Life's Inanities and Ironies

Reflections on My Last Day as Facilities Manager at Age 67 There comes a day when a man walks the grounds one final time, turns in the keys, and closes a chapter that has filled nearly twelve years of his life. Today is that day for me. After almost twelve years serving as facilities manager at the Miami County fairgrounds, I am retiring. I will miss the work. More than that, I will deeply miss being around the young people who fill those grounds with energy, laughter, and life. Their presence has been one of the quiet joys of the job, and walking away from that daily contact is harder than I expected. Yet the reason for this step is not simply the turning of a calendar page. For four years I have lived with kidney failure, spending long hours each week on dialysis while waiting for a transplant. Other health concerns have now pushed that hope further down the road. At sixty-seven, the body is speaking more loudly than the will. The Lord, in His perfect wisdom, has made it clear that t...

  Noah’s preaching duration is one of the most frequently discussed details surrounding the Flood account. Scripture does not give a single verse that states “Noah preached for exactly X years,” yet it supplies clear data that allow us to form a solid, biblically grounded picture. The Clear Biblical Statements Two key New Testament passages establish that Noah was actively proclaiming God’s message: - ** 2 Peter 2:5 ** (KJV): “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.”     The Greek word for “preacher” (*kēryx*) means a herald—someone who publicly announces an official message. Noah was not merely living a quiet righteous life; he was publicly declaring righteousness and, by implication, warning of coming judgment. - **1 Peter 3:20** adds that “the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” God’s patience was active during the ...

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.   They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.   —Luke 17:26-27 (KJV) Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, does not speak in vague generalities when He describes the condition of the world at His return. He reaches back to a specific, historical moment of judgment—the days of Noah—and declares that the spiritual climate of those days will be repeated in the days of the Son of man. This is not poetic language. This is prophetic precision from the One who cannot lie. The Holy Spirit recorded four ordinary, everyday activities that characterized that generation: they ate, they drank, they married wives, and they were given in marriage. These four elements were not in themselves sinful. Eating and drinking are necessary. Marriage is a divine institution. Yet in Noah’s d...

* Lessons from Achan and the Battle of Ai – Joshua 7 * In our ongoing series “Don’t Cross That Line,” we have already seen how God draws clear, immovable boundaries out of mercy and holiness. We watched Shimei test the line around Jerusalem and pay with his life. We saw Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire and be consumed instantly. We heard Aaron hold his peace in the face of devastating personal loss because holy fear demanded it. Now we come to one of the most sobering warnings in all of Scripture: **one man’s hidden sin can bring defeat to an entire nation.** The account of Achan in Joshua 7 is not merely ancient history. It is the living Word of God shouting across the centuries that sin is never truly private, that God’s “devoted things” are not to be touched, and that hidden compromise in the camp will eventually bring public defeat—until the line is honored and the sin is removed. The Backstory: A Great Victory and a Clear Command The children of Israel had just experienced one o...