Mental Musings

Watch this message on Facebook Live The Ugly Duckling - have you ever read this classic book by Hans Christian Anderson? It is the story of a duck that is laying 5 eggs on a nest. One of the eggs looks odd, but the duck doesn’t give that much thought. She loved all of her eggs. When they hatch, four of the ducklings are yellow and fluffy and cute, while one is dull, gray, and rather ugly. The mother duck treated all of the ducklings the same, but one day the ugly duckling saw his reflection in the water. He saw the ugly dull, gray feathers, he saw his strangely shaped beak, and asked his mom, “Why don’t I look like my brothers and sisters? Why am I so ugly?” The mother duck doesn’t know why, but he is her duckling and she loves him very much. The mother’s love was not enough to help keep the ugly duckling from being teased by the other ducklings or having self-esteem issues. Not only did he look different, he felt different. He was sure that something was wrong with him....

Watch this message on Facebook Live Do you celebrate Juneteenth? If you have never heard of that day, it has a major significance in the lives of many African-Americans in the South. President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to slaves in Confederate states, on New Year’s Day in 1863. Word didn’t reach all of the slaves until June 19, 1865, when a force of two-thousand Union soldiers arrived in Texas and informed them of their freedom. Slavery in the United States was finally at an end. Many slaves had been redeemed or freed prior to the Civil War. Others were freed after the war, yet some had to wait until Juneteenth for their freedom. Early Juneteenth celebrations were picnics with family and churches that strengthened communities for the glory of God. Do you celebrate Jubilee? Probably not unless you are Jewish. God instructed the Jews to observe a sabbath year every 7 years, just as He told us to observe the sabbath on the 7 th d...

Part 2 of the Stronger series study of Ephesians Watch on Facebook Unless you were a first-class athlete, you probably experienced a little anxiety when teams were choosing sides. Please don’t let me be chosen last. There is nothing more embarrassing than to be standing on the sideline waiting to be chosen, especially when it falls down to you and the most uncoordinated, frail, nearsighted, kid that is at least 2 years younger than everyone else that has been chosen. And if he happens to get chosen before you, well, there is no way that could happen because there is no way on God’s green earth that you could possibly be worse than he is, right? Whew! As we continue our series, Stronger, we see tonight that followers of Jesus don’t have to stand on the sidelines feeling anxious, because the Bible tells us that we have the choice. God offers us His free gift of forgiveness and salvation, yet we must choose to accept that free gift. We Choose to Be Like Jesus Scientists...

Have you ever dreamed of being stronger? When NASA astronaut Steve Austin is severely injured in the crash of an experimental aircraft, he is "rebuilt" in an operation that costs $6 million. That would be about $34 million today based on inflation. His right arm, both legs and the left eye are replaced with "bionic" implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norms: he can run at speeds of over 60 mph, his eye has a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities, and his bionic limbs all have the equivalent power of a bulldozer. He uses his enhanced abilities to work for the Office of Scientific Intelligence as a secret agent. Supervising the trial of an experimental gamma bomb that he designed for the U.S. Defense Department at a nuclear research facility in New Mexico, Dr. Bruce Banner selflessly rushed to the rescue of an ignorant teenager who had wandered onto the testing field as the countdown ticked inexorably towar...

People have asked me why I do what I do. Why am I a church planter? Why am I a pastor? Why do I direct an afterschool program? Why do I hold community events? Why do I help people that have physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs? The answer is always the same: because people are calling out for help, begging for someone to show them the way. In 1989 Nintendo began selling the Gameboy, the World Wide Web was invented, and the first GPS satellite was launched. People mostly remember 1989 because it was the year that race riots occurred in Miami, the Exxon Valdez spilled its cargo of oil in Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound, the Tiananmen Square massacre happened, the Menendez brothers shot their parents, and the San Francisco earthquake took place during the World Series. It was a rough year. It was also the year that televangelist John Nunes was found guilty of embezzling $158 million and televangelist Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud and conspiracy and sentence...

A bible study based on the book "A Wrinkle In Time" See how many words you can make out of these letters: A WRINKLE IN TIME In the simple phrase, “A Wrinkle in Time.” 4 small words. 5 nondescript syllables. 14 unremarkable letters. But as we discovered, hidden inside there was a vast language! Did you know that rearranging those 14 insignificant letters can create 748 different words in the English language? There’s a lot hiding underneath. It’s like that with us. On first glance, we may look pretty normal. The dancer. The jock. The joker. The writer. The slacker. Nothing new or special about you or me. But pierce the surface of any one of us, you’ll discover unending universes of thoughts, emotions, hopes, pain, dreams, regrets, curiosities and total weirdness! Those combinations of universes are what make us so unique – unlike anyone who has ever lived before us or after. Made to Be Wonderful In Psalm 139, the writer says to God, “For you created my inmo...