Ecclesiastes 12:10

   In November of 1847, a civil engineer named Charles Ellet Jr. was commissioned to build a bridge across the Niagara Gorge. As you can imagine the greatest challenge was the start. How could you get the first cable across an 825-foot chasm with 225-foot cliffs on either side?   The solution came from a local ironworker named Theodore Graves Hulett, who suggested a kite-flying contest. A fifteen-year-old boy named Homan Walsh won the ten-dollar cash prize for flying the first kite across the chasm.   The day after that successful flight, a stronger line was attached to that kite string and pulled across. Then an even stronger line. Then a rope. Then a cable consisting of thirty-six strands of ten-gauge wire. The bridge would eventually become the world’s first railway suspension bridge. It would connect two countries, and it was strong enough to support a 170-ton locomotive. And it all started with a single kite string! " For who has despised the day of s...

  The word NOW comes from a Latin phrase, novus homo , which means “a new man” or “man newly ennobled”.   There is a powerful lesson in that. Each moment is a change we have to start over. To become a new person, to become a better person.   Now is an important concept in the Bible. Now is the day of salvation (2 nd Corinthians 6:2) Now is the time to encourage (Hebrews 3:13). Now is the time to do what is right (James 4:15-17). Now is the time to repent (Acts 17:30).  A new you starts will an action but it must be done now! Tomorrow isn’t here. Yesterday is already gone. Now is the time. There is no time like the present because we exist nowhere other than now.  Do you want a new start? Do it now!

 I have always thought we need more punctuation marks. One to show sarcasm for instance. As it is, we really only have three ways to end a sentence. Even those are fairly new. The question mark came about in the middle ages when scholars would write the Latin ‘quaestio’ at the end of a sentence to show that it was a question, which in turn was shortened to QO then to ?..  Yet a lot can be said with those. For example, when Victor Hugo wrote his publisher about the sales of his book Les Misérables, he simply wrote”?”. They responded “!”.    Years ago, I hear someone proclaim “ never put a question mark where God has put a period ”. That’s very good advice. Also, we might say don’t let what the Bible says is an Exclamation point become a question mark. Too many times we know what the Word says but our reaction to it puts a different spin on it. We react as if the Good News isn’t that at all.   As it is we would do well to remember the word of James ...

     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...

       If you try to teach your children about what is right and wrong after they have left your home it’s too late.    If you tell your loved one that you appreciated them while standing on their grave it’s too late.   If you wait to ask after they’ve already made their decision, it’s too late   If you apologize for your behavior as they are walking out the door, it’s too late.   If you wish you hadn’t done it after you already done it, it’s too late.   If you wait to serve till the service is already going, it’s too late.   If you start to prepare when the moment of action has come, it’s too late.   If you wait to be a leader until there is no leadership, it’s too late.   If you refuse to move until everything is just perfect, it’s too late.   If you start to build the new home after the old house has fallen down, it’s too late   If you wait to obey until the Day o...

     Ever pull into a parking space right as the person beside you starts to back out, and for a moment your perception is off and you think you are still moving?  You slam on the brake thinking you’re about to drive into the building yet you’re not moving the person beside you is just backing away from you.   A false sense of motion.  I wonder if that isn’t what many churches are experiencing today. You see with so many in the world today backing up very quickly from the direction of a God, those who are sitting still might seem like they are going forward when in fact they are not moving at all.   In reality, we are in park, not growing, not advancing, just stuck where we are.   I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus . Philippians 3:14   We certainly don’t want to go backward but we shouldn’t want to stay put either. God’s call is an upward one. We have to be about our F...

 There has been a backlash in recent times against those that offer prayers during a tragedy. To some, the phrase has come to be an empty gesture, which acknowledges an issue but refuses to do anything about it. I’m sure that some of this is because of a growing atheistic mindset in our culture, but I also think some of it comes from the mistaken idea that prayer and action don’t go hand in hand.   There is no greater example of this one who meshed prayer and action than that of Nehemiah. When he heard of the tragedy that had befallen his hometown, he prayed and looked for an opportunity to use his position to help. When he turned the negative into a positive when we had confronted by the king of his sadness, before he spoke of his request to the king, he prayed (Nehemiah 2:2-5). When threatened by the naysayers of his work, he “ prayed to our God and… set up a guard” (Nehemiah 4:9). He did not act without praying and did not pray without acting.   What made ...

  In his youth, the grandson of John Philip Sousa made large sums of money as a guest bandleader.  He knew it wasn’t because of his talent. Since he shared the same name as the great American composer and conductor, he knew that is what impressed the crowds. His invites were about his name not his abilities. He knew these because he could not read a single note of sheet music.    He wasn’t the first of the last person to lean on their heritage rather than their abilities.  Just because you carry a name, however, doesn’t mean you are the real thing. " Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' Matthew 7:22-23   Lots of people call themselves Christian. Lots of people claim a heritage with the Lord. But that claim isn’t what will get ...

  Some records might never be broken.   One of those records, the consecutive win streak in college football, is held by the University of Oklahoma.  From 1953 to 1957 the Sooners won an amazing 47 games in a row.  That streak, however, might have died in its infancy it not for a player named Johnny Crouch.  It was in the TCU/Oklahoma game of 1954.  As the game wound down, Johnny Crouch, a tight end, burst open in the end zone making a sliding catch of an underthrown ball. The officials raised up their arms in the signal for a touchdown.   But moments later the men in stripes were huddled up discussing the play.  Fifty thousand Oklahoma fans waited in hushed agony.  The call would decide if they won or lost.  Don’t think there wasn’t a worry.  One of the officials making the call was a TCU alum.  Then the call… the touchdown was nullified and the crowd went crazy.  OU had just won the game 21-16! ...

  On April 7, 1865 the armies led by U.S. Grant were chasing down Robert E. Lee's forces. If those forces could be captured it would effectively mean the end of the Civil War. Lee was still not ready to surrender, holding out hope he could escape the growing Union stranglehold. At ten o’clock that morning Grant received a simple telegram from the commander in chief.  It read: Gen. Sheridan says “If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.” Let the thing be pressed. A. LINCOLN   So Grant pressed for surrender and two days later, Lee surrendered to General Grant, in the town of Appomattox Court House, thus ended four years of Civil War.      For several years various Generals had Lee on the run, only to delay and let him escape to continue the fight. That’s why Lincoln words were so necessary. The thing needed to be pressed   What needs to be pressed in your life today? A friend needing to be told the Gospel, a slight f...

  It is greater than God yet also more evil than the devil. The poor have it, and the rich don’t want it. If you wear it you show everything, if you speak it you remain quiet and it you buy it you save money. The blind man sees it, the deaf man hears it but if you eat it, you’ll die.    What is it?   Nothing   Nothing doesn’t sound like it is much of anything but in reality it is something. Doing nothing can get you fired. Saying nothing can help you out of trouble. Seeing nothing make you look ignorant but revealing nothing can make you seem wise.      Some folks believe when Jesus says nothing about a subject means he’s saying he approves of it even though He has said nothing at all. Likewise there are some that believe in doing nothing wrong they have done enough to “ hear well done good and faithful servant ”.     Yet the scriptures are clear nothing is a very dangerous thing.  In the three parables of Mat...