Roger

“Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Perhaps like you, I’ve read the preceding verse numerous times and didn’t give it much thought.   However, in recent months, I have been challenged to take another look.   The psalmist, I believe, has much to say to our fast-paced, busy generation.   Let’s dissect this powerful verse. First he says, “Teach us.”   Good time management is a learned skill.  If we don’t learn how to spend our time, we may very well squander precious moments that we’ll never get back.  You understand the difference between rest and relaxation and wasting time, right?  Watching your favorite TV show may relax you, but spending hours in front of the TV may rob you of productivity. The next phrase is “to number our days.”   We must learn to plan.   To plan is to optimize our time and energies.   When I taught high school English back in the 80’s, I discovered that ...

Are you a victim or a victor?  How do you see yourself? Your perspective determines your answer and your ability to successfully navigate life and positively impact others along the way.   Victims always focus on what others are doing to them or not doing for them.   Life’s circumstances are usually seen through a negative lens and victims always come up short – in their minds drawing the short stick. Victims love the “Blame Game.”   To pass along the blame allows them to never take personal responsibility for their own attitudes and actions.   In so doing, they never break out of their cycle of criticism and negativity.   Nobody who has anything on the ball likes to hang around victims – except other victims!   Misery   breeds company. Victims garnish the truth, often undermine others, jeopardize reputations and secretly gloat when others fail, because those things allow them a temporary reprieve from their own victim mentality.   Victi...

Living in the country again has opened my eyes to the wonders of life’s simple pleasures.  I watch a cow grazing in a nearby pasture and become somewhat amused to remember that a black and white Holstein eats green grass, and gives white milk that when churned makes yellow butter!  Nature is often color-coded! I marvel at the larger animals while at the same time wondering why God created pesky little insects like mosquitos that drive me into the house when the sun begins to hide away.   If you don’t think that little things matter, try going to sleep with just one mosquito in the room!   I sit on my front porch and watch the high grass roll in waves as warm breezes move across the land.   Later my neighbor-farmer mows that very field and the smells of freshly cut hay bring back the simple memories of childhood when I walked behind and loaded hay wagons in Pierpont. My flowerbeds and landscaping bring me deep satisfaction.   Little boys love to get dir...

The first 13 chapters of Acts mostly emphasize the ministry of Peter, while the remainder of the book highlights the ministry of Paul.  I would like to pull out two stories that involve miracles in each man’s ministry.  Both describe unique signs and wonders the Holy Spirit chose to highlight. The first story involving Peter is found in Acts 5:14-16. “More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.   As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.” The second story involves Paul and is found in Acts 19:11-12.   “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and t...