A teachers proposal

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked, and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich --- a great equalizer. The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade, so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset, and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less, and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings, and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Philemon

This morning I read a letter that Paul wrote Philemon. There was an interesting phrase that Paul used:

"...to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

Paul was appealing to Philemon on one level because Philemon owed his very life to Paul because Philemon got saved through Paul's ministry.

So to apply this, I thought, who do I owe in a spiritual sense? Who can I pass on gratefulness, thanks and honor to, for their investment in my life. Many names scrolled thru my mind. God has been gracious to me.

I need to leave now, there are several phone calls and emails that I need to make.

Happy Easter

I was very moved at our Good Friday Service, I hope that I can do it justice to describe it.

When my boys were young, I used to chase them around the house. Just as I was about to capture them, they would run to their mom and shout, "BASE!!!" We would then debate wheter Mom would qualify as base and if a base was even allowed in the game.

During the time of meditation at the service, all of that came back to me. We sang about the the fact that at one time, we would be face to face with God. I thought about his eyes, the eyes that penetrate and see everything, my sin, my faults, my shortcomings. And I thought..."I need a base."

And then I looked to the cross, that place where God sent his son to deliver me from my sins. I thought, "there is my base". I had an almost irresitable desire to touch the wood, to cling to it. That was my base, my place of safety.

And I was undone.