Think About It

           As Christians, d o we ever feel like the world is out to get us?  Do we get this feeling that society, governments, unbelievers ... or any one of a number of other people ... are trying to bully us into backing down?   I do my best to try to stay positive about things like this and try not to join in with the negativity that is so easy spread, but if the truth were known, I would have to admit that there are some people out to destroy the Christian lifestyle.  While this may be the reality, there is another side to it – this is nothing new – God’s people have always been the subject to loudmouth detractors.  The fact that it exists isn’t what’s important, that is reserved for the question, “What are we going to do about it?”.            Most of us are familiar with the story of David and Goliath where the big meanie said awful things to the Israelite army.  He...

I have written a lot of articles about a lot of things, but I am not sure I have ever tackled the subject of bathroom tissue.   However, I am not sure that bathroom tissue (or TP as it is commonly called by some of us less forward folks) has ever been in the news as much as it has been recently.   For whatever reason, whenever a crisis hits, bread and TP are typically the first things to fly off of the shelves – and the pandemic has not any different than any of the others.   While many things are making a comeback to the store shelves, bathroom tissue is still a scarcity.   Now the reason I am writing about this subject is to say that we have come to appreciate it even more when it is scarce.   Few of us would have given this everyday item a second thought a month ago when it was in ample supply, but now, we have come to treasure it.   Have you thought about just how true this is in so many aspects of our lives?   In war, we appreciate peace. ...

          I am missing a couple of important things these days.   The first one is my sense of humor – there just doesn’t seem to be much levity these days.   The other one is baseball.   I have always enjoyed this time of year because it was the beginning of the baseball season when hope sprang eternal.   Well, rather than fuss about what I can’t change, I decided to try to help out by combining a little frivolity with baseball and who better to do that than Yogi Berra!   Berra wasn’t a bad ballplayer, but he was an even better character.   He was known for classic Yogisms such as, “Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.” and “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”   As I was reviewing some of Yogi’s gems I came across one that was more honest than humorous.   At one point he is credited as saying, “I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose.   Just don’t fight a...

          While much of the world has been technologically advancing over the past several years, the internet connection at our church building had been woefully slow.   Due to circumstances beyond our control, up until a couple of weeks ago our access to the digital world was being throttled by a DSL connection.   Thankfully (and I would like to think providentially) a couple of weeks ago we were able to get connected to blazing fast internet speeds.   That is the good news, the bad news is that while the rest of the world was fine-tuning their digital presence we were just getting out of the starting blocks.   I tell you this to highlight a conversation I had with one of our members last week.   He asked me if we were going to livestream our lesson on Sunday.   I said that, while my intention was to get to that point, I wasn’t prepared and offered a couple of lame excuses as to why not.   I expected him...

I have never been a big fan of April Fools Day.  Maybe it is my skeptical nature or my dislike of being made to feel foolish, but I would be okay if we just got rid of this social convention.  In all honesty, with everything that is going on around us in today’s society, I can’t imagine there will be a lot of joking and hijinks, but it is still a good day to be reminded of just how much our world needs honesty.  There is too much dishonesty in our society and that has led us to distrust too many people – especially those who hold themselves out to be leaders.  Folks, I am not trying to point out any one party, leader, business or media outlet; there is more than enough blame to go around.  We don’t need a day dedicated to playing tricks on people, we need a grassroots effort that promotes and practices truth and transparency. After calling on some of the 1 st Century Christians to move beyond their old ways of living, the Apostle Paul called on believers, “ ...

           The story of Queen Esther is more than an early version of Eliza Doolittle – a poor girl who made good.  Even though God’s name is not mentioned in the text, His fingerprint is all over the story.  If you haven’t read the account in a while let me remind you of the amazing rags to riches tale of a young Jewish girl who grew up to be queen of Persia.  While this seems to be fairy tale, it does have a nightmarish nature to it as well.  Even though the Jewess, Esther, was living a charmed life, her people were being persecuted by Haman.  In fact, he had manipulated the king into approving of an ethnic cleansing of the Hebrew people throughout the kingdom.  However, God was not going to allow His people to be eradicated.  Led by men like Mordecai, this holocaust was averted.  While the story has a happy ending, there is an exchange between Mordecai and Esther that speaks throughout the ages.  While Esther...

Several years ago I had the opportunity to broadcast sports on the radio.   (That sounds more impressive than it really was – it was small town high school sports on local radio, but it was fun!)   Not only was this an enjoyable hobby, it taught me a valuable lesson – no matter what happens, you have to keep going!   If you are on the radio, you can’t rely on video to get you by ... you have to keep talking or people will turn you off, the studio engineers will yell at you and the sponsors will stop paying the bills.   There are several examples of “the show must go on”, but one of the most memorable is from Dove Creek, Colorado.   When you broadcast rural High School sports you are happy to have a connection back to the radio station and even happier to have a press box, even if it is exposed to the elements.   On this particular cold day we actually had a space heater in the press box – that was the good news.   The bad news is that someone with syn...