Ecclesiastes 12:10

   After the recent Olympics, I am sure you have heard about the medals the athletes have received. While Gold, Silver, and Bronze are the ones we see most often given, there is a fourth medal that may be the greatest of all.  The Pierre de Coubertin is given to those who epitomize good sportsmanship or particularly noteworthy contributions to the Games. A rare award, it is only handed out when the Olympic committee believes someone has truly earned it. For instance, in 1988 Lawerance Lemieux, a Canadian sailor, received it for abandoning his race when he saw some other competitors capsize. In second place at the time, He knew the men were injured and in danger of being taken out to sea, so he pulled them from the boat and waited till help arrived. He was unable to catch back up and finished in 11th place.  Another time it was awarded to an Austrian Bobsledder who gave a critical part to his rival that allowed them to win the gold and keep him from it. The award ...

  I n 1942, the providence of Manitoba raised over 60 million in the sale of Victory Bonds. The city of Winnipeg itself had 40 million of that alone. Not bad for a city of about 250,00 at the time. How did they get the people to give so much?   They let the Nazis take over.   No, there wasn’t a real invasion of Canada but a fake one, On February 19 th , the Canadian troops dressed as Nazi soldiers marched into town. Bombers flew overhead. Important officials and leaders were arrested.  Churches were barred from holding services. Armed soldiers searched buses. One of the principals of a local elementary was “arrested” and replaced by a Nazi propagandist. There was even a book burning in front of the city library. (The books used were scheduled to be destroyed anyway; they had fallen into disrepair.) For one day the city simulated what it would be like if the Nazis were able to take power.   Citizens of Winnipeg and those of neighboring tow...

    Lots of folks try to cure the blues by getting themselves something nice. A little “Retail Therapy” to cheer them up. When surveyed, most folks believe that buying themselves something is a good way to improve their happiness and that if they had more money to spend on themselves it would make them overall happier.   However, research says that is dead wrong. Spending on yourself may give a small boost, but it quickly goes away. This also has a diminishing return as well, so the more you do the less help it is. However, spending can bring you happiness, you just can’t do it on yourself.   Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia did a couple of studies, one that surveyed people that had recently received a bonus and one where participants were given a sum of money to spend in a day and found in both that those that used the funds on others, such as friends and family ended up feeling significantly happier than those who treated themselves. ...

  Freedom is a dangerous thing.      For freedom to be a real thing, we have to be able to do what we want to do, even things that are not good for us to be doing. Freedom is a right to act in a way that isn’t what others would have you to do. Sometimes that action is a very dumb thing, maybe even a dangerous thing. Yet if we truly value freedom, we understand that it comes at the cost of allowing things that we probably don’t have to have going on.     That doesn’t mean we have to do those things. In 1 Peter 2:16 we read, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God”. Freedom may give us the right to act however we want but it doesn’t mean we have to act on that right. Many people in the name of freedom do evil. “You can’t tell me what to do!” they cry assuming that the lack of a prohibition excuses away their actions. You can be within your rights and still be dead wrong.    What we shou...

  Edwin Booth was one of the greatest actors of his day. Coming from a famous acting family, Edwin toured throughout the United States and the major capitals of Europe performing Shakespearean plays. Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor, and the greatest Hamlet, of the 19th century.   But that fame turned against him because of His brother John. The brothers had shared the stages from time to time but they, like many families of their day, disagreed over the Civil War. As the war went on, John increasingly quarreled with Edwin, who declined to make stage appearances in the South and refused to listen to John denunciations of the North and Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth showed his hatred when he went to Ford theater in April of 1865 and assassinated the President.   The assassination forced Edwin Booth to abandon the stage for many months. He disowned his brother, refusing to have John's name spoken in his house. Yet the damage was done....

  They understood the problem. So when Jesus asked the disciples, “ Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat ?", they were stumped.  There wasn’t enough money, even if they had some place to buy food from.  Jesus knew that He just wanted to see how they would handle it.  Then Andrew spoke up. " There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" (John 6:9)   It wasn’t much of a suggestion. Andrew talks himself out of it before he finishes his sentence. It won’t work. It’s absurd. It’s not practical.   Yet it did. Jesus made it work. That ‘bad idea’ became a miracle that every gospel writer mentions.   A solution is better than no solution.   I often noticed in the work of the church people are experts in why things will not work. Ideas are picked apart.  Plans are shot down before even fully formed. Yet, no other suggestion is given; no course of action is pro...

  Today, more than 11 billion paper clips are sold annually.  However, a recent survey claimed that of every 100,000 sold; only five are actually used to hold papers together. They are being used, just not for their purpose.   I wonder, what is the rate in the church? Lots of folks claim to follow Christ. Many people attend church.  But how many are actually doing what Jesus wanted them to do?  Are we serving our purpose? Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: Romans 12:6   Every Christian is a part of the body and every part has a purpose.  If we are not fulfilling that purpose, the whole suffers.  Some are getting bent out of shape into activities that they are not equipped because others have abandoned their purpose.  Women moving into leadership roles that men have vacated.  Preachers acting as elders since the elders are not active. ...

  How we measure time is a funny thing.  I’m not talking about how “ time flies when we are having fun ” or the fact that “ a watched pot never boils ” but how we answer the simple question, what time is it?   All you have to do is go thru daylight savings to know that the clock can be kind of arbitrary.  However, that is nothing compared to the way it used to be. In the past, the time was measured by the sun.  Whenever it was overhead it was noon.  That meant most cities had their own time.  That’s why town clocks were predominate, it told everyone the time for that town.  In fact, to stay with the sun, a watch had to be adjusted 1 minute for every 12.5 miles you traveled!   All that changed with the train. For the first time, we could move faster than the sun.  So in order to get everyone on the same page (or clock), we moved to time zones. Today even that is harrowing since we can fly thru a couple of time zones in a mo...

   In almost every church I've been in there is a board up front that lists some statistics for the church.  Now the way they are organized and what they are called varies but normally it falls into two categories:  Contribution and Attendance.  Attendance is the number of people who show up to any given service, a head count.  Contribution refers to what people gave during that time, usually a dollar figure.  Let me tell you something, the contribution is the more important part of worship than the attendance.    Now before you dismiss me as a money grubbing preacher let me clarify something.  When I say contribution, I'm not meaning just the offering that is collected on the first day of the week.  I mean what we contribute to the worship.  Did we sing and make melody with our heart? Did we pray along in prayer?  Did we consider the word of God being taught and apply it to ourselves?  Did we examine ourselv...

  After completing many years as a journalist, Arthur Brisbane was offered six months of paid vacation time by William Randolph Hearst, the publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. Brisbane refused to accept the kind offer because of two reasons. He said, "First, if I quit writing my newspaper column for six months, it might affect circulation of the newspaper. Second, is that it might not affect the circulation of the newspaper   So what about you? If you took six months off from your service to the Lord, would you be missed? Would the church suffer? Would it even notice?   I’m afraid that the fact of the matter is too many of us have such a low commitment to the Lord’s work that we feel that the extent of our duty is just to show up occasionally. Our benefit to the church is as head to count.  Now I would be the first to tell folks that they need to be in the assembly of the church. But it’s not enough just to show up. Consider “the” verse on church at...

  A young boy complained to his father that most of the church hymns were boring to him — too far behind the times, boring tunes, meaningless words. His father put an end to the discussion when he said, “ If you think you can write better hymns, then why don’t you ?” The boy went to his room and wrote his first hymn. This was in 1690; the teenager’s name was Isaac Watts. “ When I Survey The Wondrous Cross ” and “ Joy To The World ” are among the almost 300 hymns written by him [i] . Isaac Watts   It is easy to list the things that are wrong but it is much better to do something about them. In 1 st Peter 4:9-10, we read, “ Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God .”   Instead of finding fault, lets us our gifts to serve. Most people wait for a glossy embossed invitation before they will volunteer to serve. Instead of that...

   Recently in Bible class, we were discussing the power of prayer.  We looked at the example of King Hezekiah when he was informed by God to get his affairs in order because he would soon die.  He prayed to God to spare him and in 2 nd Kings 20:5-6 we see God response,  " I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.  I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."    Not only would he survive his illness but God would give him 15 more years of life and protect his kingdom.  All in all an amazing example of the power of God and how he answers prayer.    But what did King Hezekiah do with those 15 years?    The Bible tells us that after his recovery he is visited by representati...

            Ask anyone that has done benevolent work and they will have a story for you.  The woman that complained about the grocery given to her because it wasn't name brands.  The couple that threw a fit because the Christmas basket they received from the church had less than the one given to another family member.  The man that told a story that pulled at your heart strings so you gave him money, only to find out he is a con.  The lady that is now badmouthing to anyone that will listen about the “heartless” church that won’t help her, when you know good and well the church has been supporting her for years.   They are the stories that make us jaded and bitter .  Make us suspicious and hesitant to help others.  These experiences can make serving others hard and cause us to become weary of doing good.             These ty...

     There is a very real danger for preachers. You speak to hundreds (maybe more) of people a week.  You are viewed by people as an expert on everything from the Bible to morality to raising kids to happy marriages.  People call you for advice; quote you in the café, and brag about you to their friends.  Your words have a power to change people. Little old ladies dote on you.  You deny it but you do like it. Who wouldn't  You preach, it hard not to be a little bit proud , you do good work.      But then you find yourself smirking about how many people follow you on twitter.  Your favorite morning ritual is to see how many people read your blog.  You can’t wait to see how big of a hit the next sermon will be.  You’re popular.  They like what you have to say.  Sure there are some that don’t see it, but those people are little minded.  They can’t capture an audience like you can.  ...

   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 ...

  We like things to be easy . We have over the last 100 years created all kinds of technology to make life easier, quicker, simpler and more convenient. But even with all these advances we still will be faced with some things that are just hard.    In the sixth chapter of John, Jesus began to spell out to the multitudes some of the truths of who he is and what will be expected of his followers. Their response was " This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it ?" Because of these “hard” teachings many disciples turned away from Jesus. Jesus would then ask of the 12 if they would go too. Peter gives the perfect response when He replies, “ Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ”      In teaching others the gospel, sometimes we may want to shy away from things that will be hard for them.   We may “sugar coat” the truth to make it more palatable. But Jesus never wanted his people to follow him in ignorance. (See Luke 14:25-33) Th...

  During the Civil war a Union Soldier  was shot in the arm. His captain saw he was wounded and barked out an order, “Gimme your gun, private and get to the rear! ” The private handed over his rifle and ran north seeking safety. But after a few hundred yards he came upon another skirmish. So he ran east and found himself in another part of the battle. Then he ran west, but encountered more fight there. Finally, he ran back to the front lines shouting to the Captain, “ Gimmie back my rifle. There ain’t no rear to this battle nowhere!       The battle Christians face is a similar one to that which the private was in. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11, “ We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who live are a...

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 ...

For many, a person’s faithfulness is synonymous with attendance. A person is faithful to the Lord if they are at the services with regularity. While assembling together is vital for a Christian (Hebrews 10:25), we have more than just services to attend, we have to attend to service. Christian duty does not begin and end at the doors of the building. A person can never miss an assembly and still be unfaithful in regards to seeking the lost, loving one another, or doing good works. Attendance shouldn’t be the end of our commitment to Christ but rather the stimulus to do more in the kingdom.