Ecclesiastes 12:10

The youth minister and I were discussing sermons, specifically how long they should be. We were both curious at how two different preachers could preach a lesson of the same quality for the same amount of time but one would be well received and the other criticized.  As we talked, I remarked that I knew a preacher that was known for his bouts long-windedness but that people didn’t complain rather they were cheerfully amused.  I said it was because he was such a loving part of the lives of the congregation, a little bit of extra time on Sunday didn’t seem that bad. His love overrode his mistakes .  I don’t think that phenomenon is just related to preachers. We all have foibles and flaws.  We talk too much.  We forget to say “thank you”.  We get lost in our own little world and ignore others.  We interrupt. We are selfish, judgmental and just plain hard to be around (Well at least those are all true of me).  But when we show love in what we do...

   Last year, I attended an exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art called Passages.  This exhibit catalogs the history of the Bible from the original scrolls to the 1 st printed Bibles.  The collection contained some of the most valuable Bibles (at least in price) in the world.  Among many other things, I was able to see a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the earliest complete Bibles in Greek, a Gutenberg Bible Book of Romans (first Bible ever printed on a press) and a “Wicked Bible” (A bible made famous and rare because of an printing error, they left out the “not” in Exodus 20:14).  These Bibles are worth millions of dollars because of their place in history and their rarity.    But the Bible has a worth that cannot be simply measured in monetary value.  The wisdom, history, culture, and art found in its pages are some of the greatest of its kind.   Charles Dickens said, “ The New Testament is the very best book that wa...

This is the Radio program for the Hope Church of Christ What Do You Get The Man That Has Everything?

    This week I was reading an article and I realized I have been inflicted with Schadenfreude.   Before you offer me your condolences, you might need to check yourself. I think many of us have experienced it before. Schadenfreude is a German word that that means pleasure that is derived from the misfortunes of others.   It might be the giggle we get from the YouTube video of the woman falling while stomping grapes or the sense of satisfaction when our favorite team’s biggest rival suffers an injury. I know at times I have been happier about an enemy’s failure rather than my own success.    So what causes this condition?  Researchers studying this reaction have discovered that it is related to envy.  A brain-scanning study shows that the Schadenfreude response is located in the same part of the brain as the envy response.  We covet other’s success or achievement and enjoy when that is taken away from them.  In the worst cases, we are not...

   I discovered the older I get the more I sound like my father.  It seems all those oft repeated phrase my dad told me keep popping up in my life.  Like when the wife said something about buying something on sale to save money, I quipped, “ You don’t save money by spending money ” Or when the kids whine “I can’t do it” and I quickly respond “ Can’t never could do nothing! ”  It seems those little bits of wisdom did stick, no matter how much I tried to ignore them.    Maybe the same thing happens to you. You notice how much your voice sounds like your parent’s voice.  It makes me think of what Jesus said to the disciples in John 14:23-24.  “ Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.”  Jesus sounded like h...