Ecclesiastes 12:10

       If you try to teach your children about what is right and wrong after they have left your home it’s too late.    If you tell your loved one that you appreciated them while standing on their grave it’s too late.   If you wait to ask after they’ve already made their decision, it’s too late   If you apologize for your behavior as they are walking out the door, it’s too late.   If you wish you hadn’t done it after you already done it, it’s too late.   If you wait to serve till the service is already going, it’s too late.   If you start to prepare when the moment of action has come, it’s too late.   If you wait to be a leader until there is no leadership, it’s too late.   If you refuse to move until everything is just perfect, it’s too late.   If you start to build the new home after the old house has fallen down, it’s too late   If you wait to obey until the Day o...

  It’s estimated that in the US that $40 billion to $60 billion is lost each year in various forms of wage theft. Wage theft comes in various forms but it basically comes down someone not getting what is due them. Any of us that have worked for someone and then found out they are not going to pay, can tell you the frustration. Yet for all of us, the greatest wages we have withheld is really for our benefit. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23   This verse explains to us that what we are due, what we have earned by our actions is death. Our work has a consequence; a terrible one. Sin brings death and since all have sinned, all should get what is due to them. However, God’s gracious salvation isn’t earned it is given. We don’t demand it as a result of what we have done rather we accept it on the terms it has been given.   It’s odd however how people seem to get this backward. We seem...

  On May 11, 1846, President James K. Polk stood before Congress and declared that Mexico posed an immediate threat to the United States. Foreign troops, he said, had crossed the border and “shed American blood upon the American soil.” So Congress declared war on Mexico.    The next year a new congressman from Illinois began to question his claims. He challenged the president to show him the spot on U.S. soil where American blood had been shed. This ‘spot resolution’ was labeled by Polk as treasonous. The congressman said that we would gladly take back his statement if the President could “answer with facts and not with arguments”.  He never did.  The issue stalled out however with the war nearing a close and folks more concerned about the territory gained than the reason the conflict started. For the young congressman, the issue stunted his career. One of his constituents branded him "the Benedict Arnold of our district," and he was denied renominati...

   A few years back the congregation I worked for installed new dry erase boards into the classrooms. Even though we put the correct markers in the room and let everyone know to only use the dry erase markers on the boards, it wasn’t too long till someone wrote all over the board with a permanent marker.   Not wanting to have to replace the entire board, I made several attempts with various solvents and scrubs to erase the damage. No luck. Then I ran across this piece of advice: “Write over the mark with a dry erase marker and erase, it will remove the permeant markers.” I thought there is no way it could work. It too simple, but it was that easy.   Wrong made right by doing it right.   Wish life was that easy. We all have marks on our clean slate that we wish we could get rid of. We might scrub at them but what we think will take away the stain doesn’t work. It seems damaged beyond repair, forever stains with the mistake of sin.   Yet ...