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VACANT HOMES, VACANT LIVES
TIFTON, GA — The most interesting thing about Tifton is an abandoned Victorian house filled with thousands of bats. Tift County declared the once-elegant house in the town’s historic district off limits after a bat specialist said that maybe 20,000 bats had moved in, apparently for good.
Now, teenagers call it the bat house. People talk about the smell, which is an unholy mix of animal urine and decaying wood. "In the summer, ooh, does that place reek," said Linda Turner, 69, a retired nurse and neighbor. "You ain’t smelled nothing until you come back here on a hot day."
Brothers and Sisters, I’m not going to visit that bat house. WHAT A SIGHT AND WHAT A STINK IT MUST BE! Vacant houses get infiltrated with all kinds of creatures and probably not just bats. And many of these creatures make a mess, create a big stink, and eventually ruin that dwelling.
But it doesn’t just happen with vacant houses, it also happens with vacant lives! If a person doesn’t fill their life with good stuff, the bad stuff and sometimes, the evil stuff will move in and take over.
What’s going on in your house? That is, the house you live in, the fleshly body you live in? Who has moved in? Who has taken over your residence and controlling your life? God wants us to stay clean in this world and that will only happen when we let Him move in, that is, when we fill our lives with worship, prayer and service.
Thy word have I hide in my heart that I might not sin against thee! Ps. 119:11. The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible!
(From a sermon by Steve Shepherd, Our Walk in This World, 4/4/2011)
I heard about an 83 year old man the other day who had lived his entire
life as a bachelor. One day this man gathered his four nephews and
announced that he was planning to be married. His nephews were in
shock. One spoke up and said, "Uncle are you getting married because
this woman is beautiful?" He said, "No." Another nephew asked, "Uncle
are you getting married because this woman is a great cook?" Again he
said, "No." The third nephew questioned, "Are you marrying this woman
because she is rich?" "Of course not," was his reply. The final nephew
said, "Uncle if your not marrying this woman because she is beautiful,
or because she is a great cook, or because she is rich, then why are you
marrying her?" With a wink he said, "I’m marrying her because she can
drive at night !"
I like a man who knows what he needs.
Do you intend on going to heaven? Do you know what you need in order to
experience salvation and make sure that heaven will be your destination?
Music is major influence for "mosaic" generation
On a recent edition of the radio program "For Faith and Family", pollster George Barna discussed the significant cultural influence music exerts on the Mosaic generation (those born between 1984 and 2002): "Music is really interesting because essentially that is the language of our culture. If you need an example of how that works just think about churches. Even in churches this is true. What is the biggest war we have in churches? It doesn’t tend to be theological. It tends to be over what style of music you’re going to use in the worship service. We’ve had all kinds of fights, but music is the way that we suggest to somebody, Hey, I understand where you’re coming from. I speak your language. This is the feel; this is the sound that constitutes who you are and what you’re about."
"One of the ways I would describe it is every generation has to have it’s own private language that people over 30 can’t penetrate. And that’s really what today’s music is doing for young people. They have icons within the culture that we don’t understand - many of whom we don’t appreciate - but they’re important to the Mosaics because it helps them to develop a life philosophy. Many of those individuals become role models for them. It helps them to identify some of their values and lifestyles. And, it also helps develop a sense of community among themselves. So it’s hugely important."
PreachingNow Newsletter, August 6, 2002
Someone has written that there are four kinds of bones in the world.
The WISH BONES who spend their time wishing someone else would do the work;
The JAW BONES who do all the talking, but very little else;
The KNUCKLE BONES who knock everything that an...
JOHN PIPER: YOUR HEART HAS TO GET BIGGER
"Little hearts give little lusts big power. Big hearts give little lusts little power because they look little! When you SEE the magnitude of your treasure, your soul swells to get around it and you MOCK pornography as a POWERLESS thrill! That’s the way it works! You don’t just fight and say, 'Say no! Say no! Say no!' That doesn’t work! You’ve gotta SEE! Your heart has to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger so that this little temptation looks like the stupid, suicidal, insane, little monster it is!"
--John Piper Passion ‘12
THOMPSON CHAIN-REFERENCE: 100 YEARS
The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible turns 100 this year. Published by Kirkbride Bible Co., the Bible was developed by Frank Charles Thompson with the goal of linking verses to help readers study Scripture without the aid of a commentary or other outside interpretation.
(Christian Retail 5/19/08)
MEMORIZING VS. APPLYING SCRIPTURE
Dave Veerman, Campus Life, Wheaton, IL, related this story:
A while ago our family began to memorize Scripture, one verse a week. Because my daughters were ages ten and six, I thought this was about the right speed. We keep the verses on cards in the middle of the table, and we discuss their meanings when we recite them week after week.
One evening as my wife and I sat reading, we heard the girls fighting down the hall. "I hate you!" one yelled and the other responded in kind. Not wishing to jump headlong into the fray, I called back, "Kara?" She answered, "Yes!" "What is our verse for this week?" I asked, hoping to quiet the fight by implication.
Quickly she answered in her most pious voice, "Dear friends, since God loved us as much as that, we surely ought to love each other too." (I John 4:11 TLB). And then she resumed the fight.
I tried the same tactic with Dana, and with the same results. Gail and I couldn’t help laughing -- and then I had to go back and intervene.
What a beautiful example of how most of us apply Scripture! We memorize it and even repeat it flawlessly, but seldom does it change our lives. And yet Christianity is not so much about knowing facts as about living. We must get the Bible off the shelf and into the self.
(From a sermon by Bobby Scobey, If the Church Became Unchristian # 4 - Behavior More Important Than Belief, 6/22/2010)
THEY PAID THE PRICE
Americans, you know the 56 men who signed our Declaration of Independence that first 4th of July--you know they were risking everything, don’t you? Because if they won the war with the British, there would be years of hardship as a struggling nation. If they lost they would face a hangman’s noose. And yet there where it says, "We herewith pledge, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor," they did sign. But did you know that they paid the price?
When Carter Braxton of Virginia signed the Declaration of Independence, he was a wealthy planter and trader. But thereafter he saw his ships swepted from the seas and to pay his debts, he lost his home and all of his property. He died in rags.
Thomas Lynch, Jr., who signed that pledge, was a third generation rice grower and aristocrat--a large plantation owner--but after he signed his health failed. With his wife he set out for France to regain his failing health. Their ship never got to France; he was never heard from again.
Thomas McKean of Delaware was so harrassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times in five months. He served in Congress without pay, his family in poverty and in hiding.
Vandals looted the properties of Ellery and Clymer and Hall and Gwinett and Walton and Heyward and Rutledge and Middleton. And Thomas Nelson, Jr. of Virginia raised two million dollars on his own signature to provision our allies, the French fleet. After the War he personally paid back the loans wiping out his entire estate; he was never reimbused by his government. And in the final battle for Yorktown, he, Nelson, urged General Washington to fire on his, Nelson’s own home, then occupied by Cornwallis. And he died bankrupt. Thomas Nelson, Jr. had pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor.
The Hessians seized the home of Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey. Francis Lewis had his home and everything destroyed, his wife imprisoned--she died within a few months. Richard Stockton, who signed the Declaration of Independence, pledging his life and his fortune, was captured and mistreated, and his health broken to the extent that he died at 51. And his estate was pillaged.
Thomas Heyward, Jr. was captured when Charleston fell. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside while she was dying; their thirteen children fled in all directions for their lives. His fields and gristmill were laid waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves and returned home after the War to find his wife dead, his children gone, his properties gone. He died a few weeks later of exhaustion and a broken heart.
Lewis Morris saw his land destroyed, his family scattered. Philip Livingston died within a few months of hardships of the War.
John Hancock, history remembers best, due to a quirk of fate--that great sweeping signature attesting to his vanity, towers over the others. One of the wealthiest men in New England, he stood outside Boston one terrible night of the War and said, "Burn Boston, though it makes John Hancock a beggar, if the public good requires it." He, too, lived up to the pledge.
Of the 56 signers of the Declaration, few were long to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes--from Rhode Island to Charles...
Memorizing & Studying Bible Low Priorities George Barna Research reports "Our most recent surveys indicate that about half of all adult Amerocans listen to preaching or Bible teaching in a typical week." Although 1 out of 3 read the Bible during the week, only 1 out of 10 claim to study the Bible weekly and fewer than 1 out of 25 devote ...
