If they had been here, you would have told them!!

     The First Self Righteous Church had a member who lived up to the church's name!sake.  He was not only self righteous, but considered himself to be the most humble member of the church.  Upon leaving the church after each and every service he always told the preacher, "You really preached to THEM today, preacher."  He never included himself in that number that was preached to.  There came the night when just at gathering time a terrible storm began and the only two people at church was this member and the preacher.
     The preacher decided that this was the opportunity to preach to the member where he would have to acknowledge where the message was directed.  He tried to touch on every perceived flaw which the member had, all to no avail.  When the service was over the member approached the preacher and said to him, "Preacher, if they had been here tonight, you would have really preached to them."
     In a day when Satan is destroying everything that is not nailed down and is pulling nails as fast as he can, we need to take an inventory of our own lives and see how we measure up.  The above mentioned church member could not see any need for any changes in his own life, yet saw there was need of plenty of changes in the life of everyone else.  It is a rare church indeed in which their Sunday Morning attendance is even close to 50% of those who are on the church roll.  The number one reason for this nonattendance, is a lack of commitment from the average church member.  We are committed to the house payment, the car payment, our many pursuits of pleasure, any type of excuse will find us missing church to take care of something else which we deem of more importance at that moment.   The preacher usually hears something like this, "Preacher, we are having a family reunion next Sunday and will have to put in our appearance.  You do understand don't you?"  Several years ago in a church service where I was pastoring, my wife had her family reunion one Sunday.  We always put in our appearance, after worship service.  This day, though, while making the morning announcements, I said, "Doris is having her family reunion today."  As I said that, I stepped out from behind the pulpit as if I were leaving and said,  "We are going to go on up there so we won't be late.  You folks do understand don't you?"  They had a strange look on their face so I said, "No you don't understand, I don't understand either when I hear it about your missing the Lord's service."
     Don't forget the admonition for us in each and everything we do, "Do it as unto the Lord."  Preacher's need to preach as if it were only unto God, himself.  Sunday School teachers need to teach as if it were only unto the Lord.  Our giving and church attendance needs to be as if it were only unto the Lord.
     The old song says it best, "It's not my farther nor my mother, but it's me, Oh Lord!  Standing in the need of prayer.  I cannot answer for you, nor can you answer for me.  We must each give an account unto the Lord for each of our actions.  That alone should motivate us to do greater things for God.  It is even of more importance when we consider our failures may result in someone else spending an eternity in Hell.

Don't Go to Sleep Before You Get There!

     The story has been told of the gentleman traveling the train who told the conductor to wake him up when they reached his destination.  The conductor said he would.  Then the man said, "I may put up a fight because I hate to be woke up, but be sure to get me off the train."
     When the gentleman awoke, on his own, he was a couple of hours down the track from where he was supposed to get off.  He was one more irritated gentleman.  He screamed at the conductor all of the way off the train and was still screaming as the train drove off.  Another passenger said, "I bet that guy was madder than anyone you ever had to deal with.  To which the conductor said,  "No, I had a man that was madder than that about two hours ago when I put him off the train."
     We are all traveling on the train of life.  We are not sure of the exact amount of time that we have to be on the train, but we know there is a place down the line where we will have to get off.  Along the way, you will find many a person that is asleep and will need someone to wake them up before they reach their destination.  There are others that spend their time idly wishing that the train would get them on down the track, certain that there will be happiness, fame or fortune awaiting for them at the end of the journey.  Pity the man that finds himself being put off the train before he is ready to get off.  There are a few on the train who have grown tired along the way and are eager to reach that final destination.  The end of the train trip is the thing we call death.  Millions of people are unprepared, spiritually, for this to occur.  Many, many more are spiritually prepared, but hold a tremendous fear of that happening to them.
     Watch this space for the news of a tremendously helpful book, Wings of Mercy, A Christian View of Death.

Hold the Lines, Men, I Am Going to Shout

     Once upon a time there was a church that had as it's humble beginning a group of men and women who were emotional in their worship of the Lord.  It was nothing uncommon for there to be sounds of amen, that's right brother or praise the Lord, throughout the preaching service.  But, as the years passed, so did much of the enthusiasm during the worship service.  It finally got to the point where old brother Brown was the only person that opened his mouth during the worship service.  When the preacher said something that Bro. Brown liked he would say, "Amen", or "Praise the Lord", or some other comment.  There were those, probably their emotions were not working, who were offended by the old gentleman's comments.  They appointed a committee to go talk to the old gentleman and try to get him to be quiet during the service.  The committee found him plowing in his garden with a team and plow.  They were rather blunt in their approach and simply said, "Bro. Brown, the church has sent us out here to get you to be quiet during the worship service."
     The old man wiped the sweat from his forehead and rolled a clot of dirt around with the toe of his shoe, and then said, "Brethren, I know I bother some of the folks at church with my remarks.  But, men, when I consider all of my old black sins and how Jesus died on the cross for me I just can,t help it."  With that said, he took the plow lines out from around his waist and said, "Here, hold these plow lines.  I feel like I am going to have to shout again."
     I like that.  In this day of glass-eyed, dry-eyed religion; it is good to see someone moved to the point of expressing their feelings with some emotion.  R. G. Lee said, "We are moved more when we see a dead dog or dead cat in the highway, than when we hear of the suffering of Christ on the cross.  It ought not to be so.  It makes no difference the greatness of our sins, his grace was greater than all of them combined.  Now, that is something to shout about.  All of my sins were laid upon his back.  It should have been me on the cross.  If that does not move us and touch our hearts we need to get on our knees.