Pastor Claude Thomas Information Blog

Author: Pastor Claude Thomas

Pearl Bailey, the famed singer, said, “What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.”

It is true. I once read that the Classified section of a newspaper placed an ad that read:
“I will listen to you talk for thirty minutes without comment for $5.”

An amazing thing happened. The person who placed the ad received ten to twenty calls a day. They were so lonely they wanted someone to just listen. (Laurie, Life Questions, p.19).

People truly want someone to care for them. Why is that? Well, here are some reasons as stated by some people we may recognize.
Billy Graham said, “Love is to the heart what summer is to the farmer’s year. It brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.”

Zig Ziglar said, “Love is the highest, purest, most precious of all spiritual things. It will draw out from men their magnificent potential.”
Thomas a’ Kempis, “Whoever loves much, does much.”
Hannah Moore, “Love never reasons but profusely gives…”

Lydia Marie Child, “The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows, and the crimes of humanity all lie in one word love. It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life.” (All quotes from Speaker’s Sourcebook II)

Ever wonder if anyone cares about you? Remember this “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

Author: Pastor Claude Thomas

Have you ever heard someone say, “I made a mistake, so sue me!”? I like another turn to the whole thing. It goes like this, “I made a mistake, so forgive me.”

Too many people are carrying a load of guilt and want to get rid of it. The problem is we don’t know how. So, what do we do? We try home remedies.

The blame game, “it wasn’t my fault.” We’ve all tried that one and found it unsuccessful.

The denial game, “it really wasn’t that bad.” If not why do we feel so badly about it?
The burial game, “forget about it.” We try to bury it in the backyard of our sub consciences only to find that it grows through the grass to remind us of our sin.

All of us know the sting of guilt! It climbs like scorpions in our minds and stings our consciences. What are we to do? Is there real relief from the guilt?

The good news is “yes!” Jesus said, “Come unto me and I will give you rest.” Today, if you are tired of the load of guilt, turn to Jesus.

Author: Pastor Claude Thomas

“There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.” Clare Boothe Luce

That certainly characterized a boy I recently read about. He had lost hope. The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school assignments during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child.

She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.” The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much.

But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?” (Bits and Pieces, July 1991)

He had regained his hope for a future because someone was investing in his life.
God is investing in our futures. The Bible says, “There is hope for your future.” (Jeremiah 31:17). Why? The Lord says, “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Next time we feel hopeless, find hope in the Lord!

Author: Pastor Claude Thomas

“For every complex problem there is a simple solution–and it is always wrong.” H.L. Mencken

Never have we had so much information and still millions of people are seeking answers to the basic questions of life. Questions like, “Why Am I Here?” or “How do I find meaning in life?” or “Where do I go from here?” or “How can I deal with the anxiety I am experiencing?” Someone has called these “Life Questions” because they are the things that really give life significance.

Are there answers to these basic questions? If there are, where do we find them. We can find the answers in the Bible. Listen to what the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, 2 Tim 3:15 “and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Three things about the Bible and the answers to life’s basic questions:
First, believe the Bible has answers that are reliable. “Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.” Whatever it says, then believe it.

Second, study the Bible consistently and diligently. “One Bible in the hand is worth two on the shelf.” Study the Bible.

Third, apply the truths of the Bible personally and daily. A man once said he had gone through the Bible several times without receiving any inspiration. Gipsy Smith, and evangelist from the 20th century, replied to the man, “Let it go through you once, then you will tell a different story!”

Learn the Bible and you will discover answers to life’s questions that you can live!

Posted by: Pastor Claude Thomas

We are racing forward in the new millennium with more technological advances than any time in our history. We have more to entertain us than any generation in history. We can experience more of the universe than any other generation.

But with all this at our fingertips, are we any more satisfied with who we are and why we exist? We can gather information about all kinds of things from all over the world. We can learn the weather and the world condition in a matter of minutes. All we have to do is get on the Internet. The answers are in cyberspace.

But what about a more fundamental question like, “Why am I here?” Where do we go to find the answer to that one?

An anthropologist at a major university said, “We’ve stripped away what our ancestors saw as essential—the importance of religion and family. People feel they want something they’ve lost, and they don’t remember what it is they’ve lost. But it has lost a gaping hole.” (Charles Nuckolls, anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia as quoted in Laurie’s Life Questions, p.59).

That gaping hole is the loss of “why we are here.” What is the answer? Why are we here?
The answer? We were created with a specific purpose—to know God. Paul was a man with a purpose in life. He said, “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward…” (Philippians 3:10). What was it that consumed Paul’s life? He said it like this, “that I may know Him…intimately and progressively all the days of my life.” (3:16).

Here is our purpose: to know God and enjoy Him forever through faith in His Son Jesus.