Ecclesiastes 12:10

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

  There are things that Jesus does that amaze me. Not the miracles, though they are amazing, not his teaching, though it is wonderful. It is the way Jesus can treat people even when they are their worst.   After a night in the garden praying like no man has ever prayed before, knowing what is about to happen and what is about to happen to him, he looks up and sees one of his own leading a mob to arrest him. Judas keeps up the innocent facade by kissing him, even though it is clear to Jesus and all those around what has just happened.  And then Jesus says this, " Friend, do what you have come for ."(Matthew 26:50)  I can think of a lot of things I’d want to call Judas at that moment but friend isn’t one of them. Jesus knows what Judas has done, knows why he has done it, and even why it had to happen like this yet he still does not want to lose Judas.  Judas would not be the only friend of Jesus to turn on him that night.  He would not be the only pe...

 Robert ‘Bobby’ Brown lived an impressive life.  A decorated veteran of two wars, a noted baseball player who served on five championship teams, an accomplished physician, president of the Texas Rangers, and then the American League.  But before all that, he was just a young man trying to woo his future wife. When it came time for him to ‘meet the parents’ he gave his future wife this advice: “Tell your mother that I’m in medical school, studying to be a cardiologist, Tell your dad that I play third base for the Yankees.”       It’s always interesting to me how the different Gospel writers tell us about Jesus. Matthew gives Jesus the royal treatment presenting him as the Messiah, the king of Kings. Mark shows Jesus as a man of action, healing, performing miracles intent of saving mankind. Luke shows Jesus as one who would connect to everyone, rich, poor, Jew, Gentile. A man that changed the people he interacted with. John’s account is a proof; ...

      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...

     There is nothing quite like standing over the crib of a newborn baby. All the hope and potential lying there wrapped in a blanket. I’ve been here long enough to have gotten to visit several of our young people on their first days and as I look at them now I see how great they have fulfilled that promise.   Yet that isn’t always the case     I often think about people that guilty of great atrocities, what their parents hoped for on the first day they held them? Surely they didn’t foresee what their bundle of joy would become.   How sad to think that child could grow up to do so much damage to the world.   When those shepherds came upon the child whose crib was a manger so long ago, they had a completely different perceptive. You see they had been told from an utmost reliable source that this kid wasn’t going to harm the world but save it. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which ...

    There are two enemies that all men face.   One follows him for his entire lifetime, the endless pursuer for all to see. The other looms ahead, in the shadows of the unknown, waiting to attack. The first can never be outrun, the second can never be caught.   Who are they?     The past and the present.     For many their past looms over them. They can’t seem to escape the misdeeds of times gone by. Others are controlled by their fear of the future. What could go wrong, what horrors lurk ahead?   These enemies see too much to overcome.   Consider however the line Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “ What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us”.   Paul would have agreed. In Philippians 3:13-14, he wrote, “ Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,   I pres...

    No matter how good the meal is you will still get hungry later. No matter how much water you drink, the thirst will return. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 6:7, “ All a man's labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied”. There is no ultimate thirst quencher. There is no permanent cure for hunger pains.   It isn’t just that way with food and drink. We chase after money, fame, power, and prestige, yet in the end, no matter how much we get, it leaves us feeling unfulfilled. Nothing fully satisfies     That’s what makes Jesus' word in John 6:35 so compelling. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.     Here Jesus promises a meal that will stay with you. A drink that will satiate. Jesus is promising more than just the free lunch the people in the passage are seeking, he is offering them a chance at a life that will bring a satisfaction that ...

    In Mark 6, Jesus goes back to his home town. By this time, his fame was at an all-time high. The crowds were swamping him.   When Jesus spoke in his home synagogue they were “ astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?”     Yet, the text tells us they took offense at him. Why?     It was because they knew him. Maybe better said they were used to him.   They had seen him grow up. They knew his brother and sisters. His father had done carpentry work for them. He was too ordinary to be something so special.     Familiarity breeds contempt.   I am always amazed at how things can get overlooked when we get used to them.   A bad paint job, a junky entryway, a stain on the carpet would be balked in a new environment but we get used to it in our own place. We don’t see what we should see because we’ve just got...

  Dreams are strange things. Scientists are still not sure why we do it.   What good does it to lay out a scene where I’m back in high school and didn’t study for a test? Or worse forget to get dressed. Trying to tell somebody about your dream seems to be an exercise in futility. The more you explain the less it makes sense. Yet they affect us on an emotional level. Why do we call our hopes for something better dreams?   Dreams are hard enough when that doesn’t mean anything, just imagine how it was who knew God was trying to communicate thru them   Joseph, Pharaoh, Gideon Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, and many others struggled with the dreams God sent them. What does it mean? How should I respond? It didn’t seem like the best form of communication.   Why did God do it that way? My guess is that human being couldn’t handle a more direct communication. Just look at how the people of Israel respond to God trying to talk to them (Hebrew12:18-19). ...

  My Father worked for Coca-Cola all his life so, around our house, Pepsi was a bad word. Even today, if a waiter asks for my drink order and I tell him a Coke product and he responds, “Is Pepsi Ok”, I barely can keep the disdain out of my voice when I say I don’t want that filth touching my lips. I guess if that is all there is and I am absolutely dying of thirst, it could work…. Once.  Just don’t tell my Dad.   It’s just not a substitute for the real thing.   In Hebrews 10:4, we read “ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins ”. So why then were so many animals sacrifices offered then? It is all they had. It wasn’t as good, couldn’t live up to the task and didn’t cleanse completely, but they didn’t have what could.   We do.   The blood of Jesus completes. It’s the real deal. Only with his blood can we get what we so desperately want and even more desperately need. Forgiveness.   So why ...

  Sometimes people will ask me about my church.  They assume since I am a minister that somehow I have some ownership or say over it.  We do that too.  We remark ‘at my church’ or ‘come to my church’.  It might just be a slip of the tongue but we need to work to correct it.   Because it is not ‘our’ church and that is a very good thing!   The church of me wouldn’t be a good one. Oh, it might be likable enough, it could be entertaining, and it might have the community’s approval. The church of me could be growing and financially stable but it doesn’t have enough.   You see churches come at a cost. In order to have a group of redeemed, you must have a redeemer. A sacrifice to pay the cost. And I don’t have enough in me. " Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. Acts 20:28   A church...

  Jesus often demanded people give up something to follow him. For the rich young ruler, it was money. For another man, it was his comfortable lifestyle. For another, it was his family. For another, it was his perceived responsibilities. For others, it was their possessions.   The ‘what’ didn’t seem to be the issue as much as the ‘what it meant to the person’. Think about the thing that feels most important to you and that was probably what Jesus was going to ask you to give up. It wasn’t a mean streak in him, rather he wanted to consider what you were getting into (Luke 14:26-33).   It is easy to think that it wouldn’t be a problem for you to give up whatever until the moment it happens. Yet time and time again, people walk away saddened since they just can’t give up it up.   For some it is an experience, for others, it is a place. For some it is friends, for others it is family. Yet the question is still the same. Can we leave it behind to foll...

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you If you decide to answer questions now, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you know and understand your rights as I have explained them to you?   I’m sure you heard this all before, hopefully not directly. It has been a staple of every cop shop and movie for the last thirty-five years.  It’s known as the Miranda warning after the court case that established that suspect under arrest must be informed of their right.   The case involved Ernesto Miranda who confessed to kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery. His attorney took the case to the Supreme Court and was able to have the case overturned since he was not informed of his right to remain silent or to an attorney. He didn’t escape justice however. The...

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."  Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews'; but that He said, 'I am King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." John 19:19-22   John records that the sign that was placed over Jesus to designate the charges against him didn’t come without controversy. The leaders were appalled about what Pilate had done. ‘He wasn’t the King, he just claimed to be’, they shouted. Now because of how it was written, in the three most common tongues of the region, everyone would think that this was true!  But Pilate refused to budge. The sign over the cross would stay.   Which seemed kind of out o...

  J.C. and Rollie Hall ran into a problem during the 1917 holiday season: Business had been too good.   At their Kansas City, Missouri shop they ran out of the white, red, and green tissue papers that were the era’s standard gift dressing.  Poking around the shop, Rollie realized they still had a stack of fancy French paper meant for lining envelopes. On a lark, he placed the lining paper in a showcase and priced it at 10 cents a sheet. The paper sold out instantly.   The next year, the Hall brothers pressed their luck, offering the fancy paper again during the holiday season.  Again, it flew off shelves.  By 1919, the brothers had decided to print their own special paper for concealing presents, and the gift wrap business was born. Today, wrapping paper is a $3.2 billion industry, and you can still buy it by the roll at the Halls’ store, Hallmark. [i]   You can hardly imagine today a gift today not wrapped up in something fan...

 Abraham Lincoln understood that while he was in charge of a democracy, his office wasn’t one.  Once at the end of a disagreement with his cabinet, he announced the vote, “ Seven nays, one aye; the ayes have it .”  He was the one aye and that was all that mattered.   Some folks have got to thinking that the church is a democracy, that each person can have their say and their way. That in the end decisions should be based on what the majority wants. That its’ practices can be voted on and modified at the whims of it members.   But the Church isn’t a democracy, it is a kingdom. And you are not the King! He (Jesus Christ) is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything . Colossians 1:18   Jesus was the King from the beginning. It is his body.  He is in first place.  He rules.  When it comes to his church what he say...

  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 admit it I’m too easily frustrated.  Whether it’s with the checkout person that can’t seem to realize I had not planned to spend my entire day in this line, or the company that makes ordering a 10 cent part a three day ordeal, or the insurance company that’s really good about taking my money but no so good at giving it back or ….. Well you get the idea.   I know I don’t need to get so upset, but my mind just can’t seem to let go. Then my blood pressure rises, and my temper start to spew out like steam from a teakettle.  So how do I take my mind off the frustrations, the foolish, and the unfair?   Well, recently I saw this wonderful little post by Jeff Archey, The beloved bride needed the private label Sudafed, so I get the little card from the rack, go to the pharmacist, show my license and sign agreeing to use it properly. Then I noted the price was wrong, so I go back in line again...got a debit card to make up the difference--not cash, not ba...

  My second ‘job’ is in sports broadcasting. OK that sound way more legitimate than it really is. For the last couple of years I have been lucky enough to get to broadcast the Hope Bobcat High school football games for the local radio station. It’s not really a job more like a hobby that someone else lets me do.       When I first got the gig, I was terrified about how bad I would be.  I tried to read up on any advice I could find about calling football and made it a point to listen to as many radio and TV broadcasts as I could to try and pick up anything to improve.  It is one thing to hear a broadcast it is another to try and do one!  After two seasons, I’m not sure if I have gotten any better but one strange thing I have noticed is I’m a lot more critical of the announcers of any game. Now I pick up more of the broadcast foibles, poor explanations, redundancy, errors those kinds of things. Even in those at the top of business, I hear things...

  There is a popular sentiment in our world today. You may have heard it expressed like this:    One can be spiritual but not religious .    It is not necessary to go to church and give money for many, nature can be a church.    It doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you have belief.    There are a lot of different ways to heaven.    Religion is personal, everyone's interpretation will be a bit different.   In other words, there is no one right religion.  All points of view, all approach to faith are equally valid. There is no “either/or” when it comes to faith, faith by itself is enough.   Jesus however would have disagreed with this vehemently. " Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. " John 8:24  " For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the wo...