Dig A Hole, Fill It Up

A man was enjoying a relaxing day in the city park when he noticed two workers. One of the workers was furiously digging a hole. The other worker would come along a few minutes after the first had finished and just as furiously fill it back in. The man stared in disbelief wondering what was going on. After several moments, curiosity got the better of him and he walked up to the workers and asked why they doing something so worthless. “Worthless?” the worker quipped, “If anybody on this crew is worthless, it is the guy who plants the trees, he didn’t even show up for work!”

I wonder if the work crew in this joke isn’t what happens in the church. Many are hard at work but it seems their work is in vain. The real problem lies not in them but in those that are not doing their job. When one part is not performing its function, it causes the whole to be less productive. It is similar to what we read in 1^st Corinthians 12 when Paul compares the body of Christ to the human body. Each part must perform its function for the body to be productive. Is the church working aimlessly because you are not there to help?

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Until Midnight

In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

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How Dare You!

Lewis Keseberg was tired of all the accusations against him so he filed a defamation lawsuit against Ned Coffeemeyer the man he saw as responsible for the rumors. The court found that Ned had indeed called Keseberg a “thief and murderer” without any proof but it didn’t rule very strongly in his favor by only imposing a fine of one dollar. Maybe they were lenient because Ned Coffeemeyr had earlier rescued Lewis Keseberg from a terrible situation. Maybe it was because the accusations while not proven were highly likely. And maybe because Lewis Keseberg had admitted to eating people. Lewis Keseberg was one of the members of the infamous Donner Party, a wagon train that got caught in the Siera Nevada mountain and resorted to cannibalism to survive. Keseberg wasn’t known as a very good person before those events and they certainly didn’t help improve his image. But to sue the very person who saved you seems to define the kind of person he was....

Ecclesiastes 12:10

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