even when mother is no longer with us on this earth, it’s like she’s still here because we have thousands of moments to cherish, impressions of love, pressed in our hearts forever.

The precious memories of these moments never leave us.

Exodus 20:12 we are reminded to “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

We Thank God for the memories she created.. they will live forever.

A watermelon won't grow in your belly!

It’s amazing some of the things we believed when we were children.

Were you ever told that if you eat watermelon seeds that a watermelon will grow in your stomach?

  I really believed my teachers were rich because they always wore church clothes. I thought they never went home and slept at school because when I came to school they were there and when I left they were there. I thought teachers never went to the bathroom, ever!

I  believed that when it thundered and the sun was shining that the devil was beating his wife. If it thundered again and the lightning flash that his wife was hitting him back.

  I believed the people on tv were midgets who squeezed inside the screen. I always searched for the door, but never found it.

  I believed that if I ate plenty of spinach, I’d have muscles like Popeye! I’ve been eating spinach for a half-century and my popeye muscles haven't ever popped up!

  There is one thing I believed when I was a child that I still believe today; that if I pray, God will hear my prayer. I believe that!

  I also believe that if I accept him, trust him, and obey him he will take care of me in this life and the next. I still believe that.

  If we could believe and trust God with the same innocence that we believed those silly things we believed as children, we could just about do anything.

  Mark 9:23 says "..If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes...."

  Lord, help my unbelief!