Church Life
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You Are Not Replaceable
Let’s be honest: in many areas of life, you can be replaced. That’s not to say that someone else is just like you, but it is to say that many of our roles in life will eventually be filled by someone else. Don’t believe me? Just quit your job and see if they don’t hire someone else. Even Oscar Meyer’s weinermobile driver can be replaced. In fact, they are currently searching for a new “hotdogger” to drive the famous car all over the place. Know that we are replaceable can be depressing. It certainly is a shot to our ego; that’s for sure. But there are other areas of life–in…
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Under New Management
A preaching friend of mine who lives in Michigan recently told me that he saw a very interesting statement written on the marquis outside a local denominational church. It read, “Under New Management.” In our conversation, he and I were attempting to figure out exactly what that meant. We all understand the concept of new management. When businesses are struggling, sometimes drastic measures need to be taken in order to achieve financial success. We watch college and pro sports programs fire coaches and executives every year when their teams don’t win. We see local restaurants with bad reputations sometimes close and reopen with a new menu – or perhaps they…
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Nonessential Personnel
You’ve heard the announcement before. It usually happens during times when there is severe weather in a particular location. The news reports of these announcements often go something like this: “Governor ______________ has announced that all state offices will be closed. All nonessential personnel are advised to stay at home.“ Have you ever wondered who the “nonessential personnel” are? While I am sure they are happy to have a day off, I’m also wondering how they feel knowing that their position is deemed to be nonessential. I’ve also been wondering about something else. What would happen in a local church if an activity and/or an announcement were designed to exclude all of the nonessential…
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Happy New Day!
No, I didn’t make a mistake in my title. Yes, I know most people are going around saying “happy new year.” Everyone seems to be making their new year’s resolutions once again pharmacom for the year 2020. It seems like a good and logical thing to do. Maybe you plan to lose weight or exercise more. Possibly your resolution involves becoming more spiritually-minded and studying the Bible every day, perhaps even reading it through this year. All of those things are good to think about and try to implement in your life, but who said you would have a whole year? Didn’t Jesus Himself say, “Therefore do not be anxious about…
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10 Ways to Make Every Day in 2020 Better
Welcome to 2020. New Year’s Day seems to be a day for reflecting and planning. Resolutions are often written or calendars are finalized. But instead of working on year-long goals, I want to challenge each of us today with some simple things you can do every single day to make your day better. And the best part? None of them takes more than a few moments of your time. Read God’s Word. Whether it is trying to read through the entire Bible in a year or diving more deeply into studying a particular passage, nothing can help you have a better day than hearing what God wants for your life.…
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Contemplating Resolutions
Because we are so driven by time, we really can’t help but reflect on the past year, especially when we are about to turn the calendar. 2020 – Does this even seem possible? Another decade has been completed and we press on to the next. Time is moving on and as the years go by it seems to be speeding up for those of us who are playing the back nine. While it is a regularly accepted practice to make New Year’s resolutions, my question for you today is more about the process by which you come to your decision. Maybe you have no plan to make any resolutions. Maybe…
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A Short Post about a Short Time
When I was a child, I thought that there was a great deal of time between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. I’m not sure why I thought that, but it took me a while to figure out that the actual time is only one week. (You may be reading these words a little past the midway point in that week.) As I think back on my misconception about that amount of time, I wonder if all of us are, in some ways, guilty of “mis-measuring” time. I’m wondering if that is true with regard to something much more important than the amount of time between December 25th and January 1st. According…
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What Verse Are You On?
If I understand correctly, this will be the final post written by one of the “Legacy Ladies” for 2019. With that in mind, I want to share a brief thought for you to consider as you finish your 2019. A month or two ago, we sang the hymn “None of Self and All of Thee.” Later that morning in Bible class the discussion led to where my brain had already gone: if I am honest with myself, what verse of that song best represents where I am spiritually? I would love to claim verse 4 which aligns with the title of the song. I don’t think I’m stuck at verse…
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Danger in Plain Sight
A couple in Australia recently got a Christmas surprise that they probably do not want to get again. They came home and noticed that some birds on their outdoor balcony were acting very strangely. In fact, the birds were acting so bizarre that one of the people decided to get some footage of the birds. As the video was being shot, they figured out why the birds were acting so weird. The other person was near the Christmas tree and saw something that was not exactly supposed to be there. In among the lights and ornaments, there was a 10-foot python! Amazingly, they left the winstrol australia snake alone and…
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When Was Jesus Actually Born?
No one knows for certain the exact year and date of Jesus’ birth. That’s right, it’s true – even the greatest scholars can only speculate using everything we know about available historical accounts and the stars in the heavens. I can tell you after a lengthy study from several sources that I personally think that I am less certain about any particular date. But I invite you as a reader of this article to investigate on your own what scholars and historians have surmised about the date of the birth of Christ. Dionysius Exiguus was a 6th-century monk who devised the A.D. dating system. A.D. does not mean “after death”…
