Ecclesiastes 12:10

   German Chocolate isn't German.   It’s named after its creator, Samuel German, who developed a specific type of baking chocolate for Baker Chocolate Company.   Which wasn't named for the fact that it sells to bakers, but for its founder, Dr. James Baker.   You see this a lot in religion. People claim to be Christians but are not very Christian. Church that claim to be “Bible church” but teach things not found in the Bible.  Groups that have a practice in their name that they don’t teach are necessary. A church that claims to worship God but has a person as its name. A church that claims it is “of Christ” but rules itself by human traditions.   If we are going to use a name we better live up to it. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;  but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. 1 st Peter 4:15-16   If...

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.   Proverbs 13:12     In the book The Fred Factor, the authors remark,  “ When people feel that their contributions are unappreciated, they will stop trying. And when that happens, innovation dies .”     Everybody needs a win from time to time. You can expect people to keep on going when they don’t feel they are going anywhere.  That's why it's a good idea when trying to develop a new positive habit that you don’t put the goal line too far away. Make sure you find a goal you can complete so you can have the will to keep going.     Too many times, in the church, good people give up not because they don’t think they are doing anything worthwhile, but because they see no hope/end in sight. Let’s not let that happen. Make sure we give folks something that a sense of completion that will encourage them to keep on.  

Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory   Proverbs 11:14      In 1870, the French were on the verge of war with Prussia. However, they had a secret weapon, the mitrailleuse. It was a new type of machine gun they had developed. Now, at that time, machine guns were recent inventions, and the government wanted to keep the technology a secret.    So it distributed the guns to military units…without instructions for how to use them. The instructions weren’t sent until after the war had begun.    But by then it was too late. Needless to say, France lost that war.   Lack of information is a great way to ruin any effort. Leaders who fail to share their vision with followers. People who fail to ask the counsel of those with experience and knowledge. When one side doesn’t or doesn’t want to talk to the other.  You can’t expect people to work together if they can’t / don’t speak together (...

A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a citadel. Proverbs 18:19   A young lawyer was flabbergasted at the case he had just lost. He had the evidence. He had laid the case out perfectly. He had dismantled the opposition case. Yet when the jury return it’s verdict, they sided against his client.   As he told the story to a senior partner, He remarked, “I can’t understand that stupid jury!”  The older man responded, “That’s why you lost.  You didn’t understand them, you dismissed them as stupid. They could sense that, and no matter how good you presented your case, you couldn’t win them!”   It's just what we read in Proverbs. Once you insult or offend someone, it’s very hard to ever get them back on your side. If you make people feel dumb, or worthless, or beneath you, it's not likely that they will listen to you any longer.   This should be advice we consider when we teach the gospel to oth...

Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich. Proverbs 10:4      Close enough. It's what we say when we can complete a task without really completing a task. When our work is good enough, even when it's not that good.  For many, it’s the work ethic of the disgruntled, don’t quit your job, just do it really halfway. The quiet quitter. Just enough to stay out of trouble. The show up but don’t show out.  Why do more than you have to?     Proverbs would tell us that it isn’t a wise course. Lazy work brings lazy results. It's not just in business this holds true.  Success is just surviving. If we want a fuller life, we have to be willing to work for it.     How about in your faith? Are you doing just what you have to, or are you diligently pursuing more?  Are you working hard to grow or are you letting others do the work while you coast along? Are you doing more than showing up, or a...

  Friends can make or break you.    David’s friend Jonathan stood up for him and helped save his life. (1 st Samuel 19-20) David’s son Amnon had a friend who helped him to commit a terrible crime and set forth a series of events that almost destroyed the kingdom. (2 nd Samuel 13). The wrong kind of friend will ruin you (1 st Corinthians 15:33). A good friend can keep you from falling (Ecclesiastes 4:9).   A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24      So, make the right kind of friends. People who lift you up not bring you down. People who celebrate with you, not use you to so they can be happy. People who bring out the best in you, not the worst. People who will tell you the difficult truth, not those who spout easy lies. People who enhance your reputation, not bring it down.  Friends can be our greatest asset or our biggest liability. It just depends on the kind of frie...

    There is a bad tendency in our world today to look back in history and apply modern philosophy and thinking to the ancient world.  It becomes very easy to judge those folks from our safer, easier, and protected perspective.  Yet the truth is that they lived in different times and under different circumstances that we couldn’t really understand without being in their shoes.  Before we pat ourselves on the back as being different and better, we might need to think more about how we’d be in those circumstances.   I think this is Paul’s point in 1 st Corinthians 10. He tells those hundreds of years later that those in ancient Israel were in a different world, but were still a lot like them. He then goes on to show how they failed to live pleasing to God, warning us to heed the example. He then says, “ Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him w...