Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

If you come into our home this time of year, you will find signs of the two holidays that we celebrate: Easter and Passover. There are the little ceramic bunnies and decorative Easter eggs sitting on the dining room buffet.  And, there are boxes of matzos and cans of macaroons on the table on the other side of the room.  For some it might be a bit confusing. For us, it is normal.  (For those who don’t know, I’m Jewish on my mother’s side!) Last night our family had our annual Passover Seder. Through it, we remember what God did for us as his people when he delivered us from slavery in Egypt.  And as believers in Jesus, we can’t help but also recognize the many parts of the Seder that point us to Jesus and cause us to remember who he is and how he has delivered us from slavery to sin.  The story of the Passover is very much tied to the story of Easter for both are stories of God’s great love, his incredible intervention, and the new life ...

This afternoon I finally went for my monthly haircut.  I say “finally” because my wife, Kim, thinks that I go for a haircut every other day.  I know she’s going to say, “What, again?  You just got a haircut!”  The truth is, it has actually been more than a month since my last haircut…but, whose counting? Oh, Kim is! To her it seems like my last haircut was just last week, while to me it feels like it was a year ago. Obviously, the truth is somewhere in-between.     Time can be a very confusing thing. Those things that seemed to have happened just yesterday may have actually taken place twenty years ago. On the other hand, what seems to have taken place so long ago may have only been a few days ago. My nearby yesterdays can seem like distant memories while the distant past can seem so nearby. Somehow, for some reason, our memories become very confused when it comes to time. In reality, our human perspective on time is very poor. ...

The past few weeks I’ve begun to have trouble with my Blackberry. It’s not that the phone doesn’t work properly. Rather, the battery keeps on dying in the middle of the day.  Whereas, previously I had to charge the phone once per day, now I need to charge it three to four times per day.  I have found it best to keep a charger with me at all times, never knowing when the battery will begin to die.  Hopefully the solution is simply a new battery. It is amazing how in a relatively short time, we are all dealing with gadgets that need to be constantly charged (or is it recharged?).  At any given time, the power strip in our bedroom can have a phone or two, an ipod and/or ipad, and possibly a laptop.  My car has a phone charger, a GPS charger, and its own ipod charger.  Something seems to always be plugged in getting its battery charged.  Why? Because, batteries die.  Over time and with use, batteries just naturally lose thei...

A couple of weeks ago I heard on the radio that there continues to be a rash of robberies taking place in New York City, all targeted at Apple products (e.g. iphones, ipads, ipods).  In fact, it has gotten so bad that the NYC police department supposedly has a special task force set up to take care of the problem, complete with a special communications line to Apple.  And, they’ve come up with a special term for this kind of thievery.  They call it, “Apple Picking!”  So, now people are apple picking right in the heart of NYC!  What amazes me is how a particular product can become so popular that it actually becomes a target for thieves.  This has happened not only with Apple products, but it is said that there are particular brands and types of cars, headphones, and jackets and other articles of clothing that have a higher rate of being stolen than other similar items. These products become valuable not only because of their functi...