Today is Good Friday and the local community service is tonight at New Hope from 7-8PM. I would love to see you here.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was British Prime Minister during World War 2. He stirred a war-weary people to fight and made international alliances that helped to win the war.
He made some specific requests regarding his funeral service. He asked that it begin with the playing of “Taps”, the traditional military signal played at the end of the day or the end of life. We often hear “Taps” played at graveside services for veterans in our country.
But when Churchill’s funeral service was over, those in attendance were startled to hear trumpets play the familiar strains of “Reveille,” the stirring call that awakens troops at the beginning of a new day. Did Churchill have it backwards, or did he have a keen insight into his own future?
Paul wrote: “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Tags: death, funeral, resurrection, Winston Churchill
Tomorrow is Good Friday, the day we recognize Christ’s death on the cross. Don’t forget about the Good Friday Community Service, hosted at New Hope, from 7-8PM. Pastor David Mathews, of the United Methodist Church, will be speaking.
What do you think about death? Do you see it as a good thing or a bad thing? No one knows for sure what Benjamin Franklin believed about life after death. He remained conspicuously silent about it, except for what he wrote in his own epitaph:
The Body of
B. Franklin, printer,
(like the cover of an old book,
its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding)
lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost;
for it will (as he believed)
appear once more,
in a new and more elegant edition,
revised and corrected
by the Author.
This epitaph confirms Paul’s statement in Philippians 3:20-21 that the risen Lord will transform our corruptible bodies, making them like His own glorious body. What will your epitaph say about your hope?
Tags: B. Franklin, body, death, resurrection
A lady went to the grocery store to buy food in preparation to entertain guests. She stopped at the meat counter and asked the attendant for a large chicken. The butcher reached down into the cold storage compartment, grabbed the last chicken he had, and placed it on the scale. “This one weighs four pounds, Ma’am,” he said.
“I’m not sure that will be enough,” the woman replied. “Don’t you have a bigger one?” The attendant put the chicken back into the compartment, pretended to search through the melting ice for another one, and then brought out the same bird, discreetly applying some finger pressure to the scale. “Ah,” he said with a smile, “this one weighs six pounds.”
“I’m just not sure,” the woman frowned. “I’ll tell you what – wrap them both up for me!”
Numbers 32:23b says, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out.” Ever been caught in deception? What happened?
Tags: deception, integrity, sin
When Andrew Jackson was President of the United Staes, a Presidential pardon was given to a man who had been imprisoned for a serious crime. The man had a deep sense of guilt. He felt that he should remain to pay for the crime he had committed. And so he refused the pardon. He insisted on staying in prison.
The lawyers of the time engaged in a famous debate as they tried to determine whether a pardon that had been refused was really a pardon. They finally decided that until it is accepted it is no pardon at all.
That is the way it is with God. In His great love for you He offers you the pardon, the Grace, the wholeness of life. He gives you the fruits of the Cross! But the question is, will you accept it?
Tags: Andrew Jackson, pardon, sin
Everyone makes mistakes. When one is a leader of others, the decisions he or she makes affect others. Mistakes can be disastrous. Spiritual people influence others in their relationships with God, so when they make mistakes in misunderstanding God’s ways, they can lead others away from God, not toward Him.
What mistakes have you made lately and what did the Lord show you this weekend?
A father was explaining ethics to his son who was about to go into business: “Suppose a woman comes in and orders $100 worth of material. You wrap it up and give it to her. She pays you with a $100 bill. As she departs through the door you realize that she has given you two $100 bills by mistake. Here’s where the ethics come in. Should you or shouldn’t you tell your partner?”
The father could only pass on the ethics that he himself understood. If the father had a warped, selfish set of ethics. that’s all he could pass on to his son.
Likewise, you can only pass on to your children what is in your heart. By the way, what is in your heart?
Tags: ethics, money, parenting, stealing
A little girl had cut her own hair while her Mommy was gone. You can be sure, it was a terrible patchwork at best. When her Mommy got home she was horrified to see her child. “What did you do to your hair?” exclaimed the upset mother.
The little girl replied, “But, Mommy, how did you know? I hid all the hair very carefully in the wastebasket.”
We may think we have covered things up pretty good, but the evidence at the end of the day tends to be pretty incriminating. The wages of sin are death, says the Bible. You can hide the sin, but the death that follows will be there.
Look at your life and see if you need to deal with the source of the death.
Tags: cover-up, hiding, humor, sin