Weekly e-News June 22, 2018
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome one, altho’ I know it may be crazy at work and super tough to get anything done today. I bet it’s that way every June 22!
Because it’s…
National “Take Your Dog To Work” Day!
I mean, who comes up with this stuff?
At some point in reading this, you’ll probably have to take a break to take Barfy out to “go”!
I’m just thankful I work up at church and we don’t have to bring a dog to work today!
Or any day!
Because the Bible says, when it’s talking about the Kingdom of God…
“Outside are the dogs”! (Check it out! Revelation 22.15!)
Altho’ we did have a dog in our church in Milan, Italy. It belonged to Olga, who was blind. It would be calm and quiet until the last “Amen” and then it’d go nuts! How it knew that was the end, we never knew but since “Amen” is a Hebrew word, we used to say it was the only dog who spoke biblical languages!
A coupla years ago, I had to give the sermon at St. Andrews Church of Scotland in Lisbon, Portugal (who knew?)…
I dressed up a little for the occasion ‘cause I didn’t knew their church ways, and a British guy came in wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and he had a little fluffy dog on a leash…
“Hope you don’t mind the dog, Rev,” he said. “Won’t make a fuss…”
“It doesn’t bother me,” I replied. “But I have a rule. If there’s a dog in church, I’m not wearing a tie!” And I took it off!
Today is also National Chocolate Eclair Day! (I wouldn’t know where to get one to celebrate!)
And National Onion Ring Day! (Only thing that’ll make your breath worse than that dog’s breath you’ve got at work today!)
I didn’t realize that every day of the year is National Something-er-other Day…
Why, just this month…
June 1 was National Heimlich Maneuver Day! (“Give someone a hug they’ll never forget!”)…
June 8 was National Upsy Daisy Day (?!)…
June 3 was National Repeat Day…
June 3 was National Repeat Day…
June 10 was National Herbs Day…(I didn’t have thyme for that one!)
So…
I think we need National “Don’t Call Anyone A Name Day”!
Seems like to me, that even tho’ there are loads of things that we could (and should!) be upset about…
more than ever before…
thru posts or tweets…
with lips or thumbs…
Folks are speaking about each other and AT each other in ways that are increasingly unkind.
If I need to express my opinion to someone or someones…
to “friends” or “followers”…
there HAS to be a way to do it without using the words “idiot!”…or “moron!”…or “*&^%#@!”
Lately, I’ve been going thru the prophets at the end of the Old Testament…Obadiah…Amos…Micah…And there are lots and lots of severe criticisms of much that is in our papers today. Plenty of warnings and judgments.
But no insults. No personal name-calling. No “you stupid jerks!”
One scholar at Georgetown said that the increasing incivility in our society is “infectious like a bug or virus…Not only do people reciprocate, but they tend to stoop lower rather than higher…It’s putting us in an unfortunate place…”
Ephesians 4 has a perfect word for the followers of Jesus (Not His twitter followers! His real followers!)…
“Do not let any unwholesome word come out of your mouths…And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the Day of redemption. ..”(Ephesians 4.29-30)
The word “unwholesome” means “rotten”. The Greek word is “sepros” It’s related to the word “septikos”… It’s where we get the word “septic”… As in, septic tank! Phuuuu!
Let other people do it. Let other people say that stuff. You can’t stop ‘em any way. But not Jesus followers!
Because we’re being prepared for “the Day of redemption”!
When Jesus is King of all the world!
And when that happens…
When He rules every heart on earth…
King of all lips and thumbs…
National “Don’t Call Anyone A Name Day” will never end!
That’ll be the day!