Speculate with me. If you surveyed a hundred adults as to why they brush their teeth, what do you think the most common answer would be? My guess is that ninety out of a hundred would first reply, “For fresh breath” or “To maintain a pretty smile.” I would further speculate less than ten percent would say, “For good health.”
Now let’s give our poll results some additional thought. If your teeth look or smell first-rate all the while falling out of your head, how long will it be before oral hygiene ascends in priority? If we enjoyed healthy teeth and gums, doesn’t it seem likely that possession would ease the task of acquiring fresh breath and shiny, white teeth?
How much of life do we approach this same way? We want to appear solid, we want to come off in an inoffensive way, but we aren’t really much worried about the substantive issues that lie below the surface of our lives. The appeal of our personhood should be deeper; the reality of who we are should exceed this shallow allure.
Cosmetics don’t make the woman and clothes don’t make the man. Eventually the heart shines through, even surrounded by a surface focused social climate like ours. So while viewing smiles across the dinner table this Thanksgiving, consider what those smiles tell you about core values, priorities of the soul, and the way we rank what matters most.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The “K” List
There is more, but we will settle for one sentence:
“Often, the one with nothing else to desire is far worse off than the one who has little but his or her dreams, because our … illusions are free of the weigh and the worry of dreams realized.” *
Hmmmm. For the man or woman who has everything and doesn’t know what to do next, I have a suggestion. Get more stuff!
Actually, I want to add a qualifier for the kind of things I am advising you to acquire. Kingdom stuff. Too many people in our communities have it all and now have no goal, no new ambition. What should they do with their lives? Go after Kingdom stuff.
This caution first: make sure you acknowledge before you begin this pursuing spiritual objectives will require some significant sacrifice. Know this up front and consider its implications.
To deepen your personal acquaintance with God daily, to converse with individuals over spiritual values, to find an obscure place of service and routinely fill it, to lift a hurting saint simply for the thrill of seeing their healing, to press the Kingdom agenda doing leg work for a church ministry. Now that is a list of Kingdom stuff to go after! When you attain too much of this, let me know.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 18, 2008
* Page 33, Wisdom At Work, Boa and Burnett, NavPress, 2002.
“Often, the one with nothing else to desire is far worse off than the one who has little but his or her dreams, because our … illusions are free of the weigh and the worry of dreams realized.” *
Hmmmm. For the man or woman who has everything and doesn’t know what to do next, I have a suggestion. Get more stuff!
Actually, I want to add a qualifier for the kind of things I am advising you to acquire. Kingdom stuff. Too many people in our communities have it all and now have no goal, no new ambition. What should they do with their lives? Go after Kingdom stuff.
This caution first: make sure you acknowledge before you begin this pursuing spiritual objectives will require some significant sacrifice. Know this up front and consider its implications.
To deepen your personal acquaintance with God daily, to converse with individuals over spiritual values, to find an obscure place of service and routinely fill it, to lift a hurting saint simply for the thrill of seeing their healing, to press the Kingdom agenda doing leg work for a church ministry. Now that is a list of Kingdom stuff to go after! When you attain too much of this, let me know.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 18, 2008
* Page 33, Wisdom At Work, Boa and Burnett, NavPress, 2002.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Coffee Brown Lines
Four years ago this fall, I was new to the pecan harvest. Surrounding my home back then was a yard with five pecan trees. Noting several nuts fallen to the ground with their green husks still attached, I tried prying these coverings off with my thumb nails. This practice usually ended in the discovery of a wormy nut and the further staining of my nails, but rarely did I uncover a nut worth keeping.
Routinely I attempted to wash the brown discoloration from my finger tips. Just as routinely, I was unsuccessful. A month later I still had two coffee brown lines mid-way up my nails. Only as they grew longer and following repeated trimming did the marks eventually disappear.
Sin is like that. Sometimes the sin is long ago committed and properly cleansed, but the full impact, though diminished, is still evident. It is easy to tell ourselves in that moment, “This will go away,” when reality is that only as time goes on will the stain be removed.
I wonder if we viewed sin from the stain end back to the act if we would sin so often and so freely. I wonder. Wrong, as surely as right, leaves its mark.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 12, 2008
Routinely I attempted to wash the brown discoloration from my finger tips. Just as routinely, I was unsuccessful. A month later I still had two coffee brown lines mid-way up my nails. Only as they grew longer and following repeated trimming did the marks eventually disappear.
Sin is like that. Sometimes the sin is long ago committed and properly cleansed, but the full impact, though diminished, is still evident. It is easy to tell ourselves in that moment, “This will go away,” when reality is that only as time goes on will the stain be removed.
I wonder if we viewed sin from the stain end back to the act if we would sin so often and so freely. I wonder. Wrong, as surely as right, leaves its mark.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Dirty Bottoms
Many a safety conscious Baptist has never washed the bottoms of their feet while standing in the shower. It just isn’t prudent to do so. That tub floor can be tricky when perched on a single limb.
What if I knew a secret that would allow you to both avoid broken bones and have clean feet? Would you be interested?
If you fix your eye on the spot where two lines of grout between the tiles cross and hold that stare, you can stand on one foot while washing the other. A visual or tactile point of reference it the key to staying on balance.
There are many similar moments in life when maintaining contact with a defined point of reference is the safe way to stay clean. Less subtly, the holy scriptures are an exceptional resource for anyone who desires to live a life of godly orientation.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 4, 2008
What if I knew a secret that would allow you to both avoid broken bones and have clean feet? Would you be interested?
If you fix your eye on the spot where two lines of grout between the tiles cross and hold that stare, you can stand on one foot while washing the other. A visual or tactile point of reference it the key to staying on balance.
There are many similar moments in life when maintaining contact with a defined point of reference is the safe way to stay clean. Less subtly, the holy scriptures are an exceptional resource for anyone who desires to live a life of godly orientation.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
November 4, 2008
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