Perhaps you’ve heard of the mystery of the docked ham. It’s the story of a young girl who couldn’t understand why her mother cut off both ends of a ham before putting it in the oven. Her mother couldn’t explain why she did it, but insisted that since her mother had done it that way, it must be the way it was done.

Well that didn’t satisfy the daughter, so she went to Grandma to find out. But her grandmother had the same rationale. The truth had to rest with the great-grandmother. Fortunately, the originator of the tradition was still living and alert. Her reason? When she was cooking for her family, she didn’t have a pan big enough for most hams. Her remedy was to dock the ends of the ham until it was short enough to fit!

So the mystery of the abbreviated ham was solved. Will the young girl get a bigger pan or follow the tradition? What would you do?

Tags: Change, tradition

In 1939 Germany began World War 2 by invading Poland. Hitler sent 14 armored divisions across the Polish border. The Polish army was committed to the traditions of the Cavalry and sent 12 Cavalry brigades against the German tanks. In the tradition of the great Cavalry divisions of the Prussian army, the Polish Cavalry was molded for warfare as it had been fought in the 18th and 19th century. When the divisions of German armor came streaming across the border, therefore, the Polish generals sent wave after wave of Cavalry, men mounted on horses, against the tanks. The battle lasted about three weeks. The fields of Poland were choked with the bodies of horses and brave men who had gone into battle with a strategy formed for warfare in a previous period. The rest is history.

Sometimes I think the church is using the same antiquated strategy: keep doing spiritual battle the same way with the same outdated weapons. Is it any wonder Satan seems the be winning here in America? It reminds me of the director of the US Patent office back in the 1830s who suggested the patent office be closed because everything that could be invented had already been invented. And its not the church’s fault because the church is people! Its time we all awoke to the challenge that we are the ones who need to change.

Tags: Change, spiritual warfare

Two weeks ago I blogged about Change and the Church. This week I’m blogging about Change and You.

Shortly after President George H. W. Bush left office, he described in detail his final flight on Air Force One after the inauguration of Bill Clinton. That day Bush woke up in the White House and went to bed in a rented house in Houston. He said that the next morning he woke up early and started reaching around in the dark, trying to find the button that for years had signaled the staff that he wanted a cup of coffee. He accidentally woke up Barbara, who figured out what he was trying to do. She said, “George, you’re just going to have to get up and go get it yourself. Its over!”

There are times when each of us have to deal with change that is thrust upon us. And that change requires us to do things differently than we did before. Mark Twain once said, “The only one who likes change is the baby with the dirty diaper.”

What change has been thrust upon you?

Tags: Change

Unbelief, indifference, busyness, and laziness are some of the excuses people give for not reading the Bible. Gamaliel Bradford, a renowned American biographer who explored the lives and motives of famous individuals, candidly admitted, “I do not read the New Testament for fear of its awakening a storm of anxiety and self-reproach and doubt and dread of having taken the wrong path, of having been traitor to the plain and simple God.”

How do you think that excuse will hold up in the High Court of heaven when he will surely stand before God? Its about as irrational as refusing to see a doctor because there’s a suspicion that cancer has started to develop in your body.

As I reread his statement above I thought it was a remarkably accurate record of what happened to me when I encountered God back in 1972 and was awakened to all the things he described. Thank God I listened and repented.

Tags: awakening, Bible, Excuses, repentence

Dr. Burt Nanus recalls that on his first day in engineering school in 1953, a professor advised the entering freshmen to buy the best slide rule they could afford. The professor told them, “You will be dependent on it all your professional life.” Nanus dutifully bought a slide rule. Yet after he graduated and went on to MIT, he never used it. The calculator had taken its place.

In a day when technology advances at an ever quickening rate, it seems that nothing remains the same. What was the style yesterday is already old fashioned. And yesterday’s technolgy is today’s junk. But there is one standard that has never changed because it has its root in truth: The Bible. Its stories may seem culturally irelevant in the King James Version, but the message is as fresh and relevant today as it ever was. Get a modern English version and learn about life. What have you read today?

Tags: Bible, relevance, truth

Part of the training to be a US Secret Service agent includes learning to detect counterfeit money. Agents-in-training make a thorough study of the genuine bills – not the phonies – so that they can spot the fake currency immediately because of its contrast to the real thing.

The child of God can learn a lesson from this. While it is helpful to study false religions and be fully aware of their dangerous dogmas, the best defense against such error is to know the truth, so we will spot it at once and won’t fall for it.

Today many are being led astray because they don’t recognize how they are being deceived. So, let’s handle the real thing as often as possible.

Tags: Bible, counterfeit