The man told his doctor that he wasn’t able to do all the things around the house that he used to do. The doctor started a long and thorough examination but finally found nothing wrong with the man. When the examination was complete, the patient said, “Now, Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what is wrong with me.”

“Well, in plain English,” the doctor replied, “you’re just lazy.”

“Okay,” said the man. “Now give me the medical term so I can tell my wife.”

Sometimes we know the truth but would like to camouflage it so we wouldn’t look so bad. However, a lie is a lie and it doesn’t matter how you dress it up.

Saul, the King of Israel, had a similar problem, but Samuel the prophet told it like it was.

1 Samuel 13:11-13

And Samuel said, “What have you done?”

Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash,  then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”

And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 

Saul was claiming a religious ritual was necessary, when in reality, obedience was necessary.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Somewhere around forty-five years ago, my mother-in-law asked if I would go to the garden and get her a head of lettuce. I plucked the nicest head that I saw, thinking I was bringing back the right thing. My wife looked out the window and saw me coming with a cabbage. She said, “Mom, it looks like we’re having coleslaw for dinner.”

Strange how you can go through twenty-four years of life and not know the difference between lettuce and cabbage. Aren’t they both green and round?

Some lack of information you can get by without for a certain length of time. However, there is information that you shouldn’t leave this world ignorant of: That’s the knowledge about the person of Christ.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Eternity is too long a time to find out you didn’t have the right information.

Give it some thought and “letus” do the right thing.

Gary

The most famous song recorded by Otis Redding is also the most tragic. In the days before a fatal plane crash, Otis came out with that song that hit the top of the charts in 1968.  He would never know it and enjoy the fruits of its success.

The song chronicles a broken man mired in loneliness and depression. He is sitting on the dock of the Bay in San Francisco, having left Georgia, and he’s wasting time.

Did you know time comes from God and we can waste it?

Romans 13:11

 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

2 Timothy 4:6

 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.

James 4:14

whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Don’t waste time. Find out who created you, placed you in this time slot and decided when your time was up.

Think about it.

Gary

On a cold February morning and I was standing back, watching the loader-operator put the last logs on the front tier of my trailer. I would soon move forward to attach the safety chains when he would start loading my back tier. There was one log sticking up too high for the powerlines, so I signaled for him to reverse the log by turning it 180 degrees. When he lifted that log, my front stake broke at the base and the logs tumbled unto the ground. If I hadn’t asked him to rearrange that one log before I attached the chains, I would have been under that avalanche.

We looked at each other with surprise and shock. Proof lay before us as to how dangerous the woods’ industry can be.

We live in a dangerous and uncertain world and you never know what a day may bring forth. However, you can know the One who oversees your day.

 2 Timothy 4:18

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Whether we stay here or go home to our heavenly abode, His presence makes us secure.

Think about it.

Gary

When someone asks you for your opinion by saying, “A penny for your thoughts?”  and you yield to the temptation and  put in your two-cents-worth …. What happens to the other penny? Someone said, “It is better to have people think you are a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.” Been there; done that.

The Bible gives excellent advice on the subject of opinions and advice.

Proverbs 18:2 

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

James 1:19 

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Next time someone asks for your opinion on a subject, replay these two verses in your mind.

Think about it.

Gary

Stop the World (And Let Me Off) is a song written by W.S. Stevenson & Carl Belew and has been performed by a number of famous country singers, including Waylon Jennings and Patsy Cline.

Stop the world and let me off
I’m tired of going round and round

I’ve played the game of love and lost
Stop the world and let me off

I was in my late twenties and a friend of mine said at the fair, “Let’s take a ride on what was called the Zipper.” This contraption turned every way imaginable at great speeds. Earlier that day, I had observed them wielding on that contraption which made it more difficult to acquiesce to his wishes. Not wanting him to think I was less of a man than he was, I went along.

As soon as we made the first revolution, the realization that I had made a stupid decision hit me like a bolt of lightning. How I wanted to escape from that horror, but no one was getting off until that beast’s set-time was up.

Many times as I walked this world, that same feeling has overtaken me. No, we must go on in spite of fear and sickness. The Word teaches us to be careful as we continue on this journey that we can’t escape.

Ephesians 5:15-17

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

I’m making a real effort to cut down on foolish decisions that put me into such a mind frame.

Think about it

Gary

I hate that when I go to use my phone and the battery is dead because I didn’t put it in the charger. My phone is a Panasonic so it can last for many days on one charge.

Did you know that Christians are designed in the same way? One charge is only good for a short period of time.  That is why we need to develop a daily habit of being in the Word.

My Sunday school does a chapter a day which means we read and discuss the entire Bible in thirty-nine months.  If you desire to join the class, I can send you the reading schedule and questions for each chapter. Even if you can’t be there in person, your presence will be appreciated from afar.

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.

Think about it.

Gary