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ML Smith | Wimps for Christ

Easter: The Aftermath

Posted on April 8, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Insights | Leave a comment

Easter is over.  The chocolate bunnies are eaten.  The leftovers from Easter dinner are gone.  The new outfits have been dry cleaned and tucked away in the closet.  It’s back to business as usual.  But if we celebrate the resurrection then go back to status quo then we’ve missed the point.   Easter is a new beginning.  For the Jewish people Passover was a significant time.  While the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt the last plague was the Passover.  Everyone … →

Passions Need People

Posted on February 24, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Insights | Leave a comment

Last time we looked at how Nehemiah’s passion led him to complete the tremendous undertaking of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days, but he didn’t do it alone…..   How often have you had an idea, a vision, a passion you wanted to pursue, but it never went beyond an idea in your head because you had no idea how you would make it happen?  Yeah, its sounded like a good idea, but that thought of trying to … →

The Power of Passion

Posted on February 21, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Insights | Leave a comment

Often when we hear the word passion, we think of it in the context of love and romance.  Most people can relate to that feeling of being in love.  You fall for that special someone and they become your obsession.  That special person is all you think about.  You’d do almost anything for them.   You can also get passionate about a goal. Something you feel driven to accomplish.  Something that you’re willing to put your all into, make sacrifices … →

Spring Break the Hunger….A Child’s Spark

Posted on February 13, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Inspirational | Leave a comment

Last time, I asked for your help in raising money for my church’s current initiative: buy 300 Food Packets to send home with kids over spring break.  Essentially, the food pack is enough stuff for the kids to make themselves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday.   So we’re sitting in church last Sunday, listening to the man explain the initiative and my son (whose 9) leans over to me and says “Mom, that’s all they get?    They should at … →

Spring Break the Hunger

Posted on February 10, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Inspirational | Leave a comment

For many children, the free lunch they get at school everyday is their only consistent meal.  When breaks come around, they bring with them the reality that it may be days in between meals for some of these kids.  This year my church, Compass Community Church, is raising money to send home food for kids at a local elementary school. $5 will purchase a Food Packet that contains 1 jar of peanut butter 1 juice box pack 1 bottle of … →

It doesn’t take much….

Posted on February 5, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across this story on Yahoo:  Waiter who refused service to customer becomes a web hero.  Basically there was a family in a restaurant who had a special needs child.  Another family began complaining about the noise from the child.  The waiter told family #2  “I won’t be able to serve you.” Of course in this day and age that story went viral and was all over the internet. Constrast that with another story … →

FREE eBook

Posted on February 2, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Book Review | Leave a comment

As a special promotion, Kindle is offering my ebook, 10 Reasons Christians Should Care About What They Eat from now until Monday, Feb 4th. Don’t have a Kindle?  No worries!  You can read the book directly from your computer.  And if you like what you read, please take a moment to write a review ont he Amazon site. Thank you for your support!

Is America Losing Its Religion (part 3)?

Posted on January 31, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Insights | Leave a comment

This whole discussion about the Religious Unaffiliated resonates with me because I can relate to having a sense of spirituality, longing for a connection to a higher power, yet feeling constricted by the confines of the “typical” church and turned off by the behavior of my fellow Christians.  If our relationship with Jesus is supposed to be a personal relationship, why do we need the church to tell us what is right and wrong?  If the New Testament signaled the … →

Is America Losing Its Religion (part 2)?

Posted on January 28, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Blog Trotting | Leave a comment

Last time we discussed how the number of people who consider themselves Religiously Unaffiliated is on the rise…   In their Religious and Ethics News Weekly PBS reported:  “46 million Americans that our poll found have no religious affiliation, almost one in five. But they’re not entirely secular. About a third describe themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious.’ ”  The article quoted Diana Butler Bass  (Author of  Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual … →

Is America Losing Its Religion (part 1)?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by ML Smith Posted in Blog Trotting | Leave a comment

In October 2012 The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released an article called “’Nones’ on the the Rise: One-in-Five Adults have no Religious Affiliation”  The article reports:  “The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling….In the last five years alone, the … →