Ecclesiastes 12:10

   I n 2009, Tilcon, a New York City-area construction company employee we will call Gary didn’t like his company keeping tabs on where he was going. The company had installed all company trucks with GPS trackers, so they would know the whereabouts and routines of their workers. Garry wasn’t having it, so he installed a GPS blocker in his truck.   He might have gotten away with it except his jammer blocked more than his truck. In fact, it would block any signal within a 10-mile radius of his truck, which on many days was the Newark Airport. This would cause a glitch in the airport's new satellite-based navigation technology. No planes crashed because of it, but glitches are not something the Federal Aviation Administration likes when it comes to planes and their investigation led right to the door of Gary’s truck. He got fined 30,00 dollars and lost his job as well.     Often like Gary we only think in terms of how things will affect us. What’s in it fo...

  Recently the social media site Facebook launched Facebook Live. Like other platforms, it offered users a chance to broadcast to the world events from their daily lives. Everyone could be famous. However, the fame that has been garnered has been more infamy than acclaim. Teens abusing a mentally challenged boy. Athletes recording private events. It seems in the desire for fame people will do terrible and foolish things   It reminds me of an actor named John. John came from an acting family. His father was famous thespian, despite a drinking problem. His brothers both made a name for themselves on the stage, especially his older brother Edwin. John was obsessed with fame.  He told his sister, " Fame, fame, fame I must have fame!”   John was able to make a career on the stage. His acting was mediocre but his good looks and physical presence kept him employed. But John longed for something more, he wanted to be known and remember as a hero, as someone grea...

   Something has gone wrong in your home congregation and you are thinking about packing up and heading someplace else. Should I stay? Should I go? You don't want to leave the place that has been your home, but could that be what is best?  Here are five reasonable considerations on why it might be best to go. 1.       The Church Is Unscriptural And Will Not Change    We all make mistakes, even churches.  They use bad judgment and don’t consider the consequences of their actions.  But when we do wrong and refuse to make it right, it becomes willful rebellion.  When a church embraces something that goes beyond the Word of God, a faithful Christian can’t be part of it.  Our presence is a form of acceptance and that makes us participants in the error (2 nd John 9-11).  If we stay too long, there is temptation to give up right principles and go along.  I've seen many sound Christians p...

   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 ...

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il uses the state run media to make some outrageous claims about himself.   For example, how he shot a 38 under par, complete with 11 holes-in-one, his first time to play golf.  Or how that his birth led to a spontaneous rainbow breakout, that he learned to walk by the age of 3 weeks, talk by 8 weeks, and he wrote his first manifesto on the future of the Korean people by the age of 2 years. Or that he doesn’t have to go to the bathroom like normal humans.   His delusions are not just limited to his bragging, he had all short people removed from the capital (he doesn’t like them), makes sure every grain of rice in his meals is the exact same size, and spend $750,000 each year importing his favorite alcohol and importing $20 million worth of Mercedes.  These antics might be humorous if they didn’t come at such a staggering price.  Millions of North Koreans have died of starvation under his rule.  But like so many ...

As I work with young people, I find myself at a lot of school plays. Once during the first act of a play I was at, It was interrupted by someone’s ringing cell phone. I didn’t think too much of it because cell phones are now just a way of life. I know personally how easy it is to forget it is on and have it ring at an embarrassing time. It did however being to bother me, when the man started caring on a conversation right during the middle of the play! He was not trying to whisper or end the conversation quickly, he just kept taking at full volume as If no one else were around. I could not believe how inconsiderate and rude this man was being not only to those around him trying to enjoy the play but also the actors on stage. This incident is a reflection of a common phenomenon in our society. People think only of themselves and their wants and needs. But before I lash out too harshly at this man, I remember that I am often just as guilty of not putting others before myself. I may no...