Ecclesiastes 12:10

  The follow-up question I always get when people hear I am a minster is the “how big” question. How big is your congregation, how many kids are in your youth group?  I guess that is the way they measure success The assumption is that the more folks, the better things are going.   Yet that isn’t true. Just because the house is full doesn’t mean the assembly is productive, united, or informed.  Many church groups are like the large crowd that gathered in Ephesus in Acts 19: 32, “ some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together” .   Rather than just viewing numbers, we need to look at success as we see it defined in Scripture. In Romans 15:5-6 we read, “ Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Fat...

   A chain is a handy device. You use it to pull a car out of the ditch. You can hoist a heavy item. You can use one to anchor a boat or secure a gate.  But you can’t push with a chain. It will pull or hold but try to push and it’s pretty much useless.  People are a lot like a chain. When linked together they can be powerful, if you pull them and don’t try to push. You start pushing them and the links go every which way.   Too many times we try to lead folks by just pushing them. We’re in the back trying to get things moving and it rarely works well. All that shouting and cajoling and needling might move things an inch or two, but the bang for the buck is underwhelming.    If we stand at the front and start pulling, however, things change. Things snap into place. The effort is multiplied. The strength of the whole is unified.   In any role, parent teacher mentor boss, that we want to help lead others, we would be a lot better off if...

  The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s job is to protect the public from products that may be dangerous. They might fine companies for bad practices or force them to recall products that are too dangerous.  To facilitate that mission, they produced and distributed 80,000 lapel buttons, but they had to be recalled since the edges were too sharp.  And the paint used had too much lead.  And the clips could break off and be swallowed by children.  Maybe it is easier to see the mistakes than to make the product perfect.    Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door . James 5:9   It is easy to find fault in what others do. Maybe that fault is warranted but don’t make the mistake of thinking that in doing so you are in a superior position.  Criticizing is easy. Creating is hard.  Too many folks think they are doing something s...

  There is an interesting observation in Ecclesiastes 5:13-15: There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him. As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.   Most of the finical advice you hear from Solomon revolves around hard work, saving, and being wise in what you spend (Proverbs 10:4-5,13:22,20:13, 21-20). Yet here he talks about the tragedy of wealth unused. His point is simple; money isn’t for having it, it is for using it. We think of it as the ultimate safety net but it isn’t. Inflation can eat it away, markets can collapse and we can pass away.   Years ago, a lady approached an elder in the church and told him she was planning to leave a large part of her sizable estate ...

 In Psalm 53:1 David exclaims, “ The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God," They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.”  Often, we focus on the first part of that verse, the idea of the foolishness that comes from denying God. However, the last part makes a strong point as well. When we eliminated God, we also take away good.  Without God, there is no good. God is the arbitrator of right and wrong. If we remove his overarching judgments, then man determines what good is. And if mankind has proven anything about himself, it's that when left to his own devices he does what he wants and not necessarily what is good. Without a standard, we descend into evil  Consider the time of the Judges when “ everyone did what was right in his own eyes ”. They became as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah! Think of man before the flood when “ every thought of his heart was evil continually ”. Consider our modern world that has d...