A Principled Man

A man without principle never draws much interest.

Jas_3:13  Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
1Pe_1:15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 
12  Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 

Life

Life is fragile, handle with prayer.

THE DASH — THE SUM OF EARTHLY LIFE

ABApologetics.org

By: W.A. Dillard

An immigrant, not privileged to formal education signed her name Le—a. After three wrong guesses the immigration officer asked her to pronounce her name. She replied in haltering English, “Tha dash not silent. It be LeDASHa!”
Perhaps this story brings a chuckle to those who hear it, but there is a great truth to be gleaned from it. The dash really is not silent! How many times have you casually strolled through a cemetery? As you read the tombstones, you always saw two dates. The first one was the date of birth of the individual interred there. The second date was the date of death. In between those two dates is a dash. That dash represents all the years that particular individual lived on earth and interacted with others. What about all those years? What happened in the dash? Was that person loved and loving? Did he or she trust in Christ Jesus as their personal Savior? Did they serve Him with the force of their life? Were they a blessing to others, ready for that last date to arrive?
The inscriptions on the stone may identify the entombed person as a unique individual, separated from all others, but it is the dash that contains the multifaceted story of a life that was known among us. That dash represents joy, love, responsibility, opportunity, and all other things sandwiched between two important dates: the beginning and the end. What are we writing into the “dash” of our own unique dates? Wisdom bids us to hasten to do the things that are good, the things that we would. For as surely as you have a birthday, you also have a death-day. But these are not the things people will remember you for, and they are not the things that are important in heaven’s record. It is the dash, friends. The dash is not silent, it is the sum of earthly life!

HEAVEN

to believe in heaven

Is not to run away from life

it is to run toward it.

CHRISTIAN LIFE

The Christian life is like riding a bicycle,

you are either moving forward,

or you are falling off.

CHRISTIANITY

The best argument for

The best argument for 

Christianity and the

the best argument against

Christianity is the life of

a Christian. Not only are

we to be His witnesses;

we ought to be part of

the evidence.

LISTS

On our list of activities in life:

There are some things we need

to eliminate,

some things we need to delegate,

and the rest we need

to dedicate.

Adrian Rogers

GOD’S SHARECROPPER

William Andrew Dillard
Parson to Person

In 1939, (my birth year) Hollywood produced a box office bonanza with the all-time classic movie, GONE WITH THE WIND. It depicted a labor intensive way of life. Of course, in 1939 the nation was only about seventy years away from the Civil War, so, those times were still on the mind of older citizens (much like WWII remains on older minds today). In addition to those times, there are also many things and ways that have fallen to the chapters of history, especially with the vaunted progress of the 20th Century. I write briefly about one of those ways of life: that of the now largely extinct share-cropper.
Well over a half century ago, my pastoral ministry was initiated in the cotton and bean fields of northeast Arkansas. Most folk in the area were known as sharecroppers. Like the aforementioned movie, this, too, is a way of life largely gone with the wind.
Sharecroppers lived in someone else’s house on someone else’s land. In varying agreements, they worked the land for the land owner, and shared a percentage of the crops produced. It was not much of a way to get ahead in life, but it was a way to sustain life. Most of the houses provided were substandard, and largely without indoor plumbing. My wife and I spent one memorable winter night with a family in that environment. To stay warm, we slept under so many quilts that it was virtually impossible to turn over. However, though poor, the people were sweet, kind, and loving. They loved the Lord, and they loved my young wife and me. It was such a joy to be considered their pastor, although a neophyte in every sense of the word.
Years have come and gone, and I am, as they were: a sharecropper. But, the sharecropping presently experienced is being accomplished in an agreement with God, the true land owner. Paul taught in I Cor. 3:9, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” We plant and water, but He gives the increase. It is He who has given to us this laboring ministry of reconciliation, and He teaches us all in Psalm 126:6, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Formerly, due to weather or pestilence, crops might fail, leaving the farming sharecropper in dire straits financially. But one may be sure that sharecropping with God brings a guaranteed successful harvest to the rejoicing of everyone involved. Since all are tenants and not owners, they are sharecropping for someone. But soon the window of time for sharecropping on this terrestrial ball will also pass away. It is but for a season. Consequently, it is so very important to choose wisely with whom you partner in the sharecropping venture of life.

Life

Tis one life; will soon be past.

Only what’s done for

Christ

will last.

Adrian Rogers

HEAVEN’S OFFER: A LIFE OF ADVANTAGE!

William Andrew Dillard

Enduring and mighty lessons spring from what many may see as strange and perplexing events in the Old Testament. Such is the case of the patriarch Jacob wrestling all night with an angel as recorded in Genesis 32.
In context, Jacob was returning from Padam-aram (modern Iraq) with his wives, children, livestock, and substance to his parental homeland. He was under a death threat from his brother, Esau who sold Jacob his birthright, but was extremely angered when Jacob engaged in trickery to actually obtain it. News had come to Jacob that Esau was coming with hundreds of armed men, so he assumed the worst and implemented a cunning plan of appeasement to preserve life and achieve peace. 
Moreover, in the long night before meeting his brother, Jacob is said to have wrestled with an angel until the dawning of day. Refusing to release hold on the angel until he should be blessed, Jacob was given his blessing, and with it a change of name to “Israel.”
“Israel” is a composite of two words: “Sara(h)” “prince(ss), royalty, possessor of power” and “El” “God”; hence, one who has power with God and prevails. This new word became the name of the patriarch from that day forward. Moreover, that name was transferred to the aggregate of his offspring, the Hebrew people who were the Old Testament people of covenant with God, and through Whose power they prevailed often against impossible odds. They had a real advantage (inside track) with God, But it was not after the flesh, but of God’s choosing.
Today, the homeland of the Jewish people is referred to as Israel, but what made that name significant, the presence and power of God, was withdrawn upon their final rejection of their Messiah Who said of them, ”Behold, your house is left unto you desolate…” Luke 13:35.
Jesus had come not only to pay the sin penalty for mankind, which men could not pay, but to bring His covenant people out from under the dispensation of law into the marvelous New Covenant of Grace. A remnant did so follow the Lord, and He also graciously incorporated the nations of all who would believe and follow Him. Hence, the beloved apostle Paul tells us that the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is “the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16. So long as the grace of God is extended in this dispensation of time called “today,” men have the blessed privilege of being a part of that Israel, “One who has power with God and prevails, even His people of the New Covenant.” Do you have an obedient and talking relationship with God? It really is an advantage of blessings both in time and in eternity!