Devotionals from Dad

Love to hear from and know who is listening Intimacy is the experience of really knowing and being known by another person. An intimate friend is someone we feel very close to; they know us at a deep level. Because of my job I know a lot of people. I easily recognize those who don't really know me though because they call me by my last name “Ellis” because that is the name on my uniform. Inti...

Love to hear from and know who is listening What is the difference between truth and facts? Society today has a difficult time telling the difference between the truth and facts. Facts are like a recipe and truth is the meal. Facts deal with knowledge and your knowledge may double, but truth never changes. If it is new it is not true. The truth has been the same since the beginning of time and has...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Everybody has a job in the church if you are a believer, regardless of who you are, a Pastor, a Sunday school teacher, a door greeter, church secretary, even a student. Every member of a bible believing church has a job and thus a job description. We all do. And they are nothing new. They have been with us since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve had a...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Let me tell you a story about what happened to Joyce and I the other day. We were walking across the parking lot at Wal-Mart and I looked down and saw a $100 dollar bill. I thought to myself this must be my lucky day! But when I held it in my hand for a while the print didn't seem to be exactly right. Then after I held it a while longer I noticed th...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When I was raising my children they often told me that I was a slave driver and that all I ever did was make up crazy rules and work them to death. They didn't understand that the rules and tasks I was giving them were meant to build their character or to teach them a lesson. I must admit once in a while I would get tired of explaining myself to the...

Love to hear from and know who is listening How do you react when some one has done you wrong? Depending upon how hurtful the wrong is, in my mind, my reaction could vary from shrugged shoulders to outrage! Here is a story that demonstrates my point. Let's say your at church fellowship dinner and a member of the church comes up to you and says, “I told a lie about you and I am really feel bad...

Love to hear from and know who is listening In my home I have a decorative sign that says: Faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see! How does the world define faith. I think if you ask the average person what faith is they would say it is to believe in something you cant see, touch or even prove exist. It is just a gut feeling that something is real. Accordin...

Love to hear from and know who is listening The first means of communication was the human voice but about 3,200 BC writing was invented in Iraq and Egypt. The next big step was the invention of the alphabet in what is now Israel about 1,600 BC. In the Ancient World, people wrote on papyrus or parchment. However, the Chinese invented paper in about 200 BC. The next major improvement in communicati...

Love to hear from and know who is listening It seems like things happen almost every day that could cause worry and fear. The state of world, unrest and war, the economy, natural disasters and even unforseen fatal accidents. The bible tells us that despite what we see around us. Despite the chaos that surrounds us there is a strong arm that will not let us go. What would it take to shake your fait...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Does this sound familiar? You get up in the morning, and you find yourself running from place to place all day without a break. Or you work all day, then have to take care of a million things around the house or with family in the evening. Maybe you run errands all weekend long. Perhaps you have a side job and work on in the evenings or on weekends. You...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Every year 703,000 people take their own life and there are many more people who attempt suicide. Every suicide is a tragedy that affects families, communities and has long-lasting effects on the people left behind. Suicide can occur throughout a persons life no matter their age. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds. Recentl...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When did it become an accepted practice to wear your pajamas outside your home? I must admit my pajamas are really comfortable but I would never wear them in public. It amazes me when I go to the store, especially Wal-Mart, how many people I see wearing their pajamas. When it comes to the way you dress in public these days, the rules just seem to go out...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I don't consider myself to be a hot headed person that has a short fuse and flies off the handle in a fit of rage. Butttt... I must admit that I have a very low tolerance for certain things. Nothing will send me into a fit of rage faster than someone sitting at a stop light after it has turned green. I become even more enraged when the reason they h...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When I was a kid, children used their imagination to entertain themselves, because we didn't have all the electronic devices. A common game we played was “Cops and Robbers.” The good guy would chase the bad guy until the bad guy finally surrendered. The child playing the cop would yell out stick'em up then the bad guy would hold their hands in...

Love to hear from and know who is listening One of my fathers favorite phrases when I was a kid was, “Grace in Disguise.” Anytime my mother or one of us kids tripped over something or clumsy in some one he would say, “Well aren't you just Grace in disguise!” I am confident that when I was raising my children more than once I told them to, “Do as I say, Not as I do!” And you know,... that neve...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I am sure you have all seen someone holding up a sign asking for help. Recently I saw a couple in the Walmart parking lot, a lady was standing in front of an RV holding up a sign that said “Need money for gas.” At the same time a man was pouring gas from a 5 gallon can into the RV at the back. Of course the first thought that came through my head was, “Y...

Love to hear from and know who is listening There is a game show that I enjoy watching it is called, “To Tell the Truth.” On the show, three contestants claim to be a person with an unusual characteristic or occupation. One is telling the truth, and the other two are impostors. Four celebrity panelists ask them questions to figure out who is telling the truth. In the world today there are many peo...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Why is it important for Christian believers to get together, how often should we gather and where? Since the beginning of creation God has made it known that it is not good to be alone. In Genesis 2:18 God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. But what is the purpose of gathering? For families it might be to celebrate a birthday or a holiday...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Every spring I put out my electric bug zapper. It uses light to attract bugs and the light is surrounded by a small electrified grid that zaps the life right out of them. The light can be seen by the bugs in the darkness up to 1 ½ acres away or just a little bit farther than the length of a football field. Scientists have found that the human eye can det...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When Joyce and I go camping we have this routine we go through before we leave for our trip, to make sure we are fully prepared for our camping trip. We check the weather forecast to make sure we pack clothing that is appropriate for the temperature, long sleeve or short sleeve shirts and jackets if needed. We count out socks and underwear so that we hav...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When I was a young boy I decided that I going to teach my little brother the art of jumping ramp on your bicycle. So I stacked up some cinder blocks on the ground and laid a nice wide board on them. Then I went up the hill in the driveway with my bicycle at my grandparents home and told my brother, “Watch this!” I went screaming down the driveway as fast...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Take a moment and think deeply, what is your greatest need? Is it health or finances? That may be the most common response. I can tell you from my own personal experiences that at different points in my life I would have had different answers to the question, “What is my greatest need?” If you had asked me when I was a 16 year old boy what my greatest ne...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Media and technology have tremendous benefits, but Christians are pulled in two directions. Do we avoid technology or risk exposure to violence and sensuality? Imagine for a moment that thieves were to come into your home and steal your children. The thief's break down a door and force their way into the house and kidnap your kids. You would call th...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Viktor fell into the drug dealing business in his twenties. He ran a major drug operation during the 1990s, which smuggled drugs into Central Asia where he lived. The job offered plenty of easy money, along with loads of adventure. And best of all, Viktor was good at it. So good, in fact, Viktor's operation expanded. But it only takes one bust to ru...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Do you ever feel like God doesn’t care? Someone says, “God is good.” And you respond, “All the time!” And yet part of your heart isn’t tracking. If God really cared, wouldn’t things be better? Sometimes we face some really tough stuff in this life: a loved one dies in a tragic car accident, you have a child that is born with a terrible birth defect, the...