Building Blocks

[August 9, 2025] STRENGTH

Hello, welcome to Building Blocks. Our Building Block today is “Strength”.

Perhaps today’s Building Block is age-related. I find myself thinking about it and praying for it quite often! Health and Strength. Physical strength, AND spiritual strength! There’s SO MUCH to do. There’s so much I WANT to do! And I hope I’m not sounding arrogant, but I actually believe that everything I WANT to do is God-directed! I tell myself that if I’m “hearing” right, and He really wants me to do this-and-that, then I need STRENGTH and it’s okay to ask Him for it! (As an aside, for the life of me I cannot understand anyone saying they’re “bored”.)

So I’m here typing a blog that I hope will arouse someone to “pray my strength” and to make themself more available to God than ever before. Because time is winding down. All we have to do is look around at our families, our churches, our communities – our world -- and the stark reality is: There’s a lot of work to do if we really believe “Jesus is coming soon!” Yes, we’ve heard it all our life, but if we take an honest look at the times we’re living in, we will conclude that “times” have changed, and in too many areas the changes have not been for the better.

Can I make a difference? I think I can! Can YOU make a difference? I believe you can! God’s Manual (the Holy Bible) tells us WHAT to do and HOW to do it. He says we’re to “go preach and teach the Gospel and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20). Those of us who have believed are promised His presence and power to execute His plan. We are without excuse. So please “pray my strength”, because my motto is, “Older and Bolder” for the Lord Who’s “coming soon”.

This is Building Blocks. We are building a better life, one block at a time.

[February 10, 2025] “SERVICE“

Hello! Welcome to Building Blocks. Our Building Block today is “SERVICE”! Another “Desire” that I have for 2025. The phrase is “How May I Help You?” It’s a familiar phrase because we almost always hear it when we enter a store. The salesperson approaches us with a smile and asks the question: “How may I help you?”

At Church yesterday morning, quite a few folks went up to the altar. As they came, one by one, I got the feeling that a lot of people are hurting. They don’t always LOOK like it, and God knows they rarely TALK about it, but people are hurting! For various reasons. So the question is HOW can we help them? None of us has it all together ourselves. We’ve had our hurting days. Oftentimes, WE need “help”. WE need prayer! How can WE help others? So I thought about it some more and here’s the answer I believe God gave me.

One way we can “help” hurting people is by not adding “insult to injury”. That’s an old phrase I used to hear as a child. We must try not to aggravate and irritate people by our words and actions. The Bible speaks about LOVE and how “love covers a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8) “Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins [it overlooks unkindness and unselfishly seeks the best for others]” (Amplified version). Another version, The Voice, says: “Most of all, love each other steadily and unselfishly, because love makes up for many faults.” I like the word “faults”. That’s what we all have. Faults. We’re flawed. We make mistakes. But when we genuinely LOVE each other and overlook – yet not condone -- each other’s faults, that’s one way we can “help” hurting people.

There are some other ways to answer the question, “How may I help you?” Perhaps we’ll look at them next time. God spare life.

This is Building Blocks. We are building a better life one block at a time.