I just read about a man who found a bag of money containing $7,000 while cleaning the streets in Alvin, Texas, and returned it! The doughnut shop owner who lost it was delighted and “shocked that someone was still honest”. The man who found it said the money was not worth more than his honor. I say “Hip-Hip-Hooray!” to a man who is so honest.

Reading this story reminded me of an incident that happened a couple weeks ago. As Bev and I was leaving a store she spotted a purse someone had left in a shopping cart. She picked up the lost purse and turned it in immediately. You can bet that the owner of the purse was surprised and happy. Another woman standing nearby, watching the scene unfold, had a shocked look on her face and she expressed her amazement that someone actually would return the purse.

Here’s the point–not everyone is a thief! There are a few honest and caring people in the world. It’s the fallen stars that get the most attention. Think about it–with millions of stars over-head staying true to their orbit, it is the fallen star that distracts us from their beauty. Even so, in the news world today it is mainly the bad news that makes the headlines. Don’t let the bad behavior of a few sour your attitude toward everyone else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said,” If the stars appeared only one night every thousand years how we would marvel and appreciate them”. How true. Even so, the rarity of honesty, and other virtues, should get our attention and gain our appreciation. Next time you see someone do a good deed don’t let it go unnoticed. Expressing your admiration and appreciation can encourage people to do more of the same. Think about it!

This will probably be down right boring to most people, so you might want to ignore it, but there are a few folks who will be on the same wave -length with me. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to them. So, here goes—

I have no idea why, but I just read an article on “Classical Rhetoric”—guess it’s a preacher thing! Anyway, if it didn’t do anything else it made me aware of my ignorance –as if I needed a reminder. On another positive note, joking aside, it also reminded me of the importance of education. Our educational system has slipped far and fast in recent years (might be better if I said it fell off a cliff) and our nation is paying a high price as a result.

The article however wasn’t always positive for me. While I wish I was better educated, there are things more important. Some times people get “too smart for their own good”. Here’s an example. The article said, ” A great man must not only study the rules and principles of eloquent expression, but he must know and do the good; he must not only have mastered certain techniques, he needed to be familiar with the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. The discipline that taught a man these things was called classical rhetoric—-To get a full understanding of what it is to be able to express yourself persuasively, you have to go back to the ancients—-Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian”.

My first thought was,”Really?”–I guess I missed the boat. Now I’ll admit that, if I had the time, I would enjoy studying these men, and I feel certain that I could learn some valuable lessons, but must you really do that in order to “express yourself persuasively”? Being as uneducated and ignorant as I am, I really hate to disagree with this writer, obviously a very intelligent person, but I’ve got to do it. Here’s what I think…….

There is more to preaching, teaching, and witnessing than using “the rules and principles of eloquent expression”. I am of the opinion that doing so could at times be an hindrance rather than a help. Some of us are country bumpkins and we need the message delivered in a way that we can understand. And, we would rather worship than be entertained by some eloquent preacher whose only concern is to show off his oratorical ability. Listening to a gifted orator might be entertaining, but that doesn’t mean it is edifying. What he says might be true, but that doesn’t mean he is communicating in the best way. Whether you are a hillbilly, like me, or a Cajun living in the swamp, or someone raised in the ghetto certain factors come into play when we try to communicate. Beyond those difference, there are others, like age and education, that should be considered.

Studying the modes of rhetoric (ethos, logos, and pathos) might be interesting and beneficial in some cases, but it seems to me that we depend too much on man’s ability and not enough on the Holy Spirit. I understand that my speaking skills could be vastly improved, but will that make me more effective in my God given ministry? If I am where God wants me to be, doing what He commands me to do, surely He will enable me to do it effectively. It’s not my job to impress the Queen of England with my mastery of the King’s English. God called me to preach to Texans and whether you like it or not we can be a pretty red-neck bunch. My only concern is whether or not they understand what I’m saying. Seems to me that’s what Paul thought when he wrote 1 Cor. 2:1-5–“…not with excellency of speech or of wisdom–not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power..”(Vs 1,4).

Maybe some of you think I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but I think you are wrong. It is a very serious matter when we rely on the flesh rather than the Holy Spirit. When all is said and done, if we simply speak the truth in love with the ability we have,in dependance upon the Holy Spirit, to those God puts us into contact with we will accomplish more than we would if we had become a master of “Classical Rhetoric”. While some are too proud of their ignorance, others have gone way too far toward making a god of their intellect and ability. Both are wrong! If you are one of those people who are highly educated and greatly gifted, able to speak eloquently and persuasively, I thank God for you and would probably  love to hear you preach –God has a place of ministry for you, a place that I could never fill, but please show the rest of us just a little respect. Believe it or not, God has a work of equal importance for those of us with a lesser ability. The sermons that have helped me the most throughout the years were delivered by country preachers who couldn’t even begin to properly pronounce all the names in the Old Testament. We worry too much the other fellow does or doesn’t do. We will be much better off if we just concern ourselves with doing the best we can with what we’ve got where we are. Did I say that right? O well never mind–I’m not going to worry about it. I do, however, hope you will think about it! Like I said at the beginning–” This will probably be down right boring to most people”, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

As I posted Morning Manna this morning my heart was moved–my emotions were stirred. The article came from “Faith’s Checkbook”, written by Charles Spurgeon, and was entitled “Real Estate in Heaven”. My first thought was, “Now that’s prime property!”, or to put it in hillbilly slang, which I’m prone to do, “There ain’t nuttin like it!” The fact is, the glory that awaits God’s children is indescribable. There is nothing that compares to it.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a better way to start the day than that. It was just what I needed, and I doubt that I’m alone. The prospect of heaven affects our outlook concerning our present problems. The older I get and the more I think about heaven the less excited I become concerning the things of this world. I can remember a time when it really mattered to me who won the World Series, etc., etc., but now it make no difference at all. In fact it sickens me to think about all the money and attention athletes and entertainers get. Our soldiers get their guts blown out on a foreign battlefield for the sake of freedom and get no respect, while some immoral athlete or entertainer is worshiped by his or her fans. Even professing Christians are more enthused about the things of this world than they are about eternal matters. What a shame! O how foolish!

The truth is, when we are truly concerned about heaven and eternity it will show itself in the way we conduct ourselves every day and every way. Instead of getting all excited about the ways of the world we need to think more about the next. Unless it is of eternal value it is of no earthly good. Such things are not only of no eternal value they are actually harmful in that they distract us from the things that are truly important. Let us live each day in the sunshine of God’s promises concerning the glory to come. Believe me–it will make a difference in what you do. Well, enough said—I can almost hear Vestal Goodman singing, “This is just what heaven means to me”! Think about it!

What a great day yesterday! In the AM service a precious soul was saved and another was added to the church. In the PM service we were blessed by the music ministry of Bro.Shawn Drewett —a little bit of heaven on earth! How could anything be more important or joyful? Then this morning I happened to read the following article by Pastor Stephen Davey and it reminded me, again, that most people don’t know what’s important and what’s not. Perhaps it will give you some food for thought:

What you think these men had in common at the height of their careers during the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s?

·         Owen D. Young
·         James F. Byrnes
·         Pierre Laval
·         Harlow Curtis
·         Hugh Johnson

More than likely you do not recognize the names of any of these men.  You certainly could not tell what they did or how they rose to fame.  Yet each of these men was at some point in his life Time Magazine‘s “Man of the Year.”  They were judged as the person having had the greatest impact on the rest of humanity during a given year.

It is our nature to think that we are really something special. This is why the business of celebrity is so successful.  We have a desire to be great at something, and we are even willing to be somewhat satisfied with news of the lives of celebrities—reveling in their fame by proxy. 

Think about the yearly audience of the Super Bowl; the Final Four; the NBA playoffs; the Masters; the Stanley Cup; Wimbledon; the Bowl games; the World Series.   Factor in the weekly audiences of American Idol; The Celebrity Apprentice; Survivor, and many more “reality” shows.  The American public has high hopes and watches intently to see who the winners will be.

Then you have the Academy Awards—for days before and after, water cooler talk centers on who will win/won which Oscar. Why? It’s not as if the contenders are really the characters they portray—they’re just good pretenders. Maybe that’s why we find them so fascinating—we want to be good pretenders, too.

The writers of Psalms had no illusions about who we really are. There is line upon line in the book of Psalms regarding the nature of man.

Here in Psalm 102, the days of our lives are compared to withering grass, but not so the Lord’s. He is great and His name lives for all generations—He is the same . . . His years will have no end. 

Why do we insist on plying mankind with glory and adulation when we have the God of the universe before us?   Our attention and adoration should not be focused on man’s folly, but rather upon the greatness of God.  J. I. Packer addresses this very point:

The Christian’s instincts of trust and worship are stimulated very powerfully by knowledge of the greatness of God.  But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack; that is one reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby.  We are modern men, and modern men—though they cherish great thoughts of man—have, as a rule, small thought of God.

Let’s get real about ourselves and mankind as a whole: admit that underneath the façade the world sees, we all are sinners by nature, deserving none of mankind’s praise.

Should we really care about the comings and goings [and every detail in between] of  celebrities; stars; idols?  No!

Let’s focus our aim where it should be, and say with the Psalmist, “But You, O Lord . . . “—–

Ask the Lord to help you meditate on His greatness.  As you read the Scriptures, take time to praise God for Himself—the One whose years will have no end.

For nearly half-a -century I’ve been saying, “If you want to know where we’re headed as a nation just watch Europe. If you want to know where we are headed as Independent Baptist just watch the Southern Baptist.”

In regards to the church we generally stay conservative enough to show that we are different from the more liberal Southern Baptist. But, sadly as time goes by we find ourselves following right along the same path that they trod. Although not as liberal, we are a long way from where we were and should be.

In regards to our country we find ourselves just a few years behind whatever is happening in Europe. Because of that, we can look at the trend and see what’s around the corner–and it’s not a pretty picture. A short time ago I read an article from “AP” entitled “Riot-Torn UK Must Reverse ‘Moral Collapse’, Says Prime Minister”. Listen to this:

Prime Minister David Cameron declared Monday that Britain faces a battle to find its moral compass following four days of riots that left five people dead, thousands facing charges for violence and theft, and at least 200 million pounds ($350 million) in property losses.  Cameron said senior ministers of his 2-year-old coalition government would spend the next few weeks formulating new policies designed to reverse what he described as a country being dragged down by many citizens’ laziness, irresponsibility and selfishness. He said “the responsible majority” was demanding that the government build “a stronger society.”  “This has been a wake-up call for our country. Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face,” Cameron said in his prepared remarks for a planned Monday morning speech. “Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?”

I’m not a prophet, but I am a student of the Bible and I do read the newspaper. Our way of life can be changed forever as a result of a single terrorist attack, or even a natural disaster and our response to it. If you think crime is bad now, just wait until there is a genuine food shortage. It will set neighbor against neighbor, and there are those who will kill you for a loaf of bread, just as they murder people to get their next fix concerning drugs.

Our nation is clearly divided, more than you probably realize, and we’ve already seen examples of what people will do when they don’t get their way. They will loot stores, burn cities, and murder anyone who gets in their way. In Europe and other places that is becoming more and more common. Mark it down–there will be an explosion here in America.

Around the world religious and racial tension is creating a climate that makes things ripe for an explosion that will shock and rock our nation. It should come as no surprise! Perhaps some of you are thinking,”What a way to start a day! Why all the doom and gloom? Couldn’t you write something more cheerful and encouraging?” Answer–I could and I do. Articles like this are not an everyday occurrence with me, but there are times when a wake-up call is needed. Once an explosion is set-off there is no time to act. It begins and ends in a hurry and the carnage left behind is an awful sight.

Proverbs 22:3 says, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” THINK ABOUT IT!