From the Home Place

March 8, 2026

We are starting this day at 37, headed for 67 with 55 mph wind gusts. Hot and dry, not a great recipe for this time of the year.

Speaking of this time of the year, hopefully you set your clock ahead, or you will be late for church and most likely, the rest of today’s events. It is reported that each time we do this “time change” thing, it costs us billions of dollars in our national economy. But it’s a tradition and we must do it! Though it makes very little practical sense, though it cost a mountain of money each year, though I very seldom hear anyone say they like the idea, we must do it now because it has become something that we always do.

I remember when some feller setting behind a desk came up with this idea; it was going to be “great.” The benefits would vastly outrun the costs. It would be easy, they said. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 15 and verse 4, Jesus scolds the Pharisees, “And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your traditions.”

So, today several folks will miss worshiping the living God, because of our tradition of changing times. Literally, many will miss a message about the changing times because of changing time! We Americans are living in a very difficult and unsettled time. We need to be reminded that God is in control and that all of this is going to play out the way He wants it to. But many will miss hearing a message from God’s because they forgot about the time change.

O.K. lets pause for a moment. There is no doubt that “times are changing!” And not just on our clocks. We live in a very difficult time, as mentioned in the Bible. Because of the difficulties of life, we all need to be reminded of the love of God. Along with His love, we all need to be reminded that God is sovereign – He is in control of the events of the world. And as the Bible tells us, that which man intends for evil, God will use for good.

As such, it is “time” for every born-again Christ-follower to take time to share the love of God with someone who doesn’t know Jesus as Savior, yet. You see my friends, when the going gets tough, the tough get to going. God’s word challenges us as it did Joshua, to “be strong and courageous.” We need to toughen up and get to work!

Yes, we have endured another time change; and we are enduring live during changing times. Perhaps it is a good time to mention that we serve a God who does not change who He is, nor does He change that which He has determined to accomplish. Lastly, it is time that His servants change their traditions of just attending church. We have definitely become a people who tend to be hearers only.

Loved ones, it is way past time that we start being doers of the Word. As the great theologian John Wayne once commented when he said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling-up anyway.” It is past time for we Christians to saddle-up!

Saddling-up with you, Neal