There are four ways you can go after money in this life:
1. Borrow it
2. Beg for it
3. Steal it
4. Earn it

The word “earn” is defined as to introduce something new into existence and to harvest the yield that it produces. When you go to work eight hours a day, forty hours a week, you harvest a paycheck for your time and labor. That is God’s law of sowing and reaping in operation.

Conversely, the welfare system gives a man his food and money without his having to work for it. God’s way is to develop His wisdom in your life so that you will always have the ability to earn money, even if the government system fails.

There should always be provision from the masses for those who cannot work, but if a man hasn’t earned it, he loses self respect and becomes dependent upon others instead of God. Agree or disagree? Is there another side to this?

Volunteering is what the church is all about. There are a few paid staff that keep the organizational machinery rolling, but real ministry takes place by ordinary people like you. There are a couple of organizations in the county working hard to get volunteers to work in various service organizations, but the very life of any church is its volunteers. So thank you for volunteering, whatever you do. We do appreciate and respect you.

But in their attempt to make this a really nice wedding, they purchased a carpet runner. When I first started doing weddings in the 1970s, carpet runners were cloth and came on a metal runner with handles. Today they are lightweight plastic around a cardboard tube and a short twine to pull it with. Not ideal for an outside wedding.

As the ushers attempted to unroll the plastic runner across the grass, the gentle breeze blew under it through the grass and rolled that runner. No matter what they tried to do, the runner would not stay in place.

The wedding went just like we planned, but the rolling carpet runner became the memory of the day. What plans have you made that have gone awry and what did God teach you through it?

The Bible does talk about God’s people showing forth acts of repentance. We should act different than before. Warm-A-Heart is doing a similar act of repentance this weekend as they reach out to underprivileged women in the Ashley area with personal care products. Both of these efforts are example of ‘sharing the wealth’ from a Christian perspective. Its not the same as the government taking finances from those who are successful and handing it out with no accountability to those who aren’t. That’s communal-ism (Communism) and it has proven to fail.

Christianity is when people like you and I personally invest what we have in helping those who don’t, in the name of Jesus!

Anita, insecure with the care of her first newborn, was not a happy camper. I had to get out and run across the field to the house, where I had a gallon of lawn mower gas, and bring it back. I ruined a good pair of shoes that day. By the time I got back, Anita had nursed the baby and she was sound asleep.

Anita still reminds me of how I took care of my wife and daughter on that historic day. And I keep apologizing.

Have you ever run out of gas? What’s the story?

I told God I was angry;
I thought He’d be surprised.
I thought I’d kept hostility
quite cleverly disguised.

I told the Lord I hate Him;
I told Him that I hurt.
I told Him that He isn’t fair,
He treated me like dirt.

I told God I was angry,
but I’m the one surprised.
“What I’ve known all along,” He said,
“you’ve finally realized.

“At last you have admitted
what’s really in your heart;
Dishonesty, not anger,
was keeping us apart.

“Even when you hate Me,
I don’t stop loving you.
Before you can receive that love,
you must confess what’s true.

“In telling Me the anger
you genuinely feel,
it loses power over you
permitting you to heal.”

I told God I was sorry,
and He’s forgiven me.
The truth that I was angry
had finally set me free.

-Jessica Shaver

I just learned a new definition of that today from Eric Openlander, the Jail Commander at the DeKalb County Jail. According to him, what a person tells a minister in private, for his/her ears only, is considered confidential information. However, if there is another person or persons present when the confession was made, then it becomes public information and a minister can be called upon to testify regarding that information.Of course, the confidentiality rule does not include future crimes or child molesting.

What do you think of the clergy/client confidentiality law? Should a person be able to confess things to a priest or minister and have it remain confidential? What are your thoughts?

So he asked Vada to call and see if I would come to his house and talk with him. I listened to his concerns, shared the gospel with him and asked if he was ready to accept Christ as his Savior. He said a sinner’s prayer with me and a peace came over him. He thanked me and I invited him to come to church with Vada.

“That’s a problem,” he said. He told me about a phobia he had of someone sitting behind him. Because of some past incidents, he was afraid of being attacked from the rear. So I told him we had just the seat for him, right up against the back wall next to the door in case he needed a quick escape. And sure enough, that became his permanent seat ever since.

Today he has a new seat right up front in heaven. Welcome home, Bill.

His funeral will be here at the church on Monday. What will you remember about Bill Albright?

Do we have ‘Territorial Rights’ once we merge our lives in marriage? Do I have rights as it pertains to “my money” versus “your money”? Do I have any rights to the TV remote control or computer time? Do I have rights to certain housekeeping chores and expect those I don’t like to be yours? Do we have a right to put ‘Do Not Trespass’ limits when it comes to lovemaking? Do I have a right to claim certain food in the fridge as my territory?

We all struggle with Territorial Rights. But you cannot survive a marriage defending your rights. Marriage is a merger of spiritual proportions. Being selfish in a marriage is like being a Christian while leaving God out of your life: doomed to failure.

What territory are you defending that needs to be surrendered?

I was too timid to participate in my High School’s play ‘The Sound of Music’, but I was one of the stage hands and helped make the Austrian flag (with my Mom’s help, of course). I was in a play once. I was a Paul & Timothy student and we worked as staff of Calvary Temple’s various ministries.

There was a Christmas play that year (1974) and I had the role of Isaiah the prophet prophesying about the coming of the Messiah. It wasn’t a speaking part. I just sat at a desk in long robe, wig, and powdered beard, with a feather quill in my hand. I was to look awestruck as the revelation of God came upon me, rising from the desk and lifting my hands to the sky, all while a narrator read the text.

We did that at the Scottish-Rite Auditorium and the place was packed. All I could see was the spotlight in my eyes, but I was a nervous wreck. Playing the part of someone else is never easy.

But isn’t that what Jesus did for us? He was God, but made Himself in our image, to identify with our sins, to the very point of paying the price for us. He played the part of you and me.

What role did you once play and was it easy?