Monday Morning Scattershooting

Monday Morning scatter shooting while wondering;  If they say 1/3 of all workplace accidents go unreported. How do they know?

   I once had a elder describe a person as a Biblical since he “appears for a little while and then vanishes away”(James 4:14). Some verses are easy to apply to people. I would like to think that someone might apply Acts 18:24 to me, (an eloquent man … mighty in the Scriptures). But my guess is it probably is one of these;

Top Ten verses you don’t want applied to you as a preacher

          1.  2nd Corinthians 10:10 

For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible."

          2.  Jeremiah 1:6 

Then I said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak,

          3. Job 19:17 

"My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

          4.  1 Timothy 1:7 

even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

          5. Psalms 73:22 

Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.

          6. 1 Kings 18:29

When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.

          7. Jeremiah 10:8 

…altogether stupid and foolish In their discipline of delusion…!

          8. 2 Timothy 3:7 

always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

          9. Psalms 5:9 

There is nothing reliable in what they say; …

          10. Job 16:3

 "Is there no limit to windy words?

"We have now sunk to a depth at which re-statement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." George Orwell

   I read this quote a few weeks back and it hit me how this sure seems to apply to preaching today. Lessons I didn't think I would have to teach people because of they were basic morally accepted tenants are needing to be taught. Once, everyone knew they were wrong. Not anymore.  One of my preacher friends Monte Ginnings said of a lesson he did on homosexuality, “Ten years ago if my mother would have heard me do this sermon she would have slapped me upside the head for talking about something so vulgar in the church service, but now I feel like I am amiss if I don’t speak against it”. Things that were once unmentionable are now needing to be condemned from the pulpit since now they have become acceptable. I wonder what it will be like in future. Will we have to speak on incest and pedophilia as sin because the world now accepts it?  I know what was meant in Jeremiah 6:15 "Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush.”

   My college degree is in education.  I often wondered if my work has been hurt by not having a degree in ministry.  The one area though I know for sure it hasn’t is in the area of classroom management.  Classroom management was not only a course I took but also a focus of a lot of education classes I took.  As I have talked to lots of Bible class teachers, preachers and youth ministers, I see many of the problems they have come up could be solved with simple techniques I picked up in my course work.  Now granted, most Bible classes are different from a typical school environment but the principles hold true as well.  For example, many teachers don’t account for room setup in how and what they teach.  If you want a discussion, it helps to let people see each other (like in a circle).  If you want to control talk, keep the focus on the instructor.  Tables and big podiums can cause a disconnect with the audience.  Once I had a rowdy class and I improved it by moving everything that was between me and the kids.  That sense of proximity to me and the subconscious feeling it gives the audience that you can’t “hide” from the teacher can be a subtle but effective influence.  Any Bible class teacher that wants to improve their pedagogy should look it classroom management techniques.

   Finally, a husband suffered a massive heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors worked for hours until they were finally able stabilize his condition. The nurses informed the wife that he was out of surgery and she could go and see her husband. As the wife arrived at the room, the doctor was waiting for her outside the door. “Mam, I glad I caught you,” he spoke, “your husband is stable but he isn’t out of the woods yet.”  It seems that his condition was bought on by stress.  His heart just can’t handle it anymore.  So in order for him to recover you must make sure his experiences nothing stressful.  No more nagging him to do chores around the house, make sure anything he wants is given to him without a wait, and everything around the house is easy and pleasing to him.  Let him put his feet up, watch whatever he wants on TV and do the things he likes for the next six months.  If you can keep him happy and content he should be able to fully recover.  The wife nod and then goes to see her husband.  He looks up at his bride and asks, “What did the doctor tell you?” She calmly replied, “I’m sorry honey, he told me you are going to die.”