Ecclesiastes 12:10

  It seems nowadays everybody got an opinion on everything.   Well, maybe that has always been that way but we didn’t have all the ways to express it in such a public manner. Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, email chains.  Whatever issue happens to pop up in a given day, I see so many folks quick to spew out their takes as if they were the end all and be all of the matter.   I think us preachers are the worst.  Maybe we get so used to people listening to us each week we think that it is us they are coming to listen to.  That just because an idea came into our head, its a gold plated diamond that must be given to everyone to look at and admire.    Truth is just because a man is a minister of the gospel it doesn’t make him an expert in every subject.  He’s not a political expert, business leader, constriction whiz, social guru, dietary genius, genius psychologist or great thinker.  He just a man tasked with repeating and rem...

  I admit it I’m too easily frustrated.  Whether it’s with the checkout person that can’t seem to realize I had not planned to spend my entire day in this line, or the company that makes ordering a 10 cent part a three day ordeal, or the insurance company that’s really good about taking my money but no so good at giving it back or ….. Well you get the idea.   I know I don’t need to get so upset, but my mind just can’t seem to let go. Then my blood pressure rises, and my temper start to spew out like steam from a teakettle.  So how do I take my mind off the frustrations, the foolish, and the unfair?   Well, recently I saw this wonderful little post by Jeff Archey, The beloved bride needed the private label Sudafed, so I get the little card from the rack, go to the pharmacist, show my license and sign agreeing to use it properly. Then I noted the price was wrong, so I go back in line again...got a debit card to make up the difference--not cash, not ba...

  My second ‘job’ is in sports broadcasting. OK that sound way more legitimate than it really is. For the last couple of years I have been lucky enough to get to broadcast the Hope Bobcat High school football games for the local radio station. It’s not really a job more like a hobby that someone else lets me do.       When I first got the gig, I was terrified about how bad I would be.  I tried to read up on any advice I could find about calling football and made it a point to listen to as many radio and TV broadcasts as I could to try and pick up anything to improve.  It is one thing to hear a broadcast it is another to try and do one!  After two seasons, I’m not sure if I have gotten any better but one strange thing I have noticed is I’m a lot more critical of the announcers of any game. Now I pick up more of the broadcast foibles, poor explanations, redundancy, errors those kinds of things. Even in those at the top of business, I hear things...

  There is a popular sentiment in our world today. You may have heard it expressed like this:    One can be spiritual but not religious .    It is not necessary to go to church and give money for many, nature can be a church.    It doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you have belief.    There are a lot of different ways to heaven.    Religion is personal, everyone's interpretation will be a bit different.   In other words, there is no one right religion.  All points of view, all approach to faith are equally valid. There is no “either/or” when it comes to faith, faith by itself is enough.   Jesus however would have disagreed with this vehemently. " Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. " John 8:24  " For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the wo...