NCarolinian

                 Where do you call home ? Now-a-days, I witness many individuals and families that are very nomadic. For a variety of reasons - financial, family, weather or other - they move often enough to make you wonder - where do they really call home?                Then there are those who seldom to never move from the area they were born in and end up living to their dying day there. We can name without a shadow of a doubt the home of these individuals and families.          However, there is a home that is spoken of that I have never known, visited or even seen from a distance. One might interject that I speak of Heaven here and while the location is correct, that is not what 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 declares as our forever Home with the Lord. Here is what the passage states -             "For we know that if the earthly te...

        Be careful how much focus you place on your  skills, talents and gifts in life. The Blesser is always going to be greater than the blessing. James reminds us that - " Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17)            This flow-perspective is a mindset Christians must have in order to cultivate the kind of Christ-like character that needs to be displayed daily in each believer through the Fruits of the Spirit. In other words, if we acknowledge The Blesser and where our blessings come from, keeping a thankful and grateful heart for all our blessings, then the remaining Fruits of the Spirit have a wonderful chance to develop and shine for God.          The reverse of this thinking is a shift of focus away from The Blesser onto the accumulation of gifts and/or quality of gift(s) to the po...

                    In case  you did not know, faith is a struggle, it is a fight! Paul writes to his protégé, Timothy, saying - "Fight the good fight of faith." (1 Tim. 6:12)           However, Paul does not simply stop there, he continues with the admonishment to -  "Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Tim. 6:12)          There seems to be two levels of action implied here - striving (fighting) and seizing (taking hold). These descriptive words do not have anything to do with the initial Salvation of an individual. The Holy Spirit makes this point clear through Paul to the believers in Ephesus -  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) ...