For the past couple of days we’ve had a turkey roaming the bean field around us. Turkeys aren’t all that common, and this singular hen has been fun to watch. For one thing, she’s about the biggest bird we see around here.
Benjamin Franklin once nominated the turkey to be the national bird. He lost out to the Bald Eagle, though. Probably a good thing. Today when someone is called a turkey, its not all that much of a compliment.
There are people who raise turkeys from eggs and release them into the wild for the sport of hunting. And these grain-fed birds are probably a lot healthier than the ones we buy for Thanksgiving.
It was the same God who created turkeys and bald eagles. He created sinners and saints. He created all races. He’s a God of variety. I love watching the diversity he places in His church. We should all value the differences around us today. What differences are you observing as you read this?
Tags: differences, turkey
Saturday night I came home after church. I looked out our back window across the beginnings of a bean field. Out in that field a saw two deer, one larger than the other. The setting sun acting as a beautiful spotlight, I got out my binoculars to get a better view. They were both bucks! The larger wasn’t that large or muscular yet, but was developing a sizable rack. The smaller was apparently in his early stage, spots gone but buttons on his head developing.
It was a beautiful illustration of Father’s Day: a father and son stag together The father was mentoring his son, showing him the way in life. What father doesn’t want his son to be successful. Yet, sometimes we forget how to be that kind of life coach our kids really need. Even when they push us away, they still need our unconditional acceptance and guidance.
What can you add to the lesson?
Tags: coach, example, Father's Day, mentor
Pastor Sean shared some interesting thoughts on the role of fathers and setting a good example this weekend. Not all fathers set the best example. When you get my age we look back and question what kind of example we were. Knowing what I know now, I would have been a better example. But back then, I was trying to pour myself into growing the church and pay the bills.
What kind of example was your father?
The girl knelt in the confessional and said, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
“What is it, child?” the priest replied.
“Father, I have commited the sin of vanity. Twice a day I gaze at myself in the mirror and tell myself how beautiful I am.”
The priest turned, took a good look at the girl, and said, “My dear, I have good news. That isn’t a sin – it’s only a mistake.”
Vanity certainly is a sin. We have very little to do with our outward appearance. If we’re well endowed, we ought to be grateful to God for this blessing. But if I take responsibility for the good in my life, I also must take responsibility for the bad in my life. Its better to just ourselves as a vessel God has chosen to use and not be concerned, positive or negative, with the outward shell. Paul said, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
Tags: confession, humility, mistake, sin, vanity
In March 1918, Albert Gitchell, an Army cook at Fort Riley, Kansas, was diagnosed with the flu. Before the year was out, it had spread around the world, killing perhaps as many as 40 million people. This highly contagious virus became a pandemic – a global epidemic.
One physician reported that patients would rapidly show flu-like symptoms, develop the worst type of pneumonia he had ever seen, and then suffocate within hours. Fortunately, the influenza disappeared as mysteriously as it had begun. But doctors remained baffled by its cause and were helpless to find a cure.
Israel also had to deal with a plague, but they knew its cause and asked Moses for a cure. In righteous anger, God had sent serpents whose poisonous bite left a lethal wound. He then told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. All who looked at it were healed (Numbers 21:1-9).
Centuries later, Jesus spoke of this as a symbol of His death on the cross: “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).
Tags: disease, serpent, sin
Did you know there are slave-making ants that reside in the Amazon rain forest? Hundreds of these ants periodically swarm out of their nest to capture neighboring colonies of weaker ants. After destroying resisting defenders, they carry off cocoons containing the larvae of worker ants. When these “captured children” hatch, they assume that they are part of the family and launch into the tasks they were born to do. They never realize that they are forced-labor victims of the enemy.
Just as these little creatures are captives from the time of their birth, so we humans enter the world enslaved to sin and Satan. We act out what we think is ‘normal’ behavior, but leave a trail of broken debris in our wake. Only by turning to Christ and following His ways can we break free of the slavery of sin.
Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”. We are all servants. Our decision, as Joshua pointed out, is not whether we will serve, but whom.
Tags: ants, service, sin, slavery
Two construction workers sat down to have their lunch. One opened his lunch box and began to scream angrily, “Baloney again! I can’t believe it! I hate baloney! This is the fourth time this week that I’ve had baloney. I can’t stand baloney!”
His friend tried to settle him down, “Take it easy. Why don’t you tell your wife that you don’t like baloney. Ask for to fix something else.”
“Wife?” replied the first, “I make my own lunches.”
The fact is, most of the baloney in our lives, we have put there ourselves.
Anita and I will be addressing some of that self-imposed baloney tonight as we address the topic of ‘How Pornography affects Marriages’, at 7:00PM. Child care is provided.
Tags: baloney, pornography, sex