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A few years ago a group of fishermen from New Zealand were down in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) when they saw something rather unusual in the water -- something they had never seen before. It was like a squid, but much larger. And it was chowing down on Patagonian toothfish, which are about six feet in length.
These brave fishermen decided to capture the creature, and bring it aboard their ship. When they got it on board, they saw that it was indeed like a squid, but with some significant differences. This creature had eyes the size of dinner plates, and...
Thanks to John R. for allowing me to post this.
John R. was sharing in a devotional time about convictions, and standing by those convictions, but not forcing others to abide by them (unless they are clearly stated Biblical commands!) His scripture was the passage in Romans 14:6 which speaks of whether or not we eat certain things, and which days we regard as holy, and talks about not "judging another man's servant."
He shared with us that last year he talked about going to see the New England Patriots play a home game. So he looked up the prices...
A few years ago I was asked to take a trip to Dimona, Israel to do some computer work. It was springtime when I left Maine, and I love springtime! The lawns are turning green, the trees are budding and blossoming, and the leaves are such a beautiful, rich, deep green, after a long winter. I love it.
When I arrived in Tel Aviv, I thought "These are ugly trees." Not a lot of trees and plants, and what there was, the leaves were a pale, sickly green. Didn't look healthy to me.
But then I went from Tel Aviv to...
When I was in elementary school, there was a boy in my class named Steve. Steve was a real troublemaker. No matter what the teacher said, he would do the opposite. He was always getting in fights, and doing things on the playground that he wasn't supposed to do. Not the kind of kid you'd want for a role model!
Speaking of rules, there was a rule on the playground (and a very sensible rule it was) that you weren't allowed to stand on the merry-go-round. You had to sit.
I remember very well a day that Jim decided...
I will never be a professional ping-pong player. For one thing, I only get to play once or twice per year, and even then it's only just a couple games.
But there's another reason. I think of ping-pong as a cooperative sport, rather than a competitive sport. If I had my choice in the matter, instead of playing games, I would just hit the ball back and forth with someone of a comparable ability level for hours on end without even keeping score.
Being at camp this past week, I had some time in the evenings to play ping-pong against...
Last week in my message I spoke on the Gospel. I began with who God is, and moved on to talking about who we are, our sin, and the judgment it requires. Then I began to speak of Jesus. I told of who He is, of His divine nature, of His life, of His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. And then I spoke of our response to this: faith.
After the service, one man spoke to me and said: "You know, a lot of times when people are teaching the Gospel, they speak about faith, but it's hard for people to...
It isn't often that I'm awake early enough to hear the birds start singing. I woke up Saturday morning, long before I planned to, for some odd reason. Sometimes my body just does that and I don't know why. All I know is that it has nothing to do with caffeine.
And sometimes I wonder why the birds sing. I've heard that it's because they're happy to see the sun again. Funny thing is, I was able to witness that the singing starts long before the sun is even visible. And yet they sing anyway. They sing in the darkness,...
Did you know that Amazon.com occasionally sells products at a loss? It's true. They occasionally have items that they sell at a slight loss. If it costs them $10.00, they sell it for $9.50, losing $0.50 on each sale.
Why do they do this? Because they hope that customers who are attracted by that inexpensive price will be lured into putting something else into their shopping cart before they check out. And even if they don't buy something else, they've made one purchase, and a customer who has made one purchase is more likely to come back and make another later on.
It's an ulterior motive.
I do the same thing. One of my game websites has some free games. Why? It is my hope that people who come back day after day to play the free games will sooner or later say, "I wish I could play those other games," and then pay the subscription fee for the site.
It's an ulterior motive.
Ulterior motives are okay in the business world; it's part of what makes our system of business work. But ulterior motives have no place in the world of the church and the followers of Christ.
When Jesus's...
A couple weeks ago one of the teens jokingly told me (at least, I hope she was joking!) that I was an evil dictator. As it turned out, her comment fit right into the lesson, because I was talking about how we deal with authority.
Last night I built on that lesson some more. After welcoming the sixth graders (last night was the first youth group Bible study they were invited to attend), I started picking on one of them.
"Suppose I walked out behind the church, and I discovered that Marissa was out back there smoking a cigarette. Of...
Next week our youth group is going to be doing some yard work and spring cleaning for several people in the church who, because of health reasons, need help getting their spring work done.
Wednesday night at our youth group meeting I told the teens about the four families we would be doing work for. First there's Trudy, who most of the teens don't know. Then there's Irene, and Al and Hattie, who a few more (but still not many) know. The fourth family is Bill and Judy. Most of the teens know Bill and Judy. In fact, Bill and...