WOOD, HAY, and STUBBLE

Week Three, 2022

If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear… fire will test each one’s work… If anyone’s work… endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NKJV

All of us have choices. How we will invest our talents and resources. What we will do with our time. What are our priorities?

Focusing on immediate circumstances, it can seem easiest to focus on our current needs and desires. Not worrying about eternal consequences, or even tomorrow. Filled with this attitude, many simply seek escapes, to accumulate assets and indulge in short-term pleasures. To pursue personal fame and fortune, regardless how temporary it might be.

But the Bible reminds us that a day will come when everything we do will be tested by fire. Some work will survive, but some will be burned. The Bible calls this “wood, hay, and stubble.” These are the temporary things that can seem important and desirable in the moment but, ultimately, which don’t last. In fact, they can distract us and distort our attitudes and perspectives.

How long does currency last? The life expectancy of a circulating coin is 30 years, while paper money usually only lasts for 18 months and then it is shredded and no longer of any value. On my desk is a glass dome full of shredded currency. Once it was very valuable and bought many things and now it is worthless.

I keep the money dome on my desk to remind myself and to remind clients how worthless things that we buy for pleasure or to impress others can become worthless and often quickly.

glass dome

Several years ago, I was sailing into the harbor in Philadelphia. We cruised past a nautical junkyard then there she was, The S.S. United States, once the fasted transatlantic passenger afloat. And there she was, right in front of my eyes…… partly torn apart and covered in rust, tilting slightly to port. How sad, but a reminder that thing of value that people sacrifice for to acquire, ultimately turn to wood, hay and stubble as they rust and rot away.

The moral of the lesson? Put your time and money not into things that please yourself and impress others, but in the less tangible, like faith and family……… things and relationships that last and go good both for you and for others.

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

It is a staggering and grievous fact: an estimated 62 million abortions have occurred in the US since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973. This number is equivalent to the populations of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Utah, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming—combined.

I am passionately convinced on biblical, biological, logical, and legal grounds that life begins at conception and abortion is therefore the taking of an innocent human life. I am therefore praying for an end to the tragedy of abortion in America and am profoundly grateful to all who are working sacrificially to that end.

As reported by multiple news outlets, the Portland, Oregon, city council has recently enacted a “groundbreaking policy that provides bereavement leave for employees who undergo an abortion. Perhaps even those who chose abortion realized that they have taken a human life, not theirs to take.

Pray for an end to elective abortion in America.

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Oxford Economics reports that the “misery index”, an economic indicator used to measure the average person’s economic well-being, has grown to recession-like levels.

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reunion in heaven

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

The things of this world are not big enough to satisfy. Ken Whitten

Whether you like it or not, you are an influence to someone—for good or for bad. Dan Shock

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. JOHN F. KENNEDY

Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. WILL ROGERS

Christianity is not about what we get, but about what we give. Brandon Hughes

God created us for a purpose. Mike Ash

If you don’t love yourself, nobody will. Not only that, you won’t be good at loving anyone else. Loving starts with the self. WAYNE DYER

With God, all things are possible. Without God, all things are permissible.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” THOMAS EDISON

Biblical morality has been replaced by the sexual revolution. Daniel Henderson

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Selected portions of Thoughts on Life can also be read at TheLife.com.