the Rear Pew

What’s The Evidence?

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A farmer named James Cook once owned a chicken that laid a perfectly square egg. I think I would have to see that to believe that.

Joann Barnes, at just the age of 15, swung 68 hula hoops at the same time. I think I would have to see that to believe that.

There are many things in this world that are very hard to believe but both of these are true according to the book Ripley’s Believe it or Not. There are also a lot of people that do not believe in Christ or that He arose from the grave after His crucifixion. One of the first to have a hard time believing in that was Thomas, one of His very own disciples. When Jesus appeared to His disciples the first time Thomas wasn’t with them (John 20:24,25). So when the rest of the disciples told Him of Christ’s resurrection He just couldn’t believe it. Just like so many in this world today, Thomas couldn’t believe, he wanted evidence. Continue reading What’s The Evidence?

Is Your Church Stuck?

churchGrowth After reading a recent article entitled “6 Ways to Reverse a Church Decline” from ChurchLeaders.com I felt compelled to share my thoughts. In my thirty six plus years of attending church regularly I have for the most part attended two small churches with about sixty people or so in attendance each. They at times struggle to find ways to reach the community that’s around them. I have also visited and had close personal friends pastor churches that started with a handful of people and have seen God grow them into churches with hundreds attending regularly. Continue reading Is Your Church Stuck?

He is Waiting, But For How Long?

airport I was reading 2 Peter 3:9 which reads ^“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” And It made me recall a time I was waiting at the airport. I was watching a flight attendant at the gate across the hall helping her flyers to board. After everyone seemingly had boarded she looked carefully for any stragglers. She noticed a family that was running late rushing towards the gate. She had schedule, the captain was ready,everyone else was ready, but she waited patiently, assuring that they made their flight. Continue reading He is Waiting, But For How Long?

A Sure Hope

sure hope I have always enjoyed talking with seniors. It seems to me, as I’ve said on many occasions, that they are an untapped wealth of wisdom and knowledge. When I talk with them there seems to be a trend, almost universal, regarding their memories of the past. That is that in difficult times it seems they speak in a very nostalgic way. As they swap stories of World War II and the great depression, they speak very fondly of them. Hardships such as blizzards, the old outhouse, or even the times during college when they ate nothing but canned soup and stale bread for three weeks in a row seems only to bring on a sense of affection. Continue reading A Sure Hope

The Droughts Will Come

Life is hard for the people in the village of Yunnan Province China. Their total livelihood is dependent on their crops of corn and rice. So when in May of 2012, a severe drought hit the area and the crops were withering panic was setting in. They were desperate and tried everything to make it rain including old superstitious practices. But all their attempts failed. They turned their fear and desperation into anger towards the five Christians that lived in the village saying that they had offended the spirits of their ancestors.

The five Christians, under growing persecution, gather together and prayed and prayed and prayed. Before very long the skies became dark and the rain fell. It came in a downpour that lasted the entire afternoon and saved the crops. Most villagers didn’t believe that God brought about the rain. But some did and it brought about a great deal of interest in and searching of God. Continue reading The Droughts Will Come

Why Not You?

In the early 1800’s there was a British woman by the name of Fanny Kemble who moved to this country and married a southern plantation owner named Pierce Butler. Probably never heard of her, right? Well Fanny lived a luxurious life here in the United States until she began to realize that her life style was on the backs of her husband’s slaves that worked the plantation. Continue reading Why Not You?

95 Year Old Advice

I like surveys. I like them because they can revel so much about us as a people. It’s important for me when I find an interesting survey to understand who was behind it and who was asked the questions. That’s the only way you really can tell what the survey results teach us. For instance, if you ask a group of teenagers what it’s like to be 65 years old you will get significantly different answers than if you ask actual 65 year olds.

So I found an interesting survey that I’d like to share with you. I found it to be very significant to our Christian life. It was conducted many years ago by a Midwestern university statistics class and asked just one simple question. But it’s who they asked that made it worthwhile. They gathered 113 people at or over the age of 95 to ask this question. My first thought was why 113 and not 115 or just 100? Why the odd number? Then I thought well they probably couldn’t find more than 113 that old to conduct the survey. Continue reading 95 Year Old Advice

Do You Smell Something?

I have always enjoyed the smell of fresh-cut grass in the summer time or the scent of a fresh spring rain. And of course I take great joy in the aroma of delicious food. We all have wonderful smells that are our favorites or perhaps even ones that bring back great memories. Like for instance every time I smell cherry tobacco it brings back fond memories of my grandfather. Isn’t our sense of smell a wonderful gift from God?

So it caught my attention when the Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:18, that our Continue reading Do You Smell Something?

The Lessons Of A Thief

The Lessons Of A Thief (Luke 23: 33-42)

We can sit in front of some of the greatest teachers and thinkers of or time, we can read the works of our greatest authors and still miss some of the most important lessons in life. Often they come from the humble, the quiet, the less learned among us. I put before you one of those individuals and the important life saving lessons to be learned from him. Continue reading The Lessons Of A Thief

What Do You See?

There is a lot of things that go on around us that we never see, we just miss it. Either these things are to fast or maybe to slow to be noticed by us. That’s why I’m a fan of the photography of Louis Schwartzberg. He uses technology to slow down his film and record those things that we miss like bees pollinating, clouds forming and mushrooms growing.

This inability of us to see these things in our physical world remind me of all we miss or don’t realize is going on in the spiritual world as well. Continue reading What Do You See?