RUMINATIONS OF A REVEREND

What’s the last thing you lost? I recently lost our checkbook and frantically searched the usual hideouts (drawers, shelves, couch cushions, etc.) while watching the clock click closer to my appointment. I found it in the last place I looked–the center council of the car. Of course, it had to be the last place I looked because after you find something you quit looking. A friend had to point out that simple logic to me, since I wasn’t quite bright enough to figure it out on my own. Though, I am thinking that the next time I lose something, I’m going to look in one more place after I find the item so I can say, “I found it in the second to last place I looked.” I’m actually not interested in the last physical item you lost (though I hope you found it, that can be so frustrating). Instead, I want you to think about a value that if lost, you wouldn’t have the desire to even look for it. That value is hope. Once you lose hope, you lose everything. I’m participating in a values table gro

            Who would say “No” to that question? I think all of us would agree we need encouragement, but do we fully understand the impact of encouragement on the human spirit? John Maxwell shared about an experiment done in the San Francisco school district many years ago. A principal called in three teachers and informed them that because they were the top tier teachers, they would be given 90 high IQ students for the year to let them study at their own pace and see how much they would learn. At the end of the year those 90 students had achieved 20 to 30 percent more than the rest of the students in the San Francisco Bay area. The principal then shared a secret with the teachers–the students weren’t high IQ but average students picked randomly. Then he shared another secret–the teachers were not selected because of the top tier teaching skills but were the first three names drawn out of a hat. ( https://www.success.com/john-maxwell-encouragement-changes-everything/ ) What made the

Have you offered God the sacrifice of thanksgiving today? I recently read Psalm 50 in my morning devotions and that phrase popped up twice in my reading, once in verse 14 and again in the last verse (23). Now I have often reflected on the essential nature of thanksgiving in the life of a believer, but this phrase struck me and prompted further study. The ESV translates verse 14 this way, “ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving .” They also provide a footnote with the alternate rendering, “ Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God.” The New Living Translation adopts that alternate rendering and translates the phrase, “ Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God .” Verse 23 maintains that understanding and the ESV translates verse 23, “ The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me .” So how do you offer thanksgiving as a sacrifice? Isn’t a sacrifice supposed to cost you something? If someone gives me $100 for my birthday, I don’t feel like I have to struggle to say, “

   I was visiting with my dad this morning (it’s his birthday–Happy Birthday, Dad!), and he shared a disturbing story from my home state of Ohio. A man murdered his wife and then asked his neighbor for permission to bury his dead dog on his property. The neighbor granted him permission, not knowing the man would actually bury his dead wife! What do you do with a story like that? ( https://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/story/news/crime/2021/04/28/genoa-ohio-man-charged-murder-missing-wife/4870141001/ )  In Florida, a fourteen-year-old boy took a thirteen-year-old girl into a wooded area and proceeded to stab her 114 times as the terrified victim desperately tried to fight off her attacker. 114 times! What do you do with that? ( https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/29/us/florida-teen-stabbing-first-degree-murder-charge/index.html )  In California, a man serving time at Corcoran State Prison attacked his cell mate with a make shift knife, decapitated the man and dissected portions of the man’s