Sunday, January 27, 2019
Starbucks Is Cheaper than Shoes
A problem in many marriages is that men don’t give their wives what they want. My wife thoroughly enjoys a Trenta Black Iced Tea from Starbucks. If possible, […]
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Acknowledge Your Good Work: Happy Birthday to “Hey Fletch”
It’s easy to get down and depressed when reading the newspaper. Sometimes things in our spheres of work don’t go well and can become […]
Sunday, January 13, 2019
YP—Your Problem
Sometimes we take someone else’s problem and make it our own. In doing that, we don’t allow them the pleasure and pain of solving a problem by themselves. It can make […]
Sunday, January 6, 2019
Talk to Your Spouse/Talk to Yourself
How you talk to your spouse says volumes about how you view yourself. Talk to him badly, then you will talk to yourself badly. Talk to her […]
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Equal Opportunity Ignorer
DRF—Suppose her name is Shelly. She will ignore what you say, your friends say and what her family says. She is physically present in those conversations but not intellectually engaged.
Shelly […]
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Sermons for the Overfed
DRF—Spiritual overeating is when the amount of teaching consumed is larger than what is put into practice.
Charlie Christian attends church every week and is in a home study. He […]
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Filter Your News
On the internet, the news media makes money by selling advertisements. CBS doesn’t make money when you read CNN. A news site makes money when you see/click on ads on […]
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Slander is Poison to the Bartender
DRF—In these mortal and fragile lives that we lead, it is all too easy to speak poorly of others. Another word for this is “slander.” The words […]
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Opt for the Easy and Discover the Shallow
DRF—Fast food has changed the way that we view time and convenience. I can pull into the drive-thru, order, pay and get my food in […]
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Your Lack of Planning Is Not My Emergency
DRF—Before the days of office copiers and home printers, the print shop was king. To get three hundred copies of a document, they would make […]
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Parenting Is the Process of Letting Go
DRF—The most control that you will have over your child will be in the first year. When they learn to crawl, control begins to wane. Then […]
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Wash Your Hands
DRF—Every parent has said this repeatedly to their child. “Go to the faucet, use soap, and wash your hands.”
I took this for granted until the city of Austin had silt […]
Where Was the Man When He Jumped Off the Bridge?
DRF—Prof. Norman Geisler introduced me to this logic riddle. If you answer, “on the bridge,” the retort is “that was before he jumped.” If you answer, […]
Sunday, October 14, 2018
I Was Standing There Following You When You Walked Away
DRF—Sometimes you hear a phrase and it sticks with you. My wife and I were at Disneyland more than 25 years ago. We […]
Sunday, October 7, 2018
The Best Place in Life Is Not Being on a Church Staff
DRF—How can you say that? I was on a church staff for 35 years! Pastors often think that the only place […]
Don’t Hire Friends Because They Are Friends
DRF–Hiring a friend often occurs because you know and trust them. You like them. These are great attributes—knowing, trusting […]
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Hoops to Jump Through
Sometimes in challenging conversations with staff, we fail to share real concerns about job performance or fit. Instead, we will set a high hoop for the person to jump […]
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Insanity is Hereditary—You Can Get It from Your Kids
DRF—Being a grandparent is an ideal place in life. We get all the benefits of loving on those grandkids without the responsibly. Parenting is […]
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Artificial Dis-Intelligence
At first blush, most of us would say, “I don’t rely on artificial intelligence.” Perhaps we do! I rely on the automatic spelling in my word processor so that I don’t […]
Sunday, August 26, 2018
That is as Boring as Sin
I don’t know who created this aphorism. It is both true and false. The falsity is readily apparent. Doing “your own deal” with God’s moral precepts can […]
Sunday, August 19, 2018
130 Trillion Web Pages
A vital principle that I learned in college was not to know all the data or read every book. The solution was to know where to find needed information.
A […]
Sunday, August 12, 2018
I got one poor grade in High School, in Spanish. My memory recalls no other grades except that one. It was a defining moment. I had to accept that it was my […]
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Not Invented Here Syndrome
New governing board members can bring in the not invented here syndrome. It comes out with phrases like, “I wasn’t on the board when that decision was made” and […]
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Watch the News before Sleeping, Dream of Violence
Sleep is the time when our minds sort through the memories of the day. What you mentally take in immediately before bedtime can affect how […]
Sunday, July 15, 2018
The typical foxhole prayer is, “God help in this mess.” That’s the equivalent of a 90 yard pass in the last seconds of a football game. It’s not a bad prayer but […]
Sunday, July 8, 2018
NMP—Not My Problem
As Christians we want to help others. As Jesus said, “love others …” There is a time when our desire to help can be meddling in another person’s issues. A […]
Sunday, July 1, 2018
So Much Junk on Television
It’s always interesting to hear someone say, “there is so much junk on television.” One person said, “Who watches the Home Shopping Network?” Another said, “Does anyone watch […]
Sunday, June 24, 2018
That’s Not Your Water to Carry
Ever have a discussion where you realize that you are trying to solve another person’s problem? You may soon take on their real or perceived problem as […]
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Overeducated Beyond My Intelligence
Many folks will say, “I’m overeducated beyond my intelligence.” This oft misquoted phrase comes from a 1922 Harvard monograph in education by Dearborn, Lincoln & Shaw. Their exact wording […]
Sunday, June 10, 2018
A Clean Desk
W.C. Fields had a great comic sketch from the 1935 film “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.” He had an enormous roll top desk that had hundreds of files messily […]
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Theme parks and museums have become experts in how people leave a ride or exhibit. The designers know that people will “buy stuff” when they exit through the […]
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Let’s not Confuse Facts with Feelings
DRF—All of us can make a decision based on feelings. It might be that new car or that new dress. We decide on what ‘feels good’ in […]
Sunday, May 20, 2018
My Favorite Rabbi is from Nazareth
A Rabbi is a Jewish teacher. We often forget that Jesus is called a Rabbi in the Scriptures. We also forget that he was Jewish. His teaching […]
Sunday, May 13, 2018
DRF—It is so easy to be upset and say the wrong thing when you leave a church. The problem with ‘burning bridges’ is that people remember what you said. Even more, you […]
Sunday, May 6, 2018
Bitter in a Christian Sort of Way
DRF—Of course, this is an oxymoron. Yet, we see it all the time. A person is bitter and a regular church attender. They can’t let go […]
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Set Event Horizon at Six Months, Minimum
DRF—Church leaders need to have a grasp of the day-to-day. More vital is that leaders plan and strategize for the future. How will today’s unemployment figures […]
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Digital Film Is Expensive
DRF—I learned about photography when film was expensive. I shot with a camera that used 120 film and you only got 12 exposures on a roll. I carefully weighed […]
Sunday, April 8, 2018
The Check Is in the Mail
DRF—Your church is about to receive a $100 million dollar donation from a prince via email. Your uncle is giving you his Ferrari. Your church wants to […]
Sunday, April 1, 2018
The Resurrection Changed Everything
DRF—I can’t claim ownership of this adage. Somewhere in the depths of church history, someone first said this. For us mortals, death is still the great divide. It is […]
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Parenting is Simple—Any Child Can Operate One
DRF—To get a driver’s license, you pass the state test. To get a High School or College degree, you attend four years of classes. However, to […]
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Humor, Trace
DRF—I’m guilty of having dry humor, sometimes arcane or zany. I can’t tell a canned joke to save my life. Spontaneous humor, puns, play on words, situational comedy … these are […]
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Laugh Today Because It Is Today
DRF—We all have plenty of reasons for angst in today’s society. The tension that we feel is like that of the early church … we live in […]
Sunday, March 4, 2018
The Apple Watch Won’t Make You Exercise
DRF—There are two types of people in the world, those that love Apple products and those that hate them. A major news story criticized the Apple […]
Sunday, February 25, 2018
We failed with excellence
DRF—Many individuals and churches have the value of “excellence.” It seems that we often ‘fail with excellence.’ In Austin one year, I just didn’t fall off my bicycle, but […]
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Criticizing others is a reflection of my insecurities
DRF—Nick Carraway, the narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’ quoted his father: “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the […]
Sunday, February 11
The church moves at glacial speed
DRF—This is so unfair to glaciers! Churches can move slower than sheets of ice. This is especially true when hiring staff or implementing changes. Weeks and months can […]
