Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

I haven’t done this in a while, and I certainly don’t do it often enough. I want to thank all the members of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nacogdoches, TX for their faithfulness to Christ and their love for one another. I know we’re not without our struggles and sins, but what a gift from God to be in a place; to be in a family like this. We’re all excited about soon having a new building to worship in and proud (like parents) to have such a beautiful place. Nevertheless, the building is nothing compared to the beauty of this congregation of saints. I’m even more proud you. As your pastor, I’m deeply grateful to God for you and thankful to you for your great service to His kingdom. I love you.

Pastor Booth

Christin's Quote Book

• “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste death but once.” ―William Shakespeare
• “Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.” ―Albert Einstein
• “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you fell a thought.” ―E.Y. Harburg
• “Worry is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” ―Anonymous
• “When you’re young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you’re my age and you fall of, you splatter.” ―Roy Rogers

Christin's Quote Book

• “In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.” ― Paul Harvey
• “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” Satchel Page
• “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” ―Agatha Christie
• “Things are seldom what they seem.” ―Sir William S. Gilbert
• “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ―Anne Frank

Surface Knowledge

A few years ago I wrote an essay on “The Trivium in Biblical Perspective,” which shows the relationship between the classical model of education [grammar, logic and rhetoric], and the original biblical model [knowledge, understanding and wisdom]. This is an addendum to that essay.

Most everyone can see what’s floating on the surface; it’s plain and obvious. It might be beautiful or ugly, or it might be true or false, but there it is for all to see and to make initial judgments. That’s the nature of surface knowledge. Sometimes things are as they appear to be, but not always. For understanding we’ll have to look below the surface; dig deeper, peer behind the façade, and pull back the veneer. Understanding requires that we gather information that might not have been available at first. (Most people and things are more complicated than we first imagined). We need to know some history and philosophy along with motives and structure. What are the foundations like? What’s holding this together? How does it work? Can we count on it? Is it what it appears to be on the surface? These, and perhaps a thousand other questions, will need answers if we’re to draw sound conclusions about the person or thing under consideration. We need to confirm or deny our first impressions and this can only be done as we see how all the parts fit and function together. What makes this thing tick? Until we have done this―until we can accurately answer these kinds of questions―our knowledge remains superficial and unreliable.

Wisdom takes this to a deeper level. Having assembled considerable knowledge and applied sufficient understanding, now we’ll need to make decisions and applications. In order to do this well, we’ll have to weigh a broad range of considerations. Much is riding on whether we have the actual truth about a thing or only what appears to be the truth. Most résumés look good―check the references. There are more than a few failed engineering projects as well as failed businesses and failed relationships that are the result of these kinds of miscalculations. We’ve all learned many things the hard way. It’s much better to think longer, harder and deeper in order to be as sure as possible that we’re making wise choices and decisions. Some matters are weightier than others, and therefore the cost of getting it wrong varies. Getting it right or getting it wrong both carry real consequences (personally and corporately). Wisdom calls for inference and projections; it considers the past, present and future, remembering that few things (if any) are isolated (we do live in a universe). The political world is littered with innumerable examples of “unintended consequences,” (some of them were even well-intentioned”).

Sometimes we see the surface and presume that we have understanding and wisdom. Every two-year-old thinks he knows what he needs to know, and every teenager is certain that he does. Parents are simply obstacles. We have all acted on surface knowledge alone (sometimes we have no choice). Thankfully, surface knowledge is often sufficient since we don’t always have the time to dig deeper. On the other hand, we’ve also acted foolishly by being too hasty in our judgments. We all have regrets. If we keep on acting foolishly, the Bible would describe us as a “fool.” In the Book of Proverbs the man of wisdom is set over against the fool. The wise man knows how to dig deep and how to gather understanding; he’s not in a hurry. He looks to the past, and then looks to the future, before crossing the street today.

Christin's Quote Book

• “A halo only has to fall a few inches to be a noose.” ―Anonymous
• “Never let yesterday use up too much of today.” ―Will Rogers
• “To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.” ―Mark Twain
• “I promise to keep on living as though I expected to live forever. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up wrinkles the soul.” ―Douglas MacArthur
• “Keep on truckin’.―Robert Crumb

Christin's Quote Book

• “It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is.” ―George F. Will
• “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” ―G.K. Chesterton
• “This is the first test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him.” ―William Lyon Phelps
• “People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.” ―St. Augustine
• “”Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.” ―Millicent Fenwick

Work With This

Family Budget

Annual Income:                $  24,700.00

Annual Spending:              $  37,900.00

New Credit Card Debt:       $  13,300.00

Existing Credit Card Debt:   $153,500.00

Recent Belt-tightening:     $       385.00

Federal Budget

Tax Revenue:           $  2,470,000,000.00

Federal Spending:     $  3,790,000,000.00

New Debt:               $  1,330,000,000.00

National Debt:         $153,500,000,000.00

Recent Cuts:           $       38,500,000.00

Wifey

I could say this privately, but then it seems like too much of a whisper when, in fact, trumpet fanfare is far more appropriate. When a man has something so rich, so valuable, something worth far more than rubies (especially when it’s so undeserved), he wants to show it off to the world. I confess that I have grown so accustom to this gift that I sometimes take it for granted and forget to show my deep gratitude for my amazing, faithful, diligent and loving wife. Thank you Marinell; you have filled forty of my fifty-six years with the greatest gift a man can have. Thank you Lord, for the woman that has graced my life.

Christin's Quote Book

• “The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn,” ―David Russell
• “The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong, without comment.” ―T. H. White
• “Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity, they seem more afraid of life than death.” ―James F. Byrnes
• “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry on as if nothing had happened.” ―Sir Winston Churchill
• “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” ―John R. Wooden

Closing the Deal (part 5 of 5)

God’s word requires that Christians should strive earnestly to live at peace with one another (Matt. 5:9; John 17:20-23; Rom. 12:18; Eph. 4:1-3) and that when disputes arise, we should resolve them according to the principles set forth in Scripture (Pr. 19:11; Matt.5:23-25; 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 6:1-8; Gal. 6:1). These commands and principles are obligatory on all Christians and absolutely essential for the well-being and work of the church and broader Christian community. Therefore, when we have a conflict with a fellow Christian or when we are concerned about the behavior of another person, we must attempt to resolve the matter as follows: 

1. The offended or concerned person shall prayerfully examine himself and take responsibility for his contribution to a problem (Matt. 7:3-5), and he shall prayerfully seek to discern whether the offense is so serious that it cannot be overlooked (Pr. 19:11; 12:16; 15:18; 17:14; 20:3; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:13; 1 Peter 4:8). 

2. If the offense is too serious to overlook, the offended or concerned person shall go, repeatedly if necessary, and talk to the offender in an effort to resolve the matter personally and privately, having first confessed his own wrongdoing (Matt. 18:15). 

3. If the offender will not listen and if the problem is too serious to be overlooked, the offended or concerned person shall return with one or two other people who will attempt to help the parties resolve their differences (Matt.18:16); these other people may be members or officers of the church, other respected Christians in the community.