Ecclesiastes 12:10

  Did you know that in 2010 the United States government burned away 2.6 billion one dollar bills! You may think this article is about government waste or excessive spending but it is not. You see money doesn’t last forever. The currency we use is very susceptible to wearing out. On average, a bill will last maybe 5 years. For the more used denomination like ones and twenties, it is closer to 3. So what do you do with the cash that is worn out? The old money is exchanged for newly printed cash. Since the old money is still usable, it must be destroyed.  While there are some creative ways of using that old cash, it is still mostly burned.  Can you imagine being the person to light fire to a pallet full of cash?  To know that many dollars is going up in smoke?    The truth is however cash really isn’t worth anything. It is just sheets of linen (not paper as is commonly believed) dyed and painted a certain way. Its value only comes in our belief in ...

   In almost every church I've been in there is a board up front that lists some statistics for the church.  Now the way they are organized and what they are called varies but normally it falls into two categories:  Contribution and Attendance.  Attendance is the number of people who show up to any given service, a head count.  Contribution refers to what people gave during that time, usually a dollar figure.  Let me tell you something, the contribution is the more important part of worship than the attendance.    Now before you dismiss me as a money grubbing preacher let me clarify something.  When I say contribution, I'm not meaning just the offering that is collected on the first day of the week.  I mean what we contribute to the worship.  Did we sing and make melody with our heart? Did we pray along in prayer?  Did we consider the word of God being taught and apply it to ourselves?  Did we examine ourselv...

  Recently a young man was kicked off a Southwest flight bound for Chicago because of his shirt.  His shirt boldly proclaimed a dirty word that still isn’t allowed on television.  The airline has a clear policy on every ticket about offensive language and dress.  The young man was convinced that no one was offended by the language but the crew held their ground.  I glad they did and help keep a modicum of decency for at least that flight.  It seems however that profanity is becoming much more accepted part of our culture.  Many don’t think a thing about filling their speech with any swear and curse word they know.      But what about the Christian? How should we view this kind of language? What does the Bible teach about the vocabulary we use?    Well first let’s figure out what we are talking about.  What makes a word a bad word?  I think a simple way is to look at the words we use to describe this langu...