Pastor Tom's Journal

Photo by  CHUTTERSNAP  on  Unsplash Stuff Breaks. Surely, it does. No jokes about calling me, “Shirley.” That would be a: Faux pas literally meaning “false step.” What do you do when it happens and you do not really know why? If you knew it was you and what it was, you could, possibly, fix it. If you knew it was someone else and what it was, you could ask them to fix it. But some things are not fixable. So, you step back and learn from them. You also seek greater principles through them and apply them. You also write about them as you reflect upon them for the benefit of those who derive benefits from the things you write and they read. I am not sure what happened to “Music of the Heart. and some other pages I created. The whole batch disappeared. Now, I can moan about it or make accusations, or I can adapt and figure something else out. Yes, it was a lot of work building these pages and gaining some following and will be more work, but I am going to find a place to curat...

Luke 10:1-20 “Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves” – Luke 10:3 The costly commission to follow Jesus and to go forth as His ambassadors is so controversial as to appear adversarial. Jesus warns us to expect hostility and opposition. He does not say this to discourage us, but to encourage us. He does not intend to frighten us away, but to have us brace ourselves in the embrace of His grace and power. “Go your ways,” He says this, knowing that each of us has a path that is uniquely and wondrously ours. No two paths are exactly the same though they often intersect and frequently follow parallel courses. We may hesitate to go our ways because it is less risky to continue as we have been, sitting at the feet of Jesus in the cloistered environs of our religious retreats. But we must go. It is His commission. “I send you,” He says this and that gives us courage to go forth, knowing that we have been authorized and mandated we bear his Name and represent...

The City We Seek We, like our spiritual forerunners, a foreigners and strangers in search of a city, a home, where God is present. It is there, where God is our God, no one is a stranger, it is eternal, the place we seek, a city where love is the rule. Deuteronomy 10:17-21 We, who were foreigners and strangers are no longer outcast. Psalm 145 It is a forever Kingdom Hebrews 11:8-16 It is the home we seek. Matthew 5:43-48 It is the city that is governed by the law of love. Deuteronomy 10:17-21 A City of God Where No One Is a Stranger For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your pra...

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More at https://pastortomsims.typepad.com/the_dream_factory/2025/07/i-was-off.html

Extraordinary Generosity “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” - Acts4:32 One of the characteristics of the new believers in the Jerusalem church was their generous hearts. They did not consider their time, possessions, or personal gifts their own. Whatever they had, they submitted to God, and it became available for the Kingdom. The church was not an economic utopia, but a body of Christians, freely associating and freely giving themselves to God through Jesus Christ. Our lives are more complicated today. We have financial advisors and career paths, personal assets, and discretionary time. Our day planners are filled with events that we must juggle to “make time” for ourselves. We have carefully detailed maps of our futures, and we wonder where the wonder went. There was a freshness and awe in the early church that came from the...

Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday Let the Fields Rejoice “Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. “-1 Chronicles 16:32 Seas roar and its more than a metaphor Fields rejoice and somehow find their voice. All therein becomes our kin in the symphony of praise. Nature sings. Each creature brings the offerings of worship. Mountains and hills shout. Volcanoes erupt. Every living thing and every inanimate object joins the mighty chorus that announces the glory of God. Fields rejoice. Imagine that. When the first indicators of spring erupt from the earth, they join in a dance of joy. The colors and the shapes all imitate and reflect the essential nature given to them as a tiny piece of God’s revelation of Himself through creation. “All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world.” — Maltbie D. Babcock Sound, color, even thought can be described in the language of frequency, cycles per ...