Why do writers of creeds (theologians?) have an aversion to quoting the Bible ?
They ‘have to’ change the wording, make new wording, different from the simple Words of God, or they haven’t done their job.
Or they’re out of a job.
NEED JESUS ? – – – GOT JESUS ?
April 9, 2026 By Leave a Comment
It’s all-important to answer those two questions.
Do you need Jesus ?
Have you got Jesus ?
Can you explain your answers, to Jesus ?
FUN TRIP
April 9, 2026 By Leave a Comment
The four astronauts on the way back from the moon have been enjoying this trip.
They seemed to have fun, from the start, taking pictures of earth as soon as they were leaving earth’s orbit.
And be sure to check out the ‘never before’ perspectives of the moon and the earth in the same picture(s).
They had unique position for that because they were so far beyond the moon, for the first time.
I’m sure they had serious work to make the trip successful, but they had fun on their loop-de-loop around the moon, with no G’s and pre-programmed navigation for a ‘free ride’ through space.
God, bring them home safely.
TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME
April 9, 2026 By Leave a Comment
A University of Massachusetts poll in 2020:
A majority of New Hampshire Democrats said they’d rather “a giant meteor strikes the earth, extinguishing all human life” than President Donald Trump win re-election. Yikes.
No change six years later, only more intense.
TDS—Rather destroy America than support anything good for America from Trump.
HEART – SOUL – MIND
April 9, 2026 By Leave a Comment
“Heart and Soul”
“From the Bottom of Your Heart”
“He’s (She’s) Got Soul”
“Soul Food”
“Marvelous Mind”
“In Your Right Mind”
HEART–
The part of you where you care.
The part where you connect with others.
The part that makes you not an island.
Choose to love God with all your heart.
SOUL–
What makes you a living human.
What makes you who you are.
What makes you different than all the rest of creation.
Choose to love God with all your soul.
MIND–
You can think.
You can choose.
You can choose life, or death.
You can choose God, or the devil.
You can choose heaven or hell.
Choose to love God with all your mind.
“Love the Lord, Your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
TRUE TEXAN RETURNS TO TEXAS
April 8, 2026 By Leave a Comment
Wrote this after watching
FALLING FOR VERMONT
(True Texan still falls for love stories.)
I was born in the middle of Texas, and the ‘Heart of Texas’ is in my heart.
I also did my time outside of Texas, so I know even more what it means to be a Texan.
Spent the last three years of college in Nebraska.
Survived ‘up north’, -14° one morning, because I didn’t need a car (walked everywhere in the small college town).
Spent the next seventeen years ‘in the big city’ of South Florida.
Should qualify in Guiness Book for longest a Texan spent in S. Florida (maybe the only Texan—never met any there).
When moving onto my inheritance (in land) became an option, I thought it was better for my children to finish growing up in the country and attend small-town high school (with its limitations, without metal detectors).
Hasn’t been perfect, but no regrets for this Texan returning to Texas.
Please enter TEXAS in the search bar,
and read more, lots more, what it means to be a Texan.
Note the dates on articles.
I wrote all that since returning to Texas.
COMFORTABLE
April 8, 2026 By Leave a Comment
Can one word say so much ?
Can one word say it all ?
Can one word preach a sermon ?
Can one word write a book ?
Then I realized the book might not happen now.
And the sermon might be too long.
And, maybe there is food for thought in the outline itself.
I want the reader to think, not just read what I think (I do plenty of that).
As I wrote the following notes, two pertinent illustrations came to mind.
I forgot one before I could write it down.
And that makes me uncomfortable as a writer.
I’ll have to live, and write, without it.
Bull—Here’s the winner, that got this article going.
A trusted foreman for a wise cattleman was sent to an auction some distance away, to bid for a special bull to be sold on a certain day.
He was given enough money for bus fare both ways, and the max he could bid.
The bidding was intense, because it was a top-of-the-line bull.
As the bids approached the amount of money in his pocket, the foreman made a decision.
If necessary, he would add the amount of his bus fare home and his own money.
Sure enough, he won the bid and bought the bull.
But he had no way home, and only enough money for a one-word telegram to his boss.
He came up with the perfect one-liner in one word:
COMFORTABLE
That story may not leave you with profound insights, but you will remember COM FOR TA BLE and this article.
Comfortable—good, bad, ugly ?
Do we know what we want to communicate, what we must communicate, what matters most, to the people who matter most, ahead of time, before we know what is going to happen, no matter what happens.
Do we expect to communicate success in the things that matter most, because we will give everything we have (that is, everything that has been entrusted to us) to accomplish what we were sent here to accomplish ? ***
– – – – – – – – – –
Comfortable Culture
Comfortable America
Comfortable Lifestyle
Comfortable Military/Wars
Comfortable Retirement
Comfortable Theology
Comfortable Death
Comfortable Afterlife
x ? x ? x ? x ? x ? x ? x ?
Not so Comfortable ?
Comfortable Pioneers
Comfortable Soldiers
Comfortable Seniors (with limitations)
Comfortable Christians
Comfortable Lukewarm Christians
Comfortable Non-Christians
Comfortable Anti-Christians
Comfortable Hell
(and, more meddling)
Comfortable MAGA
Comfortable ANTI-MAGA
Comfortable TDS
Comfortable DDS
Most of my prayers are asking God to make my life easier, more Comfortable.
I usually want others to feel sorry for me or help me when my life is not Comfortable.
Without the sermon (the book) on Comfortable, on all the above—a few words from The Word, the bottom line:
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.”
“Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
” ‘Take your ease . . .’—BUT GOD said, ‘Tonight your soul will be required of you.’ “
And there’s a boatload more from The Book, already written.
– – – – – – – – – –
*** “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a little; I will put you in charge of much.”
TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome
DDS – Daddy Derangement Syndrome
WHAT STRENGTHENS YOUR FAITH ?
April 3, 2026 By Leave a Comment
GOOD FRIDAY, 2026
What strengthens your faith ?
What should strengthen your faith ?
Biblically, what should strengthen your faith ?
What should you not look to, to strengthen your faith ?
I started writing this on Good Friday morning, listening to a program investigating the shroud of turin.
Whether the shroud of turin is authentic as the burial cloth of Jesus—or not—I am content to leave the matter to research of others—I AM CONTENT TO LEAVE THE MATTER TO GOD, TO JESUS HIMSELF.
After all, HE KNOWS.*
Oh, now we can see how things the Bible said, happened, can happen, will happen, when they were dismissed because we couldn’t see how they could happen.
Even recently, in our lifetime:
— technology
— mark of the beast
— simultaneous worldwide visuals
— antichrist
How could David write (in our Bible, 22 centuries ago) about the Messiah “pierced . . .hands and feet”, before crucifixion was invented by the Romans, before they came to power ?
How could Isaiah write about “God, Who sits above the circle of the earth” several millenia before we learned and believed the earth is indeed round.
Jesus did miracles after miracles—healed many and fed thousands—and how many believed and followed — — and how many stopped following Him when He told them the rest of the story (not just about food and healing).
Note the astronauts that left earth’s orbit for the moon two days ago, enthusiastically looking back as soon as they could on the beautiful round earth.
And, how about recent archeology, uncovering countless items that factualize Bible references previously discounted.
Someday, we may find Noah’s ark, and irrefutably ‘prove the flood.’
Amazing how powerful evidence everywhere, wordwide, already matches and confirms the flood of Noah’s day—beautifully !
There is so very much evidence, so many facts that would make a person believe, and strengthen a person’s faith.
But I bring up something on the flip side, that discounts depending on signs, and artifacts, and especially near-death-experiences to strengthen anyone’s faith, or bring someone to faith in Jesus.
X☆X☆ “If they do not listen to Moses (the Law of God, our sin) and the prophets (the message of the Messiah, Jesus, our Savior), neither will they believe if someone comes back from the dead.”—–Jesus said that.
If something, anything, makes it easier to believe in Jesus to forgive you and save you from your sin, it makes it less likely that you will believe.
Anything that makes life easier is less likely to strengthen your faith.
–
So, what strengthens your faith ?
—Both physically, and especially spiritually
—universally, and indisputably
–hardship and testing strengthen your body
—trouble and persecution strengthen your faith
“We must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God.”
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
How can you tell your faith is being strengthened ?
“We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.”
What do persecuted Christians today say about their suffering ?
They say persecution blesses them with a new and closer walk with Jesus.
And they only ask that we remember them, and pray for them.
That is what strengthens faith.
We can expect the same—
☆ ☆ ☆ JESUS SAID SO ☆ ☆ ☆
*They say the Shroud of Turin has evidence of an enormous flash of light embedded in the cloth, to match the LIGHT when Jesus THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD came back to LIFE.
And that would not be the only supernatural evidence in the natural world, of The Almighty.
Just a note about the shroud–
–For most people, even the label, ‘the shroud of turin’, immediately takes it from something Biblical to another ‘Catholic relic’ to be worshipped or disputed.
Consider how many details the Bible describes that seem to have little or no relevance to the story, like what it says about Jesus’ burial cloths–BUT GOD has reasons for including it all, for us to discover and understand someday, just like—
—like power with crude oil, uranium
—like technology with silicon
—like communication with . . .
God just expects us to “acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He will direct our paths.”
We get used to what we see in the world around us and in the heavens above—boatloads and boatloads of evidence that “leaves us without excuse” that there is God, and “He created the heavens and the earth.”
So, His promise to return in power and splendor and majesty to conquer and judge, is just as certain as all the evidence around us, and all the evidence we continue to discover.
No wonder the Bible says,
“The goodness of God is to lead us to repentance” and faith.
“PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD !”