Pastor Tom's Community

In the presence of a king, don't ask for small gifts! "The golfer Arnold Palmer once played a series of exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia. The king was so impressed that he proposed to give Palmer a gift. Palmer demurred: 'it really isn't necessary, Your Highness. I'm honored to have been invited.'" "'I would be…

  "If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing." – Benjamin Franklin I would not mind doing both. However, it is always for someone else to evaluate – especially the actions, but also the words. We either overestimate or underestimate either…

Having wisdom and sharing wisdom is sometimes different from having to apply it to your own life. We may have helped others but, in our own time of crisis, discover that our words to them are inadequate to our own suffering. In fact, all words are inadequate. they may be good words, but they do…

Will our home-town churches will be willing to embrace Him and get in His program or if He will have to look and work elsewhere.

The psalmist is talking about moral fools, people of power who plunder the poor and helpless as if there were no God of justice and truth to whom they must give account. The proof of reverence for God is, in this context, dealing justly, fairly, and righteously with people – especially, the poor.

I also am flawed, very flawed, very vulnerable, imperfect, and needy. I limp to your altar. I am unkempt, unshaven, a bit battered, and joyfully expectant. Clean me up, Lord and send me out. Grace – I drink it and it rolls down my lips. I take it from your well and pour it all…

If it seems that no one cares, you might be right. Sometimes it is relatively true. No one cares or shows care to the extent that we perceive we need. We look around and all are about their own concerns. We speak and no one hears. It is like being in a room complaining to…

  To be appalled is to turn ashen gray. It comes upon us suddenly in response to something so shocking that it effects the supply of blood to our brains. A pall is a a cloak that often covers a person who is so "appalled" that they are no longer alive. A pall to cover…

And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? – Job 1:8 This was a defining moment for Job and he was not even aware of it at the time.…

"Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself." – John 6:15, NIV You're no Jesus, but if you follow Him, He will work through you at times in such a way that people will start looking at you as something pretty special. While you…