Years ago I officiated at a wedding in our church. The bridal couple each had about five attendants stand up with them. About half way through the wedding ceremony there was a commotion as the largest guy in the wedding party passed out and fell to the floor. Although everyone gasped, we just left him there and continued on. He later awoke, thoroughly embarrassed, and rejoined us before the recessional began. He really got ribbed over that.
Several years later he was again standing up with another couple in that same family, when I was officiating in a different church, and he did the same thing! Flat on his back. Since this was the same family, everyone just smiled and let him lay there. They were anticipating it this time.
I smile every time I think about it. Why is it always the big guys that fall down? Perhaps there’s a spiritual lesson in that story. If there is a lesson, what would it be?
Tags: fall down, humor, wedding
Today is the official celebration of Memorial Day, although the traditional date is actually May 31. Memorial Day is a time off work, the Indy 500, and cook-outs. But, its also a day of remembering those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
I lost three friends in Vietnam. One was shot multiple times by a buddy who was high, the second was an MP who was stabbed in the back trying to break up a bar fight, and the third was a K-9 handler who was a target because he was the only one to control the dog.
Each of these friends laid his life down for the cause of extending freedom. The ugliness of that war did not minimize the extent of their sacrifice. I will remember them today.
Who do you remember who paid the ultimate price for your freedom? Tell us about him/her.
Tags: freedo, Memorial Day, Vietnam War
William Booth, the founder and commanding general of the Salvation Army, was unable to sleep one night. His son, Bramwell, who lived next door, saw that the light was on in his father’s home. Thinking something might be wrong, he went to his parents’ house. He found his father pacing back and forth with a wet towel wrapped around his head.
“Father,” he asked, “shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“No,” William replied, “I am thinking.” Seeing the puzzled look that crossed his son’s face, he put his hands on Bramwell’s shoulders and solemnly said, “I am thinking about people’s sins. What will they do with their sins?”
Have you ever asked yourself what others would do with their sins? Perhaps we should.
Tags: evangelism, sin, William Booth
Sociologist Robert Bella reports that, “One of our current psychological gurus says that 98 percent of Americans are dysfunctional.” Duh…
Have you looked around you lately? How can anyone raised on American TV not be dysfunctional? This is not a new revelation. He has just discovered what we Christians have long called, Original Sin. His only error is that he miscalculated by 2 percent. The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)”.
The task Christ has set before us dysfunctional sinners is to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth until we become “overcomers” and are “conformed into the likeness of His Son “(Romans 8:29).
The problem with us Americans is that we settle for way too little. God created us for much more than this.
Tags: overcomer, sin
I noticed that you missed the rapture last Saturday. For a year now some Christian group has been convinced that Jesus was coming back again on May 21, 2011. They were so convinced of this that they spent thousands of dollars to advertise Jesus coming on that date.
Many just considered them nuts, but some bought into it and prepared to depart. Its my prayer that some opened their eyes a little more to the signs of the times. I am old enough to remember the hot-selling book 88 Reasons Why Jesus will Return in 1988. Then there were several predictions in the 1990s that He would return. Then the Y2K thing.
My Bible says, “No one knows the day nor the hour”. So I just stay ready.
Did you do anything to prepare for the Rapture?
Tags: end times, rapture
Last Sunday afternoon my siblings and I met at my folks’ old home in Butler to get things ready for a garage sale this coming weekend. My folks kept everything, so we had to decide what was trash, what were heirlooms, and what was garage-sale material.
My brother had set two large wall-hanging photos aside and asked if I knew anyone in them. I looked at the first picture and my mouth dropped open. It was a circa 1904/05 family photograph of my great-grandparents and all their adult children, including my 18-year old grandmother. I had never known that photo existed. What a blessing for a family history buff.
One of my first tasks upon getting home was to clean a hundred years’ of grime off the glass and frame. I used one of my wife’s nice rags to do that and afterward she gave me her opinion on that idea! What’s the oldest family photo you own?
We can see God’s Law illustrated in civil law. On a freeway where there is no visible sign of the law, motorists transgress the speed limit routinely. Everyone knows the maximum is usually 55 mph, but they all naturally flow together at an unlawful 70 mph. If confronted about it, each driver would say something like this: “I was going with the flow. Besides, I was only transgressing the law by 15 mph, and I was not the only one driving over the speed limit.”
Ever notice what happens when the law enters the scene? A police car moving through the fast lane with its lights flashing causes each driver’s heart to miss a beat. Motorists no longer feel secure in the knowledge that others are also speeding. Each one recognizes his guilt and that he could be the one pulled over. Suddenly that “mere” 15-mph transgression doesn’t seem like such a small thing after all!
God’s laws are written on our hearts. Let’s be paying attention before He arrests us.
Tags: guilt, Law, sin