My brother’s eleven years older than I am and has always had my back. Sometimes someone would tell him, “Your fool brother is out there drunk.” Sometimes he’d come for me and sometimes he wouldn’t. He should have thrown me against a wall and screamed in my face, but he never did.

He always showed up just in time when I found myself jackknifed in a hill, my truck loaded with logs bound for Canada or broken down somewhere on that narrow, dangerous wood’s road. A letter from Viet Nam or a note from home while I was at Bible college always contained money.

He’s eighty-one now with a body that won’t cooperate. Every couple of weeks, he calls to see if I’m ok. My question to you is what can you do with someone like that?

Romans 12:10 

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

He sure did that with me. Can I do that for someone else?

Think about it.

Gary

The expression “diamond in the rough” refers to a person who has much potential, but it has not yet been developed. Some folks with great potential never develop, while others do.

The Bible addresses this for the believer. We should go from the milk stage to the steak stage.

Hebrews 5:12-13

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

Am I writing to mature audiences?

Give it some thought.

Gary

An interesting map is on display in the British Museum in London. It’s an old mariner’s chart, drawn in 1525, outlining the North American coastline and adjacent waters. The cartographer made some intriguing notations on areas of the map that represented regions not yet explored. He wrote: “Here be giants,” “Here be fiery scorpions,” and “Here be dragons.” Eventually, the map came into the possession of Sir John Franklin, a British explorer in the early 1800s. Scratching out the fearful inscriptions, he wrote these words across the map: “HERE IS GOD.”

Source unknown

So many images are coming from outer space because of advances in space missions and ever-improving technology. However, we’re hearing the same old lies. God is absent. Instead, they should look at this awe-inspiring creation and proclaim, “God.”

Psalm 33:6 

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.

Hebrews 1:10 

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands;

What do you think when you look up on a clear night and see all the stars?

Give it some thought.

Gary

I heard of a man who said to the preacher, “I want to sing in your choir.” The preacher replied, “But you don’t belong here. Where do you have your membership?” He answered, “I don’t belong to any local church. I belong to the invisible church.” The pastor said, “Then I suggest that you join the invisible choir.”

The truth is that God created the church to be seen and heard. The word translated “church” in the English Bible is ekklesia. This word is the combination of the Greek kaleo (to call), with the prefix ek (out). Thus, the word means “the called-out ones.”

Ephesians 2:20-22 

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The church is an organism, not an organization.

Give it some thought.

Gary

A young minister was called upon for the first time in his short career to counsel a church member. “I just can’t cope anymore,” said the member. “I’m continually depressed, tired, and anxious.”

“I see,” said the minister. Then, turning to his shelf, he took out a book on pastoral psychology and studied it for fifteen minutes. “Have you ever felt this way before?” asked the minister.

“Yes,” said the man, “three years ago.”

“Well then, that SETTLES it!” said the minister triumphantly. “Whatever it was, you’ve got it AGAIN!”

Good counsel is hard to come by; however, there is a place to attain it.

Psalm 32:8-9

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Babylon was a beautiful city. It had been built into a fortress that was second to none. It was surrounded by a huge wall that some say was 87 feet wide and estimated to be over three hundred feet tall in places. Six chariots could run abreast on top of the wall. It was encircled by a large moat and the Euphrates River ran through the midst of the city. They had plenty of food and water for a long siege.  The Babylonians trusted the security of the city. But as is the case anytime we trust man’s wisdom and ability, they were trusting in a false security.

One ancient account alleged that Persia’s General Ugbaru had troops dig a trench to divert and thus lower the waters of the Euphrates River. Since the river flowed through the city of Babylon, the lowered water enabled besiegers to unexpectedly invade via the waterway under the thick walls and reach the palace before the city was aware.

Lesson: Security rests in God, not man’s devices.

Psalm 46:1 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 9:10 

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

What have you built? Are you safe?

Give it some thought.

Gary

British playwright George Bernard Shaw put it this way:

 There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire, and the other is to gain it. We don’t look at it that way. In our eyes, gaining your heart’s desire is the very purpose of life itself. But how many people have achieved their dreams only to be ruined in the process? Success can be just as big a temptation as failure, perhaps more so, since success tends to make us take life for granted. While it is true that God speaks to us both ways, we tend to listen more when God speaks through sorrow, pain, loss, and personal failure. Success tends to make us complacent, but failure cannot be denied.

Case in point is Nebuchadnezzar just before his insanity kicked in:

Daniel 4:30

The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

God’s answer was to paraphrase, “King, you are nuts, and before “The Ed Sullivan Show” is over, you are going to be acting like an animal.”

It took seven years before sanity returned. Don’t make the same mistake.

Give it some thought.

Gary