The Name Written On It

There was a rancher in Oregon named Bill Brown. He was known for often writing checks on any paper available. This included things like envelopes, soup can labels, and newspaper margins. Now, most banks wouldn’t accept his kind of check, but Bill Brown was a very rich, therefore very important customer, so the banks in his area would cash the checks without question.

It wasn’t the surface the name was written on that mattered, but the name written on the surface.

In 2^nd Corinthians 4, Paul speaks about the privilege we have because of our involvement in the ministry of Christ. Yet he warns us that we, “do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. In fact, he tells us “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves”

It is not about the person the message is written on but the person that has written the message.

We are but the vessel, not the contents. We are rather ordinary and ignominious, but his name on us makes us valuable. As we carry the name of Christ, that is what is to be glorified, not ourselves.

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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

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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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