Sometimes what we say just comes out wrong. Most of the arguments my wife and I have are simple misunderstandings. I say one thing and she hears another, or vice-verse. Communication is a big problem for some of us because we are wired so differently.
And sometimes my brain just runs a little faster than my mouth. On one occasion I was preaching to a church full of adults about marriage and was trying to communicate that giving love and respect to each other creates much success. But I actually said, “Marriage creates much sex”. Everyone got a good laugh out of that one.
Another time I was wrapping up an evening marriage-themed meeting by saying, “We want you to have a sexful marriage”. That was the end of the evening right then. People couldn’t wait to get home.
If you listen to Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament, you know that He was always thinking outside the box. Because we routinely think inside the box, everything He says catches us off guard and seems revolutionary. That’s why we should let His carefully chosen words pierce out hearts and guide our way.
One of the roles I am called on to fulfill is helping people deal with end-of-life issues. And that’s a difficult place to be in. As a Christian who believes in the supernatural, and who has seen many miracles of healing in people’s lives, how do we accept defeat when death finally comes?
And yet, on the other hand, we are expected to believe that there is a heaven and a Savior waiting to receive us into Father’s House. Do we prolong life or do we eagerly anticipate its end? When doctors say that a person’s condition is ‘terminal’ (incurable and ending in imminent death) do we rejoice or fall into hopelessness, or something in between?
An ethics question that we’ll be hearing more about in coming days will be about helping people pass from this life to the next. Is it really life if a life-support machine is necessary to keep body organs functioning. When (and how) does a loving family ‘pull the plug’ on a loved one? These are questions that physicians and ministers, and families, are asking. And we each need a signed living will down in writing someplace.
Psalm 23:6 sums it up well for a believer: “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” I win if I stay, and I win if I leave.
I’ve been watching the competition between Lugar and Mourdock for the next Senator from Indiana. I first leaned one way, then the other. After hearing reports on the debate (I was at church that night), I made my mind up. Since then, both sides have spent a fortune attacking their opponent on television ads. None of these has changed my mind.
I don’t know about you, but negative television ads don’t persuade me. Anybody can exaggerate the facts and tell lop-sided statistics. I don’t buy everything advertised on TV, neither do I believe everything politicians say.
But my mind went to the question, who’s paying for these ads? Is this really helping the economy? How many tax payers are benefiting from this use of money? And, is there a better way?
What do you think about these negative ads?
Don Musser just passed away yesterday. He had been in failing health for a couple of years and has been a resident at Betz’s Nursing Home for the past year.
Don and Mary Jane began attending New Hope when we were Calvary Chapel of Waterloo back in 1981. One of the first projects we tackled as a church was the purchase of a sound system and speakers for our old sanctuary. Don stepped up to the plate and made a sizable donation (for him) toward that purchase.
He and I were good friends and called each other “old timers”. Now he leaves me stuck with the title alone. Don was outgoing and had many friends. He was a great horseshoe pitcher. Anita and I joked that one day he would be making “ringers” around some nursing home nurse’s leg.
Don was once a town drunk who had an encounter with Jesus Christ that changed his life. He loved to tell the story of our first meeting when we both lived at the trailer court in Waterloo. He asked me, “When are you going to get a haircut?” I, a long haired hippie at the time, replied, “That’s none of your business!” We’ve both laughed about that many times.
What will you remember about Donny Musser?
Competition in the economy drives costs down, right? It sure works in the restaurant and motel businesses. If costs are out of line, people just take their business to the other guy. But, what if like businesses worked together to increase costs across the board. Then the whole principle falls apart.
I visited a patient in the new Parkview North hospital today for the first time since its completion. That’s quite a facility. Everything from the MRI to the urinals is state-of-the-art. And when we get sick, we want the best treatment for our loved ones, right?
But has competition in the health care field driven prices down, or is there an agreed upon strategy among health care providers and insurance companies and government watchdogs to run those prices up so we have to pay far more than other countries for the same care? Who pockets the excess?
I’m all for the best health care treatment, but I smell a rat! What do you think?
When I was in Junior High, I was a part of a Boy Scout Troop in Butler. It was the early 1960s and each boy dreamed of the day we would have our own car. Our scoutmaster arranged a series of classes at Maxton Motors, then a GM dealership. Each week a mechanic met with us eager boys (about a dozen of us each week) to teach us about auto mechanics.
One week he pulled in a cut away engine block and explained how an automobile engine worked. Another week they explained radiators and coolant systems. Then they explained carburetors and exhaust systems. Then they talked about electrical systems in cars and how batteries were recharged and lights worked. Then tires and oil and air filters and brakes. They brought in actual parts and tools and explained routine maintenance.
The professional mechanics who donated their time to teach us boys invested something in me that has helped me many times over as I’ve had breakdowns with my vehicles. Whoever you were, guys, ‘Thank you’.
What do you know that you could pass on to someone else? That’s called discipleship on every level. Pass it on.
I’ve been helping a friend research her family ancestry from the early days of Bell County, Kentucky. Her ancestors settled in the Yellow River Valley, a rather flat circular section of the Cumberland mountains just north of the Cumberland Gap. After exhausting Online information regarding her family, I went to work researching the history and geography of the area where they lived.
It seems this several miles across circular valley nested among rugged mountains is actually an impact crater from a meteorite that crashed into the rugged mountains centuries ago. Only recent space technology revealed it. Had that meteorite not crashed into this area, the Cumberland Gap would never have been, and settling this corner of the State of Kentucky would not have happened for another 100 years.
Sometimes God allows bad things to happen because there is something good that will come out of it. Remind yourself of this the next time bad things happen. Remember who’s in control.