Ecclesiastes 12:10

  You messed up. You done wrong. You took the left-hand path. You flubbed, forsook, and failed.   It happens to all of us.   Hopefully, you saw things for yourself but more likely somebody had to open your eyes to it. They called you to task. They slapped your hand. Told you no. You got chewed you out, criticized and critiqued   How did you take it? A wise son accepts his father's discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke . Proverbs 13:1    I’m beginning to realize that a true mark of spiritual maturity isn’t perfection but the ability to listen to correction. Oh for sure there will be some that will criticize baselessly but a wise man can see that and dismiss it. A fool however does that to everything that is told to them. Even when their error is obvious, they will attack the nature of the person correcting them and the way they did it and when they said it. They never accept the fault only redirect it to others.   However, ...

  Contentment is very much a biblical concept. Contentment comes from the right spiritual mindset and trust in God and his control. (Philippians 4:12-13). It is the idea of being happy with what you have. Contentment keeps us out of the temptation of longing for things that will lead us from God (1 st Timothy 6:6-10). It is a trait we need to cultivate and admire.         However, contentment isn’t complacency.         Complacency is getting to a point and thinking that is all I have to do. It's not finding satisfaction as much as it is being static. It's finding a comfortable rut and staying in it. Complacency longs for something, the status quo, for nothing to change for things to remain in a predictable easy pattern at will require little effort out of us.       While contentment is the secret of happiness, complacency is the recipe for failure.     You see complacency ignores the fact that chang...

  In Acts 15 the church is in a crisis. Jewish Christian have been telling Gentile Christian that they must also keep the Old Law and old ways to be saved. This isn’t so but the leadership in the church knows that this issue is going away soon. That have to balance their response to keep Gentiles in right behavior without adding the burden of the Old Law to them.     Eventually, they write a letter outlining the principles they want the Gentiles to follow. To ensure the validity of the letter they send it with people on both sides of the issue, Paul and Barnabas, who were familiar to the Gentile Christian, and Judas and Silas well know men in the brotherhood.     This seems to settle down the problems and after they spend some time with Antioch they make plans to travel back home. Yet, an interesting note is found in Acts 15:34.   “But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.”   I wonder what caused that? It wouldn’t be the place yo...

  Tom was an insurance agent that has always wanted to write a novel.   So when the Naval Institute Press decided to start publishing fiction, he sent them a manuscript he had spent the last four months writing. They said if he would edit it down about a hundred paged they buy it. So Tom did that and his book was published. Its realism and the well-paced story was a hit with military and government types. It sold over 40,000 copies. Tom and the publishers were excited. He never expected to make anything off the book. Little did he know one fan was going to change that.     This fan had received the book as a Christmas present and was asked what he was reading, he quickly told them all about the book. He said it was “unputdownable” and “my kind of yarn”. Well, people listened, I guess they do that when you are the president of the United States. After Ronald Regan gushed about the “ Hunt for Red October ”, sales went thru the roof eventually selling 100 millio...