Pastor’s Corner

Trivia:

Which U.S. state is home to a city know as "Christmas City" USA? Is it in the state of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, or Virginia? Why not try to make a guess!

Which holiday song finally hit Number 1 on the billboard hot 100 last week? Was it Silver Bells, Jingle bell Rock, Santa Baby, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. Make a guess.

Challenge:

Ecclesiastes 10:1 "As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor."

In this chapter Solomon gathers a number of wise conclusions to guide a persons conduct.

Have you noticed that in our present day that society as a whole places great value on what we might call "soft diplomacy" where truth is diminished in ordere to maintain harmony. However, the Bible goes to great pains to uphold truth even to the extent of blunt reality. The Bible go to great pains of proclaiming truth in order to assist us in knowing exactly what God's heart and mindset is in relation to gentle, inoffensive words.

In this analogy a harsh truth is released, that emphasizes the reality that even though a man who lives out a life committed to wisdom and honor. Yet non-the-less one small mistake, wrong step, indiscretion, can cause his lifetime of selfless service to become defined by that one failure, and then to result in his life taking on a repulsive tone.

Solomon sets these two qualities of wisdom and honor in high regard. To remind us to uphold them to those around us, and to speak often of their great importance. This reminds me of President Nixon and his failure to openly admit to his parties wrong use of subterfuge. That one misstep resulted in the call for his resignation, and humiliation. As we look about us, history clearly lays out far more mistakes, failures, and in fact more evidently intentional missteps since then, others have made, but the intentional cover up became his defining moment.

So we see just how our unintentional error can bring about a demeaning impact on our reputation.

SO GO WITH GOD for His Spirit's influence in our life will protect us from harm and destructive impact on our lives. He will guide us to the path of integrity, and clarity.