Anyway, I struggle putting that shirt on sometimes, even if it is Father's Day, because I sometimes have a hard time believing it about myself. I always thought I would be a pretty good dad, for no real reason considering I had never been one. I always wanted kids, and I wanted to have several of them. I was ready to get going, too. When my wife was pregnant with our first I was excited. I was anxious to meet him when he got here, and all around ready to be a dad.

Then he came. Then another one came, and another one, and finally the last one. Four of them! On purpose, we had four of them! I want you to imagine being on the runway at the airport, standing outside as the planes lift off. And then I want you to imagine a rock concert playing right next to you as the planes are taking off. You got it? Good, now multiply that by ten and you get my house at the dinner table. My favorite adjective to describe this whole thing is loud! If we are playing music or the television is on, you can barely hear yourself think. It took my wife and I a while to realize that a conversation doesn't necessarily have to involve yelling just to be heard.

Anyway, I knew right a way after the first child came that I would never be the same, aaannnd that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. It didn't take me long to also realize that I'm not the dad that I thought I'd be either. I felt like I struggled from the get-go. It was hard for me to relate to babies and even to little kids sometimes. I have to remind myself that they're just kids a lot of times. Like the times when they're drinking water out of the toilet. Or when they say their room is clean, only to open up the closet to find everything stuffed in there. Or when the boys decide that the toilet is just a suggestion and try to use the whole house as their personal bathroom. I don't know how many times I've recently said 'one day we're going to laugh about this story' as I'm trying to keep the steam from coming out of my ears like in the old cartoons.

Thankfully, as the kids have grown up a little, I've had some time to practice this whole dad thing. I tell you what, one thing my kids will know is that their dad is not afraid to apologize when he knows he didn't handle a situation right. I'm still not sure I'm great at it but I do see progress and I know I'm getting better, which is what I'm aiming for. At least I can look at the shirt and believe that it is attainable for me. Really, what that shirt represents for me is potential. I want to be the best dad ever to my kids because they deserve that from me. I want them to grow up knowing that their dad loved them more than his own life, and that he did his best to provide for them, encourage them, and help them succeed at being the best selves they could be.

I know that I can never attain that on my own. But, the good news is that Jesus introduced me to His Father, my Heavenly Father, and I get to model myself after Him. I am constantly amazed at how good and patient He is with me. It really astounds me that He has given so much mercy and grace to me in my lifetime, and that He wants me to learn how to do the same with myself and my kids. The question I ask myself most as a dad is "How would my Heavenly Father handle this situation with me?" Sometimes I even ask that before I act instead of after.

I certainly don't want to discount my earthly dad, or mom, for the example they set for me. They did a good job and I try to emulate them too. But my goal is higher, to be like the ultimate Dad and to learn from Him. He's the one with the real 'Best Dad Ever' shirt as far as I'm concerned. I will still wear mine to honor my kids and who they are to me, but when you see me wearing that shirt, just know that to me the slogan is a goal of mine and that I know I'm on my way there.

- Phillip

Bread is such a customary thing to have at a meal, whether in the form of a sandwich, or a loaf of bread with our dinner, or even a slice of toast and jelly for breakfast. Bread seems to be at every meal. In fact a lot of people refer to having a meal together with someone as 'breaking bread together' with them. Even Jesus used the bread at his last meal with His disciples to remind them of what He was about to do.

I think it is somewhat ironic that bread can seem so evil and wonderful to so many people today but I'm not really here to talk about dietary do's and don'ts. Let's just all agree for the sake of argument that if you're hungry a nice hot piece of bread will satisfy you and keep you going. It's amazing how quickly you can get full on the stuff. But, as everyone knows though, it doesn't seem to take too long to get hungry again.

With that in mind it seems like the perfect food for God to reference when He told the Israelites, through Moses, "that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). This verse is in reference to the manna that the Lord had commanded to fall every day for the Israelites while they were in the wilderness. In essence their bread was provided for them by a word from the Lord. Without that word, there would have been no sustenance.

In the recent years this scripture has become alive to me in a way that it never had before. I had always understood it intellectually but not in a heart-way. The word 'word' in this scripture is the Hebrew equivalent to the word 'rhema' in Greek. Rhema is not just the written word but it is something that is spoken to you. In this case it is something spoken to you by God.

I'm sure you've read the Bible and some days the word seem bland and other days when a particular verse jumps off the page at you. That's a rhema word from the Lord. I'm sure there have been times when you just knew something in your spirit, an answer to a prayer or a solution to a problem. That's a word rhema word from the Lord. There are other ways in which the Lord speaks directly to us but they all lead to the same place: revelation. And revelation has an amazing affect on us.

Revelation is exciting and it's sustaining. I have received revelations that have affected me and helped me for days on end, or weeks. I've had a few that I received years ago and they are still ministering to me today. I've even received a few revelations that I truly believe have saved my life, or even helped me make good decisions about earthly things. My point is, a good revelation from the Lord can keep me going spiritually for a long time and it can make me want to come back for more. These revelations and words keep me alive and excited spiritually.

So I now know what it is like to live on more than bread alone. Yes, we still need bread or food to keep our physical bodies alive. We live in a physical word that requires physical sustenance. But one day our physical bodies will run out of life despite our efforts to keep them going. But a good word from the Lord can last you throughout eternity. So do eat what you need to keep going, but choose to pursue the spiritual bread that only a relationship with God can bring you. Choose seek God and His words of life. Choose to seek the living Word, Jesus, and you'll never run out life again.

Phillip

Most of the time I've heard this story most people point out, correctly I believe, that Jesus praised her because she gave a proportionally greater gift than all of the other people who gave that day. She literally gave everything that she had. It's hard to top that in terms of proportion. But I was thinking about all of the other surplus givers. Is it wrong to give out of a surplus? Are we supposed to give everything that we have all the time? I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have enough to take care of ourselves.

I think the Lord gave us some guidelines to giving. For instance John the baptizer, in response to a question about showing the good fruit of repentance, responded, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none" (Luke 3:11). He was telling us to give out of our surplus. Also, Paul told the Corinthians that they should set aside something to give as they were able and as their income allowed (see 1 Corinthians 16:1-3). Then he tells them again that God will bless those who give so that they have enough for them and for others (see 2 Corinthians 9:6-15). Again, we are encouraged to give out of our surplus.

So if the fact that they were giving out of their surplus was not the issue, then what was? Why was their gift not as good as the widow's? What was the difference between them? Well it must have been a heart issue. What would cause some people, who had so much, give so little compared to what they had in total? And, what would cause a widow, who had so little, give so much to help others? I believe, at least in part, that it was a matter of contentment.

You see, if you are not content it doesn't matter how much surplus you have, you are not giving beyond any sense of duty or obligation. Because, when you are not content with what you have, what you are giving can feel like someone is stealing from you. On the other hand, if you are content then you will be more than willing to let go of any extra that you have. You will be willing to share what you have with other people because you trust God to meet your needs, you realize that he is your source, and most important you are thankful and grateful for everything that He has given you.

Let's get back to the widow at the temple. She gave everything she had to help meet the needs of other people. I'm guessing she had some needs. She may have even been desperate. But I'm thinking she had to at least be content with what she had or she would not have given. Imagine the trust that she had in God to meet her needs for her to want to share with others.

So with the Christmas season upon us, let us not think about amounts or proportions when we give. Let us think about what we have been given and choose to be content and thankful. Let us be like the widow who chose to give everything. Let us think about our great God and Savior, who was so content with what He had, that He was willing to come down to earth, live among us, and share it all with us (see Philippians 2:1-11) by allowing us to also become children of God. That is certainly something to be thankful for.

Phillip

That always seems to be the first question I get when I tell somebody that I like to run, and that I like to run very long distances sometimes. And I get it, I really do. When I was playing sports in school (especially high school) running always seem to be the preferred form of punishment doled out by the coaches.

"Watkins! You screwed up! Go run a few laps until you can block that guy and not get our quarterback killed!"

Of course, "conditioning" was always given as the motivation for the sprints, but I always suspected there was a little bit of sinister delight in the coaches eyes when they said that.

"Alright, everyone, you're going to run until I puke! We gotta win the fourth quarter! You may not be the fastest, but you sure as heck are gonna be in the best shape!"

If you can imagine the gratuitous shouting and some expletives mixed in then you get the idea. When I was done playing sports in high school, running was the last thing I wanted to do. It was hard, painful, and more importantly I didn't have to do it anymore, so by golly I wasn't going to. It may not have been that drastic, but it was easy to kill any momentum that may have tried to develop for running with thoughts like that.

Over the years, as I moved out of the college phase and into my adult phase, I would have seasons where the idea didn't seem so bad. I knew I needed to exercise and I had always heard that running was one of the best ways to burn a lot of calories in the most amount of time. Well who doesn't want that?! So, let's get to it! The only problem was that it was still hard, and frankly, it still wasn't all that much fun. I would have the propensity to start fast, burn out quickly, and usually hurt something along the way. You see, not that much fun.

But even in all that pain and suffering, the idea of running was still in the back of my mind. My dad was running marathons about once a year. And the idea of finishing that feat sounded pretty cool. I even came up with the idea of running one with some friends of mine. We made a plan and we were gonna do it! The plan got derailed pretty quickly. I hurt my heel, we lost interest, you know how it goes.

Flash forward about six, seven years. I am at the heaviest weight I have ever been. I have trouble sleeping at night because I keep waking up. Over the last few years my family, and more recently my new wife are telling me that I stop breathing during the night. At work, we have free biometric tests given and I take one. They give me the results and I can tell by the look on the lady's face the results are not good. She tells me I really should go see a doctor.

I did go see a doctor and we discussed the results. I also went to a sleeping lab and discovered I has sleep apnea. So I was getting help, but I didn't want to end up with diabetes, or end up needing to take medicines for the rest of my life. I still needed to do something to lose the weight.

But what could I do? Around this same time my dad had finished another marathon and our family was sitting at a table while he rested. The old urge to run a marathon came back to me. But I'd tried running before and it had never really stuck. Plus I kept getting hurt. Could I do it this time? Did I even want to do it? Wasn't it still as hard and painful as ever? I knew I would need help.

So I prayed; something along the lines of, "Lord I really need your help. I need you to help change my attitude about running. Help it be fun for me. Because I need to do something to lose the weight and I know that running is one of the easiest things to do. So I'm going to start doing it and I'm going to trust you to change my attitude about it."

So within the next day or so I started. It was still difficult. But I had made another decision too. I had decided to act like I had never run before; I decided to start from scratch. I began following a plan that would get me to a 5k in 10 weeks. Even though I had done one before, a long time ago, that didn't matter. This was a new endeavor.

The first session went about like I expected. "Why am I doing this? This is not fun." But I stuck with it. The second session was a little better. But by the third session, a miracle had happened. I started to enjoy myself. It was hard, but I was doing it. The Lord had done it, He had changed me! I started to enjoy being outside. It was around Christmas time, so I would run in the neighborhood and look at the Christmas lights. I was having fun.

And it is still fun to this day. There have been setbacks and triumphs along the way, but the Lord has been with me every step. He's been running along side me the whole time, sharing those experiences with me. And I'll share those stories another time.

To be continued . . .

Phillip

I think this verse by Peter says a lot about the times that we live in today. In his first sermon to the people after he and the other disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter declared that they were now living in the last days as prophesied by Joel (see Acts 2:14-21). We have, in fact, been living in the last days for the last 2000 years or so. Christians throughout the centuries have been looking for and forward to the return of Christ since He left the earth; and yet, we are still here.

For the many who love the Lord this is not necessarily a problem because we believe what He said and know that He will eventually return. And if He doesn't return in our lifetime, then when we die we will be with Him in heaven. So either way it is a win for us.

But there is a group of people who are not looking forward to His return and don't believe He is coming back at all. Peter calls them scoffers. Scoffers are people who are more than just agnostic or are unsure of what they believe. Scoffers are people who are actively against Christianity, Jesus, and everything they stand for. Many of these people are atheists and they are trying to eradicate Christianity (and other religions as well) from the world.

The weapon that many of these people try to use against Christianity is evolution. Just as Peter says in the above Scripture, they ask where Jesus is because, they believe, since the beginning of time everything is going on just as it has. This sounds a lot like uniformitarianism, which is the assumption that the natural laws that now operate have always operated this way and always will. Nothing will ever change.

But Peter says these people think this way because they deliberately forget or suppress the knowledge that the world came into existence through God's Word as told in the book of Genesis. Not only this, they deliberately forget or suppress the knowledge that the world of long ago was once destroyed by a deluge of water in a little thing called Noah's flood.

Many atheists and scientists will look at a planet like Mars and speculate that it was once entirely covered by water (and it very well could have been at one time). But these same people will look at Earth, a planet that is still three-fourths covered by water, and say that at no time did a world-wide flood occur. Why would they do this? The answer is in the next part of the verse.

These people do not believe in or acknowledge the Creation or the Flood because if they did, they would have to also acknowledge the coming Fire. If they were to acknowledge the coming Fire, then they would have to admit that they are not the masters of their own lives and that there is One to whom they would be accountable. They don't want to be accountable to a Creator for they want to do what they want to do and don't want anyone telling them otherwise.

True repentance in our hearts requires that we admit that we have fallen short of a standard; but that standard has to come from some where. To the Bible-believing Christian that standard comes from God, the One who created us, who cannot lie, who is unchanging, and who is holy. To the scoffer who believes in evolution, that standard is arbitrary and based on the words and ideas of fallible man. In the end the fight is all about being accountable to God. There are those who accept that accountability and those who don't, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (see Romans 1:18-32).

But to those who have made themselves accountable to God, Peter gives a promise in the next verses:

"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:8-9, NIV).

The Lord will keep His promise and is coming back. The Lord lives outside of time and is not bound by it so whether a day or a thousand years passes by for us before His promise of returning is fulfilled is immaterial to Him. (That is all that this verse means. It is not trying to say that a day of creation is a thousand years as some try to paint it. He just got done saying that scoffers don't believe the straightforward word of God, why would he then turn around and say the opposite?) But the Lord is merciful and wants everyone to come to repentance. He is giving us all a chance to make ourselves accountable before He has to do it for us. In other words, there is still hope for all of us. There is still time to come to Jesus before He comes to us. Let us all take advantage of this mercy before it is too late.

Phillip

I would like to thank and acknowledge the ministry of Answers in Genesis who has provided a wonderful website that views the world through the eyes of the Bible. They have been an excellent resource for me over the years and have provided the answers to many of my questions. They truly respect God's Word and use it to help understand the wonderful world that He has created for us.

Being the obedient children that you are, you eat a sandwich for lunch and cut one slice of cake for each of you and chow down. While eating the cake, both of you begin to wonder where the cake came from. "I'll bet Mom made it," you say. "Just look at how moist and delicious the cake is. She's a great baker."

"No, I bet she bought this cake at the store," says your brother. "Just look at the designs on this awesome frosting!" Now the argument has started. Both of you point out various parts of the cake to make your case, sometimes even using the same parts to make two separate cases. The cake, the frosting, the design, you both use all of it to prove your points. Clearly the evidence in front of you is on your side. Both of you think this. You are now at an impasse.

Finally you notice that the note in front of the cake is actually a folded piece of paper. You pick it up and realize that it is a longer note from your mother. "Dear kids, I hope that you are enjoying the cake. I made it especially for you this morning using an old family recipe that I've had, and I'll share it with you now. The first thing that I did was . . ." You read through the ingredients and the instructions on the sheet. "Finally, the cake turned out perfectly," wrote your mom. "Now I'm going to take a break from baking. I'll be home later after I run some errands."

"You see! Mom did make the cake!" you shout. "It says so right here."

"I still don't think so," says your brother. "I've seen too many cakes that come from the store. This one looks and tastes exactly like those. She could have bought this cake from the store, there's no shame in that."

"But that's not the point," you say. "She tells us right here that she made it. This is her hand-writing and I recognize the way she talks. She even tells us how she did it. " You even start pointing out all of the parts of the cake again to prove it. Your brother still disagrees and points out everything again to prove his point.

"But Mom is not a liar. Why would she lie about this?" you ask. "We should believe her. She was there and we weren't. This cake is obviously home made."

"Obviously you're crazy. This cake is bought from the store, I don't care what the note says. In fact, I'm not so sure that we can even trust Mom anymore. If she would lie about this, what else is she lying about?"

"But we can trust her. She's a good mom and she doesn't lie," you say, heartbroken. Your brother walks off leaving you alone at the table. You put the note down, resolving to give your mom a big hug when she gets home, thanking her for the wonderful cake that she made.

The crux of the creation vs. evolution debate, what it all really comes down to, is who do you believe?  Do you believe an eternal God, who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present? Do you believe sinful man, who has spent thousands of years trying to come up with ways to eradicate God from their consciousness? What is your starting point for viewing the world? Do you see a world created by a wonderful Creator or do you see a world in which death, disease, and random chance have brought us to this point?

The evidence is the same for both sides of the debate. How you interpret the evidence depends upon the view you start with. It depends on who you believe. For if God can't be trusted in this one area, how can He be trusted in any area? How do you decide when it stops being a fairy tale and when it becomes the Truth?

That's why I have chosen to believe all of it, even when I don't always understand it. Even when the things I see seem to contradict what He says. Even when others are telling me that I'm crazy. You see, when it's His Word against ours, I'll take His Word every time.

More on this topic next time.

I would like to thank and acknowledge the ministry of Answers in Genesis who has provided a wonderful website that views the world through the eyes of the Bible. They have been an excellent resource for me over the years and have provided the answers to many of my questions. They truly respect God's Word and use it to help understand the wonderful world that He has created for us.

It was during this time that I noticed something interesting in the Bible. I saw the Lord wasn't just interested in saving your spirit, He was also interested in saving your soul as well. Now, while your reading the Bible it almost seems like it uses the word soul and spirit interchangeably. Both seem to pertain to the life-force, or the alive part of a person but there are scriptures such as Hebrews 4:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that indicate that they are two separate things. In fact, according to Hebrews 4:12, the only thing that can separate the two entities is the Word of God. In general, everyday life neither you or I can tell where our soul ends and where our spirit begins.

When you get born again, its your spirit that is made alive (Ephesians 2:1-5, John 3:5-6) not your soul. But there are obviously lots of people walking around, very much alive, who are not born again. They still have personalities, still have emotions, still have thoughts and wills and can make choices. So if their spirits are dead, the left over part must be their souls. What I find interesting is that all of these leftover parts don't immediately change even for someone who has a spirit that is alive. So, something must need to happen to the soul as well as the spirit since they are essentially a packaged deal.

This phenomenon was obvious in my life because, as I said before, I knew I was saved in my spirit, but my soul was a mess. Even my body wasn't cooperating with me fully because my soul was a mess. The apostle John prayed that the recipients of his third letter would be in health even as their soul prospered (3 John 2). When I got a kidney stone in the midst of my trial, I knew that my soul was not prospering at all. So when I saw that the Word had the power to save my soul (James 1:21), and not just my spirit, my ears perked up. So, if my soul can also be saved, that must mean that my thoughts and emotions can be saved too. That's what I needed in my life.

As I began to study the Word in this area, I discovered that soul salvation is known by other things. Transformation, growth, character, are all ways in which our souls get saved. All of these are accomplished as we learn the Word and apply it in our thoughts (Romans 12:2). As we take the Word and use it to change our thoughts, we can use our new thoughts to change our words, and then our behaviors. As we apply the Word we slowly but surely change and transform into the outward expression of our spiritual selves. Eventually our souls reflect the salvation that has already taken place.

The catch is that it is not an automatic thing. It takes an effort on our part. The Lord has given us His Word, grace, and Spirit, but we have to be the one to apply and rely on them. I finally decided in my life that I wanted my soul to be saved and I was willing to do the things that I needed to do to get that done. It has taken time and it is a process, but I am continually making progress. I know that my soul will not reach the same state of perfection that my spirit now has until I am with the Lord, but I celebrate every victory in my life, no matter how small.

So, the next time you hear about salvation don't just think of it as something that takes place on a spiritual level because that is only the beginning. Embrace the journey that is the salvation of your soul and make the choice to grow. I guarantee that you won't regret it.

Phillip

So what do we make of all of this? Since Paul doesn't mention the tithe, does that mean that it no longer applies? Even though tithing is part of the Law and we live under grace, I don't think that this is the case with Paul's teaching. Jesus told His disciples that He didn't come to abolish the Law but rather to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). So we can't just throw everything written about giving in the Old Testament out the window. I think the key here is that God told the prophet Jeremiah that in the days of the new covenant He would put His law on the inside, in our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).

You see, once we are born-again, God takes all of His law and stuffs it in on the inside of us. Now we no longer have to do it, instead, now we want to do it. Like many things that transition form the Old Testament to the New Testament, giving becomes an attitude that is internally motivated instead of a behavior that is externally motivated. That internal motivation actually comes from love, because loving your neighbor as your self fulfills the whole law (Gal 5:14). So Paul was appealing to the law written on their hearts which is really no longer bounded by the tithe. He trusted this heart-law so much that he wasn't even compelled to mention the tithe to them at all.

I have noticed over the years that, in general, if you give people a minimum boundary, human nature dictates that they will almost always regress to the minimum. In other words, if you tell a willing giver that they are 'required' by God to give the tithe, then that is what you will get. Paul on the other hand, leaves it open for people to hear from their hearts, or from the Spirit, about how much to give. This can be a little scary because this also means that you might get some people who don't give at all. So in a sense, Paul, and by extension churches and ministries today along with anyone who needs financial help, would need to trust that the Lord would bring in what they need. Paul trusted that the Spirit inside of the people would prompt them to fulfill the law of the tithe and perhaps even surpass it.

Aside from that, when you give as led by the Spirit, being cheerful is generally not a problem. You might still have to fight your selfish desires sometimes, but in your spirit you delight in giving. But even being a cheerful giver has an upper limit to it, just as giving does too. If giving has become a burden to you, or if you feel compelled to do it by someone, then you might need to reevaluate why you are giving or how much.

For instance, I have gotten into the trap of giving because I'm expecting God to give me something back as it says in Malachi and even my own experience showed. God blesses us because we are His children, not because we give 11% versus 9%. God's generosity depends more on His character and not on our behavior. I have also had an instance where I believe the Lord told me to stop giving a certain offering because it was affecting my ability to cover all our expenses. We have to listen to His direction on the matter because we don't want to take money designed to pay our bills and give it away, just as we don't want to take money that the Lord has desired us to give and use it on our selves. He expects us to take care of our business and use the abundance that He has provided to us to help those in need.

Getting back to the trust aspect, we should see that it is a big deal in giving and it is a two way street. A big reason why we give is that we trust the Lord to take care of all our needs as well as use us to meet the needs of others. From the Lord's perspective, when He sees that we are willing to give He knows that He can trust us with His resources to meet the needs of His kingdom. If you follow the leading of the Spirit you will find that you are most likely giving more than the tithe and over time you will find that the Lord has provided you more and more so that you can in turn give more.

So, here are my final pieces of advice when it comes to giving. If you don't give at all right now, just start giving something, as much as you feel comfortable with and that you feel you can give with joy. If you already give something, try increasing it a bit at a time or as you increase. A good place to give is the church you attend regularly and/or a ministry that you learn a lot from or that really speaks to you and helps you. If you do this, the Lord will meet you where you are and you will find that you are growing in this area. In that moment you will also find that the tithe has truly been written in your heart.

Phillip

Anyway, before I talk myself out of the title let me fill you in on its origin. If you notice on the book info page (or if you happened to have read it already) I have a book titled The Second Knight: How I Overcame Intrusive Thoughts. The book is my testimony of how the Lord helped me overcome one of the toughest trials I've ever faced in my life. I love the title of this book because it really conveys a sense of mystery about what happened and people find that intriguing. Coming up with the title of a book or even a blog feels somewhat like creating an inside joke to me. I know what it means, my editor knows what it means, and people who've read it know what it means. But, if you haven't read it yet you're not in on the fun. I have always loved catching on to an inside joke in movies, TV, and other stuff like that so I'm happy to play that game with you.

So, without giving away that sense of mystery or any spoilers, I will simply say that the title refers to something that the Lord showed me during my trial that conveyed the need for me to grow in Him. In essence it started me on a journey of growth from one place spiritually to another. So I wanted to convey that sense of journey in the title of the blog as well as distinguish it from the book. I tried out several words which didn't seem quite right. It turns out that when you use something like 'the second knight' in your title it causes a lot of things to sound like the title of a fantasy novel. And while I can appreciate a good fantasy novel that is not the direction I was headed with my blog.

Eventually the word passages came to me and I thought it fit just right. If you look up that word in the Oxford Dictionaries you will find that it has four main meanings. 1) The act or process of moving through, under, over, or past something on the way from one place to another. 2) A narrow way, typically having walls on either side, allowing access between buildings or to different rooms within a building; a passageway. 3) The process of transition from one state to another. And 4) A short extract from a book or other printed material.

I was pleased to see that the word could rightly be used to convey the idea of taking a journey as well as convey the idea of writings in short bursts or small chunks, which is what writing a blog is all about. So, that is what I named my blog. I am on a journey to grow in Christ and The Second Knight holds a special place in my heart. I hope you will continue on the journey with me as I write my passages and we will both get to know Jesus a little better each day.

Phillip

My name is Phillip and I just created a website/blog. If you're not a family member or a friend of mine, you may be wondering who I am and why I am bothering to share my thoughts with the world. Well, I have always had lots of thoughts about lots of things and I haven't always had a good place to share them. This blog is a good opportunity to give my wife a break, and share some of those thoughts with you.

As of now my main thoughts will be focused on things that I have been meditating on from the Bible but they certainly aren't limited to that. I also enjoy running, sports, movies, reading and other activities that I can certainly expound on in this space. So who knows, this place might end up a veritable smorgasbord of topics.

My other main goal of this space is to expand my reach as an author. You see, in the last two years I have written two books that I think could help a lot of people. I am excited about them and the opportunity that they provide for others to learn about God and His ways. He has helped me so much in my life and I know that He can help others through my stories and struggles. Anyway, this blog may help someone out there find me and get an opportunity to hear from me and trust my voice enough to get the books. Or even to continue to hear from me if they've already read the books.

My hope is that this space will make you think, maybe make you laugh, and most of all will point you to Jesus and His loving Father. I look forward to talking with you!

Phillip