Growin' Up Gregory

As our house continues to get closer and closer to completion, I've begun just walking around the yard and property more some days just looking around and wondering what it all will look like when we get it finished and plant grass and do landscaping and all.  I've imagined the games and memories that will be made on these few acres.  It's amazing all of the small things that have been there for years I have now begun to notice.  I've lived on this land with my family for over 30 years and been riding horses, go-carts, and four wheelers on it for most of those.  But now that a portion of it is mine, I've really slowed down and begun to see it in a new perspective.  I've thought about the history of it going back several generations.  I've looked at the details of the rolling hills, the trees, the vines, and all.  And I've imagined what it will be like over the next 30+ years as our family lives and grows here.  I've imagined the impact that...

A.W. Tozer once wrote, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."  After reading that statement, ask yourself these two questions: - Who is God? - What is God? I did this last night at AWANA and received pretty good answers including Savior, Creator, Father, good, and "those three things."  Those three things as one child put it, show the complexity that it takes to understand the Trinity.  While the term, Trinity, is not mentioned in the Bible, we do see throughout God's word that He exists as one God, but in three persons. The Trinity Seen in Creation First, we see the Father.  Malachi 2:10 reads, "Have we not all one Father?  Has not one God created us?" Second, we see the Son.  John 1:1-4 reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things are made through  him, and without him not any thing made was...

What is the difference between entertaining someone or engaging them?  There are striking similarities as well as vast differences. When Brittnee and I first started dating, I was entertaining her.  I was sweet, mushy, took her out to eat, texted and talked a lot, and rarely fussed.  I thought she was pretty hot so I wanted to put on a good show for her and keep her entertained so she would stay around.  But after a year or so of that, things got more serious between us.  I decided to step up my pursuit of her from entertainment to engagement.  I proposed to her on May 27, 2011 at the lake and had a big surprise party planned with friends and family when we got back from a boat ride.  Fortunately she said yes, or she would have been swimming with the fishes.  Just kidding!  Once we got engaged, I was committed to making her happy.  It was no longer about just putting on a good show to entertain her, there had to be depth to...

This story and questions are copied from a devotional in the Disciples Path series. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of priority is "something requiring or meriting attention prior to competing alternatives."  A priority is something that is most important.  It's something that takes first place and is of greater value than anything else.  When you look at the life of Jesus you will recognize that God's Word, prayer, obedience, love, and investing in others were the priorities of His life.  Are these things your priorities? A man was once given a glass vase, a bowl of pebbles, and a sack or large stones.  He was told to put all the rocks into the glass vase.  He started by filling the glass with the pebbles, but there was no room left for the stones.  So he removed the pebbles, placed the large rocks in first, and then filled the gaps with the pebbles until they were all in the glass.  The vase represen...

This is a continuation from a devotional (Hebrews 2:1-4) in A.W. Tozer's, "Experiencing the Presence of God."  This final section is more detail on the curses of our contemporary culture. Letting Truth Leak from our Heart How do we neglect this great salvation offered to us by the Lord?  No one would turn and wander off quickly from such a great gift.  It happens as we slowly drift away.  We get the truth in our heart, we are on fire for God when we get saved, but then our hearts begin to leak.  And slowly that truth and excitement fades, we begin to drift.  How many new year's resolutions are starting to fade now?  We use the turning of the calendar, the new year as a fresh start with a strong desire to better ourselves in some way, but that desire to improve fades.  This happens in our Christian walk too.  We hear a powerful sermon, or attend a revival or camp meeting and walk out of there wanting to do nothing but ...

This is a continuation from a devotional (Hebrews 2:1-4) in A.W. Tozer's, "Experiencing the Presence of God."  These next sections are more details on the curses of our contemporary culture. Giving God Leftovers Far too often, Christians become too preoccupied with making a living, or handling the "cares of the world" as Jesus put it.  When people look at you, what do they know you as?  Do people always see you as a nurse, a banker, a mechanic, a teacher?  Most people are identified by their occupation, or role in the community, but that's not all that we are.  Imagine what the impact on the world would be if everyone put near that effort into seeking God as we do making a living.  The world would be forced to take notice of the difference in people's lives. But sadly, the fact is that we give God leftovers, never the main meal.  He doesn't get anything new, only the hand-me-downs.  But we don't have to give God our spare time or our...

This is a continuation from a devotional (Hebrews 2:1-4) in A.W. Tozer's, "Experiencing the Presence of God." The Curse of Our Contemporary Culture All Christians face some obstacle or hindrance in our seeking the presence of God.  For the contemporary Christian, we often get too caught up in the busyness of today's world.  We allow all the things the world has to become distractions  which keep us from taking the matters of God seriously.  For many of us we attempt to do every good thing, which makes it impossible for us to do everything good. The most dangerous situation facing us today (according to Tozer) is Moral Insensitivity.  We have become insensitive or callous to sin in the world around us.  Our feelings toward morality have been deadened.  Just look around at the lack of outrage of certain areas of immorality in our times.  Not only have some sins become okay, they have become celebrated.  Tozer calls this a cauterizatio...