Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
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We have so much to be thankful for, including the fact that 2020 is now in the rearview mirror and we have a brand-new year ahead of us. I’m hoping that 2021 will be a year filled with gratitude and thanksgiving. Speaking of ingratitude, Shakespeare lamented the pain of ungrateful children when he said, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child. Ingratitude, thou marble-headed fiend.” A New York paper devoted many pages over several weeks to printin...
To be honest with you, for most people, 2020 will be a year they would just as soon forget entirely. Even as you read this, many of you are trying to figure out how you will be able to celebrate Christmas with your family; what with travel restrictions and limits on the number of people allowed in a gathering, there will be lots of cancellations and difficult choices are going to have to be made. For many, even the joy of Christmas has started to evaporate. For others, their...
The COVID-19 shutdown left so many people in despair. It impacted businesses in the community, children and their parents, churches, older adults and a long list of others. Everyone sympathizes with those who have suffered serious physical, financial and emotional hurts. That being said, the shutdown has in a strange twist given many people a large amount of unexpected free time. How have you been using the unexpected free time? Have you used it to pursue opportunities that...
In many ways, America is a nation of thieves. Everyone knows about shoplifters. The U.S. catches 4 million each year, but for each one that is caught, 35 get away with it. But employee theft is even worse. Employees take three times as much as the shoplifters. Studies show that 9% of employees steal on a regular basis, and 75% steal to some degree. One of the Ten Commandments was very clear: "You shall not steal." And the Bible told the story of some famous thefts that all...
It seems as if everyone is angry these days. Whether it is those who are rioting in the streets or those seething quietly on the sidelines, anger is in the air. There is an old proverb that warns about the consequences of anger by reminding us that what is begun in anger will end in shame. Anger has a way of appearing in many forms. I believe there are times when people should be angry over injustices they witness. It’s been referred to as “righteous indignation.” Some areas... Full story
A number of years ago, on the way to work I would drive past a church that liked to put witty sayings on its sign. Sometimes they were corny, but there was one that really caught my eye. It said, “Get caught in one lie, and a thousand truths will be doubted.” Do you have the reputation of being a teller of the truth? Do people trust what you say? Let’s take a few minutes to examine ways people may be guilty of not being truthful, even though not “technically” telling a... Full story
As the 4th of July approaches each year, I like to pause and remember all of the freedoms and blessings we enjoy in this, the greatest country in the world. And none of the freedoms is more important than our freedom to worship God according to our own beliefs. Let’s take a moment, with the help of History.com to consider how the commemoration of this special day came about. The 4th of July, also known as Independence Day, was first declared a federal holiday by the U.S. C... Full story
Mrs. John B. Dodd of Washington State, who first proposed the idea of a Father’s Day in 1909, wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife, Dodd’s mother, died in childbirth with their sixth child. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children alone on a rural farm in eastern Washington State. It was after Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had sho...
Just a quick reminder that this Sunday is “Mother’s Day,” a day that should be precious to each person, whether our mothers are still with us or have already died. That being said, let me veer off course a bit and give a shoutout to not just our mothers, but also to our grandmothers. I’m going to boldly declare this Sunday to be “Grandmother’s Day.” The Bible can be so practical in giving us wise instructions on getting along with family members of all generations and genders.... Full story
Robert J. Morgan recalls the momentous day when England received the news of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. There were no telegrams or telephones in those days, but everyone knew that Wellington was facing Napoleon in a great battle, and that the future of England hung in the balance. A sailing ship semaphored, which means they signaled with coded flags, the news to the signalman on top of Winchester Cathedral. He signaled to another man on a hill, and thus n...
It seems like everyone is a critic these days, and we’ve all faced painful criticism at some points in our lives. Today I want to challenge you to see if you have developed what is called a “critical spirit.” That’s when you just can’t seem to help but look at everyone else with a critical eye. Following are some thoughts to consider: A critical spirit can be just as destructive as a critical comment. You may never actually utter a negative criticism to another person, b... Full story
Well, here we go again…another new year. The start of each new year brings a sense of excitement as people ponder both the new challenges and new opportunities the next 12 months will bring. And, it also reminds them of how precious time is. It is especially pertinent as a person approaches the end of their days. As Queen Elizabeth I famously offered while lying on her deathbed, “All of my possessions for a moment of time.” Each person will begin 2020 with exactly the same... Full story
LifePointe Church The news on everyone’s mind 210 years ago was Napoleon and the French army sweeping across Europe. It was 1809, and the fall of the mighty Austrian Empire was imminent. Nobody seemed to care about the babies being born that year. But they should have taken notice as William Gladstone in Liverpool, Alfred Lord Tennyson in Lincolnshire, Oliver Wendell Holmes in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Edgar Allen Poe in Boston, as well as Charles Darwin in England were b...
One of the distinctions of the Fallbrook community is the number of military veterans living in our midst. As the nation prepares to celebrate Veterans Day Nov. 11, I thought it appropriate to share the following article by Katie Lange which is posted on the Department of Defense website. She listed five facts Americans should know about Veterans Day. Veterans Day does not have an apostrophe. A lot of people think it’s “Veteran’s Day” or “Veterans’ Day,” but they’re wrong. The...
We live in a very special nation; a place where people from around the world are longing to enter. As we celebrate the Fourth of July, I’m glad for the freedoms we have, especially for the freedom to worship as we feel led; a freedom not available to so many in the world. The founders of our great country understood the importance of this freedom. They understood the role God played in the very establishment, against all odds, of the new country. George Washington, the first p... Full story
Do you ever wonder whether or not God really hears your prayers? Are you wasting your time praying or does God actually hear every prayer you whisper? Let me share five brief comments I believe to be true regarding prayer. God hears every cry from his children. A lifeguard was asked whether or not amidst all of the noise on the beach, he could hear the desperate cry of a child in the surf. He answered, “No matter how great the noise and confusion, I have never had an o...
What were you doing when you first heard about the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon? It’s hard to believe but that was 18 years ago, and yet I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was a school superintendent at the time and spent the rest of the day with our high school students following the news on televisions in the school library. We must never forget the courage of the “first responders.” While others fled from the burning infernos, the courageous men a...
Everyone should be on the lookout for individuals needing a special word of encouragement. A word of encouragement costs nothing, but it could bring life-changing joy to another person. Following are several suggestions to consider. Be on the lookout for those in need of a word of appreciation. We tend to pour praise on the most visible achievers who already receive lots of the praise, and we tend to miss those who desperately need to hear that they are appreciated. They’re o...
Are you a peacemaker or do you stir up conflict? There is so much conflict in our world. On the job, in politics, or worst yet, in our daily lives with family and friends. How can you be part of the solution and not part of the problem? Following are nine helpful hints that should help you achieve the happiness God promises to the peacemakers when he said: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God.” Peacemakers know the value of a gentle answer. I’v... Full story
This Sunday, many people will be privileged to spend time honoring mothers. For me and many others, the day will bring back a flood of memories about my mother and all that she did and was. Like many people, my mother was blessed with a number of fine attributes, and one of the most endearing was her genuinely humble spirit. Saint Francis of Assisi had so many accomplishments he could have bragged about, but despite his many successes, he was best known for his humble spirit....
My first summer job while in college was selling dictionaries door-to-door in New Orleans. Wow, did I learn a lot that summer, especially about rejection. I soon discovered that no matter how good a salesman I was, the majority of the times I knocked on a door, the response would be a quick, and sometimes angry, rejection. I also observed that the team members who had never felt the sting of failure or rejection were the first to quit and head home. Rejection is often rooted... Full story
Vance Havner reminded us of the uselessness of worry when he famously wrote, “Worry, like a rocking chair, will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” Are you struggling with worry? Worry can ambush us in so many different ways. You hear a strange noise in the engine of your car and immediately you fear the worse. Or you watch the stock market’s wild swings and worry that you won’t have enough for retirement. Or it could be that every time you begin to exper... Full story
So, what do your new year’s resolutions look like? And, have you broken any of them yet? If you are like most Americans, your resolutions focus on losing weight, exercising more or saving more money. Not that there’s anything wrong with these goals; however, let me suggest a resolution to focus on improving your character in 2019. The nation was caught off guard recently with the kind words that were expressed after the death of President George H. W. Bush. The tributes pou...
It is said of Boswell, the famous biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. The day was fixed in his adult mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together. After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell’s father kept and determine what h... Full story
Jealousy has been called a lot of things. The Romans called it “the enemy of honor,” King Solomon referred to it as “rottenness of the bones,” and Shakespeare labelled it “the green sickness” or the “green eyed monster.” And it can infect the best of people. The counselors in Florence, Italy asked Leonardo da Vinci, then Italy’s most celebrated artist, to submit sketches for the decorations of the Grand Hall in Florence. One of the counselors had heard of a young and little-...
