You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder

James 2: 1 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself,"you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder."If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
Faith and Deeds 14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"and he was called God's friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Hey! Why Not?

When I was a kid I always wanted a Mohawk haircut. It was that or a Davy Crocket coonskin hat. I got the hat! Well, talking to my son Jason the other day revived my childhood dream so I asked Joy to help me out. Pretty cool!

Truth or Consequences

Growing up after World War II my mom was sick of war and decided to raise up her children without violence. "Don't fight" she would say. "If someone wants to fight you, just run the other way." And so I did.

Until I moved to Iowa in the 5th grade. The first day we moved to Iowa, I took my bike out for a ride and immediately became the target for a snow ball. From that day on, I was chased every where I went. And wouldn't you know, the kid that chased me lived across the street! He always wanted to beat me up, but true to form "I ran the other way". I hated going outside every day and surely didn't look forward to school letting out. I only lived 1/2 block from school, but most days ran several blocks out of the way so this bully and his friends wouldn't catch me. Boy! what a life! My days at school were thinking about how I could avoid getting beat up.

One fateful day, my guard was down and the bully got my back up against a fence at school, ready to beat my face in when to my surprise my left hand got a mind of its' own and smashed my fist into his face! Now you have to realize that I lived months in fear of this guy and avoided confrontation in any way I could. Yet, I still remember 55 years ago the look on his face when my fist "had a mind of its' own" and broke his tooth. He cried, he looked shocked. "You broke my tooth", and guess what? He never bothered me again! That was a fateful day that I learned that if you don't confront a problem it will hound you and make your life miserable until you give in or deal with it.

I've tried to analyze the reason so many people hate our President. Most don't even have the respect to call him by his name (Mr. President, or President Bush) but just "Bush" or worse. Now, I can see disliking someone but when it gets to extremes, like it has, you know there's something else at work there. Here's my opinion: Religious extemists in the middle East are people some don't want to deal with. No one likes confrontation, including me. We're sick of fighting and so some take the tact, "leave them alone and they'll leave you alone". "If someone wants to fight just run the other way". Or, like the hippies used to say, "You do your thing and I'll do mine". That all sounds good except if the other persons' thing is to wipe you off this earth. And if you don't think that's the goal, you need to read up on what's happening in the world. There are people that won't be happy until you and I are dead or agree to follow their mis-guided religion. They're like that kid that made my life miserable. At first not so much, but the more I avoided him the worst it got to the point that my every waking moment became a living hell.

But it goes even deeper than that. You see, we don't like that fact that we are held accountable by God for what we do. The history of mankind shows that to be true by all the shenanigans we've done to avoid him. It started in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned and knew it and hid (from God! what a joke that you could hide from Him). It continued when the people couldn't handle talking directly to God because He knew everything people did, so they demanded to have a human king of their own so they could pull the wool over their eyes. I believe people elect people that agree with them. It's only natural you want to be in your comfort zone. If you don't want to be accountable for things you do, then you elect people that don't want to be accountable themselves. Can you think of a past President that got along with everyone? I can. He was the perfect "You do your thing, I'll do mine" kind of person. But his attitude had consequences. All choices have consequences - good and bad. By making wrong choices we have his consequences. Now we have to face a worse bully and I'm hoping our "arm has a mind of its' own" before long and knocks out this tooth so we can get on with life.

Face the truth now or have the consequences later. It's our choice, but I'll be glad when it's over!

Thank You Jackie

Son, I know you're not looking for thanks because you do what you do because you love your country. Thanks for protecting us and thank your buddies. This country takes for granted the freedom that is paid by others' sacrifices. I'm not sure I can comprehend why you do it, but I'm thankful that you do.

Love, Dad, Sher and Joy