By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

This monument to the “Immigrant” stands in a small riverfront park in New Orleans, Louisiana.  It makes me wonder about those long-ago family members of mine who must have left family and friends behind in order to travel to the “New World” and begin again.  What did they experience?  What were the difficulties they faced?

I can’t help but also think about the many thousands of illegal immigrants that come into our country.  Far too many people don’t see the difference between these two scenarios.  But there is a huge one, and it’s the difference between right and wrong.

My Lord and my God welcomes all who will to come to Him, and He waits with open arms for them to arrive.  But they must arrive by only one Way, and that is His Way – acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior of your life.  You can’t sneak in.  You can’t stow away on someone else’s means of transportation.  And you certainly cannot scale the walls.

As harsh as it may sound, and as difficult as it still seems to be for so many people in this big world, only those who come to Jesus the correct way will ever enter into His presence.  Welcome the immigrants, the ones who come the right way.  And be wary of those who try to get around the rules to get where we are.  It cannot work that way.  The word ‘illegal’ is a combination of two words – ‘ill’ and ‘legal’.  We understand the word ‘legal’.  The word ‘ill’ is easily defined also, though.  It refers to a sickness, something that should not be, something that could and should be prevented.  Stay well.

Disclaimer – For those who may interpret this as a political statement, it is not intended to be.  It is simply…

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

You may take one look at my picture this week and say, “That’s nothing but a mountain.  What’s so special about it?”  This particular mountain or large hill in the state of Oregon doesn’t really stand out.  There is green grass growing all around.  There are plenty of trees and bushes scattered all over.  There are some bare spots showing.  Plain dirt on a plain hillside.

We love those mountain top experiences where we seem to meet with God face to face and see His goodness and grace perhaps in ways we haven’t for a while.  And then we get disappointed when that experience has ended and down the mountain we come.

Maybe we should take our “normal” to the mountain.  What if we carried our plain old every day stuff – even the dirt – and especially those spots we don’t dare to bare for anyone else – to the Lord’s mountain.  Maybe our perspective would change, because even though all these trees, bushes, and dirt look ordinary, they are pretty special indeed, because they part of a mountaintop experience.

Maybe that makes no sense to you at all.  It is just plain old everyday stuff.  However, even my plain old everyday self is much better when I’ve been to the mountain.  Carry your “stuff” to the Lord today.  Allow His wisdom to plant it here and there, using you along the way.  Our plain old dirt could very well be the example and the encouragement someone else needs to see as they look for their mountain experience this week.

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

I bet none of you ever have technology issues, do you?  Ha.  Just as I finished typing a word for you this morning, and readied my finger to hit “send”, what button did I hit instead?  Well, “delete”, of course!  Wow.

I wanted to tell you to look at this hammock hanging here, and let it speak to you.  Maybe it says to you, “Come to me, bring me your burdens, take a load off, and rest for a little while.”

Of course, no hammock ever spoke those words, but God the Father did when He urged us to “Come to me, you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Who among us refuses to admit that we need rest?!  Whether we like to admit it to the rest of the world or not, even God’s little children find it difficult to trudge along some days.  He invites us to take a breather, lay it all down, and rest our head in the arms of the One who orchestrates our days.

Maybe you need to step away from the technology, turn off the phone, and listen to the silence.  Rest.  Don’t treat that word as a “four-letter word”.  Admit you need it, and be thankful He can provide it.

Just a thought.