The layman speaks to the entire church. This could be scary.

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The typical church member is out of his element when suddenly asked to speak to the whole church.

Maybe it’s a testimony or even a sermon.  Perhaps a report of some kind or a devotional.  The layperson who has never done this before the entire congregation–particularly one of several hundred people–is frequently frightened out of his wits.

At the conclusion of the worship service, Marlene said to me, “I’m sorry I took the entire service, Pastor. But the Lord was leading me.” Translation: She really got into her talk and couldn’t control it.

As a young pastor, I had been inviting church members to share testimonies in the morning worship service, something along the lines of 5-7 minutes.  That’s how it happened that Marlene taught her young pastor a lesson he never forgot.  In time, I learned to interview the individual and to keep hold of the microphone the entire time!

Since Marlene had not prepared adequately, once she got going, she couldn’t find a convenient stopping place. She kept on for a full 40 minutes.

No one should blame their failure to prepare on the Lord.

I see it happen all the time.  It’s almost embarrassing.

A man is given five minutes to present something in a formal program. He gets up and speaks and speaks. Fifteen minutes later, he says, “They told me I had five minutes to do this. So, in the time I have left….”

On the second row, his wife is trying to maintain her composure. But she’d like to crawl under the pew.

Here then is my list of Things non-clergy should know before they rise to speak in church….

One. Standing in front of the congregation causes one to lose all sense of time.  I know that’s true because preachers deal with it all the time.

Two. Prepare. A speaker needs to plan carefully and fully two important things: what to say and what not to say. The second is as important as the first. And  the only way to do the second–that is, prepare what not to say–is to practice several times. That way, he will see where the spots are where his mind wants to take a detour.  Preparation makes the difference.

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Judge us by what our religion makes us do

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Almost every week we hear of a killing in the Middle East.  Someone converts to Christianity and his family murders him.

Who would want to belong to such a religion?  Surely no one in his right mind.

Wednesday morning, January 1 of this year, an idiot drove his pickup truck down Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring a lot more.

What a way to welcome in 2025.

You know, what I wonder–and have ever since the terrorists took down the World Trade Center using our jetliners–is how some people think if they do murderous activities that somehow the rest of us are going to line up and say, “Oh yes, I think I would like to be a member of that religion!”  Not going to happen.

And then I find myself wondering why others of that religion who do not do those things are offended when we oppose their religion.  If it can be used legitimately to do such horrific things, why in the world would any sane person want to worship their god.  Not for me, thanks.

It is a truth that one’s religious faith causes one to act in certain ways.  And it is true that however one acts as a result of his faith should speak volumes about that religion and everyone else will be making their choices based on that.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.  Our Lord Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:16.

What you are speaks so loud, someone has said, that I cannot hear what you say.

Your works tell the story on you.

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How to read really fast. And well.

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If you don’t like the title above, try this one:

“How to read a 500 page book in 30 minutes! And retain 90 percent of what you read!”

That’s the come-on which led me to pay for the Evelyn Wood speed-reading course some years back.  It was not money well spent in my judgement, although I did discover how a few people in this world manage to pull that off.

An editor once suggested that, since I’m a constant reader, I should blog about how to read better and faster.

That hit me like the time another editor asked for an article on gluttony.  That very day, I had consumed three large meals.  But I thought, “Who better than me, who knows the subject so well?”  I wrote the article and it’s still circulating the globe in cyberspace.

So, I opened the laptop with the intention of pontificating on reading.  But first, I decided to put the question to my friends on Facebook.  How to read faster and more effectively.  The answers were many, some helpful and several silly.  For instance, the latter…

–Bob recommended the Jeff Foxworthy method of “reading more gooder fastly.”

–Ken suggested, “Rd onl fw ltrs, dnt dwl on evy wd.  Dnt gv u!”   Someone needs to buy Ken a vowel.

–Luther learned to cut his reading time in one-half, he says, by turning two pages at a time.

–Danny said, “Read just the opening topical sentence of each paragraph.”

–Ted: “Read the first two sentences and last sentence of each paragraph, and move on.”  (He may have been serious, I don’t know.)

Okay.  Back to the real world.  Here are my thoughts on the subject, followed by a few insights from my son Marty (who left us for Heaven on March 22) which I found helpful….

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On the way to the sea: Our offerings have a long journey!

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I like to use the Mississippi River as an analogy for the great torrent of offerings that flow from individuals into the church offering plates and eventually to the whole world.

I point out that this great body of water–which at the time I first wrote this–was flowing a couple hundred yards below my house–is actually composed of individual drops that fell from the sky in a vast basin extending from Western New York State across the country to Eastern Montana.

Similarly, the hundreds of millions of dollars the churches of our denomination send to the fields of the world each year get their start from a child’s piggy bank, a widow’s pension and a young couple’s tithe.

Then I had an epiphany, one of those moments when you realize there’s far more to this than seemed obvious at first.

I was worshiping at Williams Boulevard Baptist Church, up the street from where I lived in Kenner, Louisiana.

That morning, the church received two offerings. The first, in the middle of the service, went for the regular ministries of their church. The second, at the end, was being sent to our International Mission Board for recovery work in two countries that had suffered devastating earthquakes.

I dropped a few dollars into the second offering and something occurred to me.

Just as there are numerous locks and dams along the great Mississippi River, obstacles we might say, which the waters have to negotiate before they arrive at the sea, the offerings we place in the plate have a number of hurdles to overcome before they reach their destination.

Along the upper Mississippi River–from St. Louis northward–there are 29 locks and dams. Most were built in the 1930s, although a few have been replaced since then due to the larger and longer barges trying to get through those locks.

A lock is a device for allowing ships navigating the river to move higher (if they are going up the river) or lower (if descending the river) at places where the natural features of the river do not allow it. Without these, ships and tows could travel only so far before being forced to turn back.

The rain that falls around Lake Itaca, Minnesota, is said to form the headwaters of the Mississippi River. As it makes its way southward, that stream is joined by rushing torrents from the Ohio, the Missouri, and numerous other rivers and creeks of all sizes. Finally, perhaps a full week after its departure, that water flows past my house on the final 95-mile leg before spreading into the Gulf of Mexico.

Along the way, part of that water is diverted into dams and through locks before flowing onward.

And now to the offering.

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Your behavior matters. That’s I Peter 2:12 and it’s the truth.

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Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation (I Peter 2:12).

Be a fly on the wall. Sit in on religious discussions and you will come away burdened by one huge conclusion: for a large number of people who call themselves followers of Jesus, doctrine counts far more than behavior.

They didn’t get it from Jesus, I’ll tell you that. And they sure didn’t get it from Scripture.

Start at page one of the New Testament. You’re not out of the opening chapter before you see that the sexual activities of the Lord’s people is a matter of major concern. It shows up in the genealogy of Jesus, with a number of people listed having been guilty or accused of inappropriate activities of a sexual nature. Still in that chapter, Joseph hears that his beloved Mary is with child and decides to call off the engagement. It took heavenly intervention for him to change his mind.

And that’s just in the first chapter of Matthew.

Skip over to chapters 5-7, what we call “The Sermon on the Mount.” There’s doctrine there–Scripture never slights the subject–but behavior before the Gentile world by God’s people is a major consideration. Oath-taking, brotherly treatment, sexual purity, relations with one’s enemies–and we’re still in chapter 5.

Sprinkled throughout that fifth chapter of Matthew are reminders that God’s people are to live by a higher standard than the Gentiles in order to bear a faithful witness to them.

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How to be satisfied with your church, no matter what it does.

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“What did you go out to see?” (Luke 7:25)

“What do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41)

The other day during the worship service at our church, I had a revelation.

I realized something that had eluded me before.

I know the secret of people who are never dissatisfied with what goes on in their church no matter what it does.  These people are fine with everything.

They like the pastor and never complain about the programs of the church. In fact, you’ll not hear any criticism coming from their direction.

I think I’ve found their secret: They don’t require much of the church.

That’s it.  That’s their mindset.

These are my notes hastily jotted down in that worship service: “The key to surviving the upheavals in the modern church is to need less and less from your church.  That way, no matter what happens you will never be disappointed.  Will never be hurt. Will never be offended.”

This would likewise be true of one’s membership in the denomination.  Or anything else for that matter.  Even your marriage.

I’m serious.  (I know it sounds like there should be a punchline following, but this is not a joke. Stay with me here.)

Such people go to church, they sit through the service, and they may or may not connect with what’s going on down front. And since they don’t expect much, do not require anything from the service or the pastor, therefore they do not leave with an empty tank or a dissatisfied spirit.

They’re just putting in time.  Just checking it off.  “We go to church every Sunday.”

Not requiring much means not expecting much.  After all, if we expect little and that’s what we get, we’re never disappointed.

Such church members are never disappointed.

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The resurrection of Jesus: The Ultimate Game-Changer

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“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (I Thessalonians 4:14).

If Jesus really did rise from the dead as Scripture claims and as Christians hold, then nothing is the same and everything has changed forever.

The reason Christians are positively giddy about the Easter Event–the resurrection of Jesus–is that in walking out of that tomb and leaving it forever empty,  He broke the stranglehold in which death had held humanity.

We are free.  We are free forever. We are free to live forever.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

Everything stands or falls on whether Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday morning.

The resurrection of Jesus was Heaven’s imprimatur on Jesus’s ministry, the Father’s validation of Jesus’ every claim, eternity’s “amen” to Jesus’ promises, and convincing evidence that Jesus Christ is everything He said He was.

Prove that He did not rise, that His body is still lying in some grave somewhere, and you will have put a stop to the entire Christian movement.  Thereafter, the few remaining followers of the Man of Galilee would form themselves into a Jesus Memorial Society. Not long before they stopped meeting altogether, they would quit writing “Man of Galilee” and “He” in all caps.

Even the most notorious atheist, adamantly opposed even to the idea that Jesus could have risen from the dead, would concede that if indeed it did happen, it was a game-changer from that moment on.

The ultimate game-changer.  Nothing would ever be the same.

A new reality. That’s what it was.

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God has big plans for you. Just you wait!

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“I would have despaired had I not believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Yes, wait on the Lord” (Psalm 27:13-14).

I believe.

I believe I will see.

I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord.

I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord (over there) in the land of the living.

Without that faith, I would have despaired.

Believe or despair. Those are the choices.

There are no other alternatives.

No matter how we try to dress atheism up as a noble choice of right-thinking people, its only logical outcome is darkness and oblivion. The only thing such a philosophy promises is despair.

The Lord’s goodness will be on full display in the “land of the living.”  This world is not the land of the living but of the dying.  The land of the living lies just over the hilltop.

It awaits the faithful.

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Beware of getting your religion from celebrities. Not all get these things right.

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We’re told Thomas Jefferson scissored out the portions of the New Testament he found objectionable.  I noticed an ad on the internet where someone is peddling copies of “The Thomas Jefferson Bible.”  None for me, thanks.

He’s had nearly 200 years to regret that bit of presumptive foolishness.

Just because Jefferson said it does not make it right; just because he did it does not mean we should follow suit.

Best not to get our religion from someone who is an expert in one field–science perhaps? or math, biology, or novel-writing–but who is out of his territory when he speaks of God.

Once in a while a celebrity admits he has nothing to say on this subject.  Benjamin Franklin, for instance.

Benjamin Franklin was as smart a man as early America produced.  The range of his interests and the list of his accomplishments is mind-boggling.  But no way does he qualify as a role model for husbands, an example for fathers, or our instructor in matters of the Spirit.

In a letter to Yale President Ezra Stiles shortly before his own death, Franklin wrote:

I believe in one God, creator of the universe.  That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable thing we can render to him is doing good to his children.  That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.  These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever sect I meet with them.  As to Jesus of Nazareth…I think the system of morals and his religion as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have…some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble.  (from Jon Meacham’s The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross). 

To someone giving us his personal creed–I believe this, I believe that–we would ask one question:  “And what is your authority for believing this?”  In taking positions on matters of the spirit world–God, salvation, satan, heaven, hell, and such–pooling our ignorance with one another accomplishes nothing.  One should have good reasons for believing what he/she does.

And the other thing in Franklin’s letter that I find disturbing is his mild interest he shows in the biggest issue in the history of this small planet:  Was Jesus Christ who He said He was?  I appreciate that he does not “dogmatise” upon the subject, being ignorant of it, and likewise appreciate that he does not therefore recommend his views or lack thereof as the norm.  He simply says at his age he will find out soon enough.  One wonders how that turned out.

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How to enjoy being elderly!

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In two days I hit birthday number 85.

I have arrived at “elderly.”

I love it.

A friend of mine–Dr. Bill Murfin–used to joke, “I’ll tell you how to live to be a hundred!”  Pause for effect, then he would say, “Get to be 99, then be real careful.”

Both my parents lived to be nearly 96.  Dad died in 2007 at 95 years and 7 months.  Mom died in 2012 at 95 years and 11 months.  So, I have a while to go.

It would be highly presumptuous for me to claim the right to tell anyone how to live to be my age or my parents’ ages.  There are so many variables.

–When you take the surveys about longevity, it usually asks if you are smoking and drinking and using drugs.  If you check ‘no’ to each of these, there’s still no guarantee.  The survey will go on to ask if you are exercising so many minutes a week, walking, etc., if you are eating leafy green vegetables, that sort of thing.

You know and I’m going to state the obvious here: Just because you give all the right answers, there are no guarantees.

–Your genes have a lot to do with these things.  Some people–I’m thinking of my wife of 52 years, Margaret Ann Henderson McKeever–inherit a mixed bunch of genes that almost guarantee the individual a lifetime of health problems.  Not for any bad choices they made, but just because their bodies contained time bombs (for want of a better way of saying it) that they had no control over.

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