Politicians like slogans like “Make America Great Again” or “Build Back Better.” Great slogans, but under the present moral conditions, they are impossible to make into a reality. The reason being: man was created by God for a specific purpose.

Genesis 1:27-28, 2:24

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

God’s purpose for us was to acknowledge Him and for families to be the units to make the world worth living in. When families are broken, the foundation of a nation is destroyed.

High gas prices and lack of baby formula are not the causes of our problems, but provide the evidence of the problems. We need to get back to what the Creator has designed us for.

Don’t weed your garden with a lawn mower because it wasn’t designed for that.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Charles Dickens began his epic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, with these words: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

We’re twenty-two years into this 21st century and no one has to convince us that it is the worst of times. CNN and Fox will help you out with that. Then there are some really wild and wacky things on Christian TV that will also help your understanding of the worst of times.

How about the best of times? God left the believers with many promises and here are a few that can help us realize these are the best of times.

 Matthew 16:18

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Petrology is the study of rocks. When you research the rocks of the Bible, you realize Christ is the Rock and His church will be built. Peter was just a stone. Christ is the rock. That process has been going on for almost two thousand years now. He’s at it in the best of times and the worst of times. The same statement made to Peter is made to you as a believer today.

 Philippians 4:19

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

In the worst of times, you get to prove God is sufficient for every need.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Here is Tom Sawyer’s description of public worship. He says, “The announcements are made from a list that would stretch to the crack of doom.” The prayer is, to use his words, “generous in its details”. Furthermore, Tom is so familiar with the prayer that he knows it by heart, and so he recognizes and resents any new additions to it. The preacher’s sermon drones on monotonously through an argument that is so prosy that many a head begins to nod. Basically, the worship services bore Tom.

We really need to examine our church services in case a Tom Sawyer attends.

Matthew 15:9

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

1 Timothy 3:15

if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Church can be a dangerous place.

Acts 20:9

And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 

Come out some Sunday and let us know how we’re doing.

Give it some thought.

Gary

An older sister was sitting next to her little brother in church one Sunday morning, unsuccessfully trying to keep him still and quiet. Finally, she said, “I wish you would calm down.”  “I can’t,” he said. “It’s just so boring.”  His sister turned and said, “It’s supposed to be boring.”

That girl didn’t get the purpose for being there and neither did her brother. Maybe the whole congregation, including the preacher, didn’t get it. Here is the real meaning of coming into God’s presence.

John 4:23

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.

Hebrews 13:15

Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.

Psalm 96:9

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth!

There are no points earned for going to church, nor is it pleasing to God if you are giving Him an hour during which you are bored.  However, God is not far away if you see the time spent as fellowship with your Creator.

Give it some thought.

Gary

After attending church one Sunday morning, a little boy knelt at his bedside that night and prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time at church today–but I wish you had been there!”

Did you know that God doesn’t attend every church service? The reason being: He is not invited in. That was the case in the church in Laodicea.

Revelation 3:20

 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

We need to keep the things of the world out of our services and bring God in. This has been the situation ever since the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Make sure when you attend church, God is there.

Think about it.

Gary

John Kenneth Galbraith, in his autobiography, A Life in Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family’s housekeeper:

It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. “Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson.”

“He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him.”

“Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him.”

“No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.

When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure.

“Tell that woman I want her here in the White House.”

Published by Houghton Mifflin, Reader’s Digest, December, 1981

So, what’s the commitment of the employee to the employer? Do we wing it and go by our own rules or do we do what we are commanded?

Ephesians 6:5-8 

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

There is no better testimony than that which can be seen in the workplace.

Give it some thought.

Gary

The idiom “step up to the plate” is derived from the American sport of baseball. Home plate is the beginning position in baseball, designated by a flat marker known as home plate. This is where the mettle of the player is tested. It is where the men are separated from the boys.

The Apostle Peter offered a similar challenge to the early church. It was time to step up and be counted.

1 Peter 3:15

 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Always be gentle and respectful with people. Be ever prepared to give an educated and honest presentation as to what you believe. It all starts with the heart surrounded and saturated with the love of Christ. It’ll find its opportunity.

Give it some thought and knock it out of the park.

Gary