It always amazes me how some famous philosophers who despised organized religion are so much closer to the truth than so many who promote religion. My opinion, which doesn’t carry a lot of weight, is that Voltaire was in that category.

Here is one of his quotes:

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him” – Voltaire

We must always remember what Jesus said to the masters of religion in His day.

Matthew 23:13

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

How I began this thought is how I’ll end it:

John 4:23

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

Give it some thought.

Gary

CNA’s who work in our nursing homes are a great group of professionals who are overworked and underpaid. We saw that for ourselves during our ministry there before Covid-19.  I told some of them, “When my time comes to be placed here, I will only require you to keep me warm and dry.  Also, don’t play that modern country and western music; it’ll make me hard to manage.”

My personal belief is that one should face the cold hard facts of life long before it befalls you.

Jesus expressed it well over 2000 years ago in communicating to Peter:

John 21:18-19

 Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

Peter’s end was not promised to be pleasant. The prosperity preachers don’t teach this because it doesn’t go along with their false narrative of prosperity and health.

Think about it.

Gary

“Actions speak louder than words,” is said to go all the way back to 1628. (No, I wasn’t there.) It was first used in its current form in the USA by Abraham Lincoln in 1856. My theory, which hasn’t been fully validated, holds that Lincoln was pondering a verse in the Bible:

James 1:22

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

One of my favorite preachers from days long past made the following statement:

“We are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads but of consumed hearts.” 

   – Vance Havner

The church today doesn’t need a by-pass but a new heart that only God can provide if it’s willing.

Give it some thought.

Gary

My good friend John and I were working our way through a midlife crisis so we came up with a bucket list:

1. Be in a storm at sea
2. Take a parachute jump
3. Learn the eskimo roll in a kayak
4. Try Scuba diving

I know what you are thinking, but there is something about the 40’s that makes men do unnatural endeavors. They start believing the door is closing on possibilities and they’d better grab the ring because it won’t come around again.

I jumped from the plane thinking this would be my last view of earth. Then, I was so seasick; I wished someone would put me down. Lastly, I almost drowned in a swimming pool trying in vain to do the eskimo roll. Never did get to go scuba diving, which is probably why I can write this today.

Solomon spoke of doing things:

Ecclesiastes 1:17

And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.

Except for the wisdom part, my friend and I took a shot at the rest. We discovered that, when it comes to Solomon and chasing the wind, history does repeat itself.

Think about it.

Gary

It was a warm summer evening and eight or ten of us middle school kids were just goofing off on someone’s lawn. X’s mother and father pulled up in their car. The mother was driving and the father got out and threw X into the rear seat and started punching him as the car drove away.

We were stunned, and I didn’t respond to the event well. My dad had never touched me in anger all the time I was growing up. I never saw any child treated like that. X was a tough kid, but was well liked by our little gang. He died at a young age of a heart attack, and I will never forget X or what I witnessed on that warm summer evening in Maine. The memory hurts me now more than it ever did.

It is a shame that that father didn’t practice what the Bible teaches about children:

Colossians 3:21

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

None of the gang had a father like that, and I believe we went home with a different respect for our dads.

Think about it.

Gary

Robert Frost knew about the time- tested principle of roads. The traveler is always presented with more than one, but he can only take one at a time.

If only I had enlisted, if only I had taken that person for a life partner, if only I had never smoked, if only I had eaten better, if only I had taken education seriously…  the list is endless.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

“If” is a two-letter word that is more soul-searching than any word in the Bible.

Hebrews 3:15

 while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

Hardness is the wrong choice and has eternal consequences. You take that road and you will always be looking back with regret.

Think about it.

Gary

We were two young boys who often found ourselves wrestling. He was a challenge because he was stronger than I was and had a trigger temper that I needed to avoid at any cost.  Sometimes we’d even be rolling down a flight of stairs or the steep embankment of a gravel pit. The weapon I had at my disposal was a sense of humor that I could easily use on him and subdue him. I think he preferred laughter to winning. (The Irish are strange that way.)

When God places us in difficult, confrontational situations, we must rely on the tools he has given us.

Ephesians 6:11-12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Can you see that? You are destined to wrestle, but God has given you the tools to win.

Think about it.

Gary