Ecclesiastes 12:10

    It's pretty hard out there for a referee.     It doesn’t matter what sport or what age the players, everybody seems to hate the ref. Coaches chew them out. Fans rain down boos and threats. Parents vilify them. Players express their utter dismay at the calls they make.     It is having a negative effect. Ask any school or league, refs are getting harder and harder to get. It’s not worth the large amount of time for the little pay just to have your every action called to task. Yet officials are a vital part of the game. So why do we treat them the way we do?     Maybe it comes down to the fact that a refs main job is to tell you when you have done wrong. You committed a foul, stepped out of bounds, didn’t swing at the strike. And seemly now more than ever we don’t like that.   We don’t mind if he says the other man is wrong, no we welcome that! In fact, we get upset if he doesn’t do that. But turn the fault back to us and we are ind...

  John ends his second letter with this statement: Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full. 2 nd John 1:12    It’s an odd way to write an inspired letter that will be part of the Bible. They may have, but we will never get to talk with John face to face. He does something very similar in his third letter as well.  Why?   It may be as simple as this. Sometimes the best way to handle an issue is face to face . John is dealing in both of these letters with issues that could have a great effect on the church in a specific place and the brotherhood as a whole. He addresses the issue but in the end, he knows the best way to handle this is in person. Even if we don’t get the persona visit, we can learn from his approach.   So much communication in our world today is impersonal. Emails, text, social media. The...