Church Blog (Page 78)
Lost and Found#5 “Kept for Eternity.”
I have met evil people in the church. They are the last to believe it of themselves. Such is the hardness of their hearts that destroying the lives of others is considered by them as acts of righteousness. I have met righteous people in the church. They are the last to believe it of themselves. Such is the goodness of their hearts that blessing the lives of others is considered by them as acts of right-ness. Giving thanks to their…
Lost and Found#4 “Treasure Found.”
Back in 1970, when milk was four cents a pint, finding a two-dollar note was finding a veritable fortune for a nine-year-old boy. It was laying in the grass opposite the ‘Horseshoe Inn,’ the local pub in our village of Matata. I imagine that the note slipped out of a patron’s pocket the previous night as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket. I snatched up the new-found treasure and took it to my mother for inspection. ‘Thou…
Lost and Found#3 “The Lost Finding the Church.”
If you Google “Ship of Fools Morningside church of Christ” you will find a 2014 review of a worship service of the Morningside congregation. It is worth a read. The man who visited us and wrote the review was accurate in his assessment (for then), I think. He slipped in as we were starting worship, and he was supposed to slip out without giving away his identity—a very hard thing to achieve at Morningside. What if a ‘non-Christian” decided he…
Lost and Found#2 “Finding Meaning.”
I was lost and away from God, and I knew it. My problem was in the finding. Soul-dead religion wasn’t hard to see. But neither were genuinely sincere people keen to share their testimonies with me. I took in every sight and sound and have believed to this day that God’s hand of providence was in it all. Being spiritually lost is not to be wished upon anyone. It is indeed a land of darkness and doubt. When searching for…
Lost and Found#1 “The other Prodigal.”
A party appeared out of nowhere. What could have sparked such a rapturous scene? The noise of feasting could not be missed. Such was the speed of events that the heir of the estate seemed to be the last to know. When collaring one of the servants he heard from him the last thing on earth he ever wanted to hear: “Your brother’s back!”How could this have happened? Surely, he was well-shot of the boy. Now he is back and…
Winning and losing#6 “Gambling – What are the odds?”
Las Vegas may have been built by winners, but it was paid for by losers. Covid lockdowns have reduced casino patronage to zero in many places. Online gambling has become the go-to place for regular gamblers, and many more who have been enticed by ads or word-of-mouth. I have a friend who was given a ‘free $200 starter pack of gambling chips’ to draw him into an online game. Fortunately, he didn’t have enough money for the ‘sign-up’ fee. These…
Winning and losing#5 “Touching your dreams…!”
“Tiptoe through the Tulips” is the 1968 signature song of Tiny Tim. The long-haired, 6’1″ (185 cm), ukulele strumming singer with the shrilling falsetto was a sight to behold. He also loved Ice Hockey but couldn’t skate. He was thrilled to go onto the ice with his favourite team, The Toronto Maple Leafs, before a charity event in 1969. Reacting well to his obvious inability to skate on his own, he said, “I was always athletic spiritually, not physically.”I was…
Winning and losing#4 “I am in this to win…!”
Lance Armstrong was hailed as a true sporting campion. The seven-time winner of the Tour de France and cancer survivor was a mentor to millions. He wrote two books and was a popular motivational speaker. When he was found to have used performance enhancing drugs, he was stripped of all has Tour de France titles and banned from professional sports. Someone joked: “I saw my librarian take his books out the Non-fiction Section and put them among the Fiction books.…
Winning and losing#3 “I can’t get no satisfaction…”
Mick Jagger, the singer for The Rolling Stones, was a minor when he joined the band. Thus, he needed his parent’s consent to do business or go to certain places. When the band’s manager phoned Mick’s mother the conversation (so the story goes), went like this:Manager: “Hello, Mrs Jagger, we would like to request your permission for your son to be the lead singer of The Rolling Stones.”Mick’s mother: “I am sorry, but you must have the wrong Mrs Jagger.…
Winning and losing#2 “When you are right…”
Back in the day when computers were not common, a dentist was given an apple by a policeman. The policeman said that the apple was believed to have been discarded by a gunman wanted for a murder. The apple was totally intact, except for teeth marks left behind when being discarded. On the policeman’s return the dentist presented him with a model of the suspects teeth. He told the policeman that the person they were looking for was ‘a man…