Ecclesiastes 12:10

  Friends can make or break you.    David’s friend Jonathan stood up for him and helped save his life. (1 st Samuel 19-20) David’s son Amnon had a friend who helped him to commit a terrible crime and set forth a series of events that almost destroyed the kingdom. (2 nd Samuel 13). The wrong kind of friend will ruin you (1 st Corinthians 15:33). A good friend can keep you from falling (Ecclesiastes 4:9).   A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24      So, make the right kind of friends. People who lift you up not bring you down. People who celebrate with you, not use you to so they can be happy. People who bring out the best in you, not the worst. People who will tell you the difficult truth, not those who spout easy lies. People who enhance your reputation, not bring it down.  Friends can be our greatest asset or our biggest liability. It just depends on the kind of frie...

    There is a bad tendency in our world today to look back in history and apply modern philosophy and thinking to the ancient world.  It becomes very easy to judge those folks from our safer, easier, and protected perspective.  Yet the truth is that they lived in different times and under different circumstances that we couldn’t really understand without being in their shoes.  Before we pat ourselves on the back as being different and better, we might need to think more about how we’d be in those circumstances.   I think this is Paul’s point in 1 st Corinthians 10. He tells those hundreds of years later that those in ancient Israel were in a different world, but were still a lot like them. He then goes on to show how they failed to live pleasing to God, warning us to heed the example. He then says, “ Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him w...

     There is a popular energy drink that has the tag line that it “ gives you wings ”. Now this isn’t as literal as the cartoon ad makes it to be, but the idea is that it will lift you up for a bit.   While an energy drink may give you a boost for a bit (But it might also come at some negative future cost), it doesn’t do so for long.   If a weary world, there is a need for something to lift us up  In Isaiah 40:29-31, we read: He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.  Notice that the “wings” he gives us, the new strength that he provides, come when we “ wait on the Lord ”.  Most of the time, we need more energy because we have too much to do in too litt...

  Companies, armies, and really any organization know the importance of morale. The quickest way to bring things to a screeching halt is to take away joy and cheer from people. The Bible teaches us that importance as well. All the days of the afflicted are bad, But a cheerful heart has a continual feast . Proverbs 15:15  A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken . Proverbs 15:13  A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones . Proverbs 17:22  The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, But as for a broken spirit who can bear it? Proverbs 18:14  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4      So why is it that some Christians seemingly can’t help but try to squash out anyone who is too happy? Those who scold the jokester, shush the child, complain about the excited and down the joyous.   Is it because we think fun is s...

   There are some bad ways to go, but one of the worst ways in all of history happened in 1184 in Erfurt, Germany.  King Henry VI called a meeting of church officials and nobility to deal with a land dispute.  During the meeting, the room on the upper floor they were in collapsed under the weight. The fall killed several, but the rest drowned. That’s because the floor collapsed into the latrine below the structure.  Over 60 people drowned in the cesspool of human waste.   But that might just be the way we are going now.   Not literally, but it does seem that the world is drowning in its own filth. Sexual immorality and perversion infest our entertainment. Hate, nastiness, and malice fill the airwaves. Slander, lies, and cursing are in the public domain.  It seems we have fallen from a higher place into the mire.   There is a better way. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility rece...

  For a rather obscure figure, the New Testament mentions Balaam a lot.   Jude 1:11, 2 nd Peter 2:15-16, and Revelation 2:14 all make mention of the prophet son of Beor, yet not in a good way. He is held up as the example of what not to be. His desire for wealth causes him to accept what was clearly wrong. It took a dumb donkey to make him see the error of his ways. And even then, he still used his influence to drive the people of God into error, all for his own gain. “ They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness .” --2 nd Peter 2:15-16   Maybe it does because his type is still common. Even in the early church, we see those more concerned about their pocketbook than the Good Book. Teachers who will say whatever as long as it fills their bank account. People who convince themselves that evil isn’t ...