Mental Musings

We continue our study on worship Then Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord to worship Him. Then the Levites from the sons of the Kohathites and the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel shouting with a loud voice. (2 Chronicles 20:18-19) Did you notice that all of Judah and Jerusalem fell down before the Lord to worship Him? This would be equivalent to seeing all of Baltimore and Washington D.C. worshipping God at the same time. Wow! They recognized that worship was not just something for the less educated or the less cultured. Praise is a natural response to God’s power and grace. God’s people have always praised Him in one manner or another. The Bible depicts close to 500 times of praise as well as a glimpse into Heaven where praise is something that continues for all of eternity. Praise is prevalent. While God desires praise from His people, He expects it from the rest o...

For the next 2 months we will look the meaning of worship, the motivation for worship, the methods of worshipping, and more. Why? Because worship is our natural response and yet so many people just don’t understand it. During the next 2 months we will use 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 as our key passage. We will use other verses throughout the Bible as well, but this passage is going to be our “come back to” portion. I hope that you will learn just how much we can learn from an Old Testament story and yet still apply it to our lives today. I encourage you to read this passage each week at home as we progress in this study. After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, together with some of the Meunites, came to fight against Jehoshaphat. People came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast number from beyond the Dead Sea and from Edom has come to fight against you; they are already in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, En-gedi). Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he resolved to seek the Lord. (2 Chronicles 20:1-3a, ...

Have you ever had a scar? If you lived life the way I did as a child, you probably have numerous. I have one scar on the middle finger on my left hand. I got that scar when I was in 3rd grade playing the knife game with my brother. That should give you a hint as to why I have so many scars. I have another scar on the thumb on my left hand. In fact, it is many scars covering my thumb. I am very fortunate to have those scars because I could have easily lost the thumb altogether. My thumb was almost completely severed by the handle of a Radio Flyer wagon back in 1970. I was tightening the bolt that connected the handle to the wagon when one of the kids I was pulling threw the handle forward slicing my thumb between the metal part of the hinge. I have more scars, like the one on my pointer finger that was nearly sliced-off when it was closed in a door. The scar on my right leg where a pair a scissors went pointed end into it. The scar on my head where I cracked it open on a tab...

September 15, 1999, was a tragic day for me. That is the day that a friend of mine, Sydney Browning, was shot and killed during a church youth event at her church in Fort Worth, Texas. Six others lost their life that day to the same shooter. September 4, 2004, was a tragic day for our family and many others in Florida. On that day Frances, a category 3 hurricane, started battering Florida and left our home flooded with a large hole in the ceiling and roof, and destroyed our shed and our porch. Then exactly 3 weeks later on September 25, Jeanne, a category 3 hurricane, followed the exact same path as Frances and did further damage to our home. That September was a very bad month for our family, but we were all alive and healthy. The damage was only stuff and most stuff can be replaced. September 11, 2001, was a tragic day for our nation. The word tragedy is used to describe an event causing great suffering, distress, and loss. To some people losing a pet is a tragedy. Fo...

You tell someone that you don’t really like a song, or any song, by Justin Bieber and they get offended. They think that you are personally attacking them for their taste. Groups attacking individuals because something they said or did offended them. We seem to live in a culture of offended people. There was a Baptist church that had a tradition of purchasing fried chicken to go with the other foods that people brought for funeral meals. It was easy for them to order large amounts of fried chicken and it is a meat that almost everyone likes. I mean, fried chicken and Baptists go hand in hand after all. There was never a problem until they hosted a funeral for an African-American woman from their community. Suddenly, some women, from among their mostly white church members, went to the kitchen crew to complain about how insulting it was that they would serve fried chicken at the funeral meal for an African-American woman. While these women were still complaining, one of the ...