Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

--> When people drive into our neighborhood they often become a bit confused. At the beginning of the street there is a sign that says, “Dead End.”   If you come straight down the block you reach what you think is the end, but the road turns to the left. Once again, you think you are reaching the end as you come to a cul de sac, but road turns this time to the right, finally leading you to the true end of the block, a second cul de sac.   In other words, what you originally thought is the end, is not. Have you ever reached a point in your life when you thought you had reached the end? Maybe life had become too hard and the pain had become too deep. You felt like you’d never be able to move on. You felt like you had reached your end.   I’ve been there. I know many of you have as well. Maybe someone who is reading this is feeling that way today. But, I want you to know that what might seem like the end for us is not necessarily the end. There is often a bit more of the

The other day I drove into my driveway and when I looked across the street I saw four to five deer (does to be exact) feeding in my neighbor’s front yard. Then, by one of the bushes I saw what at first looked like a white goat, with its head down into the grass. I couldn’t help but do a double take. Was it a goat? Or maybe it was a small llama that got mixed into the herd. No, it was a young albino deer with a white body and some brown on its head! It soon picked up its head and gazed at me while I began to snap some pictures of it. The other deer looked up as well. None of them took off, they’re too used to people to be easily scared off. Soon the little white deer walked over to the others and nuzzled the one that must have been its mother. None of the deer seemed to think anything odd about the little albino deer. This was not like Rudolph with his shiny red nose being mocked! It was not shunned or treated differently. Although by its coloring it appeared so differe

--> Over the past few days we saw another monster storm hit one of our coastlines, this time the Florida panhandle.   It seems that this is just another of a series of storms that seem to be raging not only across our nation, but around the world.   As terrible as are the effects of hurricanes Michael and Florence, let’s not forget the devastation that took place just a few weeks ago in Indonesia that was struck by a 7.5 earthquake followed by a tsunami with a death toll of over 2,000 and still thousands unaccounted for.   That was only a few weeks after a “super typhoon” roared through the Philippines destroying everything in its path.   And, the list can go on.   I’m reminded how dangerous a place our world is.   And, it need not be a natural disaster that comes roaring into our lives to turn us upside down. There are so many things that can happen in life, from sickness to death and everything in between that can leave us feeling wrecked.   As we try to put our l

A week ago, Kim and I got back from our dream vacation to Greece. We began in Athens and then went to three of the Greek islands.   It was an incredible trip filled with all kinds of adventure, incredible scenery, beautiful waters, and lots of history. Part of our itinerary was visiting some of the archeological ruins of civilizations of the past.   After all, what would a trip to Greece be without visiting the Acropolis and standing before the Parthenon? Incredibly, throughout Athens and the islands one can see ruins and artifacts that date back, not just hundreds of years, but thousands of years.   On the island of Crete, we visited one of the oldest ruins of all, the Minoan Temple/Palace (it was both).   Its origins begin around 1950 BC.   That would have been just after the time of Abraham!   An earthquake destroyed the original temple, and even more magnificent one was built around 1750 BC (during the time that the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt).   It fin