Ecclesiastes 12:10

  Well, the year is coming to a close. It sure seems to go by fast.  As you think back, what are those things that you planned to do but just didn’t get around to? You had good intentions, but it just never seemed to be the right time.  Consider the advice Paul gives in 2 nd Corinthians 8. Here, Paul is fundraising for relief efforts and knows that the church in Corinth wants to help. He is encouraging them to finish what they started. He is not asking them to give what they can’t, but rather to not let an opportunity pass them by. “ So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have ”. 2 nd Corinthians 8:1  Don’t let the year pass you by on something you can do.  Don’t let a good idea go to waste.  An inch of movement is better than a mile of intentions.  If you can, do.  There is not a time like the present.  Finish the year with a good finish!

    You can fool kids pretty easily. I think back to some of the tales I believed when I was a kid, I cannot believe I was that gullible.  Maybe it is the lack of experience. Maybe it is just ignorance. Maybe it's just because we really want to believe. For whatever reason, when we are little, we will believe some pretty fantastic things even when it doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But at some point, we grow up and figure it out. Or do we?  In 1 st Peter 1:14, we read, “ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance ”. There is a time when we can be excused for believing in things because we were ignorant. Our desire overrules our thinking. In doing so, we live very spiritually immature lives.  But as we mature, we must not let our lust rule us. We have to wise up and realize that just because we want to believe something, it doesn’t make it so.  Too many folks wallow in their ignorance. Th...

  In 1798, Issac Davis committed the first notable bank robbery in American history. He stole $162,821 from the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia. He almost got away with it. Early suspicion fell on the blacksmith who forged the vault.   But then Davis went and deposited that amount in the bank. Not another bank, the exact same bank. I guess he wasn’t worried about the same robbers coming back.   You would think the bank robber might not put his money in that bank, but people are funny. They see flaws in others but not themselves. An arrogant man will condemn others' pride. A selfish person will complain other how others are just in it for themselves. An adulterer will accuse his spouse of infidelity.  As Paul writes in Romans 2:21-23,  “ you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?  You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You...

   I don’t run. The only way I’d ever run is if a monster were chasing me, and it must be a pretty big monster. If I ever had to run a marathon, I’d die. But it turns out just having a marathon run might just do it.   According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, more people die of heart attacks and cardiac arrest when they fall ill during marathons. Not the runners, the people near the race.  The problem is the change in traffic patterns when streets are closed due to the race. Ambulance ride takes on average 4 minutes longer. People driving to the hospital get delayed. The result is that the 30-day death rate from heart attacks and cardiac arrest jumped 15% for people who fall ill on marathon days.   We often think about our lives in terms of what is good for us and what we want. Yet we must be careful because our actions do influence and have an effect on others. In 1 st Corinthians 8, we see Paul make this point in the context of die...