A Tribute To Grandma

On July 31, 1919 in Wadsworth, Ohio, Marcella Ruth McMullen was born to Clarence and Audrey McMullen. My mom's mom, now Marcella Ruth Vaughn, turns 88 today. The photograph at right was taken circa 1920. The one to the left shows my grandma on the left with her baby sister, "Dot."

My grandma is one of the strongest, most resilient, and most virtuous women I have ever known. Here is just a small handful of events from her life:

1. She grew up during "The Great Depression" of the 1930's.
2. She saw her young husband shipped off to the South Pacific during World War II.
3. Two of her daughters (including my mom) were stricken with Polio in the 1950's. My aunt Judy was severely affected by this terrible disease.
4. She faced great heartbreak when her first husband and high school sweetheart (my grandfather) became unfaithful, resulting in a divorce.
5. Her second husband, "Tippy," passed away in 2004.

Lest you get the wrong impression, my grandma has lived what I would deem a happy and fulfilling life to this point. She has wonderful friends, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even one great-great-granddaughter! However, when I think about some of the "storms" she has weathered in her 88 years, I am so thankful for her righteous example. Giving up would have been the easy, and, perhaps natural thing to do. But grandma never gave up!

She raised her three children the right way, showing them the importance of serving God even in the midst of hard times -- without the support of her husband. When I think about the way my own mother taught me, I am well aware of the fact that she passed down what her own mother taught her many years ago. It brings to mind this passage from the New Testament:

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

2 Timothy 1:5, ESV

Not that I am presuming myself to be some modern-day version of Timothy, but whatever success I have in serving the Lord and his church, I owe an immeasurable debt to my grandmother, Marcella, and my mother, Jill.

How thankful we can be for the influence of righteous people in our lives!

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Here's A Message For You: You're Fired!!

A Polish bus driver has been fired for sending 38,000 text messages on his company cell phone in a losing effort to win a contest jackpot.

Leszek Wojcik, a bus driver in the northwestern Polish city of Slupsk, ran up a tab of some 94,000 zlotys ($34,000) with his text messages while trying to win a 100,000-zloty ($36,000) SMS contest that ended June 30.

A city bus drivers' monthly company phone bill is supposed to be limited to 15 zlotys ($5).

Wojcik sent an average of 1,200 SMS text messages a day, each costing 2.40 zlotys ($0.86), on his work cell phone.

Wojcik told TVN24 television he wanted to buy a second car with his possible winnings. "Now I'm without work," he said.

There is a Biblical principle to be learned by the unwise decisions of Mr. Wojcik. The Bible says...

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 28:19-20, ESV

God will bless the man who earns his wage. Activities that rob us of our time and resources (such as gambling) generally lead to some level of poverty, and often to a certain measure of compulsion.

Work hard and enjoy the fruit of your honest labor. To count on "easy money" is a fool's way of thinking.

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How Could We Live Without It?

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
(Psalm 19:7-8, ESV)

The purpose of God's word, then, is to:

1. Revive the soul, for it was dead in sin!
2. Bestow true wisdom, for our minds were filled with the foolishness of the world.
3. Bring true joy, for we were once perishing in the desert of sorrow.
4. Enlighten the eyes once blinded by Satan, the great deceiver.

When we reflect on these -- just a small handful of benefits you and I derive from the oracles of God -- it is difficult to imagine what life would be like without access to the holy Scriptures.

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Pigs Must Be Careful

The following is a poem I recently ran across (the author being unknown) that exposes the folly of drinking alcohol:



One night in late October,
When I was far from being sober;
I was returning home with my load in manly pride.
When my feet began to stutter,
So I laid down in a gutter,
And a pig came near and laid down by my side.

A lady passing by was heard to say:
"You can tell who boozes,
By the company he chooses,"
And the pig got up and slowly walked away!



The Bible says, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1, ESV).

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Twelve Views Of The Cross

1. The soldiers saw in Christ a criminal -- with cruelty.


2. The women saw in Christ a benefactor -- with sorrow.


3. The mother of Jesus saw in him a son -- with anguish.


4. The disciples saw in their Lord blighted hopes -- with perplexity.


5. The first criminal saw in Christ a malefactor -- with hardness.


6. The second criminal saw in Christ a King -- with penitence.


7. The centurion saw in Christ deity -- with conviction.


8. The Jewish priests saw in Christ an impostor -- with mockery.


9. The angels saw in Christ love -- with wonder.


10. The devil saw in Christ "the seed of woman" -- with dismay.


11. The passers-by saw in Christ nothing -- with indifference.


12. The Father saw in Christ obedience -- with affection.

The preceding list is not original with me. I was impressed, however, with its profundity. It makes great "thinking food."

How do YOU view the cross of Christ? There are many things in life that are open to varied viewpoints. The nature of Jesus Christ is not one of them.

Who do people say the Son of man is?

Matthew 16:13, ESV

But who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:15, ESV

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What Would You Do For $647?

One family in Menomonie, Wisconsin had their wills and stomachs put to the test recently. Take a look at this story from the Associated Press:

Debbie Hulleman's dog Pepper has been known to gnaw on lipstick, munch on shampoo bottles and chew on toothpaste. But Pepper got Hulleman into a real mess after gobbling nearly $750.

"This is probably the worst," Hulleman said Thursday, recalling how she poked through vomit and dog piles left in the yard to recover the cash.

Hulleman had asked her mother in Oakdale, Minn., to take care of Pepper and Zach, the family's other dog last month while she and husband went on vacation.

Pepper, an 8-year-old black Labrador-German shorthair, got into a purse belonging to her mother's friend and chewed the cash from an envelope.

Hulleman's mother recovered some of the money that Pepper spit out, thinking she had it all. But when Hulleman returned from the trip and went to clean up her dogs' mess outside, she noticed a $50 bill hanging from one pile.

The chore of sorting through dog feces netted about $400, the 50-year-old dog lover said. Between that and other bills that Pepper had either vomited or simply chewed on, the family recovered $647.

The family swapped the soiled money for fresh currency at a bank.

"It wasn't that bad. I soaked it and strained it and rinsed it. I just kept rinsing it and rinsing it. I had rubber gloves on of course," Hulleman said.

"Everyone said, 'I can't believe you did that.' Well, for $400, yeah, I would do that," she said.

So, would you do what the Hulleman family did for $647? That sure is a lot of money, but that sure is a gut-turning method of recovery!

I wonder how many would go through that process to retrieve a few hundred bucks, yet will not accept God's kind and loving offer of salvation by grace through faith. We are wholly unable to redeem ourselves from the grip of Satan and into the loving embrace of the Savior.

Thankfully, if we will submit ourselves as loving children and obey the gospel, calling on his name through obedience to His will (see Acts 22:16), we will be saved! Furthermore, if we will remain devoted and faithful throughout our time on this earth, He will give us "the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

Jesus challenged the world thus: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?" (Matthew 16:26, ESV)

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Beyond A Shadow Of A Doubt

The New Testament saints lived in a time wherein incarceration for the sake of one's religious conviction was somewhat common. Consider this handful of examples:

• Peter & John arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 4:1-23)
• Apostles arrested again and beaten in Jerusalem (Acts 5:17-42)
• King Herod persecutes the churc, murders James, and imprisions Peter (Acts 12:1-17)

21st century Americans (and others) have a difficult time relating to that sort of environment. Incredibly, it was the fierece mistreatment of the churches of Christ in the first century that fueled explosive growth and dedication to the cause of Christ.

Here's a challenging hypothetical to consider: If you were arrested on suspicion of being a Christian, could the court produce enough evidence to find you guilty?

Think about it!

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Like A Cedar In Lebanon

The cedar tree is mentioned some 75 times in the text of the Bible. The cedar trees in Lebanon were, at one time, the most prominent in the world.

In Psalms 92, the Bible says:

The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of
sap and green...
Psalms 92:12-14

The wood, bark, cones, and even the leaves were saturated with resin. The inside, or "heart," had a reddish cedar color, and the exterior was whitish.

King Solomon selected these famous trees for the construction of many of his famous structures, especially in the Temple (1 Kings 6:15). Scripture refers to them as "lofty and lifted up" (Isaiah 2:13, ESV). In a symbolic way, the great cedars of Lebanon suggest grandeur, beauty, power, and majesty. Given the physical makeup, there are several loose spiritual applications we can make from this tree:

1. The heart is a reddish color, bringing to mind a heart that has been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God, -- Jesus Christ.
2. The exterior is a whitish color, making us think about a life holy and without blame.
3. The wood, bark, cones, and leaves are filled with resin (the sap of life), which calls to our remembrance our commitment to present our whole bodies as living sacrifices, filled with the Spirit of life.
4. The cedar of Lebanon is tall, stately, and very beautiful to behold, symbolic of one's stand for the Lord, reflecting and projecting His beauty.

While I would certainly hesitate to say these allusions are inherent in the text, understanding the makeup of the great cedars of Lebanon is very helpful in reminding us of these fundamental spiritual truths.

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Don't Adjust Your Computer Screen...

Did we really need another reason to avoid Amsterdam? The following story out of the Netherlands' most recognizable city is a genuine "head-scratcher."

After a long day of hunting, there's nothing like wrapping your paw around a cold bottle of beer. So Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the Southern Dutch town of Zelhem, created a beer for her Weimeraners made from beef extract and malt.

"Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the veranda and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it," she said.

Berenden consigned a local brewery to make and bottle the nonalcoholic beer, branded and Kwispelbier. It was introduced to the market last week and advertised as "a beer for your best friend."

"Kwispel" is the Dutch word for wagging a tail.

The beer is fit for human consumption, Berenden said. But at euro1.65 ($2.14) per bottle, it's about four times more expensive than a Heineken.

Yes, this is a real story!

A beverage responsible for ruining a countless number of men, women, and families appears poised to contribute the downfall of the canine species. As the story says, this this is a non-alcoholic beverage......for now. I suppose it won't be long until we hear barks and growls from all over Europe demanding the full fermented version.

I can see it now.....an inebriated Dachshund is beaten to death after he charges a 100-pound Rottweiler due to the fact that he didn't like his "tone" of barking. A once respected Dalmatian loses his job at the fire station because he could not show up for work on time without a hangover. A black Lab seeing eye dog leads his handler into oncoming traffic after a late night at Fido's Tavern.

Ridiculous? Sure. That's the point. Yet, is it really any more ridiculous than succumbing to the manifold dangers of strong drink? Study the text of the Bible on this subject and you will be presented with a crystal clear picture of shattered lives, dangerous situations, and a condemned soul. The Bible says:

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
Proverbs 20:1, ESV

Organizations such as P.E.T.A. and the A.S.P.C.A. (the latter of which I am a
big fan) would be "out for blood" if someone were to coax an animal to ingest an intoxicating substance such as alcohol........and rightly so! How strange, then, is our society's affinity for glamorizing the alcohol industry? Strange indeed. Personally, I wouldn't pour anything down my own throat that I would refuse to allow my canine sons (Angus and Louis) to drink!!

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Jesus Lives In Houston???

He has been called, "Jesus of Suburbia." Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is a 60-year-old man living in Houston, Texas who claims to be the second coming of Christ. He has a growing group of disciples in a number of countries.

In March of 2007, ABC's Primetime featured a story about Jose that included interviews with some of his followers, and the man himself. In case you missed the program, here are some interesting facts about Jose:

• He grew up in poverty in Puerto Rico.


• During his time in Puerto Rico, he served stints in prison for petty theft convictions.


• He was forced to enter a long-term chemical dependency program in New York city after a heroin conviction.


• He claims to be un-killable despite his entourage of NINE bodyguards.


• He originally declared himself to be just a preacher, but in 1998 he claimed to be the apostle Paul.


• In 1999 he claimed to be "the Other" who would pave the way for the second coming of Christ.


• In 2004 he changed his story yet again by declaring himself to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Jose explains the claim that he is Jesus Christ by telling of an epiphany he supposedly experienced in 1973, during which, as he puts it, "a resurrected Christ integrated himself within me." He says, however, that he does not know why he was chosen.

Jose is a walking contradiction if ever there was one. For example, in the early part of 2007, he declared himself not only to be Christ, but also "The Anti-Christ" (someone please email me if you can make sense of that one). He is now requesting that his followers have the number "666" tattooed on their bodies (which, by the way, is a portion of Revelation that has become needlessly and ignorantly entangled in superstition). Jose's request is being granted by many of his followers.

Jose's main point of teaching is that sin no longer exists. He affirms that when Jesus (I guess he's referring to himself in third person??) die on the cross, sin was completely eliminated -- not in the Biblical sense, mind you (i.e. atonement), but in a universally sinless sense. In other words, there is nothing -- absolutely NOTHING anyone can do to put his or her soul in jeopardy; and since sin does not exist, neither does hell. Perhaps this explains why Jose proudly smokes cigars and cigarettes, and flaunts the fact that he hangs out at bars while kicking back a few beers and tequilas. He does say that one should not get "drunk" (how he defines such we may never know). Strangely enough, he was arrested a few years back for D.U.I.

Although Jose rejects most of the Bible, he does say that the apostle Paul did "have it right" (I'm thinking that admission may have something to do with his one-year stint as the second coming of Paul in 1998). So this tells me Jose knows little to nothing about the New Testament (just in case the other 37,000 lies were not enough to convince me of that). If Pail did indeed have it right, I wonder what he could have meant by...

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:6-9, ESV

The arrogance of Mr. Miranda appears to know no bounds. When asked about his critics, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." To which I say, forgive us for what?? If there is no sin, Jose, how could we possibly be in need of forgiveness?

The fact of the matter is that Jose isn't all that bright. There have been scores of false Christs over the past 2,000 years, but I would venture to say that most of them possessed reasonably impressive intellectual capacities or a very persuasive personality. I can confidently say that watching this charlatan for 25 minutes had me convinced of one thing -- he has neither. And yet, here are thousands of men, women, and children who swear up and down that he is Jesus Christ!

If it were not so sad, it would be hilarious.

If you would like to learn more, you may want to visit ABCnews.com to see more on this story.

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Habits Are At The Heart

Habits are either bobbers or sinkers, corks or lead. They hold you up or pull you down. With eternity in view, it behooves you and me to consider our current habits in every facet of life. It helps to contemplate how habits are formed. The following is what I believe to be an accurate description of the process:

Thoughts become words.
Words become actions.
Actions become habits.
Habits become character.
Character is everything.

Notice the similarities between this progression and the following progression found in the book of Proverbs:

Keep your heart [thoughts] with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech [words], and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet [actions]; then all your ways will be sure [habits]. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Proverbs 4:23-27, ESV

It's no secret, friend; your habits and mind originate within the heart. My habits determine my character, and my character determines who I serve -- self and Satan, or Christ the righteous. So work on your heart today, friend. It is the vehicle that is moving you toward your eternal dwelling place -- wherever that may be.

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A Thousand "Thrones" Fit For A Thousand Kings

The Chinese are serious about their bathrooms. The city of Beijing recently opened a public restroom featuring 1,000 stalls spread out over 32,290 square feet and four floors.

"We are spreading toilet culture," said Lu Xiaoqing. "After they use the bathroom, they will be very, very happy."

Some of the urinals are uniquely shaped -- such as several crocodile heads, and several units that features a bust of the likeness of the virgin Mary. I'm not sure how or anyone else has any idea what Mary looked like, but I think it's safe to say that she never would have envisioned the day her supposed likeness was mounted on top of a toilet.

Officials have submitted paperwork to The Guinness Book Of World Records in an effort to be recognized as the largest public restroom in the world.

The first passage of Scripture to "pop" into my head as I read all about this "porcelain palace" was the first chapter of Ecclesiastes. In a book devoted almost entirely to declaring the vanity of "life under the sun," verses two through eleven (read them here) are especially applicable when we see useless, yet remarkably funny stories such as this.

All the work that went into constructing this facility and all the fanfare it receives will fade soon. As always, something bigger, better, more fancy, and more remarkable will come along soon enough.

The message is simple: In all our hustle and bustle and seemingly worthwhile pursuits in this life, remember what/Who is most important -- living for Christ and preparing oneself for judgment.

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The Flock Of One

An objective study of the Bible leads one to understand the deadly nature of sin. Transgression of God's law is that which drives the proverbial wedge between a man and his Creator. There is no doubt that God gives ample space in the Scriptures to warning mankind of sin's devastating consequences.

If the people of God have any interest whatsoever in faithfully proclaiming the good news of salvation contained in the gospel, they will not water down the truth about sin and its eternal penalty. Those who preach the increasingly popular "Social Gospel" stay away from addressing anything that might be construed as even hinting at an allusion to something that might resemble the most vague reference to the concept of sin. For in doing so, they know the thousands who have "itching ears" will continue to pour into converted basketball arenas and gleefully place their offerings in the coffers.

That being said, if we are not on our guard, we can easily fall into the extreme at the other end of the spectrum. What if -- in our zealousness to convince the world of the poisonous effects of sin -- we treat sinners as the Pharisees and scribes did in the time of Jesus' earthly life? In Luke 15:1-7, we see representatives from both of these groups grumbling about the fact that Jesus was eating with sinners. Jesus taught them a parable about a single lost sheep. In hearing these words, they (Pharisees and scribes) and we ought to learn some important points:

1. God is concerned about the lost, and seeks them.
2. The Lord loves us individually.
3. People wander away from God through neglect.
4. The lost sheep may have known it was lost, but did not know its way home.
5. The path back to God is traveled through repentance.
6. Self-righteousness will deaden our concern for the lost.

Being a disciple of Jesus means having the same care and concern for a lost soul as Jesus, our Savior. Are you not glad He so regarded you?

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