7 Questions Preachers Should Ask

1. Am I worried about what people think of my message or what God thinks? (Teach with fear.) 2. Do I genuinely love these people? (Teach with love.) 3. Am I accurately presenting this passage? (Teach with accuracy.) 4. Am I depending on the Holy Spirit's power or my own cleverness? (Teach with power.) 5. Have I applied this message to my own life? (Teach with integrity.) 6. Will this message draw attention to me or to God? (Teach with humility.) 7. Do the people really need this message? (Teach with urgency.)

If You Want Less Crime

"Every crime is born of necessity.  If you want less crime, you must change the conditions.  Poverty makes 
crime.  Want, rags, crusts, misfortune - all these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes 
contrary to law, and becomes a criminal.  And what do you do with him?  You punish him.  Why not punish a man 
for having consumption?  The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical.  What do you do with 
the criminal?  You send him to the penitentiary.  Is he made better?  Worse.  The first thing you do is to try to 
trample out his manhood, by putting an indignity upon him.  You mark him.  You put him in stripes.  At night you 
put him in darkness.  His feeling for revenge grows.  You make a wild beast of him, and he comes out of that 
place branded in body and soul, and then you won't let him reform if he wants to."

Robert G. Ingersoll      (1833-1899) American lawyer

Robert G. Ingersoll speaks with arrogant pomposity.  He has much criticism to offer.  
Yet he offers no solutions.  RD

A Nation Without Borders?

A Nation without Borders?  A nation without borders is not a nation.  A nation without borders is a nation without government.  A nation without borders is a dream without substance.  A nation without borders is an attempt at paradise without a "ticket to paradise."  A nation without borders is an imaginary place created in the minds of some young people (and some who think they are young) who are "kicking back" in the small living room of a one bedroom apartment so thick with marijuana fumes it is difficult to see the person who is sitting across from you.  A nation without borders is a place where people want the benefits of a legitimate nation .................but they do not want the responsibilities.  No days like that.  RD