RickPage

Disarmed March 30, 2016 "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,   rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."  So starts this section of Colossians, chapter 2. The theme of this section could be, "Live as victors - not as vanquished."  I thought I had a pretty good handle on that concept, that is, until God used a major roadblock to wake me up to the realities of my own heart.  I found that it is easy to become overwhelmed, not by real power, but by perceived power.  In such a time, it is easy to forget that He who is for you, is greater than he who is against you. The Bible, and the New Testament in particular, reminds us that God is GOD - powerful, mighty, sovereign, victorious, invincible, absolute, full of love, abounding in grace and mercy.  If you are on his team, he is on your team.  It is hard though, accustomed as we are to relying upon o...

Paycheck March 21, 2016 This verse reminds me of a lesson learned many years ago.  A new store had opened in our area, specializing in retail electronics and appliances.  Store employees included the store manager, Mike Lee, and the sales staff.  I've lost track of Mike - good Christian fellow, I wonder where he is these days.  The sales staff were paid commission.  If a salesperson was good, he or she made a lot of money.  If the salesperson wasn't good, then he or she made minimum wage for the week.  As I said, it was a new store.  We were responsible for getting it ready for opening day.  Of course this meant there were no customers - which meant no sales - which meant we were all working for minimum wage.  In other words, we didn't KNOW if we were good yet.  However, there was plenty of ego to challenge the known facts.  I'm sure someone - several someones complained.  No one likes working for minimum wage. ...

National Get Over It Day March 9, 2016 Early yesterday morning I was on my way to Billings.  It's 120 miles from Lewistown, and being Montana - a relaxing, picturesque drive.  However, I was thinking I was going to be late for the start of a church member's surgery, so I might have been traveling rather quickly...even by Montana standards.  I tend to measure the Billings ride in segments; thirty miles to Grassrange, then another 45 miles to Roundup, and finally another 45 miles to Billings.  I won't say how fast I was going - I know too many people involved in law enforcement.  Let's just say the 75 miles to Roundup was a new personal best. In our part of Montana, there are a lot of wide open spaces.  You can measure that by the absence of all things people on such drives.  There are more cattle than people in Montana.  For that matter, there are more deer than people as well.  You can drive for miles and miles before coming across...

March 1, 2016 Sleepless I woke up at 2:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.  This happens every so often.  My wife also struggles with sleeplessness.  After several minutes of restless tossing and turning.  Well, the reality is, after about an hour I picked up my Kindle and opened my Bible software program.  It delivers a daily Bible verse.  That's it above.  Normally, a little Bible reading and prayer and I'm off to sleep.  Not this time.  That's due in great part to the passage above.  It's Philippians 2:8.  It's bad enough that the passage was Philippians - one of my treasured studies.  It's from the second chapter of Philippians.  To make matters worse, it's from the first half of the chapter.  If the quote had been verses 19 and 20, I probably would have drifted off to sleep as normal, Verses 19 and 20 are about Timothy, and Paul says of him, "I have no one like him."  I like that.  I...