The present concept of church in our western world has gone the way of hula-hoops and bellbottom pants. Those seeing the trend have tried some innovative methods.

Some thought-provoking church signs:

      1) Free Trip to heaven. Details Inside!

2) Try our Sundays. They are better than Baskin-Robbins.

3) Searching for a new look? Have your faith lifted here!

4) An ad for a church has a picture of two hands holding stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are inscribed and a headline that reads, “For fast, fast, fast relief, take two tablets.

5) When the restaurant next to the church put out a big sign that said,   “Open Sundays,” the church reciprocated with its own message: “We are open on Sundays, too.”

6) Have trouble sleeping?  We have sermons — come hear one!

7) Come in and pray today.  Beat the Christmas rush!

8) Sign broken. Message inside this Sunday.

9) Come work for the Lord. The work is hard, the hours are long and the pay is low. But the retirement benefits are out of this world.

10) If you’re headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns.

God is still in the business of reaching the lost and encouraging believers and his method is the one that works.

John 16:8-11

And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Give it some thought because the slogans are not working.

Gary

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

                                                                                 William Shakespeare

Knowing we’re not all that great is a major accomplishment in life. Next to my senior picture was a statement, “All great men are dying and I don’t feel so well myself.” I sure had a lot to learn about life and where I fit in.

Here’s how the Bible describes it:

Psalm 33:13-15 

The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.

Job 4:17 

‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Psalm 144:3 

O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?

Job 10:9 

Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?

You are not much and you are not here for long.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Robert Robinson had been saved out of a wretched life of sin at the age of twenty-three. Robinson later wrote the hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

Sadly, Robinson wandered far from those streams and turned from the Lord. One day — he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman engrossed in her book. She ran across a verse she thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it.

Prone to wander — Lord, I feel it —
Prone to leave the God I love.

Bursting into tears, Robinson said, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

                                    – Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories, p. 52.

Warning signs ignored can lead to disaster.

Acts 20:31

Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.

1 Corinthians 4:14

I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.

1 Thessalonians 5:14

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.

 Don’t neglect the warning signs. Give it some thought.

Gary

I read the news daily and I am never encouraged by it. However, there is a need to know what is going on in our world.

Abraham Lincoln spoke of the mess that took place following 1861 and came to this conclusion:

“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.”

–       Abraham Lincoln (in the context of The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865)

I would like to offer you hope for the world, but there is none. The Scriptures also paint a pretty bleak picture. What I can give you is a hope that lies in the next world.

Isaiah 40:31

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.”

Romans 8:18

“The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Read about the Christian’s hope and the encouragement will warm your soul.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald

• November 10, 1975
• Largest ship on the Great Lakes
• 729 feet long
• 17 years of service
• Sank due to weather conditions
• 29 perished; no bodies recovered
• 500 feet down
• No distress signal
• Last communication was that everything was fine.
• A safe harbor was only 15 miles away
• There were no mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems

Who would have ever thought she would go down and take every life onboard with her?  Can you imagine no survival suits in case of disaster?   There was no way for rescuers to find her in case of trouble.

How many float through life with that kind of attitude? What a rude awakening when everything you know disappears!

Luke 12:20

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

Luke 24:25

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Be prepared.  Give it some thought because everything isn’t fine.

Gary

The following is taken from the lyrics of “In the Arms of the Angel” by Sarah McLachlan.

So tired of the straight line,
And everywhere you turn,
There’s vultures and thieves at your back.

The storm keeps on twisting.
Keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack.

It don’t make no difference,
Escape one last time.
It’s easier to believe in this sweet madness,
Oh, this glorious sadness,
That brings me to my knees.

The last sentence is the one that caught my eye. In spite of the world’s craziness, thank God for that one trial that brings us to our knees.

Psalm 145:18

The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

After Saul was knocked off his horse, he could for the first time communicate with Jesus.

Give it some thought.

Gary

When the war between the states flared up, a young Texan enlisted and marched off to fight with his friends. “We won’t be gone long,” he claimed, “cause we can lick them Yankees with broomsticks.”

Four years later when the fighting was finally over, the young man came home, a beaten man. One of his neighbors asked, “What happened? I thought you were gonna beat them Yankees with broomsticks.”

“We could have,” replied the young man, “except we couldn’t get ’em to fight with broomsticks.”

What do we need to use in this battle of ours? It certainly won’t be broomsticks because we’re outgunned.

2 Corinthians 10:4

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

The list of weapons is given in Ephesians the sixth chapter. Make sure you are proficient in each one.

Give it some thought.

Gary