Updates (Page 122)

Dear SCC & Friends, I have been young, and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread. ~Psalm 37:25 Update #44      A relationship with Christ is a relationship that no one can have for you. Others can help encourage and strengthen, but always it comes back to 1st person singular…Who do you say that I am? I remember praying as a teenager, “I may leave you, but please don’t ever leave me.”…

Dear SCC & Friends, There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.~Ecclesiastes 3:1 Update #43      He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;…

Dear SCC & Friends, Update #42      About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée,…

Dear SCC & Friends, Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God…~Matt. 6:6 (The Message) Update #40 The first time I remember praying fervently was out of my need. My dad was an infantry officer in the army, and it looked like he might be going off to…

Dear SCC & Friends, …in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Update #38      This Thanksgiving has me thinking about a mission trip I was on a few years ago. We had spent several days in a very poor mountain village in northern Cuba. I was the guest of a local pastor, and by 10:00 p.m. was very tired and ready to sleep from a full day of travel and ministry. As…

Dear SCC & Friends, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check… Psalm 32:8-9a Update #37 Last Sunday I asked if anyone had ever accused you of being stubborn? Ouch! Let’s take a different tack…Has anyone ever complimented you for…

Dear SCC & Friends, …for we have regard for what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. ~2 Corinthians 8:21 Update #36      This week’s update is dedicated to prayer and thankfulness for our nation and its people, for our churches and institutions, but especially for our veterans and their families. Patriotism takes many forms, but none more so than to thank and honor those who went before us to secure…

Dear SCC & Friends, Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.” ~Ecclesiastes 7:10 Update #35 How do we look at our nation and the world? Solomon wrote, That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say,…

Dear SCC & Friends, …He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet; so He guided them to their desired haven.                                                            ~Psalm 107:29 Update #34                  Fifty years ago this month, I was driving from Ft. Ord, Ca, to Army Airborne School at Ft. Benning, Ga. My Geometry teacher told me the shortest distance between two points was a straight line, and those were the days…

Dear SCC & Friends, His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’                                                                                      ~Matthew 25:21 Update #33                  Some people like recognition and some people don’t, but we all need it even if it’s not our primary “love language.” God has created us that way, and to greater or lesser degrees recognition and affirmation remain central…

Dear SCC & Friends, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever. ~Psalm 133 Update #32 The word “behold” is used over 1,500 times in the Bible. It means to take a serious and thoughtful look.…

Dear SCC & Friends, …but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. ~Philip. 3:12-13 Update #31             It goes so fast! Last week, Dudley and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. We had a great time, and it…