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This past Monday night and Tuesday morning at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, the TRUTH Forum was long, and at times tense, but successful. We had great attendance, a lot of public input and solid interaction between the public, the supervisors...

[BEGIN ITAL]“For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.”[END ITAL] Job 3:25 As a boy growing up, I would often hear my Dad say, “Boy, that guy has the patience of Job.” So I grew up thinking our...

This sentence reached out and grabbed my attention this morning: “We’re preaching the gospel to the graveyard.” It’s from an article entitled, “Hope for Evangelism in a Secular Age,” by Akos Balogh. I found it on The Gospel Coalition...

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, Your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” -- Mahatma Gandhi I heard a speaker say one time that the...

PASTOR JIM NEAL You like I have read and heard the admonition that “it takes three times the muscle work to frown than to smile, so quit working yourself to death and smile.” I’m no muscle expert and do not know how to validate that piece of...

As some of you know, the Kern County Library and Shafter Learning Center would like to expand. If you have gone to the Learning Center lately, you may have seen a stack of surveys on the desk. If you fill out a survey, you are making a contribution b...

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those thing...

The Fresno Diocese has two bishops; however, a diocese normally only has one bishop. Because of this, the second bishop is called an “auxiliary bishop.” Nevertheless, we actually have two bishops. Bishop Joseph V. Brennan will be taking over our...

Do you long for a comfort zone? Nido R. Qubein says in his little book “Attitude: the remarkable Power of Optimism” that a comfort zone is a place to rest, to be safe and a place to be comforted and coddled. Sounds like a nice enough place to be...

We’ve all heard of “smart cars,” “smart phones” and even “Get Smart,” but how about “smart goals?” At an annual pastor’s retreat that I attend, our guest speaker, Gordon Penfold, gave us a good dose of leadership principles, one...

JIM NEAL “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” --Abraham Lincoln Doesn’t it seem as you look around, read the newspaper or listen to or watch the daily news that one of the key concepts missing in all of...

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” --Abraham Lincoln Doesn’t it seem as you look around, read the newspaper or listen to or watch the daily news that one of the key concepts missing in all of humanness...

“He who covers his sins (wrongdoings) will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them Will have (find) mercy.” --Proverbs 28:13 Wise King Solomon penned that truism many, many years ago -- approximately 3,000 years, long before there...

Anyone can know how many seeds are in an apple: Only God knows how many apples are in a seed. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” --Galatians 6:9. I remember reading the first...

One of my favorite authors is Max Lucado. His writing is solidly Biblical, captivating and very practical in nature. He wrote a book about Christmas several years ago called “Because of Bethlehem” that I’d highly recommend. Let me share just a...

Philippians 2:6 “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled...