Church Life
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When Sin Wins
About a week ago I finished reading a book which had been gifted to Jim and me. Our dear friends, Dale and Lou Ann Rogers, wanted us to read this book because it was about some of their dearest friends and the death of their only son at the hands of a drunk driver. The book is entitled Revenge, Redeemed, and was written by Bob Stewart. I highly recommend it. Since you might read it one day, I won’t tell you all of the details. However, I will tell you that it caused me to do a great deal of thinking. I thought about the fact that children left to…
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Raise the Expectations or Lower the Offerings
I don’t know when I first heard of the 80/20 principle, but, if you have been in nearly any business or organization–including the church–very long, you have likely heard of it, too. The concept is basically that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. There are variations, but that principle is the one that is most commonly cited and, seemingly, nearly universally regarded as at least nearly true, if not fully so. For so many years now, I have heard that formula mentioned in elders’ meetings, elders’ and deacons’ meetings, read it in church bulletins, seen it on church blog posts, and more. This principle is…
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A Very Short, But (At Least to Me) VERY Challenging Post
This may qualify for one of the world’s shortest posts. I’m fairly certain that it may qualify for my shortest post. The reason for it being short is that I challenge you to do what I do when I read or even think about the words reproduced below. The challenge is to not merely read them. It is certainly not to read about them – especially if what you are reading about them tends to lessen their impact. The challenge is to read them as if you had never read them before, to consider the authority of the One Who said them, to do some very serious self-examination, and to…
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Color Theory
It finally feels like fall! Wonderful, wonderful fall. The evening air is more crisp. Football is being played. And colors are beginning to change. Today, I noticed a beautiful combination of colors that renewed a thought I’ve had before about God’s beautiful creation: When one is trying to make a color palette decision, just look in nature! Forget the color wheel. Look around! This should come as no surprise! God is the ultimate Designer. His choice of colors is always perfect, as is everything He creates. There have been several times when I have put colors together that I have later seen in a design and I realized that the…
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It’s Essential to be a Member
In recent weeks, I’ve stayed more nights in a hotel than is usual for me. I am definitely not a world traveler, but, for whatever reason, nights in hotels have added up over the past month or so. One thing that happens, especially when you stay in a “chain” hotel, is that you see ads about joining some type of reward program. Maybe it’s a sign in the room. Maybe it’s on the Wi-Fi login page. Maybe there is a sign in the lobby. But the point is the same: if you’re a member, it gives you something, so it’s better than not being a member. Sadly, there are a…
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You Matter
This is going to be a shorter article, but one that I hope is meaningful. The first time that God is mentioned in the Bible, He is mentioned as the Creator of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). The implications of this are that God is all-powerful and all-knowing (given that the universe He has created contains all of our knowledge and then some) and that His authority is at the core of the universe’s structural integrity (see Colossians 1:17). The first time that mankind is mentioned in the Bible, we are mentioned as the only parts of God’s creation that bear His image and have dominion over the…
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Some Suggestions for Hospital Visiting Etiquette
I recently did some unplanned research at one of our local hospitals. After two trips to the emergency department in less than twenty-four hours, the nice people there invited me to be their guest for a couple of days or so. I am not unaccustomed to being in hospital rooms, but, thankfully, the vast majority of my time spent in one has been as a visitor and not as a patient. Even though I have been in more hospital rooms as a visitor than I can even try to guess, I do not consider myself to be an expert about how visitors should conduct themselves. In fact, I tend to…
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The Strength of Faith
How strong is your faith? This is not a question that is asked very often, but maybe it should be. You see, our faith is only as strong as we allow it to be. Many have proclaimed to have a strong faith in the God of the Universe, but when put to the test, they/we often fail. Our Tuesday afternoon Ladies’ Bible Class has been studying the book of Daniel. It is the account of the carrying away of some prime young men who were taken to Babylon to serve in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court. You probably remember the description of those young men – “youths without blemish, of good appearance…
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Think of the Church Family
Two sermons. Two very different reactions. A number of years ago, I was at another congregation where we hosted a wonderful Gospel Meeting dealing with the family. The elders had agreed that we had a lot of families in need of help and a series of lessons could only help that. Our speaker did a wonderful job and there was no way anyone with a family left without more tools to do better and more encouragement to keep going. After the final service, one of our older ladies–who was a widow–saw me walking by and, instead of saying something about how helpful this had been or how grateful she was…
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Biblical Anger Management
It sometimes seems that there are a lot of reasons to be angry at the moment, and I’m not even talking about the political sphere. Sure, that provides plenty of reasons in isolation, but as people whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20-21), that shouldn’t even be the most important aspect of life to Christians. Nevertheless, even within the kingdom, there are problems that are often infuriating. Personal and congregational evangelism both come with significant challenges that can be frustrating on personal and congregational levels. There seems to be an increasing number of congregations more willing to err both to the right and to the left, which can be maddening…
