A man lay sprawled across three entire seats in the posh theater. When the usher came by and noticed this, he whispered to the man, “Sorry, sir, but you’re only allowed one seat.”

The man groaned but didn’t budge. The usher became impatient and said, “Sir, if you don’t get up from there I’m going to have to call the manager.”

The man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of his manager. In a few minutes, both the usher and the manager returned and tried to remove the fellow with no success. Finally, they summoned the police.

The cop surveyed the situation briefly then asked, “All right, buddy, what’s your name?”

“Sam,” the man moaned.

“Where are you from, Sam?”

With pain in his voice, Sam replied, “The balcony.”

Ooh. Sometimes we make judgment calls upon people who are just so bound up in sin that they can’t move. We’re not called to condemn, but to rescue.

Tags: judgment, rescue, sin

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

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody used the following illustration to describe ‘Redemption’:

“Out in the Western country, in the autumn, when men go hunting, and there has not been any rain for months, sometimes the prairie grass catches fire, and there comes up a very strong wind, and the flames just roll along twenty feet high, and travel at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, consuming man and beast. When the hunters see it coming, what do they do? They know they cannot run as fast as the fire can run. Not the fleetest horse can escape. They just take a match and light the grass around them, and let the flames sweep, and then they get into the burnt district and stand safe. They hear the flames roar as they come along, they see death coming toward them, but they do not fear, they do not tremble, because the fire has swept over the place where they are, and there is no danger. There is nothing for the fire to burn.

“There is one mountain that the wrath of God has swept over – that is, Mount Calvary; and the fire spent its fury upon the bosom of the Son of God. Take your stand by the cross, and you will be safe for time and eternity.”

Tags: fire, judgment, Moody, redemption, rescue

Life is full of trade-offs. Today’s poor choices are a down payment on tomorrow’s problems. It’s all part of living with the law of God that says we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7).

That was true of a 30-year old Mississippi resident. A conviction for felony drunk driving resulted in his getting a 15-year prison sentence. The judge then suspended 14 years of the sentence if the man would honor the terms of a 1-year house arrest.

The trade-off was simple: Stay home and out of trouble for 1 year instead of going to prison for 15. But the man didn’t like being cooped up, so he went fishing – driving with a suspended license to get there. He was arrested and the judge threw him in prison. The fishing trip cost him many years of freedom.

What trade-off lessons have you learned?

Tags: judgment, reaping & sowing, sin

Someone’s got to be in charge. Umpires and Referees are important in any competition to make sure rules are abided by on both sides. Once when Babe Pinelli, the renowned baseball umpire, called Babe Ruth, the even more renowned baseball slugger, out on strikes, Ruth objected, “There’s 40,000 people here who know that last one was a ball, tomato head.”

Pinelli replied with measured stateliness, “Maybe so, but mine is the only opinion that counts.” And, in baseball, he was right.

That’s true in real life, as well. Paul said, “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day” (2 Timothy 4:8). Only God’s opinion counts in the end. Do you have such confidence?

Tags: Babe Ruth, judgment, umpire

Middle School children were playing in a volleyball tournament. They had an early game at 8:00 AM and the next one was not until 11:00 AM. One of the parents volunteered to take everybody to breakfast at her restaurant. There were about six or eight couples and children. The food was served cafeteria style. They got in line with the other people who were at the restaurant that morning. Some were the invited guests and some were paying guests.

The parent who invited her friends positioned herself next to the cash register and as each one passed in front of her she would tell the girl at the cash register that those she had invited did not have to pay because they were with her. The cost of each meal was still entered into the computer, but that they did not have to pay. Others who did not know her, however, had to pay.

What they experienced that morning is what each person will experience at judgment. Each one will stand before the owner of the universe and those who know Him will be given eternal life, but those who do not know Him will pay the full price of their sins.

Can you think of a better example of grace?

Tags: grace, judgment