Ecclesiastes 12:10

   In early 1865, Patrick Anderson’s farm fell on hard times. On the brink of bankruptcy, he wrote to Jordan Anderson, who had lived on the farm from age 8, asking him to return to the plantation to work. Though he shared a last name with him Patrick was not a relative to Jordan but his former owner.   The reason the farm was failing was it had lost its source of free labor when Union troops upon occupying the plantation, emancipated the slaves held therein. Now here was Patrick Anderson asking for the slave to come back to the plantation with no mention of pay.   Jordan, by then, had started a new life as a free man in Ohio and had found gainful employment. The return letter he sent back went about as you expected too. Jordan's sarcasm-laden message reminded the slave owner of the atrocities he had done and how he had ‘ shot at me twice before I left you’. He said he be willing to come back and “ forget past scores ” if Patrick would show his sincerity and...

    The worst thing you can give a man is an excuse.   In Acts 9, Ananias gets a call from the Lord. There is a man who needs to hear the gospel and Ananias is the man to do it. Now Ananias was a good man (Acts 22:12) so you expect him to do what he is commanded by God.   But when told who he is going to, Annanias has some reservations. “Have you heard about this guy and what he has done”! Of course, God has but for Ananias the rumors going around about Saul are enough reason to stay at home.   Yet notice that excuses do not matter to God even when it comes from the truth. He not only knows what Saul has done but he also knows what he will do. While his past might be a convenient excuse it was a good reason for Annanias not to follow the command.    Maybe we find ourselves in the same situation. We know God has commanded us to take the Gospel to the world. Yet we all make our excuses. Do you know about them? Have you heard what they did? Can you believ...

  Even though it is one of the most plentiful substances on the planet, water might be the strangest, at least chemically speaking. H20 makes up seventy percent of the earth and seventy percent of our brains, yet it stands apart from everything else in sixty-six different ways. For example, any other gas combined with hydrogen just produces another gas, only when combined with oxygen will it make a liquid. Nothing else is found in nature a solid and liquid and gas at the same time. Most substances shrink when they cool but water expands. Water will dissolve almost anything but unlike other solvents, it doesn’t eradicate what it dissolves. You can put your hand right through it yet water is difficult to compress, essentially making it making it bulletproof.   Yet what might make water even more unusual is that it can save you from your sins. … when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were ...

  My wife often will ask me “Are you upset”? I will reply, “No.” Then she will exclaim, “Then tell your face.” Sometimes my facial expressions don’t always match my mind.  As it says in Ecclesiastes 7:3, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy .   Yet there should be some reaction to the things we feel inside. A repercussion to the thoughts in our head.  When we show what we say in a meaningful way. Things that shine forth like a smile on our face that tell the world around us what is going on in our hearts.   How about our thankfulness?   Sure we might throw the standard, “thank you” around, though oftentimes it is done in formality rather than sincerity. But I am talking about actions that show our gratitude.  In a season where we talk about thankfulness, do we show it? When offer thanksgiving to God, does it seem like we mean it?   Sadly, many don’t look a Christians and see a thankful people. Consider our worship. People often ap...

    The single biggest thing the London Underground did to improve satisfaction among its customers was not to make the trains cleaner or faster or run quicker. It was the introduction of display signs that would tell you the amount of time till the train would arrive.   People were happier waiting nine minutes for a train knowing when it was coming, rather than waiting four minutes in uncertainty. They wanted to know. Knowledge made the uncomfortable more tolerable.   I think we need to understand that when we deal with others. Our tendency is not to tell people things we think will upset them. We gloss over, avoid the subject, and leave folks in the dark.  Rather than help it makes the issue worse.  Sometimes it is not intentional. We just fail to communicate things to others and then wonder why they are frustrated and upset.  Sometimes “ Speaking Truth to One Another ” is making sure we are speaking! Our lack of communication might be saying...

  In Matthew 7:21 Jesus makes an important statement: " Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”  Just because you call Jesus  Lord doesn’t mean you are part of his kingdom. You may profess Him but that does not mean you part of his possession.   Consider the next verses as well: " Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'    "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'  Notice these are not insincere professors. They are ones who are not actively doing things in his name. We can’t dismiss them as non-commits, or liars. They are doing things that would seemingly make you think they are fully engrossed in the cause.  But he does not claim them because he does not k...