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Showing posts from March, 2012

The Real Problem

T he issue of abortion is that of convenience and pleasure over the rights of people who have no ability to speak for themselves. On the news the other day, they showed a woman who had gone in for an abortion. The doctor showed the woman the ultrasound, but the woman said it didn’t make any difference in her decision. I asked myself, “How does that make sense? How can she see the images of that child growing within her and not be moved with compassion?” I’m sure there are women who see the ultrasound images and make the decision to not go through with the abortion. That is what the people who crafted the law hoped, anyway. But many don’t. The problem for these women isn’t that they don’t know they are carrying a living child. If that were the only issue, perhaps they would be concerned enough to let the baby live. But is never just about the baby. The women who go in for an abortion are in a situation they don’t want to be in. Perhaps they don’t like the discomfort of pregnancy. Pe...

Customer Service is Dead

T he art of customer service is dead. It used to be that you could drive up to a service station and the sound of a bell would bring someone out to pump your gas, check the oil, and wash the windshield. These days, you pump your own gas and you’re lucky if you find a squeegee in good enough condition to clean off the bugs. But it’s not just there. There was a time when writing a letter to the company would result in a nicely written response with a couple of coupons in the envelope. Often, one of them would provide you with a free replacement of the product you were writing about. These days, writing a letter won’t gain you a form letter response, much less coupons. Over the past couple of years, I have written a few letters to various companies. Typically, they were letters expressing dissatisfaction with one thing or another. Some of these letters were e-mail. Some of these letters were handwritten. Many months have passed since I sent some of these letters and in many cases, I have ...

Do I Have to Know When I Got Saved?

D oes a person have to remember the time and place they were saved in order to be saved? I recently read an article by a preacher who told of the time and place he was saved, but then he said that not all people who have been saved have had that experience. In fact, he said that it isn’t typical. [1] It isn’t? Why then do so many people tell of that experience? He also indicates that some people may come to saving faith so gradually that they don’t know at what point it was that they went from not believing to believing. I’ll admit, that sounds good. I’m a preacher’s kid, so I was going to church before I was born. I knew more about theology than many people ever do before I started school. I knew about heaven and hell, Jesus, the cross, and salvation. I believed they were all real and that without Jesus I would go to hell. At first, I believed it because my parents told me so. Could it not be that I could gradually move from that kind of knowledge to saving faith? It seems logical,...

Three? Four? Does It Matter?

L ast Saturday was Saint Patrick’s Day. I saw an article in which a preacher expressed displeasure about the way things are going. I’ll admit that I think it’s ironic that some people celebrate the life of a man who may have been a Baptist preacher by drinking green beer, but his concern was something else. His concern was with the shamrock. He had noticed that the four leaf clover is replacing the three leaf shamrock as the symbol of Saint Patrick’s day. He wrote of how is mother had taught him that the three leaves represent the trinity, but people are beginning to think more about the luck of a the rare four leaf clover instead. He does have a point about people turning to luck instead of to God. I’m just not sure people are really thinking about luck as much as they’ve heard the term “four leaf clover” so much that they assume that’s what we should be using on Saint Patrick’s day. But I question whether we should be concerned because the three leaves represent the trinity. Grant...

More Than I Expected

I started on a woodworking project this weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve made anything and I need a new bed, so I figured I might as well make one. I’ll let someone else make the mattress; I’m just making the frame. I spend most of Friday and Saturday working on it. So far, all I’ve got to show for my work are some sore muscles and four bed posts. I really expected it would go quicker than this. I’ve still got the bulk of the headboard and footboard to cut. The sides are simpler, but not without their challenges. What I thought was a two weekend project may take me more than a month by the time it’s all said and done.

Who Is That?

I saw a picture of my dad and three other preachers on Facebook. It was a little strange looking at it. I’m not sure how old it was, but he looked so much younger. I remember him from back then and yet he looked almost like a different person than he does now. Life is such a strange thing. It changes us, but we don’t notice how much. Then we look back at the person we used to be and we don’t recognize ourselves.

When Death Comes

H appy Ides of March, and be thankful you aren’t Caesar. Supposedly, Caesar was warned of his death. I wonder what it would be like to know the date of you own death, before it happens. None of us can be completely certain of when we will die. Even those on death row may die of natural causes before the day of their execution. But many live right up to their scheduled time. How strange it would be to think about the future and know that death will come before some event. This is the year of the Olympics. I anticipate that I’ll watch some of the events on television, but wouldn’t it be strange to think about the upcoming events and realize you won’t be alive to watch it? I think I’m glad I don’t know when I will die.

Is God Fair?

I s God fair? I suppose that depends on what you call fair. People often think fair means that you get what anyone else gets. If John gets a dollar for cleaning his room, then “it isn’t fair” if Sue gets a dollar for doing nothing at all. Sue, on the other hand, would think it isn’t fair for John to get a dollar and her not, since her room is already clean. Our problem is that we want to define fair in terms of what we get. In actual fact, we are lacking in the ability to define what is fair and what is not. God is the only judge with complete ability to define what is fair. Not only is he fair, but he is such a stickler for being fair that he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. Think about it. If God wasn’t fair, the plan of salvation would be different. He could have said, “I’m just going to forgive everyone for their sin because I don’t want to send them to hell.” But that isn’t his nature. Instead of changing the rules, he provided a way for us to follow the rules and ...

God or Nature

W hile watching a television show I hear someone say that because a particular species had evolved a certain way, it provide a certain resource for people trying to survive in the wilderness. The person on the show went on to say that Mother Nature provides many of the things we need, if we would just learn to look for them. But rather than thinking so highly of Mother Nature, I thought about what the Bible says about God feeding the birds. We know that the birds go out and find the food they eat, but God says he provides it. I began to think about a difference in perspective. One person looks at all that is in nature and is fascinated by how much is available, if we just would open our eyes. But another person looks at it and says, “look at all God has provided.” In a sense, both are correct. If we find water in the desert, it took a long time flowing through the rocks for us to find on the day we need it. Or we could simply say that God knew we needed it and he provided. Though b...

Why Does Jesus Need Keys?

Y ou’ve heard it said that Jesus holds the keys. You’ve heard the song. Perhaps you’ve read about it in the Bible. But what does it mean? For that matter, what keys does he hold? Some of the keys Jesus holds are those of hell and of death. But he holds more than that. The Bible says that he holds the key of David. He opens and no man can shut and shuts and no man can open. Does that mean that David had some special ability? No, I don’t think so. Let’s think first about what it means to hold the keys. When I was in college, I spent a summer working in fire protection at a large manufacturing facility. One of the tasks that I and some other college students had was to collect fire extinguishers throughout the building and carry them back to the shop for maintenance. Most of the facility was wide open. The workers were trusted to leave most things that didn’t pertain to them alone. If they couldn’t do that, they were walked out the door. But there were a few doors with locks on them. ...

Until Later...

D ue to a death in the family, I will not be posting here for a few days.

Another Saint Gone Home

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I t is with sadness that I say that my grandfather, Earl Fish, passed away this week. When I think back to my earliest memories of him, I think of a time at church. It’s always nice when your memories of someone involve church, but this was a frightening time for me. My grandparents were sitting behind my mother. I remember being lifted over the back of the pew. I must have been between one and two years old. Even with my mother only a few feet away, I suppose I thought I’d never see her again. Despite the rough start, I have so many good memories. I remember helping him on various projects. He always wanted to pay me, and it was always more than I thought I deserved for the little work I did. I helped him build a house, hail hay, split wood, and feed the cattle. We went fishing. We built fences. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but I remember staying with him at the cabin, just him and me, one night. He fixed soup. And I don’t mean he just heated up a can of soup. It was th...