Ecclesiastes 12:10

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Identity Theft

In our modern world, you have to be careful to protect your identity. Once a thing like your social security number was freely given, but now it’s wise to be protective of it lest someone steal it. If your number is 078-05-1120 it is already too late. This number is the most misused S ocial S ecurity N umber of all time. It reported that over 40,000 people reported this as their SSN. In reality, it belonged to Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher a secretary at E.H. Ferree company. The company was selling a new wallet and her boss placed a sample card in it to show how it could hold a Social Security card and used her number on the sample. The wallet was sold at Woolworths stores across the country. Even though the card was obviously not legit (it was only half the size of a real card, was printed all in red, and had the word "specimen" written across the face) many purchasers of the wallet still adopted the SSN as their own. Even 40 years after th...

Better To Be Quick

Thomas Jefferson once wisely said, “If you have to eat crow, eat it while it's young and tender.” Let’s face it we will mess things up. We say what we shouldn’t do what we wish we wouldn’t, and regret not doing what we thought we couldn’t. Our response many times is to try to justify, try to ignore, try to do just about anything but face up to our wrong. Yet that makes things a whole lot worse. In Matthew 5:23-25 we read: " Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.” If you are wrong, don’t just admit it. Do it quickly. The longer you take th...

Dead but Not Gone

In the settlement of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway you are not allowed to die. That might sound great but in reality, it is because of a dangerous problem. An explanation is in order. Longyearbyen is one of the northernmost places on Earth with any semblance of permanent residents, so it is very cold. Now death can occur there like any other place but residences are not allowed to be kept there. Since the earth is so cold the bodies do not decompose. This is dangerous since also what might have killed them stays as well. For example, persons that died of the 1917 Spanish flu were found to still have the virus strain alive in their bodies. This could lead to the return of long-gone diseases. The spread could cause worldwide epidemics. So the cemetery closed in 1930, accepting no future burials. The population is generally kept young; there's no elder housing in the area. If you get deathly ill, you will be airlifted to the nearest regional hospita...

Picking The Wrong Fight

One of the best kings of Judah died because he picked the wrong fight. In 2 nd Chronicles 35:20 we read of that battle. The Egypt armies led by Neco were coming north to support the Assyrian against rising Babylonian empire. Since Judah was allied with Babylon it was expected that they would attack to delay those forces. In 2nd Chronicles 35:21we read, “ But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, "What have we to do with each other, O King of Judah? I am not coming against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has ordered me to hurry. Stop for your own sake from interfering with God who is with me, so that He will not destroy you ."” Scholars debate if Neco was honest about receiving a message from The Lord but nevertheless, Josiah was killed because he did not turn away. His death is so devasting it would be byword for tragedy for years (Zec. 12:11). After this Judah was defeated by Egypt and then destroyed b...

More Than We Can Bear

Sometimes you hear people say “God will not give you more than you can bear.” Yet that isn’t biblical. Yes, God ‘ will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able’ (1st Cor. 10:13) yet that doesn’t say that there won’t be times you face adversity more than you can handle. Consider 2 nd Corinthians 1:8-9. Here Paul says “ For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength , so that we despaired even of life”. The burden on him was more than he had the strength to overcome. To the point, he was ready to be done with life. Why would God allow that to happen? Let's read on; “ indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves , but in God who raises the dead ” This excess was so that they would not trust in themselves to overcome but learn to full trust in God. We might be falling in...

O Little Town

Many folks don’t think little towns have much going for them. They are small, not many folks, not much going on. The future can’t be bright for a little town they say. Some folks think the same thing about little churches. But while they have some disadvantages, they also have advantages. People are closer knit. They are quicker to be compassionate. They rally together. They fight through adversity. They typical kinder, simpler and less quick to fall into bad ways. " For who has despised the day of small things ? Zechariah 4:10 I think the mistake we make is by looking at what we don’t have rather than what we do have. Size isn’t the issue. Some of the most dynamic things in the brotherhood come from small churches. A little town can do a lot when it gets everyone on board. A small start doesn’t mean a little finish (Mark 4:31-32). God doesn’t expect us to do give what we don’t have but he does ex...