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Who Do You Look Like Today?

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  Galatians 5:1-6               “To become Christ-like is the only thing in the whole world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.”                                                            - Henry Drummond              It is interesting when a child is born. One of the first comments from anyone is that the baby looks just like so and so. One day, they might look like mom, dad, aunt or uncle. I remember just after my oldest niece was born we were walking her in a stroller. Someone that should have known came up to us and asked if my wife and I were walking our son. We told him that no, not only was it not our son, but it was my sisters GIRL. It just so happened that my niece looked a little like me when she was born. My oldest son favored me at first and now he looks much more like the Smalley side of the family. My youngest son is an exact replica of his grandpa Frank (Oh, NO!). One of my favorite passages of scripture
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Merry Christmas Season!

  Read John 1:1, 14, I Corinthians 13:12      I apologize that this devotion may be a little lengthy, but it is Christmas, and I cannot let this week go by without writing this.      When I was a kid, Christmas was my favorite time of year. In Minnesota, in the middle of winter was the best. We would sled and skate and play snow football. My dad also grew up in Minnesota, so he knew how awesome winter was. We would be off of school and dad would take a snow blower down the long hill of our driveway and then water it down so that we would just fly down on our sleds. He created a huge skating rink and kept it flooded so it would stay smooth.      I remember all the baking that my grandma, mom and aunts would do. Invariably we smelled the aroma of Christmas wreath cookies, peanut butter with a Hershey kiss in the middle, and I will never forget the crumb cakes. I remember trying to figure out what I got for Christmas. I remember waking up on Christmas Eve knowing that we would soon be hea
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Don't Be Too Busy!

Satan has called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “we cannot keep the Christians from going to church. We cannot keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the Truth. We cannot even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ, and if they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they cannot gain that relationship with Jesus Christ.” “This is what I want you angels to do. Distract them from gaining a hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!”  The evil angels shouted, “How shall we do this?” Satan responded, “Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7
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Endurance

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James 1:3 “Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” During our climb up the mountain of life, we may experience some difficult times. At times we may lose our breath, pull a muscle or twist an ankle. It is at these times that we must be willing to fight through the pain and the hurt to achieve the goal that is at hand. If you never thought about it, you might expect that the positive and beautiful memories from the past would be the ones that would increase your faith. I always believed, for example, that one or two really dramatic or miraculous answers to prayer would increase my faith immeasurably. If I had just a few victories that were pleasant I would be able to do anything that God asked me to do. Yet, it hasn’t seemed to work out that way. Tough times, painful times, of course, do one of two things to you. They either break you or they make you. If you are utterly crushed by them, you will do everything within your power to bury them into the far recesses
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What Are You Living For?

 Genesis 2:15 “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” It is the foundational question that we must answer, “What are you living for?”  It is exciting reading stories from the underground church. There was a house church in an old country that did not allow Christian to worship that met in small groups so as not to arouse the authorities. It was at such a meeting after they began to quietly worship that the door burst open and two soldiers quickly entered with automatic weapons raised. They lined everybody up against the wall and threatened to kill anyone that did not denounce Christ. If they would denounce Christ, they could leave the room and nothing else would be said. Slowly, several began to leave and yet there were a few that stood against the threat of death. After a few minutes the soldiers gave everyone one last chance to leave. A few more people slipped out the door. Those that were left looked down at their children wit
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In Everything Gives Thanks

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  Read Hebrews 13:1-16 We are entering one of my favorite times of the year. Fall will turn into winter, thanksgiving will turn into Christmas, and I will be happy. I believe that the month of November may be God’s favorite month as well. Why? It is probably the one month where thanksgiving is offered by people that do not do so daily. One of the most popular syndicated newspaper columns in recent history is "Dear Abby." Started in 1956 by Abigail Van Buren, the advice column was written by her daughter Jeanne Phillips after Abigail had stopped writing. In one edition, she included this Thanksgiving Prayer written many years before by her mother: O Heavenly Father: We thank Thee for food And remember the hungry. We thank Thee for health And remember the sick. We thank Thee for friends And remember the friendless. We thank Thee for freedom And remember the enslaved. May these remembrances Stir us to service. That Thy gifts to us may be used For others. Amen. The words of this
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A Mountaintop View

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 Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.” With the exception of being in an airplane, the highest place on earth that I have walked is on Pike’s Peak in Colorado. The view was incredible. You could see for miles, and what you did see was so clean and fresh. The signs of humanity such as, traffic, smog, smoke, dirt, etc., were not evident from the peak. Wouldn’t you like to walk through life with “rose-colored” glasses? Don’t you want to see all the good in everything around you? If it was possible to see your world through only positive lenses, what price would you pay? Well, the highest place you can go on this earth is not Pike’s Peak. The highest place you can reach in this life is to be bowed low at the feet of Jesus.
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