I was intrigued by this opening line in a recent USA Today article, “Religion today in the USA is a salad bar where people heap on upbeat beliefs they like and often leave the veggies behind,” which basically allows people to believe whatever suits them. Now the scary thing about that is that the Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25 ). Now you can be wrong about a lot of things and it won’t cost you everything, but you can’t afford to be wrong about God.
Oh, it has been exciting to fly commercially this summer, hasn’t it? Man, lots of airport adventures, war stories. You know over the years I’ve had some sad moments watching the baggage carousel for my bags—not there. Now sometimes we see a few bags that just keep going around and around. You get pretty tired of seeing the same old baggage going around and around.
Well these days you can buy almost anything imaginable on eBay including a man’s life. Yeah, no kidding, an Australian man has put his life up for internet auction—his house, his job, his friends. It started really with his broken heart after his wife left him a couple of years ago. He said he wants a fresh start. Now you can sell your stuff, but everywhere you go, you take you with you.
Oh there’s nothing like the Olympics! Ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred nations in Beijing for the 2008 Games, but unlike previous games, there’s not a single Christian missionary in the Olympic village. At past Olympics Christian ministries have sent chaplains to serve the athletes, but not this time. Only Chinese chaplains were approved by the government, but Christ has an Olympic voice, even in China.
I was spending the night in a motel where there had just been one of those natural disasters we’ve been seeing so much of. The parking lot was filled with cars from insurance companies I guess. So many homes blown away, flooded out. The property insurance people must be going crazy. It’s been one natural disaster after another. Constant reminders of the things in our life that we always count on, you can’t count on.
