Today’s bulletin is my annual “garage sale” bulletin, where I toss out for your approval various musing that could probably have turned into full bulletins if I wanted to stretch ‘em out, but really its just a clearinghouse of observations. As at a usual garage sale, there’s probably a lot of tired junk but once in a while a real treasure, after you take it home and polish it up by applying it to your lives!

I heard Kurt in one of his classes say something like “now that’s food for thought!” and right away two passages came to mind. One, something or other about being blessed if I hunger and thirst after righteousness. The second about there being a famine in the land, not of bread or water, but of hearing of the words of the Lord. Hmmm I bet there could be a whole lesson about food here.

Last week I wrote a bit about the Model T. According to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan (probably my absolute favorite museum/tourist attraction in the entire country) the reason it’s called a “T” is because… the A was too expensive to mass produce. The B was, too. The C, the D…. yes all had some flaw or another all the way down until he came to Q, R, S, T! And that’s where he stopped. If people took the same approach to religion, they would end up zeroing in on the perfect bible teaching eventually. But instead they get distracted with false promises, doctrines of convenience, and things like that. Henry had his faults but he was looking for the perfect car that he could produce as cheaply as possible, and according to his personal papers one that would best serve his fellow man. If everyone were looking for a “church” that best served the desires of God instead of their own desires, they would find it too.

I was watching some shows on the history channel last week and they both used the phrase “It’s all about the money.” One was Columbus coming here to find a way to make money – not some noble quest of discovery. The other was around Disney –when Walt was alive he refused to make even a PG movie regardless that he had opportunities for wealth. But as soon as he was dead Disney started to make PG and even R movies – the new CEO was quoted as saying it was no longer a “family” business but run for the profit of stockholders. Bleah. It made me recall Willy Mays replying to an interviewer asking how he could justify his amazingly huge salary and he said baseball wasn’t just a game, it was business. I wonder if that’s what went through Judas’ head when he justified to himself the betrayal of our Lord? Or what we tell ourselves when we miss services to work extra hours at our jobs, or scheduling trips for work that have us arriving and departing at times that conveniently are inconvenient to gather with the saints?

Finally, I saw a bunch of ball games these last two weeks. I always think to myself there are so many people in the world who could buy tickets, but don’t. Some folks camp out at the gates to be the first ones in, which seems like they are “wasting” a lot of their time but they don’t want to miss out. Just like my friends have accused me of in the past – I spend half my weekends at this church thing when I could be enjoying life. There’s plenty of time for God when you get old and can’t do anything else anymore. These folks who camp at the gate want to be SURE they get in. Don’t we?

And to go along with that, lately they’ve been giving away a bunch of bobble heads. To get one you just have to have your ticket and get there on time. If you don’t get there on time, you miss out. It’s easy to do, but still many folks forget about it or get caught up in unplanned life events, like traffic, and miss out. I suppose they could hope to buy one the next day on that giant garage sale – ebay – but be honest. How many folks who reach the goal and make it into heaven are going to be shopping their spot out – ever?

Randy