Tim Boyd's Blog

Each morning I read news from several different websites.  I am kind of a news junkie.  I have read stories of destruction, death, and disease.  I read fun stories too.  But stories like the following leave me without words. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-caged-boy-20110525,0,4162190,full.story What about this poor boy?  What was the world like to him?  What does he understand?  He lived a tragic life.  What about the adults?  What is the world like to them?  What do they understand?  They live tragic lives.  What about the other kids?  What about the neighbors, teachers, friends of, etc? I really don't believe that humans were created to be monsters like these people.  I don't know how it happened to them.  I am sure that they were mistreated and abused as kids too.  Sin is ugly.  Sin begets more sin.  In a few places the Bible teaches that sin takes people over.  As people continue to give in to sin, the sin starts to form who they are.  They become, we

In 2 Kings 17:33 we see the end of the kings of the line of David.  The Bible states this, "They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought." When we come to Jesus Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior we must learn a new way to live our lives ( Matt 11:29 ).  We are buried with Christ in His death and then raised up to new life in His resurrection ( Romans 6:5 ).  We cannot be with God and with our old way of understanding and living life ( Luke 16:13 ). Becoming a Christian isn't just a better form of living life.  It isn't the icing on the cake of life.  It is a radically different way to be alive.  It is leaving the kingdom of the world and moving to the kingdom of Heaven.  It is more than just working on being a better person.  It is more than membership at a church with good kids programs.  It's more than buying Christian music.  It's more than not lying,

In his book Generation Ex-Christian, about younger Christians leaving Christianity, author Drew Dyke tells a story of one interview with a young man who left Christianity to join the Wicca religion. He expressed his rejection of Christianity with candor.  “Ultimately why I left is that the Christian God demands that you submit to his will.  In Wicca, it’s just the other way around.  Your will is paramount.  We believe in gods and goddesses, but the deities we choose to serve are based on our wills.” Do you come up with a great idea and ask God to make it happen?  Do you figure out how your life could be better and then ask God to make that happen?  Do you wonder why God wouldn’t let you get the things you want?  Do you wish God would listen to you better?  If so, that sounds a lot like this young man’s reason for leaving Christianity and choosing to be Wiccan.  (Wiccan, by the way, is not a viable option.  There is one truth and it is that God is real and God is in charge.) Just becau

I love this lesson of humility found in the first chapter of 2 Kings.  The King fell though a lattice and injured himself.  He gathered up some men and told them to go to the god of another nation.  They took off and were stopped by Elijah.  Elijah (the prophet of God) asked them why the king would consult a god of another nation when he already has God.  Then he tells the men to tell the king that he will die. Now it gets more interesting.  The king sends a captain with 50 men to have Elijah come to him.  The captain calls out, "Man of God come down here."  Elijah shouts back that if he is a man of God may God sent fire down and consume the men.  It happens.  (Maybe the captain should have said please or at least asked nicely.)  So another captain and another 50 men come and the same thing happens.  Finally a third captain comes with his 50 men and begs on his knees for Elijah to not kill them and come with him.  Elijah doesn't kill them. Do you command God?  Do you s

I read some more very disheartening words in my study this morning.  I have read through the New Testament a few times toward the end of last year so I decided to get into the Old Testament historical books.  They are much harder for me to translate into my own life.  These verses, however, are not very hard to translate into the modern world. 1 Samuel 8:4-9 "So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.  But when they said, "Give us a ing to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.  And the Lord told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you."

Here is a special treat for those of you who follow this blog.  (Not just the people who click over from facebook).  In my reading this morning I read the prayer of Hannah found in 1 Samuel 2.  I will post her prayer because it is awesome.  If you would really like the full meaning - you should take just a moment to read 1 Samuel chapter 1.  Go to biblegateway.com and type it in if you don't have a Bible close. Then Hannah prayed and said:    “My heart rejoices in the LORD;    in the LORD my horn  is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies,    for I delight in your deliverance.   “There is no one holy like the LORD;    there is no one besides you;    there is no Rock like our God.   “Do not keep talking so proudly    or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows,    and by him deeds are weighed.  “The bows of the warriors are broken,    but those who stumbled are armed with strength.   Those who were full hire themselves out for food,  

A few days ago I was trapped in a carwash line.  It was terrible.  Not really, but it's a funny story.  I had dropped Mindy off at the grocery store and I went to vacuum out the van.  I like to use the carwash vacuums because they are super powerful and we had just got back from vacation so the van was filthy.  I made a joke that I was going to get a carwash.  Mindy thinks they are a HUGE waste of money.  I don't.  So I vacuum out the car and leave with no carwash.  I drive around the corner to get gas.  After I fill up I notice that the line is long so I go one business down in order to pull onto the road from their driveway.  This business happens to be a carwash and I get stuck in their parking lot.  I try to get out and find myself in the car wash line.  Great!  I knew Mindy would make fun of me if I got a carwash.  So I am going to reverse and just drive back.  Immediately a truck comes in behind me and I am stuck.  So I picked Mindy up with a very clean van. How much of

Jesus has come to give all of humanity freedom.  As Americans, don't we already have freedom?  In fact, doesn't the new testament of the Bible teach things like; being a slave to Christ, to serve God, and to die to ourselves?  Once again it seems like Jesus has taught us a whole different way to understand something, freedom. In his masterful work, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to think like Jesus , Brennan Manning writes these words on the subject. "Often our preoccupation with the three most basic human desires - security, pleasure, and power - is the cloak that covers transparency.  The endless struggle for enough money, good feelings, and prestige yields a rich harvest of worry, frustration, suspicion, anger, jealousy, anxiety, fear, and resentment.  These powerful, emotionally-backed desires cause 99 percent of the self-inflicted and unnecessary suffering in our lives." I think it's simple.  If I make decisions like most people I will make the de