Timothy's Thoughts

S ummer is upon us and that means that ‘tis the season for church camp and summer mission trips and lots of other things. For those of us that aren’t going, that means there are probably people asking us for money to send them on their way. If you know me, you know that I’m willing to support a worthy cause. My problem is that I can’t afford to support everyone who wants money for camp or to go on a mission trip or whatever cause they have. I don’t want to say that I won’t support anyone or anything, so it comes down to a question of which I should support and which I shouldn’t. When I look at church camp, I have no doubt that it is a worthy cause. I’ve heard many stories of kids going off to church camp and getting saved. Sometimes it takes getting them away from a familiar environment or immersing them in the gospel for a few days to get them to hear what we’ve been trying to tell them for a long time. So I’m happy to give if it will help kids go to came who wouldn’t otherwise go t...

S ome years ago, I was a music director. It was a small church and an unpaid position, but I took my job seriously. It was during the heat of the contemporary vs. traditional music debate and I had it in my head that if we could just get some newer music into the church services we would see growth. Being the young man that I was, I had this vision of singlehandedly turning that church around and I was going to do it through the music ministry. In my mind, I saw hundreds of people deciding to attend our church because our music was the kind of music they enjoyed. I look back now and laugh at that, not because I’m against churches using more contemporary music, but because I see now that the music program won’t provide sustainable growth for a church. I won’t say that some people don’t consider what kind of music the church has when they consider a church, but I’ve realized that if a church is going to look like what the Lord wants a church to look like, the church members are going t...

A poll shows that most Americans view homosexuality, fornication, and having a baby outside of marriage as morally acceptable, but they see abortion, pornography, and adultery as wrong. I could have told them that without doing a poll. The poll simply confirms what most of us already knew. But why the split? My hypothesis is that Americans draw a line between what we do to ourselves and what we do to others. Abortion is wrong because it kills a baby. Adultery is wrong because it unfaithful to the spouse. Pornography is wrong because it often includes images of children who have no control over what is being done to them, not to mention the fact that many people waste their employer’s money looking at it. But when people look at homosexuality, and fornication, I suspect that they think that what two consenting adults do in their spare time is up to them as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone who didn’t consent to it. Something that supports that idea is that I’ve had people tell me that t...

C ompared to the rest of the world, most Americans are wealthy, but the funny thing about wealth is that those who are wealthy seldom realize they are wealthy. We’re always looking at those who have more than us. If we have two cars, we’re looking at those who have three cars and a boat, not realizing that some people can’t even afford one car. One of the things that adds to the problem is that people look at the bills they have each month and wonder how they will pay them. It’s hard to feel wealthy when your bank account is empty at the end of the month. But we’re wealthy. And Christians more so. Christians are heirs to the wealth of God and he owns everything. Unfortunately, some prosperity preachers have tried to tell people that that means God wants them to have a lot of money. I think a better way to look at it is that we have a trust fund of immeasurable value. It is ours, but God is holding it for us so that we don’t use it the wrong way. Since you are wealthy, wouldn’t you ...

S everal years ago, I bought a cantaloupe. It was juicy and sweet, so I saved the seeds. I planted a few, with some success, but most went into a plastic bag and the bag went into the freezer. A decade passed, as they do, and I found that I had not only a bag full of those seeds, but a bag of acorn squash seeds and several small packets of seeds of various kinds that I had collected over the years. Because they were so old, I didn’t expect any of them to grow and they were just taking up space, so I dumped them—some in the garden and some in the compost pile. It was hundreds of seeds. They came up. Not all of them or even most of them, but I looked the other day and I have young cantaloupe and squash plants growing. I would say I have about twenty-five or so. Seeds amaze me. If you’re looking for a miracle, look at seeds. They can lie there looking dead for many years. So much water passes under the bridge. Life happens. The world changes. And then, you drop them on the ground and le...

T here is a thing that is bothering me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but many young people aren’t taking on the responsibility of adulthood. I’m taking it out of context to use it this way, but I am reminded of I Corinthians 13:11, “Whan I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” A preacher friend, Bro. Fox, once quoted that verse to me. He and his wife were like a third set of grandparents to us and I learned a great deal about leadership and Christian service from him. I look around and I see young men—and perhaps the young women are worse than the young men—who have failed to mature, as they ought. They reach the age of eighteen, head off to college and instead of taking on the responsibility like they should, it is just like high school without parental supervision. I heard a man that I would guess is in his forties say, “Don’t call me Mr. Smith; that’s my father.” Literary agent Rach...

I ’ve heard it said that 90% of what a person will learn in his lifetime he learns before he turns age five. I figure that statement is just one of those things that someone threw out there to highlight the importance of teaching young children rather than having much basis in fact. Even if someone attempted to back up this claim with a scientific study, the big question is what you consider to be learning. Young children learn a lot. They learn to talk. They learn to walk. They learn to dress themselves. They learn to draw and paint. Some may learn to cook. They learn to play together and share. They learn to turn on their favorite television shows. They learn all of this before they turn five. But people learn throughout much of their lives. Whether we realize it or not, we’re learning something new every day. Look at all the people who can talk coherently about which professional athletes will have a good season or why a trade is going to ruin a team’s chances. It’s debatable how ...