Have You Sharpened Your Ax?

Some years ago a young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. “That depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you fell this tree.” The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, “Start Monday!” Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by, and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.”  Startled, he replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.”  “Normally we do,” answered the foreman, “but we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind.  Our daily felling charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last on Wednesday.”  The young man objected, “But I’m a hard worker. I arrive first, leave last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!” The foreman, sensing the boy’s integrity thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your ax?”  The young man replied, “I’ve been working too hard to take the time.”
 
How About You? Have you been too busy, too hard at work to sharpen your ax?
► Taking time – to read God’s word, to think on it?
►Taking time – to pray about your concerns and the privilege of praying for others.
►Taking time – to practice in life what you read in scripture?
► Taking time – to refresh soul and spirit for the energy you need?
Bill


Why Did Jesus Do It?

Why Did Jesus Do It?
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. (Luke 4:16)
Why do you think Jesus went to the synagogue? Was it because:
1. His mother made him go.
2. He wanted to see friends back in Nazareth.
3. He had nothing else to do, the stores were all closed.
No. He went because it was his custom to go, his habit. “But wait,” you say, “habits are almost done mechanically, without thought. Preacher, Do you think Jesus went to worship at the synagogue without any real thought given to it?”
No. I don’t. Did you ever hear the phrase, “I just fell into a good habit?” No you haven’t. Good habits take work. But bad habits result from neglect of the very things that produce good habits. That’s why it is hard to maintain a good golf swing, but easy to slip into a bad one.
Good habits are intentional, bad habits are without thought. Good habits don’t rob you of intent, bad habits dismiss the intent as not worthy of further effort.
Jesus had formed an intentional habit to worship God. So on the Sabbath day he was at the synagogue. There was no need to decide that day if he would worship God – that had been decided long ago.
It is when we neglect things that keep us strong spiritually that we slip into the bad habit of missing worship.
Bill


Benefit of the Clergy

BENEFIT OF CLERGY

If you take the tour in Williamsburg, VA they will explain why, even to this day, we hold up our hand and swear that we “will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God” whenever we give testimony in court.

Back in medieval England, when someone was being tried for a crime, and the evidence seemed overwhelmingly against him, there was a way out. He could plead “benefit of clergy.” At first this applied only to ministers of the church – but later it was granted to any who were laymen, the argument being that they should not be tried in a secular court.

If the one claiming benefit of clergy could read a passage from the Bible (usually Psalm 51 – David’s confession of sin) without stammering he would be set free even if evidence against him was overwhelming. If he stumbled just one time he was judged guilty. If someone read it per-fectly and was set free, they branded his hand (palm, fingers or thumb with the brand of the cross or a letter (T=theft, M=murder, F=felon).

You see, you could only claim benefit of clergy one time. So when-ever anyone testified in court he would have to hold up his hand so all could see if that person had previously claimed the benefit of clergy. If so, the brand was there. The practice was abolished in England by 1827.

But according to the Encyclopedia Britannica 2, “Benefit of clergy was adopted in most of the American colonies by judicial practice. Though generally abolished soon after the American Revolution, it persisted in the Carolinas until the mid-19th century.”

What if this practice was the way God dealt with mankind? One slip-up, one sin, and you are set free. But one more and there is no mercy.

God doesn’t deal with us in that fashion. His forgiveness is reached by obeying the Gospel of Christ: belief in Christ, genuine repentance and burial with Christ in baptism for forgiveness of sin. But no one is perfect. So we rely on His grace by “walking in the light as he is in the light and the blood of His son cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn. 1:7). Only if one willfully rejects Christ is there no more sacrifice for sin because persistent denial places one outside the atoning blood of Christ (Heb. 10:26).

Bill



Hello World

Friend & Family Day Success

Due to Three Reasons

Oh yeah! I’m ready to call it a success. Why?

First of all, the presence of Friends and Family were quite obvious. They came in big numbers on Sunday and they continued to come in good numbers for our Gospel Meeting on Monday-Wednesday. We were blessed with friends from area congregations as well as some from the community.

Secondly, it was successful because the Word of God was preached at each service, addressing a theme we particularly needed. Revival! The cultural flip-flop of morality – calling good evil and evil good (Isa. 5:20) – has made it harder to stand up for Jesus, to talk about His divinity, to speak from the Bible, to present the ‘faith once delivered unto the saints’ (Jude 1:3), to “speak the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15) to a generation who is constantly being told that there is no such thing as truth. God’s Recipe for Revival (2 Chron. 7:14), Someone Who Needed Revival (Lk.15), Revival in the Home (Eph. 5), Revival in Worship (Neh. 8) and When Jesus Comes (Jn. 14; Re. 22:20) were uplifting lessons reminding us of the truth of God’s love, sacrifice, and desire that we should live with Him in eternity.


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Are We Ready?

ARE YOU READY?

Sometimes a good thing will seem to happen by accident. But most of the time it takes planning, desire and dedication. Such is the case concerning the matter at hand in this article.

October 11 is our Friend & Family Day and will be followed October 12-14 by a series of lessons (see titles elsewhere) to teach and encourage church members. Our elders made plans for this day several years ago.

What plans have you made? Have you been praying for an opportunity to reach out to others? Are you excited at the prospect of lessons that rekindle the spiritual fire needed to overcome our daily struggles? Have you asked others to come with you?

The world in which we live is Satan’s voice of confusion. He wants nothing more than to keep us distracted and disoriented. This is a fine time for a message of clarity from the word of God.

I’ll be looking for you.

Bill




 

 

 

One Response to “Bill’s Blog”

  1. Lloyd Marshall says:

    Good articles !

    Lloyd

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