Ecclesiastes 12:10

  Do you know why coins have ridges?     It goes back to when coins were made from precious metals and a practice known as coin clipping. Coins that were made of precious metals -- gold and silver, had intrinsic value beyond their stated denominations. You could shave a bit off the edge of a coin, keep the clipped-off piece for yourself, and use the almost-complete coin in a subsequent transaction. Over time the coins would shrink to a point that they would be no longer useful as currency. This practice also made it very easy to counterfeit coins since the size was prone to shrink. The ridges help to stop coin clipping.  The idea came from none other than Isaac Newton, the famed physicist that articulated the rules around gravity, force, motion, inertia, etc. The part of the tale that I want to focus on however is why it was Newton.   The idea came toward the end of his career when Newton was Warden of the Royal Mint. This position was, typically, co...

Exodus 36:3-7 tells us about the Israelite's contributions to building the Tabernacle:   “ They received from Moses all the contributions which the sons of Israel had brought to perform the work in the construction of the sanctuary. And they still continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning .”  As the workmen began the task they ran into an unusual problem:   "The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the LORD commanded us to perform."   It wasn’t a lack of supplies, it was a surplus.  And the people kept bringing more, so much that Moses had to tell them to stop:   " Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary." Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more.  They had all they needed and more.  Sounds like a good problem to have.   I think we need to learn a lesson here about when God’s people are inspired to a great work. O...

   Mathis Rust was a teenager with a big dream, to end the Cold War. In 1987, he wanted to do something to reduce the tension with the Soviet Union. This desire became a plan. As an amateur pilot, he wanted to fly from Finland to Moscow to create an ‘imaginary bridge’ to the east. It seemed like a good way to get shot down by the supposedly impenetrable Russian air defense system. Yet Rust was able to make the flight landing in the middle of Red Square.   Rust’s flight didn’t quite have the effect he had hope. He ended up with a 4-year prison sentence. The incident was a joke among the Muscovites as they started to refer to Red Square as the third terminal of their airport. Yet, it may have helped end the Cold War.     The fiasco forced major changes in the military. Many questioned the senior officer’s inability to stop an inexperienced teenage pilot from landing in the capital.   This allowed the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev to replace those offic...

  A man was about to take some time off, so he called his workers into a meeting. He delegated responsibilities to each person with what he thought they could handle. Everybody had their assignments and got to the tasks at hand. Well almost everybody. The first two employees took their many tasks and did what they were supposed to but the third guy stuck his one task on the back burner and did nothing.   Well, the boss comes back from vacation and calls each one into his office to see how things have been going. The first guy says here is what you gave me and I did it all. The boss scowls, ”What do you want a medal? “You did your job, it is nothing special”. The second man comes in and explains he got his task done as well. The boss looks at him and says, “Well, I must have not have given you enough to do. Go do your job! That guy over there did twice as much as you did, why are you not like him?   Finally, the last guy comes in and passes the incomplete task ...

  Being critiqued isn’t very fun. Even when it is true on what you need to do better, it still feels like being hit with a sledgehammer. But imagine if it was Jesus swinging that hammer.   In Matthew 23 Jesus calls out the scribes and Pharisees for their behavior. He works them over pretty good. At the heart of his message is their hypocrisy. They lack consistency. They make rules to break them. They try to look good rather than being good. But notice where Jesus starts in his condemnation. “ Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them . They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger .” Matthew 23:3-4   Jesus sees their error in telling others to do when they won’t. They have high expectations but low work ethics. They know what to do but expect others to do it   Now let’s appl...

Can people tell that you are a disciple of Jesus? If someone did a background check on you, went thru your social media, and interviewed your neighbors talked to your coworkers, what would they say? What are you know for? What did Jesus say would make people realize that you were a disciple of Jesus? Before we answer that let look at something he didn’t say:   They will know you are my disciple by how… You always vote for the right candidate, love your country and support the schools. You have a fish sticker on your car and Bible verse plaque on your desk and wear your church T-shirt every casual Friday You make your opposition to moral political issue well known to all. You can quote scripture with the best of them. You share all the religious memes, like all the faith-based pictures and forward the prayer chain to 10 friends every time Your name is in the directory, your face is on the picture board and address is on the contact list You keep your n...

  Maya Lin wanted to build a wall. Her wall was not practical but a monument. She created it as part of a college architecture class that challenged students to make an entry for the national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Her professor only gave her a B-. The politicians didn’t care much for it. They claimed it was too simple and an affront to the soldiers. Yet it stands today as one of the most powerful memorials. It’s not just the wall, it’s what is on it. Names. 58,000 half-inch-high names of the dead in chronological order.  Lin wanted people to know the names of those that never came back.   Nehemiah wanted to build a wall. It wasn’t a monument but a practical necessity. Not only to protect his hometown but to unify the people in it. The politicians didn’t care much for his efforts. They undermined and intimidated the effort. But Nehemiah didn’t stop till the work was done even after the wall was built. The book of the Bible that bear...

  He was a good man. He had a good family. He prayed. He gave. He treated those different than him well. He served his country. His community respected him. He was “ a righteous and God-fearing man ”   Yet there was still something he needed to do to be saved. Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually . Acts 10:1-2    So when the word of God came to him, he listened. He didn’t just listen, he obeyed. He went searching for the answer he needed. He found it in Joppa in a man named Simon. So he brought him to his house and gathered his family to hear “ all that you have been commanded by the Lord " (Acts 10:33). So Simon Peter told the story of Jesus and the need to believe in him for salvation.   Cornelius knew the words Peter spoke to him would be the ...

  Word origin fascinates me. Taken for example the word character. Today it can mean a letter or symbol used in print or it can be the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. But both these meanings have the same origin.   In ancient times, (brick makers, engravers, etc.) used a symbol to mark the things they created to show that they were the makers. That symbol was his “character.” That symbol became a measure of the work being done.  The quality of the person and his work gave value to his credentials. If the work was good, so was the character. If it was bad, then the character was viewed as poor.  It isn’t any different today. We may want to label ourselves with certain words and phrases. But in the end, it is what we do that gives value to those words. If we call ourselves Christian and don’t act properly, it ruins the name. If we claim to be the church of Christ and behave like any other group, we dilute the meaning. They profe...

  Fritz Haber might have saved more lives than any other human history. Having one of the great minds in history for chemistry, figured out how to convert the commonest of chemicals —the nitrogen in the air— into a chemical fertilizer. With cheap industrial fertilizers now available, farmers no longer were limited to compost piles or dung to nourish their soil. Even by the time World War I broke out, Haber had likely saved millions from starvation, and we can still thank him for feeding most of the world’s 6.7 billion people today.   Yet Haber was a monster. He cared little about fertilizers. He actually pursued cheap ammonia to help Germany build nitrogen explosives. But his most deadly work was in chemical weapons. He created the formula, Haber law, to calculate just how much poison was need for how much time to be deadly. He created and oversaw the use of deadly gas attacks in World War I. His wife so horrified by his actions she killed herself. Haber didn’t even...

  A typical microwave oven consumes more electricity powering its digital clock than it does heating food.  While heating food requires as much as 100 times the power as running the clock does, the microwave heats food less than 1% of the time while the clock is typically always running. Therefore, in total, the clock uses up more electricity.   There is a lesson there.  Many of use a lot more of our resources (time, energy, effort, money) in the mundane things of life rather than in our real intended purpose.  It doesn’t seem like much but often it is the little things that add up to keep us from being fruitful in the Lord kingdom. “but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful .” Mark 4:19   These trivialities become common excuses for many Christian. I just don’t have the time. I’m just so busy. When things settle down. When I've go...

  Meeting :   ˈ<mēdiNG>   noun   The bane of the office workers, a time waste of enormous portions from the Latin Meddle,  a torture device   Ok, that isn’t the real definition, even though it does sometimes seem close. Meetings in the workplace are often a time sink that never accomplishes anything more than having a meeting.  Disorder, complaints, confusion, meandering. They drive people mad!  Rather than encourage efficiency they seem to destroy it.   So why do we do it? Well, sometimes they work.   Consider the lunch meeting a few animators had with their boss. It was to come up with ideas to follow-up their soon to be released movie about toys that came to life. As they set in the Hidden City Café, several movie pitches were bandied about.  They turned out pretty good.  A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and WALL-E all came from that single lunch meeting of  Pixar employees in 1994. ...

   Think twice before you post your good deeds on Facebook so people can like them; doing so doesn’t make your heavenly Father proud.   When you are doing something for the poor and you post about the good work you are doing, then do a press release so everyone will know that you are the 'church that really cares', don’t expect a reward from God, you're already getting your publicity.   It would be a lot better if you just did it; not did it and uploaded it, you can do good without the social media knowing about it.   The internet might not know all about it but God sure would, and isn’t him we are seeking to please?   We should pray, but we don’t have to make sure we tweet it out that everyone can share our wonderfully written words.  Prayer is talking to God, not another way we can promote ourselves and our agendas.  Once again God isn’t impressed.   Rather than put it out there, how about we keep it to ourselves. ...

   Michael was a sculptor. At age 33, he was just starting to make his mark in the art world, working on a piece for the biggest art patron in the world. So when that patron asked him to switch projects from the one he had his heart set on and paint a fresco instead, he balked. He wasn’t a painter; he had never done a fresco in his life. There were suspicions that his rivals had cooked up the job because they knew Michael wouldn’t want to do it, and his refusal might end his relationship with the wealthy patron.   Then there was the job itself. It was going to be grueling work that would take years to complete. It would make him miserable and cost him physically. The art itself wouldn’t be the easy to see either since it wasn’t to be painted on the wall but rather on the ceiling.  A job he didn’t want, doing something he was prepared for, in miserable conditions for something no one would be able to see.   Sound like a job you sluff off right? ...

  Why not let someone else pay for it all?    That seems to be the new thinking.   You see the hints of it everywhere.   Friends reposting just in case Mark Zuckerberg is giving away millions on Facebook.   Email forwards that might get you a piece of Bill Gates’ fortune.   People lined up at the convenience store to buy a worthless piece of paper that might turn into a windfall. Folks feeding nickels into a machine hoping it will turn them into millionaires.   Links to group funding sites to have someone else pay for my desires.     What they all have in common is the desire to gain wealth without work.  Let someone else who has more give it to me. I deserve simply because I desire.  It seems the American work ethic has changed quite a bit in the last several years.   That should not surprise us since the American worth ethic used to be a Christian work ethic .  I think many have forgotten that th...

  In March 1898, the British started building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. During the next nine months of construction, two maneless male lions stalked the campsite, dragging workers from their tents at night and devouring them. The two man-eating lions were credited with killing 135 people in less than a year before they were eventually killed by the project leader John Patterson.   As the attack intensified, hundreds of workers fled from Tsavo, halting construction on the bridge. Crews initially tried to scare off the lions by building campfires and bomas( thorn fences) around their camp for protection to keep the man-eaters out, but to no avail. The lions leaped over or crawled through the thorn fences. The lions were ruthless, attacking patients in the hospital tents, ambushing water carriers during the day. In his memoirs Patterson wrote: "(The lions') methods became so uncanny, and their man-stalking so well-timed and so certain of success, t...

  There is a quote I ran across a couple of years ago that still sticks in my brain. "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all" At times in my life there has never been a truer statement.  Works I immersed myself into that were not worthwhile.  Projects I broke my neck to do that had no real payoff.  Tasks I was assigned and dedicated to that were pointless. The jobs that are nothing more than the “busy work” of life.  I look back at the time and energy and effort I put into them and wonder what was I thinking.   But that is the point, I wasn’t. When you get busy on the task, your mind has a way of drowning out the why question for the buzz of activity. You think only about how you are going to do it, and the what comes next, rather than if it needs to be done in the first place.   It is similar to the effect known as Inattentional blindness.  Inattentional blindness is the failure ...

   In 1997, Reed Hastings returned a rented copy of the movie Apollo 13 to Blockbuster Video.  He was dismayed when he was told he owed a $40 late fee, more than double the cost to buy the movie. The next year he founded Netflix as an alternative to the movie rental change.  By 2010 Blockbuster was bankrupt and out of business and Netflix was worth 20 billion dollars. While Netflix didn't shut down blockbuster, it did steal the market that Blockbuster needed to move into. Abusing one customer destroyed them in the end.    We may not think much of the slights we give to others. The rude comment to the waitress, the person we cut off in traffic, the people we cut in front of in the checkout line, the man we shortchange in business; but we always need to be careful because we never know when those small slights may cause big damage.  I hate to think of the examples of people that refuse to come to worship services because that is where “so & s...

   I recently had a Facebook acquaintance post the follow statement “ Jesus doesn't require perfection, he requires a relationship.... ”    People seemed to think a lot of his remark.  Lots of different people claimed they “liked” it.  I think I understand something of what he was getting at.  That Jesus came to save sinners, and we all have sinned.  Jesus did say “ I didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance ” (Luke 5:32). But his statement still is wrong. Jesus does require perfection. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus very clearly says : " Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”        Here, in plain language, Jesus says we have to be something more than what we are.   It is not enough to know the right person; we have to be the right people.  This statement occurs right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, a lesson that very clearly says God expects m...

Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering why they call it a Fiat? Probably because if you get mad enough, you can throw one.    I always thought that Bible class numbers are a more accurate measure of the health of a church than worship attendance. I think it was Ira North that said “ as the Bible class goes, so goes the church ”.  But even those numbers can be off if we don’t make Bible class a priority in the church.  I've seen lots of churches that have poor class number because they don’t really make the classes worth attending. I’m focusing on adult Bible classes since if the adults come then the children will as well. [*] Here are some things that might help to fix that:              1. It’s all about the options.     If you only give folks a choice between one type of class and not coming, more people will take that choice to not come.  More classes make for smaller cla...