Ecclesiastes 12:10

      T he Koreans have a term to describe a person who’s better at everything than you are, Umchina . If you translate it literally it’s "mom's friend's son".   Things are not that different here.   Everyone can find that person who we always fall short of (If you can’t ask your Mom). The standard of others is always a standard that will be a little too big for us. It can make us feel inadequate and incapable.   Aren’t you glad God doesn’t do that?   All of us will not be held to the standard of others but to our own. Another person's judgment will not factor into it (Romans 14:4). It won’t matter what your mom’s friend's son did but it will matter what you did! But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.   For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD."  ...

      Walter Hunt was great at making things. He just wasn’t good at doing something with what he made.   In 1834, he inventing the first sewing machine but never filed a patent on it. Someone else did and made a fortune. He didn’t make that mistake again with the first fountain pen and first repeating rifle. However, he never turned them into viable products. Others did and made amazing profits. In 1849, after a few hours playing with a piece of wire be bent it into the shape that would become the safety pin. That idea would go on to be a million-dollar one. Just not for him. He sold the patent for $100, to make some quick cash.   Such great ideas but he never capitalized on them.     James warns his readers about this kind of behavior. Those that hear the word but don’t act on it. Those that have faith but don’t have works. Those that have God’s commands but don’t do the very thing those commands say. It’s not enough to just know the right thin...

    Robert Todd Lincoln was at the White House when he heard what had happened to his father at Ford Theater. He immediately rushed to be by his side and stayed there till his death. After the death of his father, he would go on to be a very successful lawyer and an important figure in Republican politics. Yet He eventually refused to have to do with the presidency.    He felt it was too dangerous.   It wasn’t just at his father’s deathbed he saw what an assassin’s bullet could do. He was standing right next to James Garfield when a gunman fired the bullet that would eventually kill him. Then as he was waiting outside for William McKinley when he was shot. From then on he refused to go anywhere near a president.   He said "No, I'm not going, and they'd better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.   It was just a coincidence but the tragedy still weighed on Robert Lincoln. He isn’t the on...

  Lots of men suffer from the things they did in war but for Major Henry Rathbone what drove him to insanity was what he didn’t do.     Rathbone would spend the last 27 years of his life in an asylum for the criminally insane after attacking and killing his wife Clara as she tried to defend their children from his deranged attack. It wasn’t the stress of his job in the U.S. Consul in Hanover, Germany that drove him over the edge, it was the stares. As Clara put it, “ In every hotel we’re in, as soon as people get wind of our presence, we feel ourselves become objects of morbid scrutiny … Whenever we were in the dining room, we began to feel like zoo animals” . Henry imagined the worst when it came to what those people behind the stares were thinking.     What more could he have done that night?     He’d almost died in his effort. No one was expecting the attack. The enemy came in a whisper and had succeeded before anyone knew w...

  It might seem Paul contradicts himself in just a few verses. In Galatians 6:3 He tells us to “ Bear ye one another's burdens ”, then just three verses later he tells us to “ every man shall bear his own burden ”   What gives?   Well, a bit of understanding of the original text is in order. The burden in verse 2 is a word that describes an overload, one that would drop you to your knees, a heavy load. The word in verse 5 is a responsibility, the load any person would be expected to carry in their travels. One is a carry-on bag, the other is a fully loaded down steamer trunk.   There is the difference. Christians are to help when we see those overburdened by life. We are to grab one end and help lift up the load faced by those struggling with the effort. But that doesn’t mean we are to be responsible for taking away ever weight from a person. Some folks would love to offload all their responsibilities for someone else to handle. That’s not a good ...

  It was the day Abraham Lincoln succumbed to the wounds inflicted by his assassin in 1865. It was also the day the Titanic sank. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in US history happened on the date as well. So did the Boston Marathon Bombing. Maybe worst of all every year you have to pony up and pay your taxes on it as well.   April 15 th .   Ok maybe paying your taxes isn’t as bad as all of those things. Still, I don’t like to do it. Yet it isn’t just a legal obligation or my duty as a citizen of the United States, it’s also commanded by God. “ Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.   For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.   Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor .” Romans 13:5-7   Go...

  In my imagination, He is setting in his cell considering his fate. The charges have stacked up against him. Robbery, Insurrection Murder. The soldiers have been preparing for the crucifixion. He’s watched as the wood been gathered to assembly the crosses. He heard that a hill outside of town has been selected. It’s only a matter of time now.   Suddenly soldiers appear and start unlocking the door. It’s sooner than he thought it would be. They drag him as he walks, his steps too slow for them.     But then who’s in a hurry to get to his own execution?     Then he notices something is wrong. They are not taking him down to the roadway but rather up to the Praetorium. As they come out into the dawning sunlight, it blinds his eyes. He can’t see much but he does hear a crowd. His trial is over, his guilt is set, what more could they be doing with him?   That’s when he hears the voice of the governor. He’s talking about how he is oblige...

    Thomas Midgely was a mechanical and chemical engineer that had over 100 patents in his career. He has won the Priestly Medal the highest award of the American Chemical Society, was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and hold two honoree degrees because of his work. He also might have done more damage to the atmosphere than any person that ever lived.     You see, Midgely is the man responsible for both leaded gasoline and Freon.  While both products had wonderful uses, they both had deadly consequences. Leaded gasoline is linked to all kinds of long term health problems. Freon was found to destroy the ozone layer. By 2018, both products made the Time’s list off worst inventions of all time.     At least with lead gasoline, he should have known better. The plants that manufacture the stuff had serval deaths attributed to lead poisoning, workers had bouts of insanity and hallucinations because of exposure to i...

   I happen to like the clever touchdown dance. Since the National Football league relaxed its rules the last season there have been some pretty entertaining ones. However, there does seem to be too much over celebrating in football in general. The guy that jumps up and struts when he has made a routine tackle. The player that bows up on a hit when his team is down by twenty. The receiver that acts like making a normal first down is the greatest play in the history of football. It seems a bit juvenile.   Of course, the rebuke you always hear to these antics is “act like you have been there before”.  Only a rookie behaves that way. A true experience professional knows how to behave. Instead of making a fool of yourself, behave like you what you want to be not what you are.   Paul uses a similar phrase in Philippians 3:16. “ However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained ”. In a section where he is encouraging us to tak...

  Thomas Edison was a pioneer in electricity with his perfection of the light bulb but by 1887, his company that was attempting to light cites everywhere was struggling. The problem was in how the electricity was delivered. The truth was his direct current (DC) was not near as cost-effective as his bitter rival George Westinghouse’s alternate current (AC). Edison felt his current was the safer choice even if it wasn’t as cheap.   So when the state of New York came calling with a desire to buy up a generator, you might be shocked when Edison recommended his rival’s technology. He even recommended the new use be called “Westinhoused”   Why?   Because the new use was to kill. The generator was for the first electric chair.  Edison believed that DC current was dangerous and what better what to show that to the world than having it kill a man. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome med...

  A man had two sons   The younger son of them felt he had earned his share of his father’s estate so he left home with Dad’s credit card and went out to find himself.   It didn’t take long till the card was maxed out and the people that the younger son was indebted to didn’t seem to care too much about the younger son’s journey of discovery, and just wanted their money. Times were tough and it seemed a full of himself spoiled son wasn’t the resume material for an easy high paying job so the son had to get a low-end menial one.   One day when he was scrubbing toilets, the younger son had an epiphany. His Dad was wealthy and raised him accustomed to that lifestyle. This wasn’t fair. He couldn't even afford an unlimited data plan on minimum wage. He shouldn’t have to work. His father had cursed him with affluenza. This was his fault! He should march right back to father house and lay the blame right square on him!   So as texted his Father to te...