Blog Archives

TODAY’S THE DAY!

9/28/2017

In the days of ancient Israel, during their time wandering in the wilderness, the Lord proved manna for His people to eat. Each new morning, they awoke to find provision intended for that particular day.

Moreover, they were instructed to gather just enough to sustain them for that day. Consequently, if they did not gather enough for that day, it soon disappeared. And if they attempted to gather more than was needed for that particular day, and tried to store it up, it would not keep.

Alas! Sufficient unto the day was God’s provision thereof!

Pastor Mark Pierce of Mansfield, Ohio, in a message tilted “Today is the Day”, reminds us that we too have been given a definitive daily provision from our Heavenly Father. He asks the following question:

“What if each day you were given $86,400 to spend on anything you wanted? But anything you didn’t spend, you lost. NO SAVINGS! NO BORROWING! How hard would you work to spend every last dime?”

He then astutely reminds us that:

“This is what our lives are. Each day we have 86,400 seconds, no more, no less. We use them or we lose them!”

Little wonder that I read recently that most people come to the end of their lives and regret far more what all they did not ever attempt to do than what all they actually did do!

With this in mind, I ask you what you intend to do with this very day?! The options are truly endless… But whatever else happens, please do not waste it! For a wasted day is little more then a collection of wasted opportunities – 86,400 to be exact!

It has well been said that as mind is a terrible thing to waste. So is a day full of opportunities! More to the point, the most terrible thing of all to waste is a life! Go, therefore, and make the most of the one you have been given!

STORY SOURCE: http://www.churchrequel.com/church_requel/2013/05/
today-is-the-day-sermon-notes.html.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/exodus/16.htm.

SEE ALSO: http://www.americanrecruiters.com/2017/02/17/study-reveals-5-biggest-regrets-people-die-john-paul-iwuoha/.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

9/25/2017

I love the story recently recounted by Jill Carattini of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries:

Barbara Krensavage insists that clams are not a regular part of her diet. Yet one snowy evening in December she found herself craving an old recipe and so brought home four dozen quahogs—a clam particularly abundant along the Eastern shores of the United States, between Cape Cod and New Jersey.

Mr. Krensavage was in the midst of shucking the shellfish for dinner when he discovered one that looked like it was dead. It had a different color to it and he thought it was diseased. As he was about to discard it, Mrs. Krensavage took a closer look.

It wasn’t dead. In fact, inside the live clam was a rare, possibly priceless, purple pearl. Experts estimate that roughly one in two million quahog clams contains a gem-quality pearl like the one found by the Krensavages.

Due to the great rarity of the find, it has been difficult to even place a value on it, though some have estimated the pearl to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Anyone familiar with the Bible will be hard pressed to read this story without recalling the words of Jesus Christ in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 44-46:

44“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

I will always remember with great joy the day that I first heard and then acted upon the good news of Jesus Christ. Realizing that what He was offering me, eternal and abundant life, was of infinitely more value than anything else I had ever encountered, I chose to forsake all else and committed to follow Him fully.

As a result, I have stored up for me a treasure in Heaven that surpasses anything this world can offer. and between now and then, my life has been enriched as never before.

The great thing about this eternal treasure is that even though untold millions of people have already found it, it still remains undiscovered and unembraced by others. Yet, all who find it continue to experience the joy that comes with discovering and possessing it!

If you have not yet found that treasure, I hope you soon will. And when you do, I hope you will let go of everything else and embrace it supremely! Only then will you know true joy!

SOURCE: http://rzim.org/a-slice-of-infinity/transfigured/.
SEE ALSO: http://rzim.org/bio/jill-carattini/.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/13.htm.

CUT DOWN

9/22/2017

Friday is the day off for many Pastors. As such, it is a day for running errands, shopping, and handling various odds and ends. About once a month, for me at least, this also includes getting a haircut.

As this is on my agenda for the coming week, it brought to my memory a story once told by President Ronald Reagan. Since we all need a good laugh as regularly as we need a haircut, I thought I would share it here today. It seems that...

A man walked into a barber shop one day and the barber said to him, “Have you had a good day?” The man said, “I sure have. I entered a sales contest at my office and won first prize.” The barber responded, “You did? What did you win?” The man replied, “I won a free trip to Rome, Italy.”

The barber said to him, “Rome is the worst city in the world to visit. Everything is unclean and the people are unfriendly. You are going to have a miserable time.”

The barber then asked, “How are you going to get there?” The man replied, “I’m flying TWA.” The barber responded, “That’s the worst airline in the world. You’re liable to get out over the Atlantic and have the wings fall off of that thing.”

The barber then asked, “Where are you going to stay when you get to Rome?” The man replied, “At the Intercontinental Hotel.” The barber responded, “That’s the worst hotel in Rome. The food is terrible and the service is worse.”

Then the barber said, “I suppose you’re going to try to see the Pope while you’re there?” The man replied, “Sure, I am.” The barber then said, “That’s the worst idea of all. There will be hundreds of thousands of people there. If the Pope is even in town, he’ll be so far away you won’t even be able to recognize him.”

To say the least, that conversation dampened the spirits of the man for the rest of that day. However, he made his trip to Rome and met his barber on the street about a month later. The barber then asked him, “How did your trip to Rome go?”

The man said, “It was great. Rome is the finest city I’ve ever visited and the people there were the nicest I’ve ever met.” The barber said, “Is that right? Well, how about that trip over on TWA?” The man replied, “It was as smooth as silk. It was like sitting in my lounge chair in my living room.”

The barber said, “Is that right? Well, how about that Intercontinental Hotel?” The man replied, “That’s the finest hotel I’ve ever stayed in in my life. The food was delicious and the service was even better.”

The barber then said, “Is that right? Well, how about the Pope? Did you see the Pope?” The man replied, “Yes, I saw the Pope. What’s more, I had a personal audience with the Pope.”

The barber replied, “You did?” The man said, “Yes, I did. And, what’s more, during that audience the Pope leaned over, put his hands on my head, and whispered in my ear.”

The barber said, “He did! What did he say?” The man replied, “He said, ‘That’s the worst haircut I’ve ever seen in my life!’”

Fortunately, my barber does not such have a critical spirit. And to my knowledge, no one has ever yet looked at me and opined that I had the worst haircut they had ever seen.

But, if I would be honest, I myself have at times been a little too quick to criticize others. Perhaps you have as well. And for this reason alone, it is good for all of us to be reminded on occasion that what goes around comes around!

So, my friend, be careful not to cut up too often at another's expense. Or you may soon find that your cutting up gets you cut down to size in return!

SOURCE: Available widely on the internet. See, for instance, http://www.publicradio.org/applications/formbuilder/projects/joke_machine/joke
_page_iframe.php?car_id=1366855.

SEE ALSO: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/19/nyregion/notes-on-people-reagan-s-luncheon-joke-reconstructed.html?mcubz=0.

MONUMENTAL MATTERS

9/18/2017

Sadly, for the second time in the last six months, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. has now been vandalized. Only this time, vandals spray painted obscenities on the Washington Memorial and the World War Two memorial as well. Very likely, such actions break not only my heart, but those of most other Americans as well.

And yet, graffiti on national monuments has been with us for quite some time. For instance, while renovating the Washington Monument in the early 1990’s, workers discovered graffiti dating from back in the 1800’s. Apparently, the markings in the lobby of the monument had been covered over when it was decorated at the turn of the century.

The graffiti was rediscovered when workers removed marble wainscoting as part of a year-long, $500,000 renovation which was completed in the early 1990’s.

The inscription they found, which can now be viewed by visitors to the monument, has quite a different tone from that usually found today. It reads simply: "Whoever is the human instrument under God in the conversion of one soul, erects a monument to his own memory more lofty and enduing (sic) than this." It is signed with the initials “BFB”.

To this day, no one knows who these initials represent, or who left the numerous other small drawings and 19th century dates on other walls. But irrespective of the author, the message is quite convicting.

In the totality of human history, few nations have achieved the status of the United States of America. And within the pantheon of American history, no one is held with higher esteem than George Washington, the father of our country.

For all his earthly endeavors, it is fitting that he is honored with such a monument today. Yet, even these accomplishments are temporal. As such, they cannot conceivably compare to the eternal impact one can have in helping some wayward soul find his or her way home to their heavenly Father.

The New Testament Letter of James (chapter 5, verses 19 and 20) tells us this:

19My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

It is good that each of us attempts to make a difference in this world. It is far better that we try to make a difference for all eternity. For truly, this is the monumental matter at hand!

SOURCES: A web search will reveal multiple news stories from a variety of news organizations covering the recent graffiti in our nation’s capital.

For an article on the 1994 discovery of the above graffiti, see: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1994-07-16/news/9407150685_1_washington-monument-century-marble.

SEE ALSO: https://bible.org/illustration/1800s-graffiti-found-monument and http://www.dailyintheword.org/content/there-god-heaven.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/james/5.htm.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS, REBOOT!

9/14/2017

I am privileged to be in my seventeenth year as Pastor of the same wonderful church. God has given my wife and me a magnificent church family with which to affiliate and also to serve.

And I am not alone in this privilege. The previous Pastor’s Secretary served here for forty years. We currently have an Associate Pastor who is in his thirty-eighth year of service on staff. Our Maintenance Man has been in place for over thirty years; and our Children’s Director for nineteen years.

We are saying goodbye this week to yet another long-tenured staff member: our Media Director, who has been with us for eighteen years. While we are always sorry to lose one of our team members, I am especially sorry to see Ms. Sabrina Stamper finish her course here at First Baptist Church.

Down through the years, she has delivered me from a thousand little foxes that have spoiled the vines of computer technology. And my testimony is echoed by countless others whom she has assisted down through the years.

When we said goodbye to her this week in staff meeting, she left us with these words of wisdom: “Google it!” After a hardy laugh, we all agreed that we would each now have to stand on our own two proverbial feet, and learn to research problems and solutions on our own.

I will follow her advice, emboldened by her example down through the years. And I am sure that, given enough time and experience, I will eventually become reasonably self-sufficient in identifying and resolving minor computer glitches.

But her parting admonition is nothing compared to the foundational wisdom she imparted to me a number of years ago. I will always remember the day that she taught me one sure fire way to resolve most any computer issue I would ever encounter.

It involves just three simple steps. "If you ever get in over your head," she said, "just simultaneously press down the control button, the alt button, and the delete button. Concurrently pressing these buttons and holding them in place will lead to a reboot. It happens directly on older machines. On newer ones, it opens the task bar that gives you, the user, the ability to exit whatever program you are in and then reboot if necessary."

I have never forgotten that simple procedure. And in truth, more times than I can count, employing it has gotten me out of a jam when my machine either locked up or was otherwise incapacitated by some malfunctioning program.

Of course, these days “Control/Alt/Delete” has become somewhat of a cottage industry. As a simple online search will attest, everything form pillows, to t-shirts, to coffee mugs now carry this expression.

More than these things, this the ubiquitous phrase has also become a metaphor for starting over in life. And a fitting one at that. For it is not just our computers that get locked up, incapacitated, or otherwise driven to malfunction. Very often, our lives do the same.

In the Bible, we see many people whose lives got so discombobulated that they found themselves in need of a new start. Joseph, Job, Moses, Jonah, Peter… all these and many more found themselves in a positon of needing a fresh start, a "reboot", if you will. And in every case, God worked in their respective lives to bring this about.

Even our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, following three and half years of public ministry that ended in crucifixion, death, and burial experienced a reboot three days later when He came up out of the grave!

As I look back over my own life, I see that there have been many times when God has allowed me to start over. The greatest of these, of course, was when I found new life in Christ Jesus and became His disciple. But on numerous other occasions as well, when I have found myself over-matched by life and over-burdened by trouble, God has given me the new start that I needed. For that, I will always be thankful.

If you happen to be in such a position today, remember that God in His goodness allows us to start over - to reboot - as needed. Be it a new location, a new career, a new relationship, or any other thing we are in need of, all we need to do is to give it to God. And then, having allowed Him to take “control”, present us with an “alternative” direction, and then “delete” what all has gone on before, we can press on in a whole new direction.

As the Apostle Paul himself said (in his New Testament Letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 13 and 14): “This one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to the things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/nheb/philippians/3.htm.

TAKE THAT SHOT!

9/10/2017

One of the most gifted communicators I know of is Dr. Brian Harbour. He has spent his life faithfully communicating the Gospel as a pastor, preacher, teacher, writer, blogger, and tweeter. This gifted man has likely forgotten more than I will ever learn. I am indebted to him for his voluminous output of material over the years – all designed to help poor young preachers such as myself when I first started.

Having retired from the pastorate, he now busies himself with a myriad of other ministry pursuits. Among the many things he currently produces is a monthly newsletter designed for those who communicate the Gospel. It is titled “SeminaryPlus”. In the August 2017 edition of this newsletter, he shares the following:

In Option B, a book by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, the authors tell about a chalkboard with this title written on it: “Write Your Biggest Regret.” Someone placed the chalkboard on a sidewalk in New York City with an open invitation for passersby to write on the board. People filled the blackboard with their comments. An examination of these responses presents an interesting discovery. Of the dozens of answers, most have one thing in common. Most of the regrets are not about actions that failed but about failures to act.

One of the comments says, “Not going to Montana.” Another says, “Not getting my MA.” Another says, “Staying in my comfort zone.” Yet another says, “Not following my artistic passions.” These are not people burdened by guilt because they have done the wrong things. Instead, they are people burdened by regret because they have failed to do the right things.

Wayne Gretzky, famous hockey player, expresses the same realization in a comment made to a reporter. The reporter asked him if he knew how many shots he missed, he answered. “No, but I do know that I missed 100% of the shots I didn’t take.”

The puck is in your possession. Take the shot. Now.

Well said, Dr. Harbour. I know you will have few regrets at the end of the trail. Partly through your inspiration, I am learning to ensure that I too will have less regrets as well. And I hope that, in the process, I can inspire others to do much the same, even as you have inspired me.

SOURCE: Brian L. Harbour, PhD. SeminaryPlus Newsletter, august 2017. Available online by subscription. Dr. Harbour can be contacted by e-mail at: brian@seminaryplus.org, or by telephone at: (972) 977-3704, or via snail mail at: SeminaryPlus 5805 Sweetbriar Dr, Richardson, TX 75082.

DEAR GOD...

9/7/2017

Given that the world in which we live can be quite stressful, it is good to come across something on occasion that lifts our spirits. With that in mind, I thought I would devote today’s blog post to a little spirit-lifting humor.

It is a collection of handwritten letters to God from little children. I hope they bless you as much as they did me.

Did you smile a little? I hope so. One thing about children… they are generally not very pretentious. They speak from their heart!

And maybe, just maybe, this is what God desires from all of us! For it was Jesus Himself Who told us (in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, verse 3) that unless we become as little children, we will never enter the kingdom of Heaven!

SOURCE: Available widely on the internet. See, for instance: http://myrtle-fragrance.blogspot.com/2012/04/and-god-laughed-through-childs-eyes.html.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/matthew/18-3.htm.

NOW AND THEN

9/4/2017

Most all of us have heard a few stories down through the years that have stuck with us. Billy Graham once shared just such a story that has managed to stay with me for quite some time now. He writes…

When Warren Candler was a young man practicing law, he defended a man accused of murder. The young lawyer went all out in his effort to clear his client of the charge. There were some extenuating circumstances, and Candler made the most of them in his plea before the jury.

Also, the aged father and mother of the defendant were in the court, and the young lawyer moved on the sympathies and emotions of the jury by frequent references to the God-fearing parents.

In due course, the jury reached a verdict: not guilty. The young lawyer, himself a Christian, had a serious talk with his cleared client. He warned him to steer clear of evil ways and to trust God’s power to keep him straight.

Years passed. Again the man was brought into court. Again the charge was murder. Candler, the lawyer who had defended him at his first trial, was now the judge on the bench. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury rendered its verdict: guilty.

Ordering the condemned man to stand for sentencing, Judge Candler said, “At your first trial I was your lawyer. Today I am your judge. The verdict of the jury makes it mandatory for me to sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”

Today Christ is our lawyer, pleading on our behalf. He is our Savior, willing to forgive and cleanse and forget. However, there is coming a fearful day when He will be the Judge.

Are you prepared to meet God?

In our worship at church, we regularly sing a praise chorus titled “Come, Now is the Time to Worship” made popular by the group, “Phillips, Craig and Dean”. It contains these lyrics:

One day every tongue will confess you are God.
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those…
Who gladly choose you now!

I concur with these words. I hope you do as well. And I hope that everyone chooses to embrace Jesus Christ now. I say this because of what the Bible tells us (in the New Testament Book of Philippians, chapter 2, verses 9-11)…

9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Thus, we each have a very clear choice. We can embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior now by choice, and be blessed forever as a result; or we can acknowledge His Lordship later when we are forced to. Sadly, if we wait to do so then, rather than now, we will forgo any such blessing and suffer eternal consequences.

As Jesus Himself told Nicodemus the Pharisee (in the New Testament Gospel of john, chapter 3, verses 16-18):

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

I leave you with the same simple, yet profound question that Billy Graham concluded the story above with: “Are you prepared to meet God?”

STORY SOURCE: https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/april-2010/the-justice-of-god/.

LYRICS SOURCE: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/phillipscraigdean/comenow
isthetimetoworship.html.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/.