Our podcast is a little different today. I would like to read a poem that I wrote a year or so ago. This poem is for those who are very serious about their faith and are willing to look inward to see if they are pleasing God and others.

Serious Christians practice some form of private devotion: quiet time with no one else around. As important as private devotion is, public worship gives us the opportunity to hear other voices in a spiritual setting. We hear from God through the experiences of others.

The Old Testament is not meant to discourage us. It is given to enlighten our minds and initiate change so we can be pleasing to God and feel good about ourselves. The Old Testament gives us a clear understanding of what is morally and ethically right and wrong. We cannot do this on our own.

When we feel guilt for past or present failures we are also motivated to get closer to God. God has chosen many pathways for us to get more passionate about Him; The desire to clear the conscience is one of them.

As people of faith we can forgive people who have offended us in spite of their unwillingness to ask for forgiveness. The first step to forgive others that do not asked us to forgive them is to work on ourselves.

Knowing God and knowing ourselves go hand in hand. Jesus assured us that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 16:13). It is my view, that the truth Jesus was speaking is not only about doctrinal or belief issues, but also about how the influence of the Holy Spirit leads us to self-discovery – the truth about ourselves.

In our weakest moments God is standing by to strengthen us. The strength we need can come directly from God, the secret comforts through prayer and reading the Scripture. God also helps us indirectly through family, friends, our pastor, or at times a professional therapist.

There are serious threats in our world today. Although more needs to be done there are many things being done in government, medicine, and technology in an attempt to mitigate or neutralize these threats. We must continue to do what we can. Yet, human effort is not enough. God is only a prayer away.

In the book of James we read, "Let every person, be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath; for the anger of man does not produce the right way to live before God." When we are passionate about something or someone it can motivate us to make a decision when we need to get something accomplished. Nevertheless, when we act too quickly we are vulnerable to messing things up for ourselves and others.

Real love involves sacrifice. Our Heavenly Father is our example on this one: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." This well-known verse in the Gospel of John makes it clear that genuine love and sacrifice are inseparable.