Ecclesiastes 12:10

   Paul was worried about the brethren in Thessalonica. He barely had any time with them before circumstances have driven him from the city. Paul had wanted to return to them but Satan had kept that from happening. All he really wanted to know was ‘were they faithful”?     Finally when he receives the news from Timothy that yes they were Paul is overjoyed. It had been a tough time for him. Mistreatment, suffering, accusation, setbacks had plagued his efforts. Yet when he hears from the brethren are on the right track, he is comforted. He says in 1 st Thessalonians chapter three verses seven and eight: “for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;   for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.”   Do you want to make a minister quit? Do you want to break an elder? Do you want to burn out a preacher? It’s not the long nights or the hard choices that do it. It isn’t tight budgets ...

   In 2006 the Federal government did something rather unusual, they repealed a tax. This was a 3% federal charge on long-distance phone calls. It was about time. The original purpose of the tax was to help fund American efforts in the Spanish-American War, which ran from April to August of 1898!   The war lasted only four months; the tax lasted more than a century.   Taxes are like that. They last a lot longer than they were supposed to. This one was originally thought to affect only wealthy people since back then they were the only ones that had phones, but it hung around long after that fact changed as well.   Habits are like that as well. We might start a habit with a good reason, yet over time that reason fades away but the behavior stays. For instance, missing the assembly of the church. We might have an illness or a conflict that keeps us away for a time, yet when that hindrance disappears our attendance doesn’t pick back up. Or else, we might...

    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 ...

  When Abraham hears about God’s plans for the destruction of Sodom, he is rightly concerned. His favorite nephew, one he practical raised, is among those that are to be swept away. Not only that, Abraham worries about the other righteous men there. Surely God won’t destroy them too? Abraham came near and said, "Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Genesis 18:23    So he haggles with God. How many does it take before you call it off? 50? 45? 40? 30? 10? God, who owes nothing to Abraham, seemly patiently waits for him to come down to his final number the minimum righteous men you would need to save a city.   It’s not enough.   Not that God wouldn’t do it, there were not enough people to be found even among Lot’s own family to save wicked Sodom. Even after Abraham tries to make it is as few as he thought possible, It wasn’t enough   I notice a similar trend in church work. Gospel meeting, VBS’s, other events on...

  In 1939, a film called “Code of the Secret Service” hit the theaters. It was one of a series of movies about a tough-guy Secret Service agent named Brass Bancroft.  It wasn’t much of a hit. Even its star considered it one of the worst films he ever made. But for a ten-year-old boy from Miami Florida named Jerry Parr it was inspirational. After making his father take him several times to see the flick, he made up his mind that one day he was going to become a Secret Service agent. And that is exactly what he did.   Forty-two years later, Jerry Parr found himself living out his childhood dream as part of the security forces guarding the President of the United States. It was a seemly ordinary March day until a gunman named John Hinckley appeared and began firing.  Parr dove to protect the President and pushed him into the waiting car that immediately sped off. When Parr noticed the President coughing up blood, a result of a pierced lung from a ricocheting ...

  In a recent radio segment, I heard Hall of Fame quarterback and current Fox broadcast Troy Aikman make an interesting observation. He said very early on in his career, he was told by his offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese that just because a play works or doesn’t work does not mean the play was bad or a bad call. The play can be a good play and called at a good time but if it is not executed well it will matter very little.   Often we, like lots of football fans, think the result always matches the quality of the idea it comes from. That just isn’t the case. Some good ideas fail because no one ran with it. Some good works never get anywhere because the way it was put into place wasn’t adequate. On the flip side, somethings succeed not because it was good but luck and chance gave it life when it should have withered away.   When it comes to success in our spiritual lives, we can’t just hope the outcome is good. We need to follow techniques that are good. Bi...

  An inventor invented a machine that had lights, bells, whistles, pulleys, gears and you would press a button and it would start running round and round and round. Somebody asked, “What does that thing do?” He said, “I don’t know, but doesn’t it run beautifully?”   For some, that is how they view God in their lives. They’re active. They go to church, they sing and pray, yet they begin to wonder ‘what is this doing for me’? If they don’t answer this, as trouble comes, it’s all too easy for them to just stop.   Yet the Scriptures give us an answer. In 1 st Peter 5:10 we read: “ After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you .”   Here it tells us four things God is doing to those that are doing his will.                 Perfect : He is completing us...

  Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen better known as the Red Baron was the top flying ace of the First World War with eighty combat victories.  He was a meticulous and disciplined fighter pilot that established a set of rules to never chase an enemy too long or too far and never go to low into enemy territory.   But the Baron broke those rules on April 21, 1918, when he encountered a rookie Canadian pilot Wilfred May.  May was out on his first mission but had been ordered to keep out of combat but was lured by an enemy triplane that passed close by.  His inexperienced cost him as he jammed his gun by firing them too much and was forced to flee.   That is when the Baron spotted him. May, panicking and losing altitude, tried every wild maneuver he could think of to stay out of the Baron’s sights. It was only the unpredictability of the inexperienced pilot’s maneuvers that kept Richthofen from picking him off quickly. ‘T he only thing ...

  You hear people make the statements; “ I want Jesus but not the church ”, “ Jesus is my personal savior but I’m not into organized religion ”, " I find my spirituality in nature, not in a pew with other people" .  It’s an emphasis that while Jesus is desirable his church is not.   Can you have one without the other?   Consider what is said in Acts 9: As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Acts 9:3-4    Here Saul is confronted about his actions. The Voice from heaven asks why are you persecuting M e ?  Saul is confused.  The Voice from heaven must be the Lord but when has he persecuted the Lord?  He was doing what he was doing for the Lord (Acts 26:9, Philippians 3:6)!  So he ask, “ Who are You, Lord ?”.  The response; " I am Jesu...

  I can’t believe these politicians, why can't we get someone of character!  I don’t feel good, I think it is stuff they put in food nowadays!  My company let me go because of this terrible economy.  Little David failed his test; those teachers must not be doing their job.    Now it may be just that. Or it may be that have a diet consisting of nothing but Twinkies and soda, spend more time surfing the web than actual doing our job, never once have checked if little David is doing his homework and constant vote for candidates that benefit ourselves rather than ones that show integrity.   Could we consider for just a moment that we might have some responsibility for our fate?   Human beings have a bad habit of finding everyone at fault for a given situation other than themselves.  We can see others specks so much better than our planks.  But consider what the scripture says: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for wha...

   In almost every church I've been in there is a board up front that lists some statistics for the church.  Now the way they are organized and what they are called varies but normally it falls into two categories:  Contribution and Attendance.  Attendance is the number of people who show up to any given service, a head count.  Contribution refers to what people gave during that time, usually a dollar figure.  Let me tell you something, the contribution is the more important part of worship than the attendance.    Now before you dismiss me as a money grubbing preacher let me clarify something.  When I say contribution, I'm not meaning just the offering that is collected on the first day of the week.  I mean what we contribute to the worship.  Did we sing and make melody with our heart? Did we pray along in prayer?  Did we consider the word of God being taught and apply it to ourselves?  Did we examine ourselv...

  After completing many years as a journalist, Arthur Brisbane was offered six months of paid vacation time by William Randolph Hearst, the publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. Brisbane refused to accept the kind offer because of two reasons. He said, "First, if I quit writing my newspaper column for six months, it might affect circulation of the newspaper. Second, is that it might not affect the circulation of the newspaper   So what about you? If you took six months off from your service to the Lord, would you be missed? Would the church suffer? Would it even notice?   I’m afraid that the fact of the matter is too many of us have such a low commitment to the Lord’s work that we feel that the extent of our duty is just to show up occasionally. Our benefit to the church is as head to count.  Now I would be the first to tell folks that they need to be in the assembly of the church. But it’s not enough just to show up. Consider “the” verse on church at...

  It’s a strange phenomenon that I have seen since my first days in ministry.  It goes something like this:  A person will slowly and habitually miss church services, until the point they lose any connection to the body.  Then some trial will come along, an illness, a death, a family or spiritual struggle that will make them long for the support that comes from that body.  Since they have been absent for so long, the chain of communication is weak and the support they desire does not come or at least come quickly enough.  They then lash out at the body for being uncaring about them and abandoning them.  But the body didn’t leave them, they left the body.    I think people often get the order of need confused when it comes to the body.  While a body doesn’t function to its fullness without a given part, it still can survive.  But take any body part and remove it from the rest of the body it will die.  The body suffers if ...

   Something has gone wrong in your home congregation and you are thinking about packing up and heading someplace else. Should I stay? Should I go? You don't want to leave the place that has been your home, but could that be what is best?  Here are five reasonable considerations on why it might be best to go. 1.       The Church Is Unscriptural And Will Not Change    We all make mistakes, even churches.  They use bad judgment and don’t consider the consequences of their actions.  But when we do wrong and refuse to make it right, it becomes willful rebellion.  When a church embraces something that goes beyond the Word of God, a faithful Christian can’t be part of it.  Our presence is a form of acceptance and that makes us participants in the error (2 nd John 9-11).  If we stay too long, there is temptation to give up right principles and go along.  I've seen many sound Christians p...

   Something has gone wrong in your home congregation and you are thinking about packing up and heading someplace else. Should I stay? Should I go? The answers might not depend on what happened, but on the reason you are making that decision.  You have your reasons for wanting to leave, but are they good reasons. Here are five terrible reasons to leave a congregation. 1.        Someone Made Me Mad! It might have been the preacher, or the elders or the little old lady that took your seat, it doesn't matter you’re mad and you don’t have to take it. You can pack up and move to where you will be treated right!  You will “get back” at them by leaving!  But if you are moving because you are mad, chances are you will be moving again pretty quick regardless of where you go.  No place is perfect. No place will do everything right all the time. If you don’t learn how to deal with your anger it won’t matter what they do, yo...

     Have you ever heard of synergy?  It is a term that comes from the Greek language that combines the words energy and partnership.  It is used several times in the New testament to describe people working together in the Gospel (Philippians 2:25, Philippians 4:3, Philemon 1:24, Romans 16:3, 9, 21, Colossians 4:11) or thing workings together (James 2:22, Romans 8:28)       The idea is that we can do more together than we can do alone. The work of two is multiplied rather than combined. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 describes this effect, “ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken .” ...

Quick question, what other name was Thomas the disciple also called?     The Bible tells us that Thomas is also called Didymus (John 11:16, John 20:24, John 21:2).  I would hazard a guess that the first thing that came to your mind however was Doubting Thomas.  That moniker isn't in the scripture but has been given to him because of the events Of John 20:24-29.  Here Thomas refuses to believe that Jesus was resurrected until he sees the physical proof that the other apostles received (John 20:20).  Jesus does appear and shows him just what he asked for.  Because of this event, Thomas has been singled out as a Doubter.  I’m not sure that this is all that fair[1].  Other disciples were not so sure even when they had met the resurrected Jesus (Luke 24:37-40).  In fact, all the apostles got scolded for not believing the witnesses to his resurrection (Mark 16:13-14).  So why then does Thomas get the “doubting” nickname? ...

For many, a person’s faithfulness is synonymous with attendance. A person is faithful to the Lord if they are at the services with regularity. While assembling together is vital for a Christian (Hebrews 10:25), we have more than just services to attend, we have to attend to service. Christian duty does not begin and end at the doors of the building. A person can never miss an assembly and still be unfaithful in regards to seeking the lost, loving one another, or doing good works. Attendance shouldn’t be the end of our commitment to Christ but rather the stimulus to do more in the kingdom.

In Daniel 9:2, we gain some insight into this great man of God. This verse tells us that while reading the Bible (in this instance the book of Jeremiah) Daniel is able to understand the plan of God in regard to the future of Israel. Because of this study, Daniel learns more, is drawn closer to God and is further blessed by God. Not just here but in the entire Bible we see the same story. Studying God’s word is always a great benefit to his people. It is a lesson we know, but don’t put into practice. Take any given Sunday and look at our Bible class numbers compared to worship attendance. Some want to draw near to God by worship, but fail to realize that the Bible study that goes on before that is what will lead to that goal. The church needs people that are looking to what God says in order to be closer to him. We can’t be that kind of people if we miss the study of his word!

One summer in my teen years, a group of us were discussing religion. The conversation had started when my friends had asked me where I had been that morning. I had told them I had gone to church, and one of the girls told me she would have gone but her “church” didn’t have service that day. When I asked why her why, her response was, “Well we take off from services in the summer, since everyone is so busy and traveling it’s just easier to not have church.” Even to this day that answer still blows my mind. I guess at least it was honest. Unfortunately, many wouldn’t officially adopt the policy but do the same thing in practice. Summer vacations and recreation pull people away from regular attendance. The worship of God and the building up of his people is something He has commanded us to do, not just when it is easy or convenient but each week. A true relationship with God is not something we should ever “take off” from.