Ecclesiastes 12:10

  On April 7, 1865 the armies led by U.S. Grant were chasing down Robert E. Lee's forces. If those forces could be captured it would effectively mean the end of the Civil War. Lee was still not ready to surrender, holding out hope he could escape the growing Union stranglehold. At ten o’clock that morning Grant received a simple telegram from the commander in chief.  It read: Gen. Sheridan says “If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.” Let the thing be pressed. A. LINCOLN   So Grant pressed for surrender and two days later, Lee surrendered to General Grant, in the town of Appomattox Court House, thus ended four years of Civil War.      For several years various Generals had Lee on the run, only to delay and let him escape to continue the fight. That’s why Lincoln words were so necessary. The thing needed to be pressed   What needs to be pressed in your life today? A friend needing to be told the Gospel, a slight f...

  Fishermen are an interesting breed, so it is no wonder Jesus called a group of fisherman to be his disciples. And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19   Throughout the scriptures we see the idea of fishing is used as a metaphor for evangelism.  It got me to thinking about how we view fishing today, and how it was back then, as well as how they did evangelism and we view it today.   When most people go fishing today, that take a hook put some bait on it, dangle it where they think the fish are and see if they can get a bite. The goal is to bring in one big fish.  If we don’t get any tugs on the line we switch bait and try to lure in the catch.  We seem to want to do the same sort of thing in evangelism. We focus on what bait will bring in the people, and how we can hook them once we have gotten them in.  We want to bring in the perfect catch that we well be the envy of all that would look on ...

  You may remember the saga of the Morbo 4000 from a few years ago.  It was a garbage barge that was set to take it load of 3000 pounds of refuse from New York City to North Carolina.  The problem was they didn’t want to take. So the boat tried to sail back to New York but it wasn’t allowed there either and thus it‘s saga began.  The longer it roamed the worse it got.  Rumors that the barge was carrying all sorts of hazardous materials made the situation more difficult to resolve. The barge would be rejected by over a dozen places, even being chased away with warplanes on two occasions, and traveled over 6000 miles looking for a place to unload.  Eventually, the company owning the boat went bankrupt and the boat was destroyed with it's cargo.  Nobody wanted all that garbage.   Places are getting stingier about accepting garbage. I know my folks have had a time getting rid of bigger trash items since the live in the country and the area lan...

  You hear people make the statements; “ I want Jesus but not the church ”, “ Jesus is my personal savior but I’m not into organized religion ”, " I find my spirituality in nature, not in a pew with other people" .  It’s an emphasis that while Jesus is desirable his church is not.   Can you have one without the other?   Consider what is said in Acts 9: As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Acts 9:3-4    Here Saul is confronted about his actions. The Voice from heaven asks why are you persecuting M e ?  Saul is confused.  The Voice from heaven must be the Lord but when has he persecuted the Lord?  He was doing what he was doing for the Lord (Acts 26:9, Philippians 3:6)!  So he ask, “ Who are You, Lord ?”.  The response; " I am Jesu...