Category Archives: blogging

Appreciate the Dandelions; They Are EVIDENCE!

My Katie

Guys (and I do mean that figuratively), you should really get to know my daughter, Katie. She is so gifted by God in photography, music, and even writing. But what most impresses me about Katie is her ability to see the wonder of God in the smallest of things.

Like I said, Katie is a gifted photographer. Her personal blog is called “Shutter Elf,” and features some seriously good photos. I can take a picture of something and it will look like a picture; Katie can take a picture of the exact same thing and it will be art.

Unfortunately, because of college and stinking Instagram, she doesn’t post as much on her blog. I wish she would do more, however. All it takes is a little browsing through her posts and you will notice not only her natural skill as a photographer, but her ability to bring meaning and insight to what the shutter captures.

The Dandelion

Last night, as I was wrapping things up and getting ready to shut things down, I happened to click on a blog post entitled “Overwhelmed.” Just click on the link and check it out.

The author of the blog (I don’t know her name) concluded her post with the following words:

“So today I pray instead for the Lord to show me the value in the dandelions, the treasures to be found hidden in our afflictions, to open my eyes to His blessings safely tucked within the weeds.”

That’s when I had to comment, and the comment consisted of me asking her to do what I’m going to ask you to do…

Read Katie’s post about dandelions! You will never look at them the same again!

Oh, and try to encourage Katie to post more by leaving a comment and subscribing to her blog. 🙂

Click HERE, or on the picture, to read “DANDELIONS.”

Photo Credit: Katie Marie

 

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Filed under blogging, God, Guest Posts, Relationships and Family, Struggles and Trials, worship

Crazy Search Terms and Christian Blogs

Searching

This post took a little longer than I wanted, all because I took the time to peruse the world wide web. Really, there are a lot of things out there I never knew, and the only way I could have found out about them was to randomly “Google” something.

Sometimes I am both amazed and brought to laughter when I read the search terms people have entered which led them to my blog. So, this time I figured I would type some crazy stuff in and see what happened.

The goal: Could I find a Christian blogger at the other end of these search-term rainbows?

10 search terms and their interesting results.

1. Boogaloo and happy hamsters

2. Buggy bumper Bible

3. Myocardial Greek inflection

  • All Greek to me, except for articles in medical journals dealing with hypertension and coffee drinking making arteries stiffer.

4. Blessed are the fish

5. Papaya preacher paints

  • A painting by Isabel Rock, “Papaya Don’t Preach.”

6. Faith and dirt in a blender

7. Gospeltime elephant bladder

8. Gong Show Theology

9. What if Scooby got saved? 

10. Legalistic Ice Cream

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Your Cursed Curses Are Useless

Proverbs 26:2

“As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.” (KJV)

“Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.” (HCSB)

Curses!

I recently watched a funny scene from the movie Despicable Me. Vector, the really bad guy, had stolen a stolen shrink ray and was playing with it in his bathroom (lavatory), and that’s when he purposely shrunk his toilet. He then proceeded to mock the toilet like it was a defeated enemy. When the shrunken toilet popped off the water line, Vector yelled, “Curse you, tiny toilet!”

Curses are as old as mankind, I suppose. They have been around long before Vector, Scooby Doo, Endora (Samantha’s mother), or the literal witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7). The first curses recorded in the Bible can be found all the way back in the book of Genesis. There God cursed the serpent (Gen. 3:14), the ground (Gen. 3:17), Cain (Gen. 4:11), and even the anger of Simeon and Levi (Gen. 49:7). So, it would seem that the earliest curses came not from witches, but from God.

However, when God pronounces a curse, it is usually a denunciation of sin (Nu. 5:21, 23; Dt. 29:19–20), His judgment on sin (Nu. 5:22, 24, 27; Is. 24:6), and the person who is suffering the consequences of sin by the judgment of God is called a curse (Nu. 5:21, 27; Je. 29:18).[1]  On the other hand, men use curses as tools to bring something about. However, the difference between a curse from God and a curse from man is capacity: man’s is limited, but God is omnipotent.

Capacity

Those who spew out curses typically have no ability to see them come to fruition. In Eccl. 8:4 we read: “Where the word of the king is, there is power.” In other words, a king can pronounce a curse on his subject’s land or life and have the ability to make it happen. But for most people, “damning” someone is pretty useless.

I once made a video depicting a monkey puppet making fun of evolution. The video asked the question: “What do you get when cross a monkey with time?” The answer was, “A man? No, just a monkey.” Immediately I received hate mail and curses from atheists around the globe.

Click the picture to watch the video for yourself.

On other occasions I have written about my views on marriage, which have brought even more hateful language, and even threats. The curses came by the boat load and generally read like this: “I hope you get sick and die!…go to hell!…damn you!” But therein lies the point of today’s proverb – cursed curses are useless.

Causeless

Solomon said, “the curse causeless shall not come.” Therefore, we should not fear the curses of fools, for they do not have the capacity bring about the end result. They presume upon a Power beyond their own to bring about the judgment they declare, but “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Let the witch doctor cast spells; let the voodoo doll be stuck with pins; let the curses come from Hell itself; they will fly by me like sparrows on the wind, for they are as powerless as the cursed fools who send them.


[1] J. A. Motyer, “Curse,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 248.

The above post was copied from my other blog, ProverbialThought.com., and adapted for this site.

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Filed under blogging, General Observations, Monday Monkey, Theology, wisdom

Truth In Love

“The last thing I want to do is offend anyone with my words, but even that will offend somebody. Therefore, I must speak the truth in love, even when love is misinterpreted as hate.” – A. Baker

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Filed under blogging, Christian Maturity, Culture Wars, Do not judge, writing

I Deleted It

I haven’t been writing much that lately, only re-posting in an effort to keep up activity and share some good stuff with newer readers. The reason is that we are still in the process of moving to a different part of town and out of the parsonage we’ve been in for the last eight years.

So, what I did was sit down at my computer one last time, all because this baby is going to be taken down and packed in the back of a van in the morning, and write a final post in the area where my blogging actually began. I sat down in the empty kitchen, worn out, right where I’m sitting right now, and decided I would write a post addressing the millions of women marching all over the world in protest of President Donald Trump.

I deleted the post.

Well, I didn’t actually delete it – that would be a lie – I just permanently saved it as a “draft.”

Why did I, in effect, delete the post I labored over for an hour? I figured it was better for me to find other battles to fight than get into one with a bunch of pink “p***y hat” wearing, illogical, angry, pro-abortion, hypocritical, estrogen-filled leftists with a uterus-shaped chip on their shoulder.

You don’t need to know what I think about a million Gloria Steinhem worshipers or White House-threatening Madonna’s. You don’t want me to go there. I don’t want to go there.

The continual dropping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike (Proverbs 27:15), so why cause it to storm when it’s quiet and I’m perfectly dry?

I just dried out from having to move in the rain, so I don’t need to invite a million drips of estrogen rage. I’ll just keep praying for our new President; he can break out his own umbrella – I hear it’s huuuge.

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Filed under America, blogging, politics, Uncategorized

Update: 12/16/17

My hard drive died last week, therefore my computer has been in the shop. Because of this, I’ve not been spending much time at all on the computer – since I don’t have one other than my wife’s and our smart phones (like the one I’m on right now). 

But, in terms of an update, I just wanted to say that sitting at my desk and pounding away on a lifeless keyboard, just to feel the sensation and hear the clicking, is NOT the same as writing.

Just saying. 

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A New Record (for #of views)

I would like to announce that as of yesterday, December 5, 2016, this blog surpassed its 2014 record of 21,979 views. 

We broke the 22,000 mark for the first time! 

Thanks for stopping by, everyone. I appreciate it. 

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Filed under blogging, Uncategorized

Share a Post for Christmas

Gift Ideas

Every year I’m asked for a list of things I would like to have for Christmas. Each time I respond with: “I have no idea.” But when it comes to writing and blogging, I know EXACTLY what I want! And what’s more, it’s something EVERY blogger would enjoy!

photo (74)Share a favorite post with others on your blog and/or social media!

It cost’s nothing, and all you’d need to do is wrap it in syrupilly-sweet words of praise as you ask others to check out the post of the year…or at least one of your favorites 😉

The Challenge

So, this is the challenge AND the request:

Share (a post), and share a “like.” 

This is time of year when many bloggers see lower-than-normal visits to their sites. Why not take just a moment and share some posts you’ve liked with others? By doing so you will help some blogs keep up their views (“hits”) and maybe even gain a few new followers.

Then, the next time you read a decent blog post, take just an extra second and “like” it. Even better, why not leave a comment? Sometimes a nice comment could mean the difference between a bad day and a great day – you just never know the power of an encouraging word.

Now, if you do have access to a P-51 Mustang I could ride in, or if you want to treat me to an expensive steak dinner, then who am I to refuse? But if you can’t, a simple “like” and share will make my day!

Sharing is caring :-)

photo (74)

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Christian Blogging

We plant and water seeds of hope, love, joy, and grace. We sow these seeds all over the world! Rarely will we see a harvest, but the Holy Spirit knows how to take that divinely inspired “click” and turn it into new life.

It will be interesting, and wonderful, to one day see what God was able to do with the crazy medium of Christian blogging. To HIM be the glory!

flowers

Photo credit: Katie Marie Baker

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Filed under blogging, Christianity, Uncategorized

10 Things Christian Bloggers Wished the Rest of the Universe Could Understand

This list first appeared back in May of this year, but I thought it was worth re-posting… sorta like “the best of The Recovering Legalist.” Bloggers unite 😉 

The Audience

If you are reading this – evidently you are – it is probably because you are on some form of social media, like Facebook or Twitter. it is also possible you received an email notification as a subscriber, or you were forwarded a message from a friend who said, “You’ve GOT to read this!”

On the other hand, you may be a blogger who was surfing recent posts from followed sites or “suggestions”form WordPress (or some other inferior blogging platform). Those of you in this group – the bloggers – will understand what I’m about to write; the rest need help.

The following list will be less of a shocker than an affirmation of what Christian (and some pagan) bloggers already believe about themselves or others within their “community.” Therefore, the following list is meant more for the casual Facebook reader, the neglected child with a school project due, and the wife or husband whose eyes roll more often than a bowling ball.

10 Things Christian Bloggers Wished the Rest of the Universe Could Understand

1. The ability to write is a gift from God; the ability to write well takes work. Every post, if it’s worth posting, should be well-written. A poorly-written post is a poor reflection on the message we have to share. Therefore, don’t get upset if we spend 3 hours crafting a 500-word work of art.

2. Blogging is a form of worship. I know, it may sound crazy, but blogging can be a very legitimate means of giving praise and honor to God. Christian bloggers regularly speak of the goodness of God, praise Him in the midst of struggles, and challenge others to trust Jesus. Christian bloggers LOVE to praise God through computer screens all over the world!

3.  Christian bloggers are internet missionaries! You don’t have to travel the world to teach people with the Good News; you can do it from your kitchen! That’s right with a simple blog piece one person can instantly share relevant Truth in over 100 countries! Last time I counted, I’ve had readers in 126.

4.  Everything is fodder for a blog post. That’s right, everything from one’s recent trip to the mall to one’s battle with cancer – it’s all worth writing about, especially to the one who sees God’s hand working everywhere.

5.  Household chores will take care of themselves. Families of bloggers are usually the most stressed of housekeepers, but this need not be. Worse come to worse, dirty dishes, un-walked pets, and un-made meals can be used as writing topics (see point 4).

6.  Blogging is reporting. All bloggers wish the world would give us more respect. I mean, seriously, we deserve Press credentials! If you write a well-written blog you should be allowed into all political events, meetings, and all concerts for free. As for me, I think every blogger is a potential food and restaurant critic – we should eat for free.

7.  Christian bloggers don’t have selective hearing; we have selected focus. When I’m at the computer, don’t assume I hear anything you say. When I’m writing I’m in the “zone,” so voices outside the “zone” are muted. If you want my attention, offer food or show legitimate interest in what I’m writing.  Otherwise, don’t assume I heard you tell me to pay that bill.

8.  Donations are always welcome. Just because we Christian bloggers love doing what we do, that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t accept money. Money buys better computers, custom themes, and comfortable desk chairs.

9.  The Christian blogging “community” is a real thing with real people. Honestly, some of my best friends are bloggers I’ve met online. Several of us have met in person, prayed with each other, and shared in genuine Christian fellowship and worship. Bloggers love bloggers 🙂

10.  Christian bloggers come in all virtual shapes and sizes. Not every Christian is alike, and neither are our blogs. We are all unique and bring our own perspectives to the discussion of life. Don’t read just one.

So, what are your thoughts? Any points you’d like to share with the universe?

Kicked out of the house and in need of wifi, the blogger will do anything to maintain his habit of changing the world one post at a time.

Kicked out of the house and in need of wifi, the Christian blogger will do anything to maintain his habit: changing the world one post at a time.

 

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Filed under blogging, Christian Unity, Christianity, Humor