For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
For Want of a Heel.
For want of a heel, there was no body.
For want of a body, there was no bruise.
For want of a bruise that was no shedding of blood.
For want of the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness.
For want of forgiveness there is no escape from God’s wrath.
For want of escape from God’s wrath, there is no hope in this life or the next.
All for the want of a heel.
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
Child maltreatment has a profound effect on the brain — even in kids who are resilient and don’t suffer from psychiatric disorders, according to two new studies, one of which found that brain activity in children raised in violent homes resembled that seen in soldiers exposed to combat.
For that study, published in Current Biology, researchers used functional MRI to image the brains of 43 London children as they looked at pictures of angry, sad or neutral faces. Twenty of the children, aged 11 to 13, were known to have been exposed to violence at home. They were compared with a matched group of 23 children from healthy families.
When looking at the faces in the scanner, children who had been exposed to violence showed increased activity in the amygdala and anterior insula in response to angry faces — a finding that is similar to that seen in soldiers with combat experience. These brain regions are thought to play a role in perceiving threat, and the heightened activity suggests hypervigilance to potential danger.
In any ongoing violent situation, being primed to perceive cues of threat — like angry faces or sudden, loud noises — can be beneficial, helping people elude harm. But while such brain changes may be adaptive in the short term, they can take a toll over time, increasing stress, anxiety and the risk of disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Chronically elevated levels of stress hormones can also increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and addictions.
Please consider this before exposing your or any children to high stress situations.
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
For the Want of a Heel.
For want of a heel, there was no body.
For want of a body, there was no bruise.
For want of a bruise that was no shedding of blood.
For want of the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness.
For want of forgiveness there is no escape from God’s wrath.
For want of escape from God’s wrath, there is no hope in this life or the next.
All for the want of a heel.
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
I’ve been planning this for a little while and it just happened to work out to go live today on my birthday. I can think of no better way to celebrate than to heed the Apostle Paul’s admonition in his letter to the Galatian church that “The one who is taught the Word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.”
I have been taught by Jim and want to honor him by sharing good things with him.
I hardly anticipate anyone who doesn’t know the guy to contribute although it would be a great blessing to me if you did anyway! If you’ve been benefited in any way by Jim, I’d be humbled if you’d consider helping provide this resource for him.
Pray for and consider how to bless those who have helped shape you, who have blessed you, prayed for you, and provided for you; those who have poured from their spirit into your own deserve your honor and respect. I don’t know if that’s your parents, a teacher, a friend, a sibling, a pastor, or what. But thank God for them.
Hey, ya’ll. If you’ve checked out any of the sermons I’ve posted, you have benefited from the work and wisdom of my mentor, Jim Shaul. I had the idea a little while ago to start him a fund to provide him with some Bible study software (Logos Bible Software) that he could greatly benefit from. I would be humbled if you would consider helping me provide for someone who has provided so much to others and never asks for anything in return. He teaches and serves with regard only for how it benefits others and glorifies God.
Thank you for your consideration and, more than anything, continue to enjoy the content. My hope (and I know it’s Jim’s hope too) is to help educate and edify folks while encouraging them to take their beliefs seriously. That mission will continue no matter what resources are or are not gifted.
In the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (some of you might know it as Palm Sunday) we read the following:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:38-40)
Jesus is saying that acknowledgment of Jesus and praising Him for who He is, is built into the world. It MUST happen. From somewhere it has to come forth.
According to the apostle Paul, it will come forth from you someday…”that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phillipians 2:10-11). It’s a gonna happen. Like it or not, willingly or not, it’s a gonna happen. Even stone-cold rocky hearts will cry out.. because the universe longs to have the truth be told. It cannot be silenced.
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
The first premise to my philosophy of life is that I am not omniscient (knowing everything).
The first inference from that premise is that since I do not know everything, I may very well be incorrect in my knowledge of one or more individual things.
The first summary: I am likely wrong about some things.
The first self-provocation in light of the summary: Develop tools to root and weed out errors in my own thinking.
I have been trying to do this very thing for that past 45 years.
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
“I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” (Johannes Kepler)
Most of us want to be accepted/approved by others. Others want full endorsement. There is a reason that we have three different words here. Webster defines acceptance as, “favorable reception or approval” and to approve as, “to have or – express a favorable opinion of,” so Webster indicates the the words have such similar meaning that they could be used interchangeably. To endorse is a stronger concept. It means, “to express support or approval of publicly and definitely.”
I accepted and loved my father. I respected him as my progenitor and for his many good qualities. I did not, however, approve of him in regards to what I considered his defining quality – he was an alcoholic. I disapproved of him as an alcoholic. I did not endorse his alcoholism. We humans can do both for people. We can accept them, love, them, even treat them with deserved respect for specific aspects of their person. We can also, at exactly the same time disapprove of them regarding some aspect of their life.
I have an old friend who was convicted of possessing child pornography. He served his time in prison and is now on parole. I do not approve of willfully accessing and possessing child pornography. To me such activity is immoral. But here’s the thing. I can and have sat with him since his release and enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee discussing old times and his future. It was easy-going and natural as it had been in the past. I still cared for him as an old friend and wanted the best for him. I would readily recommend him for many types of employment. I respected him for I respected him in in our earlier lives. This did not change.
At the same time I disapproved of his past choices. They were, in my mind immoral and that would likely not change. I could not accept that behavior publicly and definitely. If you call that being judgmental, so be it. I call it having a moral sensibility. I can accept many people who participate in activities that I consider immoral. The degree of that immorality would likely impact how comfortable I felt, emotionally. I could not endorse his past behavior.
This is real life and to me a reasonable course. It would be unreasonable of anyone else to expect me to change my moral views just to be acceptable to others. That to me would be moral bullying and I see such behavior as unacceptable…. and immoral. I could not endorse that either.
And no matter what, despite everything said above, I can treat every human being with the respect they are due as humans. This is “thoughtful approval.”
PS. After decades of alcoholism, my father found Jesus and was set from his enslavement to alcohol. He lived his last decades free and happy – which I fully endorsed and enjoyed!
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
What do you want from life? My guess is you could break it down to two things: 1) More life, and 2) Satisfaction within that life. You want to keep living and you want that continued life to bring you satisfaction. So what are the odds and who is on your side to get these two things?
Jesus said something extremely simple yet at the same time wildly profound about His purpose for coming down from heaven to earth: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it (not stuff) more abundantly.”(John 10:10) It kinda sorta seems like what we all want – and He came to provide it. Cool beans for us!
The problem, of course, is that the enemy of our souls (Matthew 13:39) is here to do just the opposite: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” (John 10:10)
The world around you wants to steal what you value, kill those whom you love – and you, and destroy everything that is good in your life. The world wants you NOT to take what Jesus offers.
God the Son wants you to have life – spiritual life – and as long as you physically live and breathe, that is possible. Once we expire, so does the possibility. Plus, the offer is to give spiritual life for free – no cost to us – except to believe Him and accept with open arms who He is and what He did for us. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)
Once we receive spiritual life, it becomes possible to have a life that is rich and full of meaning and satisfaction. God became flesh to make that happen for us. For you. He wants that for you reading this right now. The gift has been given and awaits your response.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
Twas a great song by Johnny. Still is. According to sources, Johnny wrote the lyrics because, “I was newly married at the time, and I suppose I was laying out my pledge of devotions.”
The song is about keeping a course of life that reflects that pledge and fleshes out actions that show the world what we stand for and to whom our hearts are devoted.
When when are devoted or pledged, it is nigh unto being a sacred stance we take to be someone and do something that reflects and protects the person or thing of value that we are pledging to – like the future of our nation, our children, and our grandchildren.
If you are anything like me (and God help you if you are!), you see our highly valued nation slipping through our fingers into a darkness that we abhor. It feels like we are hopelessly being dragged down to somewhere we not only despise, but never dreamed that we could fall to this depth.
When something slips between the fingers it is because there are gaps. To stop the slippage, we must close the gaps. If you want to make a difference, I suggest you 1) Pray for God’s power and wisdom, 2) find and reach out to like-minded souls and not only encourage one another (Lord knows it is easy to get discouraged), but also meet and talk about what steps you can take to stem the leakage, 3) barrage your local, state, and and national representatives and tell them how you feel and ask them to set and/or change policies that protect your values that are under assault, and 4) ask yourself honestly what if anything you have done to let this happen. Maybe our own lack of righteousness and faith has contributed to all this. Many of us, just sit back and complain… but do nothing. Often it is because we feel impotent and helpless; but let me encourage you, there is one who is powerful enough to stop this decay – the omnipotent Lord of the Universe. I suggest you make yourself annoying to God and your representatives by presenting non-stop requests before them!
When the prophet Isaiah lamented that lack of Godly purpose in the nation around him and saw his nation crumbling and under attack, he prophesied that God earnestly sought people to step up and stand in the gap. God sought these people! In Ezekiel 22:30, we read that God was looking for people to stand up and stand in. The God of the Israelites said, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”
God is powerful enough to do and change anything… but it seems sometimes He wants to do that very thing though faithful women and men who hunger for righteousness. Maybe He is looking for you right now. Maybe He wants you to give Him your pledge of devotion so you can Walk the Line for Him. If you do not want this nation to be destroyed, lean into Him who has the power to stop it and walk the line to save our country.
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If you would like to communicate further about this or any other issues, please email me at jimshaul@gmail.com and we can chat. We can also chat on Messenger once I know who you are.
If you would like to read more of my thoughts, please visit my blog: https://jimshaul.org and follow me there.
If you appreciate my posts, please consider Liking them and Sharing them below if you think they could be a blessing to others.
