Clever Free Methodist

As the issues surrounding the pandemic continue to swirl, we find ourselves enduring even more “mandates” to accommodate. The latest for most States, is the mandate, to wear a face covering or mask pretty much everywhere we go. Despite the motives, intent, and reasoning behind such requirements, it is safe to say that it provokes hard feelings and churns strong emotions. It is easy to get mad. It is easier to stew on it and stay mad. Complaining, slandering and talking ill of our governing authorities and pastors seems to be justified and acceptable. Well, it is not. That is exactly what the Apostle Paul taught to Titus when he assigned him to the Island of Crete. These instructions were written in a letter that we know as the New Testament book of “Titus.” This letter outlines all the instructions, rules, and regulations that Paul wanted Titus to teach and use to give direction and guidance to the Churches being established across the island of Crete. One of those instructions came in

In his letter to William Smith, dated July 9, 1795, Edmund Burke wrote, ““The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” He would later expound on his thoughts by writing, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” In this current year of chaos with pandemic health issues, racial tensions, anarchy, and the rise of anger, hate and destruction, I am not surprised. Why? As Jeremiah 17:9 declares, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?” What does surprise me is the deafening silence coming from the majority of us who are Christians, who know better, can see the difference between right and wrong, and yet have no compulsion or conviction to really be motivated enough to do something about it.  That, by definition, could be one of the meanings of a coward . By definition, a coward i

We are uniquely designed and created by God for a specific purpose and mission in this world. The last thing we need to be is “all the same” as if created and built on an assembly line. We need to be different. We need to recognize this difference as a necessity and not as a threat to our own uniqueness. 1 Corinthians 12:21-27 illustrates for us that we are individually designed to function in our own special way…the way we were designed. The passage states “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’ …now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Although we are all different, we are all created for the same purpose to glorify God and to love one another as He has loved us. We may all be different, but we are all equally created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We, being same in creation, should treat each other equally with dignity, respect and love. In today’s challenges of