Scripture

By slouthfulness the roof of a house goeth to decay, and by the idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

~Ecclesiastes 10:18, Geneva Bible

Quote

Spiritual sloth is a hard-bitten, joyless apathy of spirit and there is a lot of it around today in Christian circles.

~J.I. Packer

I bet you are like me, you thought sloth was laziness, or being larthargic or extremely slow. Of course these are characteristics of slothfullness but sloth, one of the seven deadly sins, goes much deeper. It is not necessarily inactivity or laziness, it is a lack of enthusiasm, a deadness of spirit. It is the Joe Milner syndrome: “Let’s get it over with.” We have to go to church, lets get it over with. We have to visit the sick or absentees: let’s get it over with. Joe sang in the choir at the little church I tried to pastor in Mississippi; one night before choir practice could get started, several people got to chit-chatting and Joe said gruffly, “Let’s get started and get it over with.” Wow, what enthusiasm! That kind of enthusiasm will really bless you.

Sloth is much more than laziness or slowness; it is lethargy, indifference, apathy and cynicism all rolled into one. Although I just may be guilty of being slothful, the truth is–I don’t want anything to do with it and I don’t want it to have anything to do with me. I want no part of sloth. I passed by a church parking lot as I was on my way to another church to preach and there was a big pickup with a huge bass boat in tow and he had parked where he could get out ASAP. We don’t have to wonder what was on his mind: it wasn’t celebrating Jesus. No, he just wanted the service to be over with so he could get to the river. I heard a preacher say once, ninety percent of Baptist come to church so they can go home. My question is: why come at all? If celebrating Jesus is that big of bore, why not stay home and watch the helivision.

Extra

A bit of a let up in the heat: the rain early yesterday morning helped. Jeremy, Buddy and I worked an hour and a half on the tractor shed and we were soaked to the bone. I got in the shower and turned it to cold, as cold as it gets in this heat, which is barely below lukewarm.

Remember to pray for a CW’s; Christy has an MRI scheduled for tomorrow. I didn’t check on Lincoln yesterday but I assume he is better. Remember Charity as well. She did get to do a family trip last week and it went well. Keep them on your heart and pray constantly for them.

Forty-niner lunch today at 11:30. Fried chicken and all the trimmings. I know we will have mashed potatoes and gravy and no telling what else. Our ladies have out done themselves that last three or four meetings. Don Widner misunderstood something I said and came to me worried that I had canceled the 49er luncheon. I assured him that I had not and had no plans to cancel it in the future. We meet on the 4th Friday of every month except November and December. We combine those to months and meet on the first Friday in December. Santa is coming to this years December party. You sure don’t want to miss it.

Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.