Ecclesiastes 12:10

  Today, it seems like cameras are everywhere. Stores have them to check for theft. Cars have them to record accidents. Most of us carry them around with us wherever we go, ready to whip them out and record anything that we like. Anywhere you go, you might be recorded.   But no place might be more surveilled than Great Britain. There are a reported 5.9 million closed-circuit cameras watching the people. On a single block in Canonbury Square in Islington, North London, there are 32 cameras trained on the streets, alleys, and even on people’s properties. The irony is that Canonbury Square’s biggest claim to fame is that George Orwell lived there while he was writing 1984.   I don’t know how this makes you feel, more secure or more surveilled, but in reality it isn’t anything new. While we might have only recently been able to watch everyone’s every move, God has seen it all for all time. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and lai...

    William Cowper didn’t see any reason to live.   He decided that he’d jump off the bridge over the Thames. So, he called a cab to take him there.   But that night in 1763, a thick fog enveloped London. It was so thick the cab driver couldn’t find the bridge and couldn’t even find the way to take William home. In frustration, he ordered the driver to stop and get out to get his bearings. He walked up to the nearest house to read the number and it was William's house. Gone now were William’s thoughts of suicide and instead a new idea came into his head. So, he went in and wrote these words: God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm.  You fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings on your head.     I sometimes wish we could see all the ways God watches over us when need it. There are...

 In Psalm 53:1 David exclaims, “ The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God," They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.”  Often, we focus on the first part of that verse, the idea of the foolishness that comes from denying God. However, the last part makes a strong point as well. When we eliminated God, we also take away good.  Without God, there is no good. God is the arbitrator of right and wrong. If we remove his overarching judgments, then man determines what good is. And if mankind has proven anything about himself, it's that when left to his own devices he does what he wants and not necessarily what is good. Without a standard, we descend into evil  Consider the time of the Judges when “ everyone did what was right in his own eyes ”. They became as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah! Think of man before the flood when “ every thought of his heart was evil continually ”. Consider our modern world that has d...

    Harry Vardon was golf’s first superstar. The British golfer had become a cornerstone of golf popularity in the United States after an American tour in 1900 that ended with him winning the U.S. Open. In 1912 he was planning a return tour to America after overcoming tuberculosis. He was to arrive to huge fanfare on the greatest vessel of his day. The voyage had to be canceled when his disease came back. Harry was devastated thinking his comeback was over.   Jack Johnson was the world heavyweight boxing champion. At the peak of his fame, he too was planning to board the greatest vessel of his day on a trip. But it wasn’t an illness that keep him ashore, it was racism. The black fighter was refused passage on the vessel because of his color.   As tragic as these may seem, both men would later speak about how glad they were that they missed the boat, even with the terrible circumstances that caused it to happen. That’s because that boat was the HMS Titanic. A...

   Leo Marks would eventually become the head of ciphers and codes at Britain’s Special Operations Executive branch, the entity that was vital in World War Two in breaking and creating codes. However, he almost never got the chance to work there since his interview seemingly went terribly.   When Marks took a codebreaking test that was supposed to take him no more than twenty minutes, it took him all day. Not very good work for a man wanting to be a codebreaker.   There was however one issue. When they gave him the code, it was supposed to include the key for translating the message. They never gave it to him. Without the key, the cipher was supposed to be uncrackable. Marks had proved it wasn’t. It wasn’t that he had failed the test, it was that he had broken it.   I wonder if we sometimes don’t treat God that way. We give him our problems yet forget to do our part that comes with correcting them. We then get frustrated with God when things don’t turn ...

     The parable of the Prodigal Son most interesting part might just be the twist at the end. The tale beings by telling us “ A man had two sons ” but then places the narrative in the hands of the younger.   We see his arrogance, his wastefulness, his shortsightedness, his misery, his loneliness, his realization, and his humbling. The story seemingly could end as the father runs to the younger son and welcomes him home proclaiming, “ bring out the best rob, kill the fattened calf ”!   But then there’s the beef.   We have forgotten about the other son. The one that didn’t leave. The one who has been with the father the whole time. Yet also one that has lost his way.     To him, the younger brother is the enemy. He has done terrible things; scenarios the older brother has made in his mind as bad as he can make them. How dare the father reward that kind of behavior! He has never even given his good son even a token of that kind of gift! W...

    In Acts 17, Paul is preaching to a learned and religious people. People that knew enough to know they didn’t know it all and have tried in their ignorance to still seek out God, but still tried to shape a God they didn’t know into a known form.   In this lesson, He makes an interesting comment in verses 27, “ that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us ;”. God in his control has set up the order and events of time to try to direct men to him, yet mankind still can locate what is right in front of them. The NASB and NKJ use the word ‘grope’, the ESV and KJV use the term ‘feel’.    Have you ever had to try to find your glasses in the dark on the nightstand? You know it is there but you can find it?  That is the picture he is painting, a people that know he is there but can’t seem to figure out where.   People are still trying to feel their way to God. Learned and religi...

  An unusual detail is given in 1 st Kings 6:7 about the construction of the house of the Lord. All the stonework was done offsite so that there would be no construction noise made in its building. If you have ever been on a construction site you know the noise that comes about. Of course, the sound today would be different, but still, we can understand how odd that would be.   Still, why go to all that effort?     I think it says something about the reverence for the place God would dwell. We live in a world today of constant noise. People talking, air conditioners blowing, lights humming, music in the background. Silence is a strange phenomenon. Yet there are times and places where the noise seems to cease. Where something about the place or the circumstances draws the noise to a close. Think about a memorial or a cemetery or that moment in a ball game when a player is injured and the crowd hushes. The beginning of a prayer, the end of the performance, th...

      There are two pictures on our fridge. One is of me in the second grade. The other is of my son Calvin at the same age. Chances are you can’t tell which one is which.   Luckily for him, he has grown out of that hindrance. He is taller and better looking now. But for a time, the similarities were eerie. Father and son looking so much alike.   In John 12:45 Jesus says, “ He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me ”.   For Jesus, The Father and Son were alike. To see one was to see the other. The Hebrew writer says Jesus was “ the exact representation of his nature ”. Colossians 1:15 describes him as “ the image of the invisible God ”. 2 nd Corinthians 4:6 tells us, “ knowledge of the glory of God ” is “ in the face of Christ ”.     Often ‘if you know the father you know the son’. Maybe it in their faces or their speech pattern or just how they live and breathe. All those are exactly true for Jesus.     If we want to know and u...

     I guess I never realized how good we had it.   With all the shutdowns caused by the recent pandemic, I’ve experienced more and more lately the need for help and not finding any available. Whether it’s the customer support on the phone or the store I need a particular item closing earlier, a lot of places have cut back hours and staff keeping them from being able to provide the services they once did. What you expected to be open and ready to assist is shut down and closed up. I have felt a lot of frustration when you need someone to answer but no one is at home.   That’s what is great about God, He never ‘not available’. My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.   Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. Psalms 121:2-4      God is never called away. He is never on vacation or taking a break. He isn’t asleep or distracted....

  Its been a rough couple of months.     Or maybe a rough year.    Rumors of war, civil unrest, riots, turmoil in the government, pandemic, quarantine, economic depression, the list goes on and on. A recent survey shows an overwhelming majority of Americans think things are out of control.  Difficult times can be overwhelming but they can also help us to focus. we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body .  2nd Corinthians 4:8-10   It’s easy to say and think we rely on God when we got the world beat. But when the world strikes back hard and bloodies our nose, we might not be so sure. However, it’s during those times that the knowledge that the God we serve is over all can lift us up when everything else has us down. ...

  I believe in God. For some, that is the mantra of faith. There is nothing else needed. No church, no doctrine, no plan, no action. As long as someone acknowledges the existence of deity, that is all that is required to have faith.   However, that isn’t what the scriptures teach. You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder James 2:19    James tells us the demons believe. Paul in his expose of the fall of man from God in Romans 1 doesn’t say man denies God’s existence but rather tries to replace God’s true nature with one more fitting with man’s desires.   Rather than say there is no God they instead say No to God.   The Hebrews writer tells us that faith is more than just a simple belief in God: And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6     It’s not just belief in God ...

   Out of context, it seems a very strange question Jesus asks in Matthew 12:48, " Who is My mother and who are My brothers ?" When you add on the fact that those very people were standing outside the door, having come to take hold of him because of the rumor circulating about his insanity (Mark 3:21), it makes it seem all the more suspect.   Yet Jesus here is making a very profound statement to all of us.  He says in verse 35,  For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother. " Jesus isn’t confused, he’s explaining that spiritual family is of higher concern than physical.    Later Jesus would exclaim " If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple”( Luke 14:26) . Family can’t be first, God has to be.   I love my mother. I hope you do too. However, a mother’s love no matter how great is...

  Ever read one of those program descriptions for a movie or TV show that is completely true yet somehow completely inadequate. Oh, it may show some elements of the plot yet it doesn’t come close in encapsulating the whole. It may fill the space, but it doesn’t seem to make you want to stop down and watch.  I guess since you have only a few lines, it hard to get everything in. Could you imagine doing it so something as complex as God?   Yet in Exodus 34 we see the just that. In verses 6 and 7 we read: "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."   God who made the worlds and is so far beyond us in every way, is somehow summed up ...

  Some of the best preachers I have known have been fired.  Some of the worst continue to get great job after great job.  Some of the hardest working people never get promoted or are given a raise and continually worry about their job security. Some of the laziest get extra benefits, more pay and never fear they’ll get let go.  Some people never prepare or plan and yet everything works out for them, others do everything the right way, scrimp and save yet it the end it all falls apart. Some folks blow through opportunity after opportunity and yet still get another chance; while others never even get a bite at the apple.   It just doesn’t seem fair!   Life is hardly ever fair. It seems to take more than it gives. Rewards those that that don’t deserve, punishes those that do. Good people suffer. Wicked people prosper. Life seems more about luck than logic, favoritism more than faithfulness, chance more than choice   Life may be unfair bu...

  If there is one aspect that Jesus seems to emphasize in his teaching about prayer, it is that it is not a one and done thing. (Luke 18:1-8, Luke 11:5-13)   Prayer takes constancy to work. If I ask and don’t receive, it shouldn’t be taken as a reason to not pray anymore. Take the example of Elijah: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.  Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. James 5:17-18   Here James gives him as an example of the effective nature of prayer. He changed the weather! But exactly how did that work?   In 1 Kings 18:42-45, we see Elijah praying for the rain to come back. In verse 42, He is confident that it will rain by his proclamation to King Ahab. That’s important (James 1:16). But notice how many times it took.   Not after the first prayer or the second at...

  “God wants me to be happy”.   You probably heard people make this comment as a justification. I can do this thing that is clearly a sin but it is OK because God wants me to be happy. Now there is some discussion there, but let’s assume God does want you happy. Wouldn’t he tell you how to be happy? Let look at some verses: But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye 1st Peter 3:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you 1 Peter 4:14  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.  Behold, we count them happy which endure. James 5:10-11 Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. Romans 14:22   These verses paint a different picture of how God says one is happy. Suffering for righteousness. Being insulted for the name of Christ. Happy be...

  There is a room at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota that will drive you mad.  One person has been able to withstand the room for 45 minutes, but most can't last more than thirty.  Some people can't even make it inside the room at all.  It’s not the color of the walls or the decorations that drive people bonkers. In fact, it isn’t what the room has that causes the effect; it is what it doesn’t have, sound.   This room holds the Guinness World Record for the world's quietest place. The anechoic chamber, which means "no echo", is able to absorb 99.99% of sounds. The sound level in the room is negative 9.4 decibels, but humans can hear sounds only above zero decibels (an average quiet room is about 30 decibels).  It is so quiet that many people find it unbearable to stay inside since and it often disorients people or causes them to hallucinate. Other senses are amplified without the reflection of sound off the walls, and without t...

    I can think of no harder tragedy to live thru than that of losing a child. It’s not natural to outlive one’s progeny, yet David did so on several occasions. How did he deal with that loss?   On two different occasions, we see David in the process of mourning the loss of a son. The first time it is in the loss of his infant child with Bathsheba, the second is after his son Absalom is killed.  His infant child dies as a result of David’s own personal sin. He was an innocent cut down at the start of his life. David spends hours praying and fasting for the Lord’s to save the child, still, the child dies. Yet David doesn’t wail, he rather gets up and resumes his normal life.    Yet in the death of Absalom David takes it much harder. The king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said as he walked, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son...

  In Psalm 19, David starts by pointing out that the very nature of creation is a wordless tribute to God and His power. Then in verse seven, he changes the focus from the works of God to the word of God. A seeming abrupt change but it’s not the only one.   David also changes at how he refers to God. In the first six verses, he uses the general name for God, one that anyone of any religion might use, but when talking about the word of the Lord he uses the personal name of God given to Moses from the burning bush. There is a message in that.      Often you will hear people remark that they find God not in a place of worship but in nature. It is certainly true that his creation is evidence of God (Romans 1:20) it is, in essence, an impersonal way of knowing him. Yet to listen to the Word of God, having His nature expressed thru his own law, is a much deeper way to connect with him. Rather than just catching a glimpse of Him, You see God much more cle...