Tag: gmail

Posted in Family, fear, forgiveness, friends, Grace, gratitude, life, love, loving others, Scripture, thankful

Trash Day

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” 1 John 3:1

So long trash.  Some years ago, a friend introduced me to the Gmail calendar.  It was a game changer and life saver.  Back in the day most pastors carried a little pocket calendar wherever they went.  Unfortunately, it just wasn’t my thing.  And, invariably, someone would tell me something and I would not have a calendar, nor a piece of paper nor a pen or pencil.  I would really try to remember all this important stuff but well it just didn’t work.

Well, one day my friend told me about the Gmail calendar.  I already had a smartphone, but I just hadn’t been introduced to the Gmail calendar app.  Then, one we met, and it was love at first sight.  With the Gmail calendar I can instantly add things to my calendar.  Joe is having surgery. Check. Personnel meeting Tuesday at 6pm. Check. Don’t forget Judy’s birthday.  Double check.  On and on the list goes and while the system isn’t perfect…it works so much better.  All that important stuff has a much better chance of not being forgotten. Thank you, Gmail.

Another cool feature of this calendar is that you can set a reminder for something every day, week, or month.  You can even schedule things for next year.  One of the things that I have set up on my calendar is the reminder to carry the trash to the curb.  You see, our trash guy comes early Monday morning, so we really need to set it out early…like the night before early.  Well, every Sunday evening I get a reminder to put the trash out. More than once that reminder has saved us from a week of too much stinky trash.

Speaking of trash…isn’t it amazing just how much trash we generate? I know for two people we seem to make a lot.  Several times a week I must take the trash out of the kitchen and to the big trash and then out to the curb on Sunday nights. Usually, of course, the trash is just trash. Potato chip bags, coke cans, plastic water bottles…you know…trash.  Of course, there is the stinky stuff too. Meat wrappers, old veggies, scraps…you know…stinky stuff.  It is never hard to throw any of that away…it has to go.

Sometimes, when we are cleaning out this or that, we toss out sorta-kinda, good stuff.  An old glass or two, a figurine with a chip or two, or maybe a slightly broken lamp…you know…semi-good stuff. It might be useful to someone but not to us so out it goes. As I cruise around town, I am amazed at the stuff people throw away.  They are often things people paid a lot of money and they are discarded…no longer wanted or needed.  Like I said, sometimes it is amazing.  You wonder, what caused the discard? Outta space. Taste changed. Leftover from the last move.

Well, I don’t always get it but there is one thing I do get, and I am grateful.  I am so glad that God doesn’t have a trash day.  And more than that…I am glad that He will never, ever throw me away like so much discarded trash.  You see, every one of His kids are valuable to Him.  He doesn’t just value the ones who always seem to get it right…He values all of them. More amazing than that is the fact He is just waiting to add to His family.  And, once you’re in…you’re in.  There is a cool verse in the Bible that says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so, we are.” Wow. How awesome is that?

If you are a Jesus follower, a person who said, “yes” and asked and received God’s forgiveness by believing in His Son, you never have to worry about trash day.  He will not, and I repeat, will not, kick you to the curb. If you haven’t made that decision yet, what are you waiting for?  God loves you and can’t wait for you to join the family.  You don’t need to get better, you just need to come and when you do…well, welcome home.

So, you might want to check out the Gmail calendar…it sure helped me.  And be sure and check out God…He loves you a lot and won’t let you go.  Oh, and as you do life, you will find Him always there for you just waiting to let you know that…He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, friends, Grace, gratitude, life, loving others, prayer, Scripture, thankful

Trash Day

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” 1 John 3:1

So long trash.  Some years ago, my friend David introduced me to the Gmail calendar.  It was a game changer and life saver.  Back in the day most pastors carried a little pocket calendar wherever they went.  Unfortunately, it just wasn’t my thing.  And, invariably, someone would tell me something and I would not have a calendar, nor a piece of paper nor a pen or pencil.  I would really try to remember all this important stuff but well it just didn’t work.

Well, one day my friend David told me about the Gmail calendar.  I already had a smartphone, but I just hadn’t been introduced to the Gmail calendar app.  Then, one day, we met, and it was love at first sight.  With the Gmail calendar I can instantly add things to my calendar.  Joe is having surgery. Check. Personnel meeting Tuesday at 6pm. Check. Don’t forget Judy’s birthday.  Double check.  On and on the list goes and while the system isn’t perfect…it works so much better.  All that important stuff has a much better chance of not being forgotten. Thank you, Gmail and David.

Another cool feature of this calendar is that you can set a reminder for something every day, week, or month.  You can even schedule things next year.  One of the things that I have set up on my calendar is the reminder to carry the trash to the curb.  You see, our trash guy comes early Monday morning so we really need to set it out early…like the night before early.  Well, every Sunday evening I get a reminder to put the trash out. More than once that reminder has saved us from a week of too much stinky trash.

Speaking of trash…isn’t it amazing just how much trash we generate? I know for two people we seem to make a lot.  Several times a week I must take the trash out of the kitchen and to the big trash and then out to the curb on Sunday nights. Usually, of course, the trash is just trash. Potato chip bags, coke cans, plastic water bottles…you know…trash.  Of course, there is the stinky stuff too. Meat wrappers, old veggies, scraps…you know…stinky stuff.  It is never hard to throw any of that away…it has to go.

Sometimes, when we are cleaning out this or that, we toss out sorta-kinda, good stuff.  An old glass or two, a figurine with a chip or two, or maybe a slightly broken lamp…you know…semi-good stuff. It might be useful to someone but not to us so out it goes. As I cruise around town, I am amazed at the stuff people throw away.  They are often things people paid a lot of money and they are discarded…no longer wanted or needed.  Like I said, sometimes it is amazing.  You wonder, what caused the discard? Outta space. Taste changed.  Left over from the last move.

Well, I don’t always get it but there is one thing I do get, and I am grateful.  I am so glad that God doesn’t have a trash day.  And more than that…I am glad that He will never, ever throw me away like so much discarded trash.  You see, every one of His kids are valuable to Him.  He doesn’t just value the ones who always seem to get it right…He values all of them. More amazing than that is the fact He is just waiting to add to His family.  And, once you’re in…you’re in.  There is a cool verse in the Bible that says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so, we are.” Wow. How awesome is that.

If you are a Jesus follower, a person who said, “yes” and asked and received God’s forgiveness by believing in His Son, you never have to worry about trash day.  He will not, and I repeat, will not, kick you to the curb.  How about that?  And if you haven’t made that decision yet, what are you waiting for?  God loves you and can’t wait for you to join the family.  You don’t need to get better, you just need to come and when you do…well, welcome home.

So, you might want to check out the Gmail calendar…it sure helped me.  And be sure and check out God…He loves you a lot and won’t let you go.  Oh, and as you do life, you will find Him always there for you just waiting to let you know that…He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Easter, forgiveness, Grace, gratitude, Holidays, life, loving others, prayer, priorities, Scripture, sovereignty of God, thankful, Trials

Thursday To-Do List

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

“As you go into the city,” He told them, “you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with My disciples at your house.’ ” Matthew 26:18

Well, it is Thursday.  Several years ago, something happened that changed the way I do business—do life.  I’ve done the pastor thing now for almost four decades.  Even as I write that, it seems hard to believe.  Anyway, there were a couple of things that pastors do that I never quite got the hang of.  First, they always carried a little calendar.  You would ask them a question and they would say, “Let me check my calendar.”  You would tell them you were having open heart surgery a week from next Friday and they would say, “Let me put that on my calendar.”  There was a problem.  Try as I may I never could get into the calendar thing.  It wasn’t that I didn’t care, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to remember important dates—I just couldn’t remember to grab the thing when I left the house in the morning.  And honestly, I didn’t like having it stuffed into my pocket.

I hate to admit this, but it was the same deal with a pocket Bible.  Every pastor seemed to always have a little Bible stuck in their pocket. Not me.  It just didn’t work.  I mean I loved the Bible, but it just didn’t work.  Well, the solution for both of these lapses occurred kinda together.  First, along came the smart phone.  The smart phone is a little computer that you can easily carry.  Nice and flat, it can be stuffed to the gills with information, but it never feels bulky.  It wasn’t long after the advent of the smart phone that you could read the Bible on the thing.  Boom!  Just like that I had a Bible when I needed it.  It got better.

A couple of years later a friend introduced me to my new best friend—gmail and their calendar.  All of a sudden, I could pull out my trusty phone and not only check my calendar but quickly add things to my calendar.  It was a big deal.  It was a game changer deal.  Now I am not one of those folks who are “married” to their phone—in other words there are times when I forget it.  If I do, I kindly ask the person to shoot me a text and when I get to my phone there is a reminder to add what I needed to add.

So, being somewhat of an organized person, these tools were a great help.  I like knowing where I am going and when I am supposed to be there.  Somethings I don’t need to put on the calendar…I just know to do them.  They become part of my “to-do” list.  Thursdays are study days for the next week’s message, finalizing the worship event in the YouVersion Bible app, making some visits and a host of other small administrative details.  It is a catchup day.  As days of the week go…Thursday is usually a lighter day but of course as a pastor that can change quickly—very quickly.

I wonder if Jesus kept a “to-do” list.  I know—probably not.  But if He did, I wonder what it would look like.  In one sense it would be short—love God—love people.  But in another sense, it would be long as He was always doing something, and it was always what His Father wanted. Thursdays might have been one of His lighter days too.  But not this Thursday—not the Thursday before He died on a Roman cross on Friday.  That Thursday, the Thursday we celebrate today, was jam packed with incredible things.

His list would include celebrating Passover, His last Passover, with His closest friends in an upper room.  That was a must.  He also designed and planned an event that we call “The Last Supper,” “The Lord’s Supper,” or “Communion.”  He needed to give His followers something to help them understand what was about to happen and then remember it—forever.  Oh, and then He did something kinda unusual—He washed everyone’s feet.  Boy, that was a big one.  He did it to teach them, and us, about humility and service. He wasn’t done yet. In fact, there wasn’t an end to Thursday—it just bled over into Friday.

There was an important prayer meeting in a garden where only a few were invited.  He needed to talk to His Father about Friday.  He invited His friends along to help, but they were tired so He had to go it alone.  That would happen a lot as Thursday became Friday.  His “to-do” list also included healing someone’s whacked off ear and being arrested.  It also included that awful feeling of desertion when all of His friends left Him. And then, somewhere in the darkness, Thursday became Friday.

I know it isn’t possible for us to fully understand what those days were like for Jesus.  We do need to remember, though, that He experienced them as God but also as a man—a man who knew spiritually, emotionally, and physically where it was going.  And, amazingly, He did it willingly and He did it knowing the cost.  So today, as we walk our Thursday, let’s remember His Thursday and be grateful. He was a Man of details—of destiny.  He told them, “As you go into the city, you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with My disciples at your house.’ ” Yes, a Man of destiny—a Man of details.  A God-Man who had that—and who’s got this—no matter what that may be.  Bro. Dewayne