October 20, 2007

Good Saturday morning! We are one in the Lord on this fine day. Today I said a short prayer for our football team. I heard they were booed this year after more than one disappointing performance. It is especially bad to be booed in your home stadium. I must admit that I haven't been among their supporters this week as their performance has been truly miserable. Do you know what I hope they remember? That Jesus loves all of us, no matter how well we perform, no matter whether we meet some one's expectations or not, no matter what we have done or have not done; Jesus loves us more than I can describe in words. He proved it first in His death on the cross and second upon His Resurrection. No greater love than to lay down His life for us and then to take it up again has been shown to us since time began. Let us rest today in the overcoming love of Jesus.

God loves you on this fine weekend!

Bucky

October 19, 2007

Good Friday morning! Another weekend begins tonight, use it well. I wonder what today will bring? It has been an interesting week and isn't every week or day that way? We do not know for sure what may come. We can plan and have lists of to do's; we can hope and dream, or pray and sing, but we do not know what will come on any given day. Things that are dreaded; shots, chores, a trip to the doctor, a bit of nasty cleanup... these things, like juggernauts, seem to rush toward us, unstoppable. Good things don't arrive fast enough. Over all of that we know that God is sovereign. No bad thing is coming that He cannot stop, divert, or grant us the strength to overcome. No good thing is so distant as it seems, for God wants us to have every good thing.

Praise the Lord for the coming of His great day!

Bucky

October 18, 2007

Good morning! It is a great day in the Lord! Hallelujah! Sorry, some days it is difficult to stop, and why stop? I am up a bit early today as help is needed in one of the eastern stores. One of the fun things about building things to the east is that you must get up early to support them.

Throwing your worries upon the Lord, how hard is that? It might seem easy to do, but our conditioning and training in this life teaches us to be self-reliant. This is at odds with trusting the Lord! We must unlearn that self-reliance and become God-reliant. I may seem to go on and on about this, but it seems more important to me in these days of information overload and job burnout than ever before. We are overwhelmed in this life by what is available. We think we need more time, but what we really need is that inner peace and joy that comes from God. As knowledge and tech-knowledge increases in this life, we will see it becoming faster and faster. We must look up and concentrate on Jesus. Rest in His peace and joy, trust in Him completely in this most hectic life.

God's grace go with you this day,

Bucky

October 17, 2007

Good morning! I have been struggling with a worry and asked for an answer. Today I received that answer and it is right out of the Bible. It is good to know that when we seek, just as Jesus said, we shall find. The problem and the answer are not as important as the fact that an answer was provided. The challenge for me now is to obey, which requires keeping my mouth shut. You might think that would be easy for me, and usually it is. However, you also know that when you are angry or have something you think is funny rattling around in your head, it can be especially difficult to not speak it aloud! Praise the Lord and His glorious name!

You might check out the interview in Newsweek with Eric Prince, the leader of Blackwater. I won't say good or bad, but will let you make your own conclusions. There is one what you might call a Biblical gaffe in the interview that I cannot let easily pass by. I will give you a hint: it was Nehemiah. The weekly survey of the Old Testament has apparently put some Biblical knowledge in my head that has grown roots. We also studied Nehemiah in depth a couple of years ago. One good use for our Bible studies, and all of us should be reading daily from the Word, is in making sure that the media gets it right.

May God's joy and peace be with us all on this great day!

Bucky

October 16, 2007

Good morning! The Rockies will play in the World Series! Despite the miserable playing of our football team, we do have something to cheer about. I see they canned the Husker athletic director yesterday; I wonder if that has anything to do with the Rockies winning? No, sometimes we look for patterns and signs where none exist. That may be a part of our nature or it may be a symptom of the modern electronic media. We get news so quickly these days that it is easy to make connections where none exist. We are to be watchful and there are signs that the last days are upon us and Jesus return is closer than it has ever been. We do see a polarization of the world from those who will believe on one side to those who refuse to believe on the other. People all over the world rush about trying to "get ahead" and make more money. Not that long ago it took a couple of months to cross the Atlantic; you had time to regret taking on the journey well before arriving at the destinations. Today, a few hours in a plane and you are in a totally different culture and still trying to sort out your feelings and thoughts. However, the speed of the Internet and satellite news is perhaps the most breathtaking of all. News developments in far countries can be seen live in many cases. Overwhelmed? You bet; we can be overwhelmed with information today and we see the mental disorders that go with it.

Seek and ask for God's peace today. He promised it, and we know that our God never goes back on His Word. Trust in the Lord Jesus and enjoy a life of peace and joy in Him!

Bucky

October 15, 2007

Good Monday morning! The world awaits our presence with some cringing, for we are the salt and Jesus is the light in this dark world. Does that seem strange to you? That the world should fear us may seem backwards. After all there are billions of people, governments, corporations, armies, and all of popular and religious culture out there. In our own power certainly we are weak, but we come in the name of the creator of all the universe. Our armor is provided by God and our strength is in the name of Jesus, who rose from the grave to glory. Yes, the world should fear us. The salt of our words stings the wounds of sin, the light of Jesus causes the darkness to flee, and the authority of Jesus' name cannot be denied.

Do not fear the day, and do not fear the shades of gray, for Jesus is Lord!

Bucky

October 14, 2007

Good Sunday morning! So often we begin to think that some sin or other, or the sum total of the sins that immediately come to mind, is somehow greater than God can forgive and forget. Perhaps we forget just who our God is, but we become depressed remembering and writhing in shame over the sins that the accuser parades through our mind. This morning I read in the sixth chapter of Isaiah about his vision of God in Heaven on His throne. I noted, after however many times that I have read this, something kind of new. This vision has an example of how powerful and gentle is our Lord's forgiveness.
Then one of the seraphim flew over to the altar, and he picked up a burning coal with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, "See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven."

We read here of how a seraphim touched Isaiah's lips with a hot coal, yet he was not burned but forgiven, a gentle touch. But wait! What is that we always read over? The seraphim, a being powerful enough to fly while in the presence of God, used a pair of tongs to take the coal from the altar! The seraphim are described as mighty earlier in the passage, yet they need tongs to grab God's coals. How powerful is the forgiveness of God! We see that so often, sometimes to the point of taking it for granted, the power and gentleness of God displayed as one.

Praise God for His strength and gentleness,

Bucky

October 12, 2007

Good morning! It's Friday once more! Does it seem like the weeks are just sliding by us? It does to me as another weekend of school work arrives. Praise the Lord for the opportunity to learn more. Deep thoughts are with me today, and on a Friday at that. Questions and pondering, are big changes ahead or simply a time of trial, at the end of which I will look back and wonder at dark thoughts? At the moment, I don't know. I am anxious to start writing for the Lord, but is the time right? A time of soul searching is upon me. Will it be gone by Monday? Or am I facing great changes that will take a while to work through?

One thing is true, perhaps I shouldn't write before breakfast! It is odd how such a seemingly small thing can affect our thinking so much. Let the glory of the Lord rise above my little problems. I know those problems are not little to you and I, but they are small to our awesome Lord. The answer to my deep thoughts is in Jesus. Perhaps I cannot answer my questions alone and need to come first to Him in prayer and then to my brothers and sisters in Christ. Pastor Rogers' devotional starts out with a very interesting verse regarding this matter. "My times are in Thy hand." It would seem that my worries are too! Have a blessed and wonderful Friday!

Pray for each other on this fine day!

Bucky

October 11, 2007

Good morning! Last night we finished Ecclesiastes in our Bible study and it does end with a wonderful conclusion. "Fear God, and obey His commandments." Solomon shows the wisdom that God gave to him after a lengthy experiment in finding meaning under the sun. Jesus said much the same thing during His ministry upon the earth. Trying to find satisfaction and meaning in this world is useless for it does not satisfy more than briefly and its meaning is vaporous. It is, as Solomon would say, "like chasing the wind." Truly we want to store up treasure in heaven.

Give glory to the one true God,

Bucky

October 10, 2007

Good morning! Is it hard to believe in Christ in this world today or what? It seems that everywhere one looks there is someone that we are taught to look up to showing us once again how intelligent people believe in nothing but look critically at everything. People with a PhD behind their name or a Dr. in front, politicians, actors, successful and wealthy people, and on it goes, the parade of those we should admire in this world telling us how it is. Then I stop and wonder, who should I really look to? These people living here and now, who are certainly as capable of being mistaken as I am, or the almighty creator of the heavens and the earth. What have those talking heads created? A fine novel, a painting, a few performances on stage and screen, even a lifetime of research and study, but what does all of that, and none have done all of that, really amount to in regards to saving me or anyone else? Yet when I choose to believe, much becomes clear to me. Humans can be and often are mistaken, and I am no different than any other in that. What is it about believing in Jesus that makes a clarity possible that was not before? The Holy Spirit living within me. I take no credit for suddenly becoming "smart" or intelligent; these qualities one is either born with or not. Intelligence, like any other talent, can be squandered in a life of pleasure or lost through circumstance. Understanding, or wisdom, however, is a gift from God. If a person chooses not to believe, then they will not understand what it is about Jesus that makes us carry on so. Yes, I believe in Jesus and I will look to the one true God for my understanding.

Praise God for His own glorious Son, Jesus Christ!

Bucky

October 9, 2007

Good morning to you. Do you ever wonder how fragile our world is? This is not the earth that we are standing on that I speak of, but the social, economic, and entertainment world that we live in on the surface of that earth. There have been wars, economic events, and social unrest for as far back as anyone can remember. Through it all, God has always been in perfect control of all. We can ponder these things, but we need not fear them. It seems that hardly a day goes by that some news report will have some form of doom outlook regarding something. Often these reports conflict with another pronouncement of doom from a few days or years in the past. All of it points out that none of us knows when Jesus will return, exactly as the Bible said many centuries ago. We live our Christian life expecting our Lord at any moment, but we also know that we may live to be 120 and die still waiting for Him to come. It does make our lives a bit of a split; looking to the heavens and hoping that today will be the day, but also looking to the earth and working, saving, and going about spreading the Good News. Jesus didn't promise that it would be easy, but He did give us His peace.

God bless each of you this day!

Bucky

October 8, 2007

Good morning! What hope do we have in this dark world? Everywhere we look it seems that darkness is fast taking over. Not everywhere we look. The world's media may delight in presenting violence, scandal, and other darkness, but there is a lot to see that is not sin. Churches are active, believers are meeting together, prayers are answered, and God is still sovereign. The darker it seems to get, the greater our hope becomes at the imminent return of Jesus. After the death of Jesus on the cross, it did not seem like there could be any hope to the first followers of the Way. For 2 days they met behind locked doors in secret as the rulers of the day gloated over what they thought would be the final blow to yet another sect or cult. Yet on that third day something very different happened and soon the power of the Holy Spirit would be felt across the world. Yes, we have a great hope in Jesus Christ.

Spread the Good News today!

Bucky

October 7, 2007

Good Sunday morning to you! It has been one of those big changes in temperature today, 90's yesterday and 40's today. Welcome to autumn! Wow, I hope none of you owns a laundromat in Sidney today; those good folks were being badmouthed something fierce today. It doesn't help that several of us show up to do our laundry at the same time and that about 1/4th of the machines are "out of order". A lady was wondering aloud where the owner/operators were. I suspect they are in one of the 8:00 am church services, but I think that she was ready to send them somewhere else.

It is in our nature that we can get involved in gripe and moan sessions without even intending to do so. I sat this one out, but there have been others where I later regretted some (or all) of the things that were said. More often than not, the object of these sessions is not there to defend themselves. Jesus told us to love even our enemies, and trashing someone behind their back is not showing that love. I am not sure that one of those gripe sessions has ever really solved anything, but sometimes the release of tension and stress can help. Please leave off with the hurtful speech toward others, but don't be afraid to lean on other Christians with your problems. Jesus also told us to love one another, and discussing our problems together does help us cope with this life.

May God have mercy on us all,

Bucky

October 6, 2007

Good Afternoon! I am getting going just a bit late on the writing and homework, but I did get a haircut and help out at work. This class has proven more difficult than I anticipated. It is interesting how we base our assumptions and anticipations on not enough or no evidence at all. How would I know how difficult this particular class would be? I have never taken it before and only have the assurance of a previous student that all of the undergraduate classes are easy. I should be suspicious that all of his former classes were easy; either he is an academic genius or all of the classes seem easy when they are finished. It has been the same in many instances in my and your life I know. For example, I knew nothing about Marine boot camp, yet arrived with a bag of assumptions about how it would be and how well I would perform. Needless to say that I was proven wrong about a great many things, and quickly too!

Jesus told us to count the cost before following Him, and what is that cost? The houses, cars, money, and other material possessions that we have? I don't know about you, but I didn't have to take a vow of poverty to believe. What about friends, you and I may have to give up friends to follow Christ. Especially if those friends like to hang out at places that we should not go to, or do things that Jesus commanded us not to. Some may have given up jobs, fame, family, and friends. Some may have lost all of their material positions and reputation among men. There may be a price, but we gain so much in Jesus! The rich, young ruler in the Bible was asked to give up all his material possessions and give to the poor. We may not be asked to do that; each relationship in Jesus in personal.

Personal, there is a thought. We have been placed in and identified with so many groups in our lifetime that it is almost alien to us that Jesus would know each of us personally and lead us on the way to the Father individually. Actually it is very foreign to the world to have a personal savior. Take a look at religion and note how it is up to the follower to perform in order to gain the attention of a distant deity. A relationship with God himself; now there's a concept that is at odds with the world!

God bless you this fine weekend,

Bucky

October 5, 2007

Good morning! It is kind of muggy and humid this morning; which means that it is almost half as humid as some of you experience normally. :-) Yesterday proved difficult, probably due to a lack of sleep for the most part. I am sure that today will go better. I am working on attitude if you are wondering. I read a very inspirational story about a young lady who had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis from the time that she turned three. That is very young to be finding out how harsh and painful the world can be, but her attitude was one of praising God for each new day. The most inspiring thing about the story for me was that she didn't get up one day and suddenly everything was better in her outlook, it took a lot of work to improve her disposition toward everything. Today, I want to start working on that... it's going to be a wonderful day! Praise God for this new day!

God loves you and so do I!

Bucky

October 4, 2007

Good morning, and technically it is morning though I have not been to bed yet. We had a little DNS change for the cabelas.com site tonight and I am helping with that. Even the eastern folk can have this in their inbox before getting up this morning. :-) Last night we had the second Bible study of the year and it was once again very motivational and inspirational. I even met an old friend who had stopped to pick up her child from Awana. I am going to crash soon, it is almost 0200 out here and that is late for me.

We studied the meaning of life last night in Ecclesiastes. It may not seem at first read that this book holds anything but depressing news about life. However, through our study and discussion, along with some input from Christian scholars and our pastor, we saw how the secular view of life is what is meaningless and depressing. Life In Christ is anything but meaningless, and we know that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Bible is full of wonderful news for those who will believe!

My work is finished for the evening and the crash is coming, but I wanted you to have this when you got up in the morning.

God bless you all!

Bucky

October 3, 2007

Good morning! Do you ever want to see what's around the corner? Come on, fess up. One of my ways of trying to see ahead is the 5-day weather forecast. I have it up in a tab right now. We like to attempt a "seeing" into the future. Revelation is good for inspiring a wish to look ahead. This makes it all the more interesting that Jesus tells us to be watchful. This is to keep watch on what is happening now, not trying to watch what we cannot see. We are to worry about today's problems.

Watching that weather forecast is almost a waste of time for me; I work inside all day and study inside through the evening. Where am I going with this? Beats me, sometimes the writing just seems to follow where the Spirit leads and I am not to know the destination. God loves us, we can know this through the death of Jesus on the Cross. How does that relate to today? We don't know where or how the day will end, but we know the pilot of our craft will not leave us nor forsake us, His own promise to us. Unless you're the boss, none of even knows for sure how the workday will begin and even the boss can be surprised by events. I guess that I will need to leave the worries to God, for I really don't know what I should even worry about today! :-)

Trust in God for the day,

Bucky

October 2, 2007

Good morning. The assignment didn't go so well last week; I am sure that I haven't enjoyed so much difficulty on a first assignment for any class. However, this too will be conquered in Christ Jesus. I pray that you are all doing well today and enjoying life in Jesus.

Last night, perhaps having something to do with a rough ending to the day, I pondered perfection. How do you define perfect? Probably not a 10.0 score as seen by a group of imperfect human judges, or a 100 on a test scored by an imperfect teacher in an imperfect educational system. We are not perfect, so would we recognize perfection when it appears? I believe that we will, for just as we have eternity in our hearts, so also do we have an idea of what perfection is.

Probably like you, I have many questions that remain unanswered. I know that I may die without most of those answers, and that is fine. When I meet Jesus, many of those questions will most likely fall away as unimportant, or at least no longer important in relation to where I will be at the time. Too many of my questions are related to my condition now, and through the assurance of Jesus, that condition will not always be as it is now. We are all in that fallen condition and though it seems so real to us now, it is a temporary condition. Isn't that the word you long to hear from a doctor? "Yes, your suffering is great now, but the condition is only temporary." That is this life, my friend in Christ, only temporary.

Praise God from whom all blessing flow!

Bucky

October 1, 2007

Good morning! Who would've thought those Rockies could pull it off; they are very nearly in the playoffs and riding a winning streak. They must win a one game playoff though. I wonder who would have thought because those Rockies also fulfilled my prediction of being in last place before May this year. I guess almost anything can be turned around!

Money, we need more of it, there is never enough; we work hard to get it and worry about it too much. It's funny that we work and seek so hard for financial security when God tells us that we already have it. I realize that you might question that, and I have my own doubts at times. Each of us can list our debts or dwindling resources or some other worry about the our coming financial ruin. Illness, catastrophe, litigation, theft... the worries go on and on. How are we to cope with all of this?!

Jesus gave us some instruction in this in John, "You trust in God, now trust in me." He does not expect us to go it alone in any area. Jesus is concerned with every aspect of our life in Him. Jesus knows we need money to buy things in our system, and He knows that not everything we want to buy is a rock hard necessity. I saw in a magazine where someone condemned Americans for buying homes that are too large for them. I would ask, "what about the builders, tradesmen, and suppliers who made a living building those houses?" You could go on with realtors, bankers, tax grabbers, and others who can feed their families from that big house. Sorry about the tax one, I had to pay mine not too long ago. :-) The privilege of paying taxes... sometimes it really hurts.

Trust in Jesus today!

Bucky

Prayer request!
Pray for each other today; pray that each of us will trust in Jesus in our financial matters.

September 30, 2007

Good afternoon! It is the last day of September and yes, that means that four weeks from today we get to change back to standard time. This is a quirk of the new daylight savings calendar, that if Sept. 30 falls on a Sunday, then we have exactly four weeks until DST ends. I watched one of the Musketeer movies today, for about the 300th time or so, and it struck me as a bit of irony that in all the "Musketeer" movies the main characters seldom, if ever, touch a musket. Just one of those little odd things that I notice at times. Today, my mission is to produce my first public web site, and yes I will tell you the URL, once I finish that is. It is for my first assignment in my second web programming class, so it is not simply my own imagination as there are requirements which must be met. In one of the weekly assignments, there are four of them, I will try to add a guest book for you to sign.

This morning more wonderful sermons came to us from the men and women chosen to lead congregations in the worship of God. I do enjoy learning more about God and drawing closer to Him each day. I know that you have enjoyed the Word of God on this Sunday, and we all look forward to hearing the Word directly in Heaven. May God keep you safe and in His peace on this day.

Bucky