Serve by Design

Last Sunday, Monique and I were guests in another church. I preached at a pastor friend’s retirement celebration service. We also attended a small group study for seniors before worship. It was a blessing to look around the table during that Sunday School class and see so many open Bibles and even a few digital tablets placed in front of those participants. While they used a denominational booklet as the curriculum, the Bible was still their primary focus during the lesson. "By your words I can see where I'm going." Clip Art: stock.adobe.com The Message: Psalm 119:105a I have heard two good sermons lately where the subject of the Bible has come up. One was at our church recently during the Iron Sharpens Iron conference. It looked to me that the crowd was at full capacity on the ground floor and balcony that accommodates well over a thousand people not counting the platform musicians. There were ninety churches represented, and forty-eight of those churches brought ten ...

According to the National Retail Federation, retail theft has grown to a staggering 100-billion-dollar annual problem! I know that my printer cartridges have been under lock and key for some time now. And that’s not the only store item being secured. Facial wipes, shampoo, baby formula, and razors are locked up too. Our oldest grandsons work in retail stores, and they can tell stories about how brazen thieves have become! Items behind locked display cases are certainly an inconvenience for shoppers who must wait for a sales associate to come and give anxious customers access to their shopping items! Image credit: stockarch.com All of this has me thinking that with the rising prices of beef, butter, and eggs, I’m afraid that soon we may also see these basic food items secured from thieves the next time we round the aisles to the refrigerated dairy and meat cases! Can you believe that some brands of butter sell for five dollars per pound or that a 16-ounce prime strip steak is going for ...