She Thinks I Steal Cars

I love parody songs. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it is basically when someone rewrites the lyrics of a popular song to some thing really silly. They are just harmless fun to get a laugh. The only problem is once I hear the parody song; the original is ruined for me. As I was driving home a few days ago the old George Jones song “She thinks I still care” was on the radio, but no matter how hard I tried I could not get the chorus of the parody song “She think I steal cars” out of my head. I had probably only heard that parody once but it was still stuck in my head. Just a sample of the parody had warped the original for me.

This is an example of how sometimes even a little bit of wrong can spoil a good thing. So many times we think that we can overcome the little bit of bad that is in so much of the little thing of this world. We justify by saying “A little bit of bad language in the movies OK, I just ignore it” or “I won’t participate in the bad stuff, just the acceptable parts."

The problem with that thinking is that a small amount of sin is still sin. It starts to pollute until it corrupts our entire mind. Paul warned the church in Galatia, “That little yeast works thought the whole batch of dough” to warn them those that were teaching false doctrines. We should head the same warning when we are tempted to bend our Christian standards in order to participate with the world. Even a small amount immorality pollutes our original purity. Don’t let you character be compromised for harmless fun.

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The Gift You Give Yourself

I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me. There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15). I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven. So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives. When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Desire

Is it wrong to want something? I guess it depends on what we want. The Greek language had a word ‘ orego ’ that meant “to stretch oneself out in order to touch or grasp something, often used metaphorically to denote a strong desire or aspiration for something”. Paul uses this word in 1st Timothy as a good thing (to be an elder 3:1) and a bad thing (longing for money 6:10). Our desires oftentimes define who we are. They motivate us to action. They are the focus of our minds and actions. And they can be both good and bad. Sometimes we want something better and we run over people to get it. Sometimes, we want something better so we will strive to improve ourselves. Sometimes we see people with nothing they want and we envy them. Other people will see with no desire and we pity them. We need to desire good things. Be willing to work to get them. Care enough to try. We need to not desire bad things. Be willing to forgo o...

Until Midnight

In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

Ecclesiastes 12:10

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