Ecclesiastes 12:10

  I hate negative compliments.   What is a negative compliment? It’s like when a person that tells you “have you lost weight because you don’t look as fat as you used to”. Now it’s said as a compliment but it really isn’t, it is thinly veiled criticism. Now the negative can be thrown right back at you but usually the negative is directed at someone else.  It is not a statement of praise for you as much as it is an attack on someone else.      It’s when the lady walks up to the gospel meeting preacher standing right next to the regular preacher and says, “We haven't heard good preaching like that in years!”.  It’s when a person says “the other deacons don't do half as much as you do”. It's the member that exclaims for all to hear, “That was a great sermon on sin, some people here really needed to hear it!”.  You are not lifted up; you are just the way to tear someone else down. It seems on the surface t...

Monday morning scatter shooting    while wondering whose cruel idea it was to put but an S in the word LISP.     I was working on a lesson about John the Baptist last week when I noticed a practical lesson.  In Matthew 11, John sends his disciple to Jesus because he having his doubt if Jesus is really the Christ.  Jesus answers John’s doubt by citing his miracles and ministry and encourages him to not to stumble.  Then right after that he does something we might not expect.  He tells the crowds about how great John is.  He praises him about as highly as you can praise someone.  I thought about how I might have reacted.  Someone comes to me and questions my work, I’d defend myself but I don’t know if I would be so quick to build that person up to others.  Jesus knows better.  People that are having questions of faith are the ones that need to be built up.  A word of praise can be a great encouragement t...

   A few years ago, the church camp I work with built some new buildings.  After construction was finished, we ended up with several pallets of leftover sheetrock.  A board member found someone willing to buy the extra but we needed to load it up for them.  The only problem was the sheetrock panels had been put it the building before the walls had been finished and now had to be taken out one piece at a time.  In one building, it was much more difficult because all the doors were small.  We had to twist and maneuver each piece out the door in an exhausting process.  However, the other building was much simpler since at the end of the building they had made a wider door.  The process was made so much easier and less tiresome by just that little bit more room.       In 1 st Corinthians 16:9, Paul mentions that “ a wide door for effective service has opened to me ”.  I thought out this previous incidence when I heard ...

  If you’re like me you are cringing with election coming this year if for no other reason the airwaves will be cluttered with political ads. It always causes me a giggle to hear candidates make bold claims about their actions . If you took their ads at face value, they are personally reasonable for our education system, economy, and many other aspects of our lives. Never mind the teacher, or worker that actually does the day to day work!   One candidate claimed he was “getting the weapons our troops need to fight the war on terror.” As if he had designed them himself, making them in his backyard and piloting them over on his own boat!    Candidates often feel the need to exaggerate their importance to justify their existence.   You see the exact opposite about the workers of the Gospel . In 1 Corinthians 3:5-8 we read, “ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I plan...

Several years ago,I traveled with a group of young people from the Lawton churches to help in the relief efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Before we left, we were told we needed a pair of steel toe boots. So I went to Wal-mart to find a cheap pair of work boots, since I thought I would only need them a short time. That week those boots were covered in putrid swamp water, used to kick out rotted walls, scratched, scuffed, and generally abused. When the director of the work told us that we need to leave our shoes outside as to not track in the muck, I just took out my pocket knife and carved my initials on the back so I could identify them later and tossed them against the fence. Regardless of the abuse or neglect I put on them, they did their job well. After I came home the boots spent most of the time in the garage, until I would need them for some chore. They never got polished, rarely got cleaned, and were mostly forgotten. When snow and ice appear, they come in quite h...