Saturday, February 23, 2013

Where Does Your Wealth Lie?

      Have you ever gotten so sick you’re willing to beg for some sort of relief from somebody and it didn’t matter much who? I’ve been there twice in my life and my wife found herself there early last week. We are fragile beings and it doesn’t take a whole lot to totally upset the complex daily operation of our body. Well, she got to spend a couple of days in the hospital getting checked out from every angle, inside and out. We praise God nothing major showed up and the situation is manageable. Hopefully, her health will stabilize and return to some sort of normality, but as we all know, the older we get the more the term normal has to be adjusted to the relevance of acceptable levels of tolerance. We learn to live with certain aches and pains, and chemically alter abnormalities with daily medications. Never are we wealthier in this life as is when we have good health and we tolerate a lot to smile and say, “I feel good today.”


      A young lady said to her girlfriend, “When I press my forehead with my finger it really hurts. And, when I do the same to my cheek, it’s also painful. Even if I press on my stomach it hurts.” The girlfriend suggested a visit to the doctor was in order. A short time later the two met again. “Did you see the doctor about the pains you were having?” asked the girlfriend. “I went to a specialist about it” answered the young lady. “What was wrong?” asked the girlfriend. “Oh, I had a broken finger!”

      Patient: “I have an appointment with Dr. Peterson.” Receptionist: “Dr. Peterson has been called away on an emergency, but Dr. Bezmozgis can see you.” Patient: “Which doctor?” Receptionist: “Not at all! He’s a very highly qualified physician.”

      [Hebrews 13:5] Phocion was a successful politician of Athens. He believed that extreme frugality was the condition for virtue and lived in accord with this; consequently, he was popularly known as "The Good." Further, people thought that Phocion was the most honest member of the Athenian Assembly. However, within this chamber, Phocion's tendency to strong opposition relegated him to a solitary stand against the entire political class. Nonetheless, by both his individual prestige and his military expertise, which was acquired by the side of Chabrias, Phocion was elected strategos numerous times, with a record 45 terms in office. Thus, during most of his 84 years of life, Phocion occupied the most important Athenian offices. (Wikipedia) During the days of Alexander the Great, Phocion was a poor old man. Alexander had learned of Phocion and wished to reward him for he felt it monstrous, a servant and friend of the government should live in such poverty. When offered a gift of one hundred talents, because Alexander considered Phocion a good an honorable man, Phocion’s replied, “Allow me to remain in this state and enjoy that reputation always.” The king’s men said that it was a travesty for him to live such a frugal life. Phocion caught sight of a poor old man walking by, dressed in a squalid cloak, and so asked them which of the two they thought inferior, himself or the old man. They begged him not to make such a comparison, whereupon Phocion replied, “Well, this man has less to live on than I have, and yet he finds it quit enough.” Then the king further offered him the government and possessions of three cities. Phocion refused but did ask for the release of some men enslaved in Sardis, who were promptly liberated. Wealth lies in the knowledge that God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”



Saturday, February 16, 2013

Sixty-three and Innocent

      Well, another birthday has come and gone, “…another day older and deeper in debt” as Tennessee Ernie Ford used to remind us. “Saint Peter don’t ya call me cause I can’t go; I owe my soul to the company store.” I went to Houston last week to visit my sister, three years and a day elder, to share some birthday cake and just to be with her for a couple of days. She’s at war with cancer, again. The daily battles, like any other war, some days you advance while other days you lose ground, and then there are days the doctors make you retreat to regroup. Chemo-therapy and radiation are not kind to the body and unfortunately, she has had to retreat due to poor blood labs. Hopefully in another week she’ll be back on schedule holding her own on the front line, battling the dragon that wants to destroy her kingdom. We’ve got a lot more birthdays to share yet.


      Like I said, another birthday has come and gone and I feel great. Oh, to be that innocent child of five or six again when one’s thirty-year-old parents were old and fifty plus year-old grand-parents were ancient. Once you’ve passed up all that with your own age, it’s not so old at all anymore. Remembering innocence: …A woman was trying hard to get some ketchup out of the bottle when the phone rang. She asked her four-year-old daughter to answer the phone. Horrified, she heard her daughter tell the caller, “Mommy can’t come to the phone right now. She’s hitting the bottle.” …A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the woman’s locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, “What’s the matter? Haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?” …A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed between the pages. “Mama! Look what I found” the boy cried out. “What have you got there?” his mother asked. With astonishment in the boy’s voice, he answered, “I think its Adam’s underwear!” The forbidden fruit has ruined everything.

      [Psalm 71] As the baby boomers get older, they tend to continue adapting some childhood favorites to match their decadal circumstance. “Jesus Loves Me” is probably the first song any of us learned and memorized. Here are some new verses dedicated to the senior crowd. Sing along now; “Jesus loves me this I know; Though my hair is white as snow. Though my sight is growing dim; Still He bids me trust in him. (Chorus): Yes, Jesus loves me; Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me; The Bible tells me so. 2. Though my steps are, oh, so slow; With my hand in His I’ll go. On through life, let come what may; He’ll be there to lead the way. (Chorus) 3. Though I am no longer young; I have much which He’s begun. Let me serve Christ with a smile; Go with others, the extra mile. (Chorus) 4. When the nights are dark and long; In my heart He puts a song. Telling me in words so clear; Have no fear, for I am near. (Chorus) Yes, Jesus loves me; Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me; The Bible tells me so.” There are those who are afraid; There are those who don’t know enough to be afraid; And there are those who know their Bible, and are no longer afraid. I have lived all three levels of consciousness and presently reside in no fear. I rest in my innocence that Jesus will deliver me into the promises and grace of God’s eternal love.

Saturday, February 09, 2013

Take Saturday Off

      I’d certainly like to chime in about the US Postal Service decision to stop Saturday home delivery, pending Congressional approval, of course. To hear some people tell it, one would think their whole world is going to come crashing down around them without mail on Saturdays. Personally, I’d be satisfied with home delivery on Saturdays, only. All I ever get in my mailbox 6 days a week is junk-mail, which doesn’t even make it inside the house much less get opened and inspected. Competitive advertizing, via snail mail, at the cheapest rates possible, mingled with a few monthly billings, is about all I ever expect to see in my mailbox. Mister Postmaster, do the environment, and me, a big favor. Quit raising my postal rates forcing me to go elsewhere with my business, that’s bad business. Raise the rates on the guys that are stuffing our landfills with tons of paper every day. Why is the consumer always the bad guy? Why is the guy with the least money always the guy who has to pay to clean up the mess? First class has its priorities, but Saturdays ought to be everybody’s day off.


Little Eddie wasn’t getting good marks in school. One day he surprised his teacher with an announcement. He said, “I don’t want to scare you, but my daddy says if I don’t start getting better grades real soon, someone is going to get a spanking.”

      A village preacher, known for his weakness for trout, preached against fishing on Sunday. The next day one of his members presented him with a fine string of fish and said, hesitantly, “I guess I aught to tell you, preacher, that those trout were caught on Sunday.” The minister hesitated, gazed appreciatively at the speckled trout and then said piously as he reached for the catch, “The fish aren’t to blame for that.”

      An elderly lady was very angry because she hadn’t been invited to the picnic all her friends were going to. On the morning of the event the hostess relented and told her to come. “It’s too late!” she snapped. “I’ve already prayed for rain!”

      Two-year-old Tommy was watching his mother bake cookies. “Please, may I have one?” he asked hopefully. “Not before supper” his mother replied. Tearfully, Tommy ran to his room. A short time latter he reappear with this message, “Jesus told me it’s okay for me to have a cookie now.” His mother retorted, “Well, Jesus didn’t tell me!”

      [2 Corinthians 11:16-31] “…Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from the Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea and in danger from false brothers. …I have known hunger and thirst and often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” Paul disliked boasting about his perils and only did it to question the sincerity of, and to expose, false apostles teaching a different gospel. We live in a country of “me-ism” where blame is the name of the game. We all want to blame someone or something for the problems of our world. Some are blaming guns. Some are blaming the government. Some are blaming God. It’s interesting that Paul didn’t look to blame anybody, but leaned on the Lord instead. I don’t advocate rolling over and giving up. Measure your lifestyle with God’s Word and if it means something to God, fight for it. Otherwise, “Indiana; let it go.”

Saturday, February 02, 2013

Read and Heed

      I am always amazed at the organized chaos of our highways and by-ways. I am also always amazed at the poor driving habits of some people. The octagonal, red signs at intersections that blatantly state “STOP” are being treated like a yellow triangle of the “YIELD” brand, as drivers are sort of sliding through cross-streets narrowly missing one another. I’ve got news for the locals; our police are out in force bridling some of these stop sign stallions and from what I’m hearing it’s costing some up to a couple of hundred dollars. As long as I’m on a mini rant, turn signals are not used to assist in turning your vehicle, they are used to let other drivers learn of your intended move, so try using them before you change lanes or make a turn. And by the way, right on red is not a license to run the red light. You must stop, yield right of way, then turn. Thanks.


      “Here’s Your Sign” Three elderly ladies had gone shopping in the big city several miles from home. On the return trip, one of the ladies was driving and the other two were riding in the back seat. The driver was creating a traffic problem with her slow driving. A State Trooper worked his way through the snarled vehicles and when he got behind the elderly driver he turned on his blue lights prompting the driver to pull over. “Now officer, I know I was not speeding. I promised my children that if they would let me keep driving I would always drive the speed limit. So I don’t drive one mile over or one mile under the speed limit, an I know I was driving exactly what the sign said, and it said twenty miles per hour.” The trooper looked at her in disbelief and said, “Lady, that’s not the posted speed limit sign. That’s the highway number! This is highway 20!” The trooper looked in the back seat at two very nervous ladies. One of the ladies was drumming her fingers on her purse in her lap. The other was repeatedly pulling a handkerchief through her hand. The trooper smiled and said, “It’s all right ladies. I don’t plan on issuing her a citation. She was just confused about the sign. She thought she was supposed to drive what the highway sign said.” One of the nervous ladies quickly exclaimed, “Officer, you don’t understand. We just came off highway 102.

      [1 Timothy 4: 6-16] The order, in the king’s name, was published on September 1, 1538. It said that throughout Great Britain one book of the whole Bible, of the largest volume in English, should be set up in some convenient place within the church. It was to be chained to a desk in every church, in order that the literate parishioners might read, and the illiterate ones hear “wholesome doctrine and comfort to their souls.” The order stated that you should not discourage anyone from the reading of the Bible, “…but shall expressly provoke, stir and exhort every person to read the same, as that which is the very lively Word of God, that every Christian person is bound to embrace, believe, and follow, if he look to be saved; admonishing them nevertheless to avoid all contention therein, but to use an honest sobriety in their inquisition of the true sense of the same, and refer the explication of obscure places to men of higher judgment in scripture.” The order had to be clarified latter on that the reading not be done during the divine service because, “…there were many people who found it much more interesting, and possibly more edifying as well, to listen to the Bible being read by one of the literate fellow-parishioners than to listen to what the parson was saying.” (The English Bible, F.F.Bruce) We are so blessed to possess a personal Bible to read; so read it.