| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Christian community” Our Bible verse for today: “Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam of wood in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye.” Luke 6:41-42 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Don’t be a “Log-eye”” Many years ago, when I was a pastor in Southern California, I knew a guy who was essentially the “Weird Al Yankovic” of Christian music. If you are familiar with the entertainment of Weird Al, then you know that he’s a musical comedian whose specialty is parody songs. That’s what my friend Larry Bubb did too. He used Christians themes to write and perform parody songs that were funny and which taught a Biblical lesson. And like Weird Al, Larry’s songs were written to the tune of a popular secular song of the time that everyone would immediately recognize. Larry recorded multiple albums and he was very popular with church youth groups. He was often featured at youth events. One of his songs was based on Jesus’ parable in Luke 6:41-42 about the self-righteous religious person who was an expert at finding fault in other people, but who was blind to his own faults and failures. The man featured in Larry’s song was known as “Log-eye”. He had a big log in his own eye, but he was always focused on the speck he was sure he could see in someone else’s eye. The problem was that the log in his own eye was so pronounced and so big, that it prevented him from getting close enough to anyone to see if there really was a speck in the other person’s eye or not. It was clear that if old “Log-eye” would get the log out of his own eye first, he might be able to get close enough to other people to see that the speck he was so concerned about in their eye wasn’t really such a big deal after all. A ”Log-eye” person in a church can cause a lot of problems. As they complain and criticize and point out the faults and failures of other people, they create conflict and arguments and fights. Sometimes it can go so far as to cause people to leave the church, or in some extreme cases, to split a church. The truth is that most things simply are not important enough to even warrant comment, much less conflict. The right answer most of the time is to just shrug it off and keep your mouth shut. Most things simply don’t matter that much. Beyond that, I think your ability to shrug things off and to keep your mouth shut is a measure of your spiritual maturity. Mature Christians should be thick-skinned, gracious, and very patient with others. Let me ask you this morning, are you a “Log-eye” character? Do you focus more on the faults and failures of other people than you do on your own? Are you too quick to find fault and to criticize? Please, don’t be that person. Don’t be a “Log-eye”. You will be happier and so will everyone else, if you just shrug it off and let it go. God bless, Pastor Jim (Please join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are near-by or, if you are geographically distant or a shut-in, then join us online at http://www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville) |
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