The Daily Memo

Listen I was reading an excerpt from Gordon MacDonald’s book, Ordering Your Private World. In Chapter 6, Has Anyone Seen My Time? I’ve Misplaced It!, he writes, “The central principle of all personal organization of time is simple: time must be budgeted!” As I read on, he cites many examples of how Christ operated with practical methods of organization. It got me thinking even further about the percentage of His time on earth that was invested in…

Listen Spiritual warfare wasn’t much of a category discussed in the church I attended as a youngster. Unless we talked about Satan’s effort to tempt Jesus immediately after His baptism, that was pretty much all the merit given to the battle in the unseen world. Truth is, that Satan and his minions are real. Their main mission is to sideline believers from the calling God has placed on their life. To distract us all from an intimate relationship with Him. Here…

Listen I volunteer at the County Prison in our community along with my wife Colleen. We teach inmates on matters of identity in a 6-week class. We challenge both men and women to think of themselves in the way God does, not as the world around them might. As a beloved Child of the King. King Jesus. Recently we attended a conference sponsored by Support for Prison Ministries, the organization we work with, under the Chaplaincy program they provide for inmates. Lewis Lee was…

Listen The human heart weighs less than a pound (450g). It beats 100,000 times a day and over 2.5 billion times in the average lifetime. Your system of blood vessels – arteries, veins and capillaries – is over 60,000 miles long – enough to go around the world more than twice. This is not just an amazing spectacle; it is the ‘heart’ of human life. Without your heart your body would quickly cease to work. Heart disease is the number one cause of…

Listen My curiosity got the best of me. I had to ask OpenAI’s, ChatGPT who God was. Here’s what it said. “God is a concept that varies greatly depending on cultural, religious, and philosophical beliefs. In general, God is typically viewed as a supernatural being or force that created and governs the universe, as well as being all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. The nature and characteristics of God are described in various religious texts and,…

Listen I’ve had the privilege to serve those experiencing homelessness for well over a decade. As part of the leadership team at our local Mission, my greatest and most joy-filled times have come when I’m teaching and interacting with our guests. It’s what I’ve been called to do. Helping those who have struggled financially for a variety of reasons and are considered somehow less than the rest of us. In God’s eyes that is simply not true. The…

Listen Historically the greatest ransom paid was that paid for Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Incas, to the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532-1533 at Cajamarca, Peru, which constituted a hall full of gold and silver, worth in modern money some $1.5 billion. You might be familiar with Patty Hearst, who along with John Paul Getty III is probably the most famous American kidnapping victim in recent history. History reports that Hearst, a member of the famed…

Listen The all-you-can-eat buffets usually get the best of me. I just don’t eat that much. But… I want to go back for seconds and thirds just because the options seem endless and the gluttony is kinda fun. Besides, there’s always room for dessert. My desire outweighs my stomach, which is hard to believe since I just packed it with five pounds of delicacies. I can always eat ice cream. Morning, noon, or night, but I should have been done an hour ago. It&rsquo…

Listen Author and theologian Russell Moore described noticing the eerie silence in the Russian orphanage where he adopted his boys. Someone later explained that the babies had stopped crying because they learned that no one would respond to their cries. Attachment theory helps bring an understanding of how critical our early childhood experiences form how we relate to others. According to psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby, a child’s early relationship with…