RUMINATIONS OF A REVEREND

     Do you ever have seasons in your life when a certain song just seems to dig deep inside of you and minister to your spirit? You wake up in the morning singing the song in your head, and as you’re driving somewhere you turn on the radio and “Boom!” that song is playing. For me, right now, that song is “Run to the Father” by Cody Carnes. You’ve likely heard it and probably even sung it at your church some time. Here is a link if you haven’t heard it or simply want to hear it again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcpeLDp0Foo      The chorus goes like this: I run to the Father, I fall into grace. I'm done with the hiding No reason to wait. My heart needs a surgeon, My soul needs a friend, So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again . OK, you can stop singing now. Well, maybe you can’t, but try and quiet the mental music enough to finish my blog : )      As a father myself, I remember the joy of coming home and having my children run to me and jump into

             I was visiting with an older lady who shared about her brother-in-law’s experience in World War 2. He was among the brave men that invaded Normandy to bring Hitler’s oppressive regime to an end. Along with other allied soldiers he marched from town to town liberating civilians and searching homes for axis troops. In one home, a Nazi soldier leapt from a loft bringing a knife down toward this man. The knife ripped through his shirt but never penetrated the skin. That was his only incident all the way to Berlin.             In his eighties, he developed health issues and visited the doctor. After the examination, the doctor asked about his physical activity and discovered the man was rather sedentary. As a result, the doctor said, “If you want to improve your health, you are going to need to get out and walk more.”             The man replied, “I walked from Normandy to Berlin. If I don’t want to walk anymore, I don’t have to!”             In Paul’s second letter to Ti

  Let your reasonableness  be known to everyone . Philippians 4:5             Paul writes those words in the context of pursuing peace: peace in the church and peace with those outside the church. One ingredient necessary for a tasty peaceful pie is reasonableness according to Paul. Some translations translate this Greek term with the word “gentleness.” The KJV translates it “moderation.” The ESV translates it “reasonableness.” Ralph Martin, in his commentary on Philippians, quotes L.H. Marshall to help define this term. The term is described as “fairmindedness, the attitude of a man who is charitable towards men’s faults and merciful in his judgment of their failings because he takes their whole situation into his reckoning.”             Did you catch that? Read it again and notice some key terms: charitable , merciful , their whole situation . Now couple that with another commentator's insight.             Hawthorne notes the following about this term, “Aristotle contrasted