Life Goes On

As we continue to live  with the pandemic hanging over our heads it becomes more and more difficult to live in the NOW.  We find ourselves thinking of how things were yesterday or last month or imagining how things might be tomorrow.  As we do that we forget to live in the NOW.  This morning as I had my devotional time with God, I made a conscious effort to stay in the NOW.  I focused on every word of scripture.  I listened to every word a speaker spoke or a singer sang.  As I did so, I was able to shut out yesterday and tomorrow and focus on right NOW.  I must say, it was not easy.  We are so programmed to multi-tasking and to allowing circumstances to determine what we do that we've forgotten how to be in the NOW. As a college student, I began in a co-op program.  I would go to school for a quarter and then work for a quarter.  I worked for a chemical company.  We had one man in our section who would be so focused on what he ...

I've learned a lot lately from King David. I just today completed reading through 2 Samuel. The final chapter presented a strange scenario. In the 1st verse we're told that, "The anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them..." What David did was order a census, or numbering of the people. This served a no practical purpose if David was trusting God for protection and deliverance in battle as he had done in the past. This act meant that David had moved from trusting the Lord to trusting the number of fighting men he had in his standing army. By verse 10 David figured out that he had sinned by ceasing to trust God. However, the damage had been done. Although he confessed and repented, there was a price to pay for his unbelief, and God gave him a choice of punishments. David chose the one which put the people of Israel in the hands of God for discipline. The end result was that 70,000 people died in a plague. The lesson I...