Updates (Page 3)

Dear SCC & Friends, The first to plead… ~Acts 15:39 Reflection #321                A blame shifter is a person who deflects responsibility for their actions by highlighting the perceived faults of another. Blame shifting has been around since the Garden of Eden right up to the present day. It takes maturity and discretion not to react when someone disagrees or challenges our opinion… When we first moved to California, I wore a coat and tie to church. A good friend who…

Dear SCC & Friends, …a sharp disagreement… ~Acts 15:39 Reflection #320                Is conflict spiritual? Is it bad? Have you ever been told to avoid it at all costs? The truth is conflict remains unavoidable even if we try to avoid it. Absence of conflict does not mean we have unity or even peace. I hate to admit it, but it has been conflict, be it unpleasant or untimely, that has driven me deeper into my need and reliance on the…

Dear SCC & Friends, If we confess… ~1 John 1:9 Reflection #319                  Making a good confession is a sign of strength even though it may seem like weakness… Forgiveness is always free. But that doesn’t mean that confession is always easy. Sometimes it’s hard… incredibly hard. It’s painful to admit our sins and entrust ourselves to God’s care. ~Lutzer~ Our confession doesn’t make God aware of our sins since He is omniscient. Rather, He brings awareness to us regarding our sin (missing the…

Dear SCC & Friends, …for your testing… ~1 Peter 4:12 Reflection #318                  You don’t learn that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. ~Corrie Ten Boom~ Sometimes the Lord calms the storm and sometimes He calms us in the midst of the storm. Either way, storms are part of life and stretch our trust in God be they physical, emotional or spiritual. The disciples were experienced fishermen and well acquainted with sudden storms on the Sea of Galilee. The lake is 700…

Dear SCC & Friends, …of first importance… ~1 Corinthians 15:3 Reflection #317 His Death …And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun being obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” And having said this, He breathed His last. Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God,…

Dear SCC & Friends, …Hosanna in the highest… ~Mark ll:10 Reflection #316                  Palm Sunday is a special time on the Church calendar to celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is the beginning of Holy Week, and what a week it was! We will never know this side of heaven what terrible struggles took place in the spiritual world between Palm Sunday and Easter morning. ~Rodney Buchanan~ So many times Jesus had told His disciples, “My time has not yet come.” …but now…

Dear SCC & Friends, …fearfully and wonderfully made… ~Psalm 139:14 Reflection #315                  Life is as mysterious as it is magnificent. It is absolutely amazing when we think about the miracle of conception… that nano second when life begins… when we are no bigger than a period at the end of a sentence… A microscopic dot contains our sex, eye and hair color, heart, facial features, skin tone, brain functions as well as aspects of our personality and temperament… One…

Dear SCC & Friends, …I am with you… ~Isaiah 41:10 Reflection #314                  The Lord is faithful even when we are faithless. The most frequent promise in the Bible is not I will give you success… or you will not suffer… or you will be blessed… The Lord’s recurrent promise appears so often in Scripture that we can overlook and miss the obvious. …I am with you always, even to the end of the age.~Matt. 28:20 I once visited a…

Dear SCC & Friends, …clothe yourselves in humility… ~1 Peter 5:5 Reflection #313                  Mohammed Ali was in his prime and was about to take off on an airplane flight. The stewardess reminded him to fasten his seatbelt. He came back brashly, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt!” The stewardess quickly came back with, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.” Ali fastened his seatbelt. All of us know what it is to “put our foot in our mouth” or expect special…

Dear SCC & Friends, Let love of the brethren continue. ~Hebrews 13:1 Reflection #312                  Why would we discontinue to love when it is clearly an ongoing command of the Lord? What is it that allows our hearts to become apathetic or cold? Jesus gave us a new commandment. …that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ~Jn. 13:34 The commandment to love our neighbor was not new. … you shall…

Dear SCC & Friends, …meditations of my heart… ~Psalm 19:14 Reflection #311                  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. ~Ps. 19:14 All of us have blind spots which we often defend through something called “confirmation bias”… It’s the tendency to believe information that supports and reaffirms what we already think… It predetermines the rightness of our position with minimal inquiry or circumspection……

Dear SCC & Friends, The people complained… ~Numbers 11:1 Reflection #310                  Complaining verbalizes dissatisfaction or annoyance about something or someone. It can be habitual and become a character trait. A habit of complaining develops a habit of being unhappy. ~Anon.~Many people live in what’s called a “gated community”. Once you know the gate code, you can go in and out as you please… But you must know the code… Spiritually speaking, we have a code… Enter His gates with…