What Do You See?

June 19, 2025June 19, 2025 / The WheatandTares

There is a beautiful quote by Marcus Arelius that says, “To offend a strong man, tell him a lie. To offend a weak man, tell him the truth.”

So many people in this world are okay with less than truth. They can be inundated with lies and never be distracted. They can receive half truths and simply run with it and retell the story. And when truth actually confronts them, it is like a slap in the face, and they become offended.

As this becomes more and more prevalent in our modern society, you can watch a whole culture become divided and polarized, as fallacy makes a home like locusts and devours the innocent, while truth reigns in the hearts of a few, and a great chasm opens between them.

May we all examine our hearts today and determine which side of the canyon we belong.

For weak men will rise to power when weaker men rebel against truth and seek their own desires, demanding falsehood as the accepted edicts.

How you respond when you hear the truth exposes your strength of character. How you retell a lie displays to the world the depth of who you are. Even how you respond to this quote can determine your success or failure.

Strong men will be relegated to the haunted ghosts of yesterday as the masses embrace falsehoods as their standard.

But wisdom cries out to be heard. Truth never changes simply because someone silences it.

Rest assured, Truth will reign in the afterlife, and all will weep who did not heed the call.

Does not wisdom cry out,
And understanding lift up her voice?
She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, beside the way, where the paths meet.
She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city, at the entrance of the doors:
“To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O you simple ones, understand prudence, and you fools, be of an understanding heart.
Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,
And from the opening of my lips will come right things;
For my mouth will speak truth;
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; nothing crooked or perverse is in them.
They are all plain to him who understands,
And right to those who find knowledge.

Proverbs 8:1-9

What’s Your Plan?

August 15, 2024August 15, 2024 / The WheatandTares

Create an emergency preparedness plan.

Creating an emergency preparedness plan will be determined by which emergency it might be.

Is it flood, fire, water spout? Is it earthquake, tornado, or tsunami?

If you’re rising high to avoid the flood plains, the tornado is going to call your name. If you’re digging under to avoid the quake, the tsunami might find its way through the tunnel. If spreading waves to avoid the flames, the water spout might feel too comfortable to join.

Emergency Preparedness Plans must be in tact for all disasters; yet, one plan is often over looked and forgotten.

What about your heart? Does your heart have an emergency preparedness plan?

This one isn’t really complicated. It doesn’t take a lot of time nor do you have to buy a thing.

Just have a little talk with Jesus. Tell Him all about your troubles. Repent of your sins, and believe.

That’s it. It’s that easy.

And you’ll be prepared for life.

You’ll be ready for anything they might come!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

What a Funny Question

May 28, 2024May 28, 2024 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

Do you practice religion?

What a funny and revealing question to ask if someone practices religion. But maybe that’s a normal activity outside my little corner of the world.

Practicing a religion creates an image of rituals, traditions and an adherence to a law or laws that has not relationship, no interaction, no love for real persons. Practicing a religion makes me think of practicing for a sport, an activity, or an upcoming event but never allowing that given circumstance to become a part of you. Because practicing for something is very different than embracing something, becoming something, and allowing that something to become a part of you.

When something is a part of your life, and you embrace it for all it is, it becomes who you are. You don’t simply practice a ritual, but you live a lifestyle. You don’t simply follow a tradition, you know it like the back of your hand. You don’t simply obey a law of the religion because you’re told to do so, but rather you surrender because there’s a higher purpose for the obedience than just the obedience.

So, to answer the question directly, “Do (you) practice religion?” I guess, I’d have to answer in complexity and simplicity, all at the same time.

You see, I’ve fallen in love with a man named Jesus, who is both God and man. I have a relationship with Him. I have embraced His ways as my own, and although, I may fall and don’t get it quite right at times, I keep striving to seek His ways and follow them for the betterment of my life.

Some people might call me religious because I do somethings that are considered traditional, like prayer, church attendance, and paying my tithes. And I do somethings that some would believe to be ritualistic like following certain words of wisdom, listening to preachers, or even things I won’t indulge in.

But I’d have to disagree. Because it’s not about a religion, and it’s not about a tradition; although, those things are attached to the reality of it, I suppose.

It’s all about a relationship with a Savior who has completely changed my life and the trajectory thereof.

It’s all about His knowing every tiny intricate detail of me, my emotions, my thoughts, my being and my beliefs, and He still loves me. It’s all about His knowing me, loving me, and long me enough to never leave me the same.

He invites me into a personal relationship with Him, and my mind cannot even fathom everything about Him. And in exchange for my surrendering my will and ways for His, He gives me eternal life and the promise of heaven that is more beautiful than anything ever imaginable.

He’s amazing.

And I’d encourage all who read this to check Him out for yourself…

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

What are You Seeking?

November 27, 2023November 20, 2023 / The WheatandTares

Some seek religions.

Some seek fortune and fame.

Some seek education and intellectualism.

Some seek philosophy and a higher power.

What are you seeking?

What you seek, you will find, when you seek it with all your heart.

What you seek, you will find, when you seek it with no bounds.

If it’s religion, you’ll find tradition and law.

If it’s fame and fortune, you’ll find self gratification and temporary pleasures.

If it’s academics, you’ll find knowledge and affluence.

If it’s philosophy, you’ll find a wisdom and deeper meanings.

Yet, in all of these things, you will still find an emptiness, a void, a vast domain within your soul that cannot be filled.

But if you’ll seek a relationship with the One who created it all,

You will be filled.

…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:13-14

The Greatest of These…

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023 / The WheatandTares

What principles define how you live?

Principles to live by… well, that can be a long list, I guess. But to sum it all up, I suppose the principle that all the rest would fall under would be a principle of love. Yet, if I start describing this in detail, it might look a little different than the societal demand for love these days.

In our current culture, there seems to be a demand to show love by accepting a certain opinion as truth. Or the demand might be that if I disagree with you, then, I’m not showing love but hatred.

Or if I’m not giving you what you want, then I’m not showing love. Or maybe if I’m not giving up something I want, or maybe I’m not suffering in a certain way, then I’m not showing the kind of love I’m supposed to be showing.

Pure, unadulterated love is sacrificial, gracious, and compassionate; yet, it is also full of truth, strength and courage.

True, unblemished love is is not one of these without the other. It is both.

If a parent loves his or her child but allows that child to run in the street to play while the truck is barreling down the path, is that really love?

If a spouse declares his love yet leaves and showers everyone else with his affections because he wants more, is that really love?

If a friend promises to share love and friendship yet breaks every confidence because she wants her liberty to share, is that really love?

If a child proclaims his love to his parents yet steals and destroys because he wants his freedom to live as he pleases, is that really love?

True love will rejoice in the truth, will bear all things, will believe all things, will hope all things, and will endure all things. Love never fails.

And love is impossible without abiding in the Only One who gave true love.

So, what principles define how I live? I guess I could begin with 1 Corinthians 13. I certainly don’t live it perfectly, but I strive toward it daily, only by seeking Him first.

Because He loved me first, now only can I begin to truly love.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. … And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13

Living in the Vast Domain

October 12, 2023October 11, 2023 / The WheatandTares

How do we go about living in this vast domain call earth?

How do we survive on the blazing globe of fire that is hurling through time and space?

How do we keep breathing?

How do we not trip up and spiral out of control into oblivion?

Honestly, there is no way.

Except through Him.

He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, of our souls, of our very beings.

He is all powerful, Almighty, all knowing.

He is all gracious, all tender hearted, all merciful.

This is the God who can heal you our body and your mind.

This is the God who can pull you out of depression.

This is the God who can transform your very life.

With Him, all things are possible.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation 1:8

For with God nothing will be impossible.
Luke 1:37

What’s Love Got To Do?

September 25, 2023September 26, 2023 / The WheatandTares

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

The best piece of advice would actually be two statements given by different people, but the statements work together:

It takes 1,000 tiny miracles to make a marriage work.

Marriage will only last best when Christ is at the center.

These might sound a bit cliche, and if you don’t have a relationship with Christ; then, it might not even make sense to you. Or if you’ve “been a Christian but everything went wrong in my marriage/in life,” then, it might be a difficult concept for you to accept.

Let me say this loud and clear and long:

Just because the statement did not/does not ring true in your own life, does not make the statement untrue.

That’s why these two statements work so well together. It truly takes a 1,000 tiny miracles to get the right two people together, at the right time, in the right location, under the right circumstances, and in the right context, in the right season for each.

Much more is it tiny miracles that keep those two love birds together over time. After all, he is marrying a woman. And she is marrying a man. Imagine that. Lol. They think differently, act differently, speak differently, react differently, even feel differently. How in the world can that work?

And that’s where God comes in. He is the Creator of our very lives. He designed every part of us and breathed breath into our lungs. How could He not be the miracles working within our lives? But there’s one caveat. He allows us to have the freewill of choice.

You heard me right. He’s the Almighty, great Creator of heaven and earth and all that we see. He is the Master Designer of all creation and of the intricate, complex beings called humans. He is the Alpha Omega, the Beginning and the End, meaning He can create and finish life and everything in it and around it.

Yet, He in His ultimate design, He gives us the ability to choose. We can choose Him or not. We can choose love or hate. We can choose life or death. We get the beautiful freedom of choice.

And what we do with that choice will determine the beautiful finality of those 1,000 tiny miracles that it takes to make a marriage work. What we do in choosing determines where we end up in life and who we end up with. What we do with the choices determines how we think, how we speak, how we act, interact and react, and it determines how we live our lives.

Every. Single. Day.

Every. Single. Minute of that Day.

Every. Single. Second of that Minute of that Day.

These choices don’t automatically make us somehow perfect. They don’t make us sinless. But if we’re daily choosing Christ and the things of Him, it will make us seek perfection, and it will make us sin less. And if two people are seeking, choosing, sacrificing and loving in these ways, it surely helps to support and strengthen a healthy union.

So, what will you choose?

Or better yet, WHO will you choose?

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15

You Lead. You Influence

September 15, 2023September 15, 2023 / The WheatandTares / 4 Comments

Do you see yourself as a leader?

John C. Maxwell says, “Leadership is influence.” So, when the question is posed, “Do you see yourself as a leader?”, the answer for all of us should actually be, “Yes.”

The question should rather be, “Who are you leading?” And “Where are you leading them?”

If you are like me, and you call yourself a Christian, we should be leading others to Christ. Not to a religion. Not to church. Not to a “feel better” lifestyle. Not to a program or to a group of people. But we should be leading others to a relationship with Jesus.

All of those other things might come with the territory, and if we truly have a relationship with Jesus and actually read His Word, many of those things will fall into line. But the relationship is where it’s at. And if you have that relationship, you will have influence. And if you have influence, per John Maxwell, you will be a leader.

And even if you don’t claim Jesus as your Savior, or maybe you declare you’re not into “all that religious stuff,” you’ll still be leading someone somewhere. And again, I’ll insert the question, “Where are you leading them?”

If you have no leader yourself, and you have no foundation of truth, than your path will be quite a crooked one. And in this modern age, a crooked path can simply be foolish and quite frankly, dangerous. For there are buyers for your soul on every street corner, both physically and metaphorically. And typically, the highest bidder will win.

But at what cost? And are you willing to gamble your life upon it? Or better yet, are you willing to gamble with the most innocent among you? Or maybe even better to ask, what about the ones you love the most? Are they worth the precarious journey in your lack of leadership?

Whether you decide to choose or not, it will be decided. Refusal to answer is still an answer, and it will still bring consequences.

So, choose, my friend.

And lead on.

I pray you will choose and lead well.

Don’t Be So Rude

September 12, 2023September 12, 2023 / The WheatandTares / 11 Comments

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

Rudeness is a personality trait that raises a red flag for me almost immediately. You can be aggravated and not rude. You can be inconvenienced and not rude. You can even be mad and ticked off and still not rude.

Being rude is simply disrespect and apathy flowing out of your mouth and attitude toward someone else. Being rude is a lack of caring who’s around you or how you might be perceived.

Now, look. I’m not setting myself on a high horse and pretending I’ve never been rude. And it’s also not a “make it or break it” attitude for our relationship. We can all have bad days, and we can all make mistakes.

But if you walk around in life believing it’s your prerogative to be rude anytime you like and to anyone whom you dare, then, we’re going to have a problem.

If you believe it’s your God-given right to be rude to the elderly or to children, that’s when you and I aren’t going to get along.

And if you sincerely feel you’ve earned the privilege to be rude simply because you’re too young to know better or too old to care, then, we probably just can’t be friends.

And if you carry on that way long enough in my presence, I’ll even say something to you, retaliate with a bit of rudeness myself, or simply walk away and leave you to your fate.

Rudeness is never a right of passage nor an achievement of greatness.

It is just what it is: RUDE!

And just in case you’re wondering, speaking truth is not being rude, but there are also plenty of opportunities to speak truth firmly and strongly without being rude.

It actually takes more courage to be right and truthful and not be rude.