I rarely get sick but when I do, it’s a Duesey. I’ve spent the last several days home sick. I ran a fever, threw up, had an extremely painful sore throat, lost my voice entirely and ached all over. I’m in the office this afternoon, but had to stay isolated because I’m still running a low-grade fever (contagious).

I don’t know if my wife gave this to me or my granddaughter, Raegan!

My voice is pretty well gone every morning, but slowly comes back during the day. So, we’re trying a first-ever experiment this weekend. The video team is going to video my sermon Saturday night and be ready to show that teaching Sunday morning. If I’m well enough to speak that will be great. If I’m not, we’ll show the video. Its always good to have a plan.

Tags: illness

The headline in Newsweek magazine called it “the ultimate reunion”. A reunion of war veterans? A banquet in honor of our country’s living ex-presidents? No, it was nothing of the kind – just a rumor that the surviving members of the popular music group the Beatles and Yoko Ono, widow of deceased Beatle John Lennon, were “thinking of doing something together again.”

I recall the drug abuse and decayed morals of the cultural revolution the Beatles were part of, and I found little excitement in such a reunion. But there is another reunion that grabs my attention, and I doubt if Newsweek will give it much attention.

I’m referring to the ultimate reunion when Jesus returns to gather the whole family of God together. Dead believers will be raised first (1 Thessalonians 4:16), then, along with believers living everywhere on earth, we will all be united with our Lord to enjoy forever the splendor of His presence (v. 17).

Now,

Tags: reunion, second coming, The Beatles

Sorry you couldn’t get on to check my blog the past two days. They were doing some upgrades on the server and everyone got locked out, including me. Troublesome.

Job said man is destined to trouble as sure as sparks fly upward (Job 5:7). If we understand that principle it makes trouble in our lives a little more bearable. This is a fallen planet and Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). But believers have been reborn into a spiritual kingdom. The troubles of this life provide the opportunity for victory in God’s Kingdom.

Many of us reading this make money from someone else’s trouble. Repairmen, doctors and nurses, attorneys, firemen and policemen all make their living due to someone else’s troubles. The next time you have trouble in something, ask God how you can make the most of this trouble.

Tags: trouble

Restoring Tools we all need was our theme this weekend. My soul is so blessed when I look out over our congregation and think about the stories of alcoholism, broken marriages, bankruptcy, and failure that God turned around into something positive. These are your stories and they can inspire others to a walk of faith. God has called us to be restorers and I challenge you with the task of finding such a person and getting involved with giving them “the right hand of fellowship”, a helping hand. Let me know how it goes.

American Theologian Carl Henry made three observations about our world:

1. The barbarians have come. Evil forces have entered the gates and are tearing down the values Christians embrace as true and good. Many thoughtful people believe that we are witnessing the moral collapse of Western civilization, and they are afraid.

2. Jesus is coming. Christians have lived for 20 centuries with the hope that they will witness the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The barbarians may have won a battle, but they will not win the war.

3. The church doesn’t know whether its coming or going. Many of those who claim to know God deny Him by their words and actions. A great number of Christians believe that the hands on the clock of history are nearing the midnight hour, but they don’t know just how close.

Let’s get our eyes off the barbarians, keep looking for the coming of our Lord, and live for Him today. “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).

Tags: second coming

When I was about Tom Sawyer’s age there was genius advertising campaign someone came up with. They designed an advertising flyer for some event and arranged to have it dropped all over the town of Butler from a small airplane. I was out riding my bicycle with some friends when the drop happened. It was absolutely beautiful to see all those 8½ x 11 papers floating down from the sky. Absolutely brilliant advertising idea!

But the pilot was a little less than genius. When he dropped those hundreds of beautiful pieces of paper, the wind carried them blocks to the northeast where they dropped over open fields in what is now the Eastside High School and Maxton’s Park area.

My bicycle buddies and I ran into the fields to retrieve our booty. Hours later we had gathered stacks and stacks of advertisements. It was so cool! Then someone asked the obvious question, “What are we going to do with all these?” We were so excited about harvesting what seemed so valuable that we never asked the question, “Why?”

I think life can be like that. We can manically race around trying to get all we can get. Then, when we have to give account for our lives on judgment day, we will look back over what we have and ask the obvious question, “Why?” Did all that stuff really matter when we could have much more wisely invested our time and talent.

Ask yourself the question, “What are we going to do with all these?”

Tags: collect, greed, judgment, seeker, treasure, waste