NCarolinian

Memorial Day is not a single day of remembrance for me. Every day The Sacrifice is upon the forefront of my mind. An event in time, which changed history and my life - that I relive over in my imagination daily. Some of the descriptions of The Hero of that day baffle the mind’s eye – “his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—“ (Isaiah 52:14) . This disfigurement came at the use of something called The Cat of Nine Tails. This is a whip with all manner of lacerations woven into the nine strips/tails in order to inflict more damage on the person. 40 lashes were ordered. In addition to The Cat of Nine Tails, The Messiah, was slapped, punched, struck with a rod, spit upon and crowned with a ring of thorns upon His head. Then there was the beam itself. The Word of God which spoke everything into existence, now in human form as Christ Jesus, bore The Tree He created. He would eventually have help to carry His ...

The Holy Spirit brought 1 Timothy 3:5 to my mind this morning. That verse says,  If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? I got to thinking about all the ministries there are in The Church or just my local body of believers. Personally, I am involved in Choir, Praise Team, Teaching, Drama, and Missions. And as I come in contact with the youth of the church I try to help them along also. But I cannot be a great and Holy influence in these areas if I don't first "manage" my "own family" well. So, what does it mean to "manage" your family? The original Greek word here is Proistemi ( pro-is'-tay-mee) . This is a compound word, a joining of two words to form one. The two words are - Pro and Histemi (his-tay-mee) .  Pro is a primary preposition meaning before, in front of, or above - as in a position. Histemi means abide, appoint; stand-by, stand-forth, stand-still and stand-up .  You com...

Adam and Eve were God's Family once upon a time. The Disfunctionalism (if you will) of God's Family came when Adam and Eve rebelled/disobeyed God. This rebellion or disobedience severed the family ties to God. Adam and Eve chose to belong to another Family whose head/leader is entitled The Father of Lies ( John 8:44 ). Since that move to The Second Family , when humans are born they belong to this family and all of it's tendencies. Thank Father God for Christ Jesus - humanity's Adoption Papers ! Jesus was and is the legal red (blood) tape provided for all to be adopted into His Family. Adam and Eve were the only ones that we know of who experienced perfect family life with God before the disconnect. Since then none of humanity has been God's family. The Hebrews are His People. Prophets and Kings were His Instruments. But the situation took His own Word in flesh as The Son of God to make the way for adoption into God's Family possible. This did not catch God...

I saw a poster with a message written on it on Facebook that I want to respond to. Here is the message: "The people we surround ourselves with either raise or lower our standards. They either help us to become the best-version-of-ourselves or encourage us to become lesser versions of ourselves. We become like our friends. No man becomes great on his own. No woman becomes great on her own. The people around them help to make them great." Here is my response: I understand the underlying message of this quote - surround yourself with people who will challenge you, grow you as a person and mature you in every aspect of your life. It is good encouragement. You can hear a BUT coming can you not? But the following are my reservations. Looking at this from another angle, the quote said, "The people we surround ourselves with either raise or lower our standards." Then you need a Constant Standard, that you will never acquire but that you can always strive toward - C...

There are many different factors that are used in weighing Value or Worth. Some of these factors are the cost, personal preference and time. How much something costs us places value or worth on that object - the higher the cost, the higher the value/worth. Of course what we all see as being valuable is not All the same, we do have our own preferences as to what is valuable. I recognize there is some overlap of preferences (i.e. family, food, fun, fellowship). I don't know anybody who would say those are not worth having much of in our lives, but even these can be graded also.  Concerning Time, let us define it first. Time - the passing of life/moments which has been divided up into centuries, decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. You allow something or someone the right amount of time and value can be applied to it or them. Because every second that passes is one that is gone forever - time is already extremely valuable. However, you add to time ot...

Naturally and spiritually our lives begin like a fresh, great tasting, and sweet smelling piece of bread. Then the "oven of the world", or life, transpires and our edges get hardened. Some of us are blessed enough to have parents who watch the temperature gauge and can help "brown" us up just right through our lives. Others of us are not so blessed and find their life is "burnt" before they know it. However, for these "burnt ones" who may have matured faster than wanted in life and in ways not desired by any of us - the burnt ole, crusty, dead pieces that seem to identify you can be scraped off. Flavoring like butter or jelly can be applied to your life also (better friends, better attitude, better perspective) to make you palpable again. I recently felt like a piece of crusty ole dried-up bread. Then the Holy Spirit impressed upon me I am not the only one feeling this way. The Holy Spirit then revealed His Word and this is what He says ...

I encourage myself, plus my brothers and sisters in Christ - do not add or subtract from The Word of God (The Bible), just cross reference, consult the Holy Spirit in prayer and take care how you present His Word. Let's look at His Word concerning this subject. God calls His Word - The Truth and His Laws something that will last forever - "All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal." - Psalm 119:160 With that foundation, is it any wonder that God would declare......? “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take anything from it” - Deuteronomy 4:2 "Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar." - Proverbs 30:6 "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the...

Do you have a catch-all table in your house? I do. Mine resides front-and-center as you walk into my home. It is a medium-sized table with adjustable wings, should I desire to place even more stuff on it. Yes, that is what a catch-all table is - a place for your weekly, daily or sometimes monthly stuff. In a typical day you would see me come through the front door, place my work backpack down beside the catch-all table, proceed to unload my pockets of their contents and take off any jewelry and place it on the table. The only catch to this table is that I have to come back to it periodically and clean it up or it will overflow with trash. There is stuff I pick up daily that I need (wallet, keys, glasses, watch, phone, etc...). However, the trick is leaving the stuff you don't need on the table (whatever that might be for you). I have a Hero who is not only the catch-all of my entire life mistakes against God, but I have a Hero who is the catch-all for everybody's life ...