Timothy's Thoughts

A few years ago, there was a science fiction series on television called Firefly. It was highly entertaining, but the network quickly canceled it. It wasn’t perfect, but I won’t go into all of that. I do want to mention one episode, Jaynestown. The B plot of this episode has the characters River and Shepherd Book back on the ship. Shepherd is a preacher. River is a super smart woman who has been driven to near insanity by the government. She gets a hold of Shepherd’s Bible and decides that she is going to fix it. She starts tearing out pages as she goes because she finds things that she believes are incorrect, things like creation and the ark protecting the animals from the great flood. Shepherd tells her that the Bible doesn’t have to make sense because it is really just about believing in something. Later, she tells him that she is sorry that she tore the pages out of his symbol and she wants to put them back. Obviously, Shepherd is not a good preacher. Rather than showing ...

I have a question that I would love to know the answer to, if anyone cares to give an opinion: Why would a woman decide to leave a husband who loves her?

We sometimes forget that it is God who determines who will rule a country. In America, we question how this is possible. We got to vote. We cast our vote. Our votes are counted. Both the saints and the heathens vote, but the Bible tells us that it is God who puts men in power. How can this be? Do you remember Micaiah? He was a prophet, but he was such a minor prophet that he didn’t get a book in the Bible. He is mentioned in two places I Kings 22 and II Chronicles 18, but these passages describe one incident. Israel and Judah were going to war, so the kings called four hundred prophets before them to tell them how they would do in battle. The prophets told them what they wanted to hear, that they would go to battle and be victorious, but Jehoshaphat king of Judah didn’t trust them and asked for a prophet of the Lord to be called. So in comes Micaiah. He tells Jehoshaphat to go and prosper, but he tells Ahab that he will die. Then he tells the vision that he saw. The Lord...

Have you every wanted to impress God? Have you thought about what you can do that would impress God? Can we impress him with our offerings? Our money already belongs to him. Can we impress him with our service? Perhaps, but it is so easy for us to fail in our service to the Lord. There is an account in the Bible that shows a person that God seems to be impressed with and it is in one of the most unlikely places. Do you remember reading about King Ahab? If you don’t remember, he was the guy who was married to Jezebel. He was an evil guy. In describing him, the Bible states, “there was none like unto Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.” (I Kings 21:25 KJ21) In other words, not only was he a bad guy, he was a very bad guy. There had never been a king as bad as he was. One of the things that he did was that when Naboth refused to sell his vineyard, he had him killed in a very public and very gruesome fashion. If you read I Kings 21...

Michael Hyatt recently blogged about preparing for a half-marathon . In stating why we should listen to him, a person who has not been running very long, he states: My lack of experience is precisely what qualifies me to speak on the topic. When I got started, most of the advice I received was from veteran runners. They knew a lot about running—as a veteran runner. But apparently they had forgotten what it was like to be a beginner. I still remember. Why should we listen? Because he is an expert on being a beginner. I'm not planning on running a marathon or a half-marathon, but I do have a lot to say about a lot of things and I often wonder why people should listen to me when there are so many expert out there who know so much more than I do. They are the ones who have it all figured out, not me. With the exception of a few things, I'm not an expert on things, but I am on this journey, seeking to learn, like everyone else. That is what qualifies us non-experts to speak. ...

I'm not really sure how many cats my parents have. It looks like a big pile of fur when they feed them. I shot the video below when I was up there for Christmas:

The video below is of Mike Huckabee delivering a prayer at a gathering of governors. My comments are below. Some people have been critical of this, but what I like about it is that it is a reminder that God is a real person who speaks to us on a personal level. I don't think God is going to be calling me on my cellphone, but prayer has become a token guesture that we use to show how dedicated to God we are. At times it may become a ritual. In church we have set times when we pray. At home we pray before every meal. We may have our prayers memorized. At social gatherings a person may use prayer as a speech to the audience. When we pray, are we really talking to God or are we doing it because it is the thing to do? Do we really think God hears us and will answer or are we doing it because it is expected and then we will go do what we planned on doing anyway? Do we really believe that the committments we make in our time of prayer are real or are we going to back out of them as soon a...