I have struggled all week to find someway to put down on paper our last little get together on the back porch. I have shared with you many times in the past that most of us here on the back porch are kind of in our older years so to speak as some people would say, the old-timers would say we’re a bit long in the tooth. We’ve learned that there’s very little agreement or support for our view and we’ve kind of learned to live the best we can and get through these last few years that we have. I believe if I’m pronouncing the name right Mamdani, the soon to be mayor of New York has been a subject that’s pretty well dominated the news for a few weeks now. Well, everybody is upset because he jetted off to a luxury resort for his organizational conference days after his victory. After we discussed that for a short period of time, it was pretty well agreed that he’s not the only one that’s ever done this,  We’re just talking about facts. Matter fact, most politicians love these resort meetings at the taxpayers expense. If we follow the headlines, we see that the government shut down is still in full swing. It doesn’t look like it’s gonna get settled any time real soon. Then there’s for a little bit of comic relief, the verdict that the jury came back with on the gentleman who threw a sandwich at a border agent, I’m sorry. The jury decided after several hours of debate that he was not guilty of assault on a federal agent. I wasn’t the only one in the group that found the verdict OK with us. His actions are pretty much the norm nowadays, and if all he did was throw a sandwich the agent who was the target got lucky. We would much rather have seen the agent having to answer to the question of why, after he was hit with the sandwich he slapped the guy across the face and put him on the ground, we would’ve liked that a lot better. Now, remember, we’re just a bunch of old man sitting on our back porch, our day has come and gone. We are fascinated by this chaos on wheels where these chaotic groups get together and they take over the streets and the police can’t seem to do anything about it. This last instance in Fall River, Massachusetts was rather small compared to some others, but it did draw at least 50 to 100 individuals over the weekend. They took over the streets on dirt bike, scooters ATVs, motorcycles, and disrupted the traffic while performing these reckless stunts risking not only their lives but lives of innocent law abiding citizens and putting pedestrians at risk. The thing that got our attention was the fact that there’s 50 or 100 people involved in this business and the police made arrests, three, that’s right, you read it right, three people out of at least 50 to 100 that were disrupting the traffic and the safety of people in the area, that’s it. Actually, we were having a pretty big time on the porch laughing about all these things and how complicated life is today and how easily you can get irritated just getting out of bed. But the one that really took the cake for all of us was that dear lady that we all love to follow occasionally and that is Elizabeth Warren. She got called out the other night by Washington Post for blaming Trump over Monday nights football blackout. I don’t watch pro football anymore so I wasn’t affected by It, didn’t even know about it but it seems that she that she said,  It’s all President Trump’s fault. The Washington Post editorial boards will they pushed back? They had an editorial which simply was titled, Elizabeth Warren knows better. So for the record what was really going on was that a couple of our larger entertainment networks who were at odds over contracts and they just canceled each other out so to speak, and there was no broadcast because of it. The lack of it not being on the air was due to corporations being at odds about who’s gonna pay who how much and when. President Trump didn’t have anything to do with it and rightfully so, it wasn’t a government matter.

Well, we’ve gone on with a bunch of stuff really and having not accomplished anything but that seems like that’s a pretty common situation today. Remember the 50s? Families went to church on Sunday. Most of the stores were closed in observance of the Sabbath. Of course I remember the young girls they dressed modestly yet they were some of the prettiest things in this world. It seems kind of odd to me, and I don’t quite understand it but the less skin that showed the more intriguing the ladies. These were the Eisenhower years, calm, peaceful suburban life, the church, the center of family activities, you could go anywhere you wanted to and not have to worry about your safety, you didn’t have to lock your front door or your car. It was just a laid-back time. I remember a lot of things about the 50s while I was growing up and even at that young age I remember the Eisenhower, president Dwight Eisenhower delivering his farewell speech. I remember his warning about the industrial military complex. I didn’t understand anything about it, but it became part of a historical writing that is still remembered today. Then came the 60s and with them, we began to change. It’s only natural for us old dogs to look back on that day and time and wonder where the quiet went. What happened to the families, our communities, our churches, and our life enhancing moralities. So that my friend is the ponder of the day? Ponder this… where did all of our yesterday’s go? What happened while we complacently enjoyed life.

Kurt

Devotion, Discipleship, Discipline is the best way to follow our series “The Good Way”, which by the way, never really ends. Last week we brought that series to close and remind you that the three of the main marks on our map of the good way was the 10 Commandments,Knowledge, and the Unity of the body of Christ. This week we’re gonna look at some of the stops along the way that help us to remain on and to even continue on the good way. The first of those would be Christian devotion, which is defined as simply being the practice of a dedicated time and heartfelt affection towards God. It involves daily activities like reading the Bible, prayer, and worship to grow closer to him. While some of this we covered in the previous series, but this involves a personal internal commitment to relationship with God and attitude, and an outward expression of that commitment through obedience. It means looking to things that provides spiritual encouragement and guidance. The very core of this is a personal relationship with God spending time with him through study and prayer. It involves reading the Bible and looking to understand God’s word. Our prayer should also be for our personal needs as well as others, and it is a means of communicating these to God. I will add here how important it is to go to church and to engage in singing, hymns of praise and engage in the worship itself. It’s a conscience effort to make God the center of your life, allowing that relationship to influence all your decisions, and you find yourselves a position of an intentional form of living. Not all of this is really kind of an individual emphasis on our self, so we must get beyond that and remember the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. It simply means that this relationship that we’re cultivating with God should extend outward to how we treat others. So how do we bring all of this together? Well, we start out by having a daily routine that brings us closer to God by using the resources that are available to us our Bible, online articles, things of this nature that give us a structured time of guidance towards how our God would have us live, but the purpose of all this is not just to complete a task, but to change our heart and mind and for a genuine connection with God, even at times when it’s not always filled with great enthusiasm.

The next “D” is discipleship, which is the process of following and becoming more like Jesus through a learning relationship and obedience to his teachings, and of course has a personal commitment to grow in one’s faith while we’re working hard also to help others do the same. It is an ongoing transformational lifestyle. It should not be treated as a one time event. We should be aiming for a personal transformation which involves a Holy Spirit and a desire to apply Jesus’s teachings to daily life, and to grow in spiritual maturity. There is a part of this discipleship which requires accountable relationships with people that are around you mentoring those who perhaps need help and using dialogue and discussion to encourage spiritual growth. A crucial part of what is going on, of course, is helping others to follow Jesus and this involves teaching them to obey Jesus’s commands and reproducing Christ’s life through our discipleship is really a very comprehensive process. The studying of the word of God, prayer and fellowship, praise and worship.

We really can’t ignore the fact that sometimes it will involve working through past pains and events that can hinder that growth.

The last “D”…Christian discipline, how we practice our faith and how we extend that faith and belief to others to help them grow in their faith and then there’s a part in there that I really do like. It’s in an instructive correctional procedure by parents to provide to their children not only the disciplines of life but also of a Christian life. And we’re talking about activities such as prayer Bible study, Fellowship, which help a Christian develop deeper relationships with God and to cultivate godly character. As parents, we must realize that godly discipline is characterized by compassion, clarity, consistency, and aiming to guide a child towards godly choices, rather than simply punishing misbehavior. Many of the factors that are part of this apply to adults and children alike. Our purpose is to grow in holiness to resist temptation and become more Christ like. Remember the old days in Sunday school when we used to have to memorize Bible verses, come back next week and share them with everybody? It is my wish and I would kinda hope that Bible reading, study and memorization will continue to be a large component of our children’s Bible studies. We have this thing today that in many churches or denominations, when you join there’s always a list of don’t do’s… well here’s a list of things to do. Make these things a part of your daily life. Prayer. fasting, fellowship with other believers having a sense of generosity and service and taking a little bit of time away from everything for meditation and solitude. Where our children are concerned a little word if you don’t mind please about parental discipline. It should be provided to lovingly guide a child to make godly choices and develop a respectful character. Some of the characteristics of that would be… consistency applying rules and consequences that are fair and  reliably dependable. Compassion, approaching the child with a loving and understanding heart. Clarity, clearly communicating rules and expectations. And of course correction directly addressing wrong choices with firm, but loving guidance. And all of these things about discipline that we’ve been discussing should contain these three key principles. One, it should be a means of grace not just a form of punishment, two, it balances love with firm boundaries. Three, it aims to develop godly character, and understanding of God’s presence.

Thank you for joining us in the pew this week and I hope that you’ve enjoyed our discussion today about the Three “D’s”. Here in the Pew we do work at trying to find a balance and not overwhelm you with scriptures. Come back and join us next week.

Life is Good

jk

Just a couple of us hunkered down here on the porch, this is the time of year when you get what I call the true southern winter. I will try and explain that as best I can. It’s been raining here where I live anywhere from a light mist to a light rain to an occasional downpour now and then and the temperature it’s just 53°. To me one of the coldest feelings I can get is a cloudy, wet, winter southern day, it will chill you to the bone. I guess that’s kinda hard for people to understand, but at this time of year around here in the south, nature is kinda working on the landscape, we call it fall. The leaves are turning, and things are beginning to look rather bare in certain places. But it seems like when you add that cloudy overcast, a slight mist and the temperature sitting in the 50s, that’s a southern winter. You can find a lot of things to ponder about this evening on the porch, but I believe we just can’t seem to get away from the fact that our country is in pretty sad shape. Now I’m not particularly and neither or any of those that are here advocating, any particular political party but we both recognize the fact that we have a situation in this country with the government’s being shut down now for 30 days and to me, it’s nothing more than a schoolyard fight between two bullies. We are in agreement that the object is really not to make things better for people, but to consolidate their power, whichever one can hold out the longest wins. Let’s get away from that sort of thing right now it’s too depressing but when we turn around and we look at the shape of the country as far as now is concerned it ain’t easy to move on. Everybody’s mad at everybody, more and more cities are having to deal with escalating crime and civil disorder, and believe there is actually a faction within our nation that are spending quite a bit of time trying to redefined exactly what criminal behavior is. It turns out that it’s really not about justice, but it has become a war of words and civil disobedience. Remember that famous Clintonian line…. “it depends on what is is.” I will say that here on the porch we all agree that the situation is simply this …if you came into this country in any way, other then through the means that are provided by law then your here illegally. There is no one to my knowledge that are even suggesting that you’re not human or that you don’t have some rights of expectation to be treated fairly, but you’re here illegally, which simply means you don’t have any rights other than human rights, and all we have to do is look around the world and we get a picture of how that particular thing, human rights, are looked at.

Take a moment and step back in time just a little bit. Walt Disney made a movie many years ago called Song of the South. The movie eventually ended up being banned so to speak because of racial overtones, need I say anymore. There was a song in that movie that is going to end up being our ponder for today. When was the last time that you had a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah day? The lyrics are pretty encouraging and the song kinda makes a statement of what a wonderful day with plenty of sunshine headed my way. Now those of us here are on the porch are going to take that sunshine headed my way as simply meaning there’s something good coming. And then the lyrics talk about a Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder and that’s the truth. It’s actual and everything is satisfactual. Now I’m going to take that lyric is simply meaning that the Bluebird is a symbol of truth… and we get so little of that in today’s world. I guess it’s time to bring this porch time to a close by simply hoping that each of you has a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day. May your days ahead bring you a lot of good things and let truth come your way. Until then…Ponder This… Where have all the Bluebirds gone?

Kurt

For the past few weeks, we have been on a journey seeking the “Good Way”. The first landmark on our map was the 10 Commandments. God’s law given to Moses by God and then by Moses to the chosen people of God. The next landmark on our map was knowledge of the word following the word and living the word as God has given it to us to understand, with discernment and the aid of the Holy Spirit. The third landmark on our map is unity unity of the body of believers among themselves and in the faith. This week there is an abundance of scripture references for us to look to for guidance and we’ll get to those in just a few words.

Let’s take time to examine this wonderment the thing. As usual, the Pew will run to our nearest dictionary and look at the word wonder which means to feel surprise, admiration, or all, good to be curious about something. It’s interesting to know that it can refer to a person or saying that causes such a feeling but also it allows us to Marvel at a miracle. As a verb, it means to think about something with curiosity, including even to maybe doubt it  As a noun, it refers to the feeling itself, maybe an event that contains a natural wonder or remarkable object. Wonder the word appears in the Bible 148 times in total, if we break that down the word wonder is used 55 times. When it’s written as wondered, it’s used 15 times and wonderful is used 21 times. So the point here is that the word wonder or wonderment is not new to biblical thought and writings. In biblical terms it can constitute amazement, astonishment, and even can cause people to marvel at certain events of which they have no plausible explanation. So I ask the question is there an end to the good way? 

This is my personal thought about that question. A big NO. Now those scriptures that I was writing about a paragraph or so ago will lead us to the good way.There is no end to the good way. If there is an end to the good way, it takes place in the mist of the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and there is no end to our savior’s glory. Another way of expressing the good way is to simply say living a good life and Micah 6:8 speaks very plainly to that.

“He has shown you, oh mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

So this verse outlines three key actions that constitutes the good way… justice, mercy and humility. There are many other scriptures that we can turn to… Proverbs 3:5–6 advises us to trust in the Lord and our signature verse that started all of this Jeremiah 6:16, which encourages seeking the ancient path, asking where the good way is, stop, pray and then continue on, and then we turned to Galatians 5:22–23, which describes fruit of the spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. To kind of dive into these versus just a little closer proverbs 3:5–6 encourages us to choose a path of trust and reliance on God’s guidance and in Jeremiah 6:16 this is a verse that speaks directly to us as we seek out and follow the good, ancient way, always seeking out  the fruit of the spirit. Looking at Galatians 5:22–23, these are the character traits that define the good way we also would add to these versus Ephesians 2:10, it speaks of God’s handiwork and this verse connects living a good way with fulfilling God’s purpose for each of us. Then Romans 12:2 encourages us to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but by renewing our mind, we can be transformed, the passage encourages a transformation in our thinking to a better understanding and to follow God’s goodwill. The pew would also encourage each of you to have a spiritual balance in your life. The Bible is really about, maintaining a healthy relationship with God and integrating your faith into all the areas of life guided by the principles like loving God and your neighbor, seeking wisdom and seeking God’s way. We need to find a balance in our spiritual practices when possible, we need to give prayer equal time in our study of the Bible and we have to balance between spiritual life and material responsibilities. We need to look to truth and love and an attitude that prioritizes God is first.

Our journey is not yet over, but the day will come when this life we’re living now will be over and we will move on the good way and be in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I encourage you to make God first in your life and remember that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself this more than anything forms the foundation for a balanced life. Thank you for going on this journey with us here in the pew we hope to see you again next week. Keep the faith and stay on a good way. Amen.

Life is Good

jk

Chilly evenings here and lots of wind, not much of an incentive to gather on the Back Porch. But here is a short ponder for you today. My luck with electrical appliances is not all that good…or might be that they don’t make them like they used to. I won’t get into brands but stoves and refrigerators keep me in financial peril. Our stove which is six years old by the way, the oven no longer works in it. No my wife and I both sit down and talk this over and discovered that to get the oven repaired would entail two huge problems. Because of the excessive cost of operating a business nowadays a standard service call if you do not have the service contract on the appliance is about $150, yes you heard me right, now there may be some out there that are much less but in my area where I live the standard call is $150.  I’m gonna try to get this correct, it is confusing but when the service determines what’s wrong with the appliance and they order the parts to fix it the cost of those parts plus the labor to put back in the appliance that’s your bill, in most cases they graciously do not charge you the 150. So what happens if they come out and do not find anything wrong after examining the appliance and doing whatever it is that they do, you will owe them $150. Now, we have a refrigerator that the lights inside of the refrigerator on all levels they go out periodically. We have a service contract on that and we call, they come out, they replace one small part because it’s not the bulbs that are going out. It has something to do with the system. But anyway they replaced that part and the refrigerator runs. We’ve had it three years. In those three years we’ve had at least four calls to come out and fix the lights. Our warranty on the refrigerator is due to be renewed at the fine cost of $600 for three years. We have decided not to renew that warranty. Well refrigerator got to making a strange noise and my wife who is ever vigilant about these things suggested that we get that checked out. We both know that the warranty has not been reinstated so we ended up paying $150 for a service call from a local business to tell us there wasn’t anything wrong. My wife and I decided since there was no warranty on the stove it expired, we won’t go mess around with this business anymore because we’ve had trouble with that brand of appliance in the past so we just decided we’d buy a new stove. Now be patient because we’re almost to the ponder. We found a stove which met our needs at a reasonable price excellent delivery and set up service so we bought it and I’m happy to say that we bought it from a local business that made me even happier. Now here is the ponder. You know that old saying, keep it simple stupid, well why can’t women do that? After the stove was installed we both were pleased with the way it operated the controls and everything about it except this particular stove, did not have that high back on it with the clock, and all that stuff, the controls up on the back sitting behind the stove. All of the controls for this particular stove were located right above where the oven door is easily seen, easily got to, I thought fairly simple and very effective. But you guessed it my wife was absolutely intrigued by the fact that there was a bare wall back there where there had always been a stove top the upper part with the controls. She worried about that for several days and finally, we decided that maybe we could put some kind of a backsplash back there which is smart and reasonable. But then we decided, she decided that right behind the stove was not good enough we needed to extend it out on both sides. Work was balanced so that meant we had to do a wall. Now when we looked at that wall across from the stove and I have a galley style kitchen, so you know what I’m speaking of there’s another wall close by, naturally cabinets over it and such but it’s major wall, so to match the wall we just tiled, We decided to tile a backsplash behind the sink in the counter space there. I hope you’re still with me and I didn’t mean to confuse anybody. I was having a hard time for one thing figuring out what I could share with you this week from the porch and you know how desperate I am because this is the best I could do. Go back to the kitchen again.We picked out a tile, we found a local gentleman that did excellent tile work because we knew several people he had worked for and so we had him over. He gave us the estimate and a reasonable time frame to do the job with tiles that my wife picked out and so we said OK let’s do it. So let’s wrap this up. It’s really very simple. The two walls cost me more than a stove, but my wife is extremely happy with the ambience that it has created. So before I get to the final ponder, let me make one disclaimer. When I say we concerning these decisions as to what we were going to do, I would like to inform you that we was one and that one was my wife and I agreed in a spirit of love and cooperation. So here’s my Ponder…. Why do they do that?

Kurt

As we continue this journey seeking the good way, let’s continue to remember the 10 Commandments, last weeks reminder from Jeremiah 616 was that we have reached the crossroads, we need to stop to think and consider and to pray and then continue on our journey to seek the good way, hopefully having chosen the right path. This week we will add to those two pieces of information this, the importance of unity within the faith and among the body of believers. Our scripture this week can be found in Ephesians chapter 4 versus one through three and verses 15 and 16.

“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

Ephesians 4: 1-3 calls for believers to live a life worthy of their Christian, calling by practicing virtues, like humility, gentleness, and patience, while bearing with one another in love to maintain the spiritual unity of the church. It urges believers to make every effort to preserve the unity of the spirit through peace. If we take the time to detail that just a bit, we might say that Paul, who is a prisoner for Christ urges believers to live in a way that is consistent with the high calling they have received from God. Paul goes on to remind them about the key virtues of this life that would make that possible, they are listed above, but shortly speaking, just humility, gentleness, and patience towards others goes a long way to enhance the unity of the faith. It’s important that we maintain that unity of the faith in love, a crucial aspect of this conduct is to be patient, and bear with one another in love, and make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now all of this is fine, but it requires one thing that is sometimes missing within the church today, an active effort is required. The passage itself emphasizes that maintaining unity isn’t automatic; it requires a diligent effort and making a conscious choice to forgive and work through conflict.

Now let’s move onto that second set of versus Ephesians 4:15–16.

“15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

In these verses, Paul describes the church as the body of Christ united under Christ as the head, and explains that it grows in maturity by every member working together in love. He challenges believers to speak the truth to one another, but to do so in love, which helps the entire body mature into the likeness of Christ. This growth is facilitated as each part contributes to the hole, enabling the body to build itself up in love. A quick walk-through reveals the goal is for all believers to grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head that is Christ. We do so by speaking the truth in love. The method for growth is speaking the truth in love. This means honesty and kindly correcting and encouraging one another for the good of the whole body. Many the churches from the past and at least a few of the denominations today practice this interconnectedness. Paul by using the example of the body shows that every part is essential and connected with joints, holding the body together and supplying what is needed. Therefore, each members role within the body, contributes to the bodies growth by working properly and doing its part. So the combined efforts of each member working together in love results in the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Just a few thoughts to close on. On the way to “The Good Way” we can now add the unity of the body of believers as a sign we are on “The Good Way”. Please rejoin us next week as we continue this journey here in The Pew.

Life is Good

jk

I have no idea where this Ponder will go but pull up your chairs, crates or whatever and enjoy this nice fall evening. Anyone here familiar with Marconi Sports Peppers? They are Chicago style peppers, primarily to use with hot dogs, but I’ve also found that they go well with sub sandwiches of most any kind and a sandwich, say bologna… fried bologna now that’s a good pair. I first ran into them at the Publix and they were pretty expensive 16 ounce jar. I think it started out around $4.50. Well that lasted for about a year then they disappeared couldn’t find them there. They never had them stocked then they came back and they went first to $5.70. and then on up finally they topped out at $7.50. My wife has always been very attentive to keeping in stock some things here at the house that I particularly like to have with sandwiches or snacks. But they broke her tolerance level when they reached $6.50 mark so to speak for a jar of hot peppers… so I guess it doesn’t really need to be repeated, but we quit buying them, or she did. Now it’s real funny how the human mind works, but I just couldn’t get those Marconi sports peppers off my mind or out of my taste locker. Like I said with some fried bologna and believe it or not, with some fried spam they were pretty good. Now before I get too carried away, they didn’t hardly come up to and certainly did not surpass a really fine garden tomato with mayonnaise on light bread with some fresh cayenne pepper out of the garden… I have been told that it was even responsible for some Yankees relocating here to the south. Back to the story. I could not put those peppers out of my mind so I started looking for them again, went online and checked the grocery stores here where I live, Kroger and Publix and Aldi and Walmart even went so far as to check Costco but nobody had them, well nobody had them in stock.You could order them from Walmart but when they added the shipping fee onto them, it was $15 and some odd cents for 16 ounce jar. You couldn’t sell that to my wife with two complementary tickets to a QVC studio show. I found some other values elsewhere, but one that I almost fell for was six jars for $35. Shipping was free but the catch was they were 8 ounce jars. But I just couldn’t and wouldn’t give up and finally my wife found those beautiful Marconi sports peppers somewhere on Amazon for nine dollars and something 16 ounce jar… bingo, love her heart, with the shipping fee added it came to $13 and a few pennies and she went ahead and got them. It might be hard to believe, but them suckers came to my front door overnight, I had made some chicken salad homemade the other day and because I was in such a hurry I didn’t feel like frying any bologna up, I went ahead and just made me a nice chicken salad sandwich and got some of them peppers out and everything was wonderful. Now I’m sure you’re asking by now. What’s all that about? I also guess you’re trying to figure out what kind of a ponder can we possibly get out of this? Here is your Ponder for the day… Never let a good pepper get away!

Kurt

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

As we continue our journey looking for the good way, let’s remember two of the points that we have picked up so far. Let the words of the 10 Commandments come forth from your lips,  stored in your mind and be strong in your heart. And when you reach this crossroad where we’re at, stop, seek God’s words and instructions and then start out on the good way. Last week our key scripture was Jeremiah 6:16 this week we’re going to be looking at Philippians 4:8 as our lead scripture as we continue this journey. Philippians 4:8 is an instruction for believers to focus your thoughts on positive and virtuous qualities, including what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy and yes that is quite a list. Actually what the scripture is asking us to do is to deliberate, and choose dwelling on uplifting things, which can improve one’s mental, emotional, and relational health by shifting focus away from the negative or deceitful thoughts that are so prevalent in our society today. The goal of all of this is to cultivate a thought process in our life that reflects God’s peace and character.

Consider this, as we mentioned above just a moment ago, the verse provides a specific list of qualities to meditate on just for future reference and because repetition is often a good way to remember let’s go through them. When we seek out true thoughts, we’re really trying to look for things that align with the reality of God’s nature those things which are noble and honorable that are dignified, respectful, and of good character. We’re looking for thoughts that are fair and righteous, just, pure in intent and innocent undefiled and not mixed with sin. Just an umbrella of lovely thoughts that are pleasant and attractive and encourage love. We’re looking for things that are commendable that are spoken of to have had and do have a good reputation. The next one is really very easy, think about things that are outstanding and admirable and possess moral excellence. We are also seeking thoughts worthy of praise, admiration, and celebration. Let’s wrap this section up by touching on a few points to lead us in the direction we need to go. We need to filter our thoughts, do what it says, look for things that are good and constructive. We need to cultivate a positive mindset, and that means that we’re going to actively choose to think about uplifting things to develop a more positive outlook on life. Perhaps one that will be difficult for all of us is to be aligned with God’s character by focusing on these qualities, you align your thoughts with God’s own nature. And finally be mindful of your intake. In other words, be aware of the things you see hear and read, and ensure they align with the various standards set by Philippians 4:8.

Consider this as we close this week’s blog. We live in a world that is not exactly compatible with God’s word. Good Christians can sometimes even begin to think in secular rather than biblical terms and they allow secular culture and values to overwhelm their Christian values. The apostle Paul reminds us that we must constantly reject those things that do not draw us closer to God and consciously focus on the things that do. We have the ability to choose what we think about. There is of course, the onslaught of media material. We could go through a lot here and talk about different things, but the key I believe is simply this, if we kinda look at things and use Philippians 4:8 as a guide it’s probably very likely that our media consumption habits would have to change. So add this to our list to go on our map to help us find the “Good Way.” Remember Philippians 4:8, think about the good things and thank God that we are blessed with so many.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome to the Back Porch. We usually try to meet a little earlier in the week, but we just haven’t been able to do that for the past couple of months so please please forgive us and stick around a little while. Pull up a chair and get a box whatever you can find and have a seat, the weather here has been just absolutely wonderful for the past few days, temperatures in the 70s plenty of sunshine… just real pleasant. I guess as many of us here on the porch have noticed that’s about where the good news ends. I tried to stay away from Facebook even YouTube, but I do like to read the news at least keep up with what’s going on, but even that has gotten to be a real chore here lately. The government shut down is rolling right along. It seems like there’ll be no end to it, so then when you start reading the headlines, wherever your choice of news takes you there is not really a whole lot of good news to be had. Here’s a quick look at some of the things that I’ve been looking at on the news. New York, Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted for mortgage fraud. Now I’m not going to get into the politics of it. This is the same lady, that indicted Trump and spent 2 to 3 years trying to drag him down as best she could and she succeeded. She got a huge judgment against the Trump organization and against Trump. Now she’s been indicted for the same behavior that she charged Trump with being responsible for, but what amazes me about all of this kind of stuff, is that for some reason or other all of these public figures seem to discount the existence of the new digital wave within our country. Things that have been said years ago come back to haunt them again because it’s all been recorded and I can go back and look and find it and it has to be embarrassing for some of them, but that’s rather strange that they don’t recognize the fact that words do matter. Then there’s my favorite ongoing drama of the news for the past week or so maybe a longer really, we have the Republicans and the Democrats in both houses Senate and Congress at odds with each other about this continuing resolution. Now this is the resolution that Schumer got in trouble with because he backed it here just a few weeks ago, and they voted for a continuing resolution, but it didn’t hold long because there’s too many others that are against it. It seems that those we have elected to carry out the nations business have decided just simply to shut the government down. The congressional speaker of the house and the minority speaker of the house had decided they will engage in a world of accusations. And then step right up to the Senate and you have the majority leader along with the minority leader that have also decided that it’s best to have a world of accusations and prohibited attachments full of misleading words and ideas that have no chance of passing either side. Please accept my apology for spending this many words and taking up your time for this senseless dribble. I’ll slide on down on the news page because I found one thing that you might be interested in. Florida supermarkets have decided to let customers knock back and drink a cold one while shopping. I forecast there will be a lot more husbands going along with their wives on their next shopping expedition. And one major food chain there in Florida has now announced that people can carry firearms in their store. What a wonderful mixture, firearms, alcohol an escalating food prices. Oh my it seems like I can’t just let all this go and quit bothering you like this, but I just now pulled up a story about Dan Rather. He’s retired. You know he was a CBS News actor for many many years and he’s upset over some of the things going on at the old channel, but this is a guy if I’m not mistaken that had a conversation with aliens so you know I don’t know. Maybe you have an answer for it. So where is the ponder in all of this? Well this week it’s a rather shameless one. The guys here on the porch would like to invite you to join us in The Pew this coming weekend as we continue to examine the path that will take us to the good way. It’s really very simple if you want to have a little bit of good news in your life, get into the word, read the Bible and join us this weekend for another addition of The Pew as we seek to explore the meaning of the God’s word from a layman’s point of view.

Kurt

We continue our series this week “Looking for the Good Way” with the verse that brought us to this subject, Jeremiah 6:16.

16 This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

We will start our journey with God’s instructions to the people of Judah to pause at a time of decision and look for the old, proven paths of God’s word and wisdom, and walking in them to find true rest for our souls. The contrast here is very simple. We’re looking at the good way of God compared to the our rebellious corrupt ways in which we reject God’s guidance and it leads to the destructive consequences while we instead choose to refuse the path that is offered to salvation. I suppose that’s a rather fancy way of saying we’re just not living as God would have us live as a people or a nation, and we are in danger of God’s wrath. The ways of this world are without doubt, not compatible with God’s will for his people. As Christians, we are called out to be different to serve, and to be mindful of God’s will in our lives. Let’s look at some of the key elements of this verse that we are highlighting today. The simple sentence stand at the crossroads and look is pure imagery, which we find a lot in the Bible that signifies a crucial point of decision where people must stop reflect and consider their options. I prefer to use the word direction… So where are we to find that correct direction? We are to ask God, to seek God’s will, to look for the ancient paths because that’s where the good way lies. It’s really rather basic. We are called to seek our God’s long established ways and pay attention to his timeless wisdom which in this day and time are contrasted with the new, corrupt path that we as a people are following. This verse makes it very clear that we must change our direction.. It’s not that difficult to understand that following God’s ancient ways will lead us to a spiritual peace and rest that contrasted to the false peace promised by our corrupted ways that dominate our daily lives now. Just as the people of Judah had become corrupt and materialistic and filled with immorality so have we. We, as the people have been subjected to assurance of peace and safety misleading the people while God’s judgment is a real promise of what is to come. We as a people have rejected God’s true warnings, the council of his word, choosing instead to walk in our own destructive ways. This verse offers us very practical wisdom for navigating what’s going on in our world today. We are encouraged to seek God’s guidance and we do so by turning to the good way rather than following current trends. There are many distractions in our world today, but we can find true peace by following God’s establish ways rather than following or pursuing these worldly distractions. And we are reminded, just as Judah faced disaster for rejecting God’s wisdom so long ago, we’re very much guilty of doing very same thing in our circumstances in today’s time. Ignoring God’s ways has severe consequences both here in our world now and in the world to come.

So we add these two directions to our map to the Good Way. Remember the 10 Commandments, seek and understand God’s word and instructions, and then start out on the good way.

Life is Good

jk