Ecclesiastes 12:10

   Near the end of David’s reign as king, he commits a great sin. He decides to number his people. The census isn’t wrong but the prideful act of the King is.   As punishment, David is given a choice by God, “ either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, even pestilence in the land ” (1st Chronicles 21:12-13). David chooses the pestilence, figuring it would be better to be in God’s hands rather than men. As the destroying angel reaches the threshing floor of Oran, David cries out to God, “ Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand be against me and my father's household, but not against Your people that they should be plagued”.   This story literally emphasizes the Biblical point that the “ wages of sin i...

    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...

  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...

  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...

    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...

   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...