Ecclesiastes 12:10

  As kings go, you couldn’t do much better than Asa. In 2nd Chronicles 14 we are told that Asa “ did good and right in the sight of the LORD his God ”, he removed the idols destroyed the places of false worship, and “ commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment ”. Even when trouble came, he still held completely to God (2nd Chronicles 14:9-12).   What was the secret to his success? We see the advice he heeds in 2nd Chronicles 15:1-2: Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.   For years the nations of Israel had been lacking God in their lives. It was only when things got bad did they seek to return. The prophet was telling Asa to not make that mistake. Seek God now before the strugg...

   It’s the time of year for lists. Your wish list, your shopping list, the list of places you will be traveling to. The guest list, the gift list, the list of things yet to do. The list of New Year’s resolutions, a list of things to get done before the year ends and all that while you are trying to stay off the naughty list.    In all those lists let us not forget the most important list we want to be on: And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in...

    In the summer of 1980, everyone was asking the question, “Who shot J.R.?” For those of you not around then, J.R. Ewing was the villainous character on the hit series Dallas .  That year’s season ended on a cliffhanger where J.R. is shot by an unseen assailant outside his office. The mystery became a global phenomenon. The question was referenced in the upcoming presidential election. Vegas was taking bets over ‘who done it’. The star of the show, Larry Hagman, was offered a million pounds to give away the answer (He didn’t know). A former President and even the queen of England tried to coax the answer out of the production. It took eight months and 4 episodes to finally reveal the shooter.   The funny thing is as big as the question was most people don’t remember the answer. The important as the question seemed to be, the answer did seem to matter much.   Lots of things in our life are like that. At the moment we are captivated by them. It grabs...

  Chances are this week you are in the midst of trying to get everything done before the holiday season. Buy the last-minute presents, wrap those gifts, get the Christmas dinner fixed, send out those ends of the year letters, clean up before guests arrive, gas up the car, make sure the travel plans are in place. It can be overwhelming.   Did I miss anything?   It reminds me of Martha in Luke 10. Frustrated not only by all she has to get done but also by a sister that isn’t helping. When she expresses her irritation to the Lord, he gives her an unexpected response. " Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary …”.   It was not her sister that made the mistake, it was her. She is missing out on what is most important because she focused on all the things that should come second.   Could we be doing the same thing?   This time of year should be a reminder of what matters most. Don’t let al...

     American Airlines was looking for some ways to save money. So, they asked their employees for some ideas. Over many years of collecting meal trays in aircraft cabins, flight attendants had come to know that most passengers did not eat the olives in their salads. Could getting rid of the olives save money?   Sure, enough it could. Removing that one item from the salads would save the company roughly $500,000 per year. But would it upset the passengers? Research said no. The study showed that 72 percent of customers were not, in fact, eating their olives.   So, everyone would be happy right?   No, not really.   The Association of Olive Growers wasn’t happy at all. They contacted the airline and threaten a boycott if they didn’t bring back the olive. American Airline was able to settle them down but making sure that the airline would have olives for any passenger that wanted them, they would just have to ask.     In reality, the...

    This New Year I resolved to scrape away some barnacles.   No, I don’t own a yacht.   This isn’t the nautical type of barnacles. It is a term I recently heard in a financial discussion.   There it referred to items that attach themselves to our bank account. That gym membership we don’t use, a trial of Pandora we forgot to cancel, and that yearly fee we don’t think about till it is due. They are those things that attach to your money and slow down your ability to make it grow.   But this idea isn’t just for better finical planning. Life has barnacles. Things you get stuck with that are not useful anymore but we can’t seem to shake them off. Bad habits, odd obligations, time vacuums. We might think they were once useful but now they just help drag us down. Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,   making the most of your time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16      I don’t think I’ve met t...

   On October 8 th, 1871, the deadliest fire in U.S History occurred. If you were to google the date you see results about the Great Chicago Fire. For 31 hours the flames burned killing 250 people destroying 18,000 buildings and leaving a 100,000 homeless.     But that fire wasn’t it.     Just over 250 miles away in the northern Wisconsin lumber town of Peshtigo fire burned the entire city to ashes killing somewhere between 1,200 to 2,500 people. In fact, that day there were 5 major fires in the region, fueled by unusually high winds and drought conditions. However since Chicago was a major city and it started first, it is the one most people know about.     That happens a lot. One danger gets overshadowed by another, an easily perceived problem receives attention over a more reclusive one, a promoted issue takes precedence over a less talked about one.   What might be a much bigger threat is set on the backburner because everyone is t...

   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...

  Did you know that in 2010 the United States government burned away 2.6 billion one dollar bills! You may think this article is about government waste or excessive spending but it is not. You see money doesn’t last forever. The currency we use is very susceptible to wearing out. On average, a bill will last maybe 5 years. For the more used denomination like ones and twenties, it is closer to 3. So what do you do with the cash that is worn out? The old money is exchanged for newly printed cash. Since the old money is still usable, it must be destroyed.  While there are some creative ways of using that old cash, it is still mostly burned.  Can you imagine being the person to light fire to a pallet full of cash?  To know that many dollars is going up in smoke?    The truth is however cash really isn’t worth anything. It is just sheets of linen (not paper as is commonly believed) dyed and painted a certain way. Its value only comes in our belief in ...

    The hardest decisions are not between good and bad but between good and better.  Oh, we might say a decision is hard when really mean the consequence are hard to live with.  We know one way is bad but we really want to do it anyway.  The choice is clear but our desires and weakness make us want to choose poorly.     What I mean by hardest however, is when we are unsure what to do.  Both ways are correct and any decision feels like something is good is left behind.  Which way is good and which way is better?      I see these type of decision exemplified in scripture, such as when Jesus is healing people in Mark 1:32-38. People are in need and Jesus is healing them but Jesus makes the decision to go to another place to preach. Also, in Luke 10:38-42, when Martha gets so caught up in her preparation that she forget to listen to Jesus.  Or in Acts 6 when the apostle have to figure out how to so...

            Well, the time has come for me to write my last bulletin article as a minister at Northwest.  Anytime you come to the end of something, it causes you to think back and question what you have done. Have I done a good thing? Did I make any difference? Did my labor mean anything? Was it all worthwhile? These questions are often times impossible to answer.  Some results are not easily quantified.  Influence, worth and meaning are often not seen in the short term.   Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “ God has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”   God has made us mortal but we long for eternal significance. Only thru Him can we achieve this desire. Only in the life to come can we see all the result of our works. That is why we must think about the ete...

  Those of us that lived thru the 80’s will remember the “Crack Cocaine” epidemic. When the “crack” version of the drug cocaine hit the streets, news outlets screamed about the dangers of this new drug that was 50 times more dangerous than cocaine. Stories of “crack babies”, infants exposed to drug by their mother, which were permanently damaged and unable to function as human beings. Congress reacted to the crisis by drafting legislation known as the 100:1 rule, which meant that having one gram of crack was as bad as having 100 grams of cocaine. That made anyone in possession of 5 grams of crack was enough to classify a person as a dealer, leading to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.   The only problem was that the information that led to the outcry was bunk. The expert that testified before Congress had made up all his statics, just as he had his credentials as an expert. In reality, there is absolutely no difference in danger between crack and powder cocaine. ...

     I once heard an old preacher’s story (I don’t know if it is a real account or a work of fiction) about a church with a priority problem.  It started with a simple line in the church bulletin reading “Would the person that moved the trees from the behind the pulpit last week, please return them". The same statement kept appearing each week but with an increasingly harsher tone. Over the next six months, the interest in “who stole the trees” became a mainstay of the congregation. Each member had a theory over who would commit such a terrible crime. The preacher even got involved with lessons entitled “Stealing from God” and “Thieves and liars will not inherit the kingdom of God”. The controversy came to an end as just as it had begun with a simple line in the church bulletin. It read, “For those curious about how the trees came to be back with us last Sunday, they were found in the baptistery.     Even if this story is not en...