Ecclesiastes 12:10

  Once there was a contest to show one’s skill at archery. Three men were challenged to shoot an apple off a young boy's head.   The first one draws his arrow back, shoots, and hits the apple off the boy's head. He then holds up his hand and proclaims, "I am William Tell!"   The second one draws his arrow back, shoots, hits the apple, and also splits the other archer's arrow. He then holds up his hand and proclaims, "I am Robin Hood!"   The third one draws his arrow back, shoots, and hits the poor boy right between the eyes. The other archers look at him, stupefied at what he has done. The man then holds up his hand and proclaims, "I am sorry.   When we mess up, we should be sorry. But when we continue to mess up without an effort to change,  we are just being sorry.   This is at the heart of repentance. Not just being sorry for what he did, but changing so he doesn’t continue to be sorry For the sorrow that is according to the will o...

    Years ago, I got into a discussion with a young man who was convinced the Bible did not prohibit homosexuality. He reasoned that that in passages such as Leviticus18:22 that describe the practice as an “abomination,” the Hebrew word “toebah,” which we know transliterate as taboo, is something only found wrong because it violates cultural norms. In other words, it was only said as wrong because it went against what was wrong for them. Since we no longer think that way, it’s not condemned.   There is a lot of wrong thinking there. First, we can’t take a modern use and apply it to what was said back then. Second, if we hold to that, we must apply it every time it is used. And the term is used for activities that God is always clearly against, i.e., idolatry and child sacrifice. Third, the Bible condemns the practice with various other terms and descriptions.   Yet maybe the biggest flaw in that thinking is that if we become ok with something, then God does. Ma...

    Do you remember the old kids' board game Chutes & Ladders? For those unfamiliar, you spun the dial and advanced that many spaces trying to reach the top.  If you landed on a ladder, you take it skipping ahead, but if you got on a chute, then you slide back down.   The journey of faith is a lot like that game. We plug along, growing toward the goal. Something happens that moves us ahead with ease. Then comes the chute, knocking us back down. At times it is easy, at times it is hard, at times it just moves along. The key is to keep getting back up and moving forward.   There will be setbacks. There will be successes. Sometimes you move so fast you can’t believe how simple it is. Sometimes it seems all you do is fall down. Other times, it is slow progress but progress nonetheless.  You just need to keep spinning and keep taking your turns   The promise isn’t ease. It isn’t consistency. It is that if we keep going, we will reach the prize. ...

    Pride is about self. When we think too much of ourself it is pride. When we act selfishly, we act in pride. Pride is about self   But also allies us to the wrong side.   In James 4:6-7, we are told  “ God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble .” So, then it continues by telling us to surrender to him, “ Submit therefore to God ”. Our pride must be curtailed by a willingness to submit and surrender to God. Yet notice the next line, “ Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”   Often, we don’t think of this verse in context with the previous one. We see it as standing up to the devil, but to do that, we must surrender ourselves to the Lord. If we in pride think we can whip the devil, we are just playing his game. What we must do is surrender ourselves to God.   Pride and the devil go hand and hand. Submission and God are linked.  Don’t think you can be full of yourself and full of the Lord. It’s never worked that ...

    To listen to us, we seem to be experts on everything. Tax laws, police procedures, driving, medical practice, product shipping, and street repair. At least we are willing to tell others how all that should be done.    In James 4:11-12, he makes an interesting perceptive;  “ Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?”  When we judge others, we place ourselves on the throne of God and outside the jurisdiction of the law. We think we are better and are not subject to the same law.    Yet we are not God. We don’t have the authority, the knowledge, or the power to take that position.  We need to remember that before we are quick to pronounce judg...

    Author Herman Rosenblat wrote a heartbreaking book called The Angel at the Fence about a girl , who would become his future wife, lovingly tossing apples to him over a fence at his concentration camp. Oprah Winfrey described it as the single greatest love story she heard in over 22 years of hosting her show. The only problem was that it wasn’t true. The story was fabricated and historically impossible.    Yet that did not deter him much.  Rosenblat would later say, "It wasn't a lie. Even now, I believe it, that she was there and she threw the apples to me. In my imagination, it was true."      Unfortunately, this ability to choose fiction over fact is not an unusual phenomenon. Scripture tells us man has “ exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator ” (Romans 1:25).  The world today is full of created religions and man-made plans of salvation. Even with the truth of the word of God...