Beech Tree News Network

Most TV commercials play on our fears, our looks-maybe a combination of both. Some of course do not make any sense at all: Derma Wand will take years off your appearance. ‘Course it fails to mention too much of the product could make your disappear altogether. 

Walk-in tubs surely must wash your clothes and body at the same time. Nobody on TV ever gets in the naked. 

In his 1935 book, It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis’ character, Doremus Jessup tells a group debating the virtues of one social group over another—Communists, Fascists, Constitutionalists, Monarchists—there is one solution to social ills and one solution alone.  It is “the perfect, the inevitable, the only Solution, and that is: There is no Solution!  There will never be a state of society anything like perfect!” (pgs. 111 and 112).

In the last few weeks, we have studied about people’s wrong attitudes. The Bible shows us some folks who had wrong attitudes, and as a result, sinned. The wrong attitudes we have studied thus far are pride, covetousness, and self-sufficiency. This article will conclude our study as we look at one more wrong attitude. The attitude we will study is apathy. What does God say about apathy? What does God expect of us?

SHUCKING IT

“The First Cut Is The Deepest” is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P.P. Arnold in May 1967.  Rod Stewart covered the song in 1977, Sheryl Crow in 2003. I had no idea of the Arnold version until I heard it one day on the Michael Des Barre program(Sirius XM channel 21, 7-10 am, replay 11 pm-2 am).  This got me wondering about some other famous multiple covers.

Have you ever had a bad day? Sometimes when a couple of things go wrong, we decide that we’re having a bad day. We may even beat ourselves up for whatever went wrong. Although having a bad day is common, people cope with those times differently.

In “The Science Behind ‘Having a Bad Day’ (and How to Solve It),” Steve Schwartz said:

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in an important case regarding religious freedom and whether the government can treat religious institutions as second class. The case at hand involves a Missouri church that applied for a grant to receive recycled scrap tire material for its playground. The state rejected the application on the grounds that it was a religious institution and shouldn't be eligible for any public funds. But shouldn't the state treat all organizations equally when it comes to programs that serve the public good?

Please indulge me. I like TV reruns; I also like old joker-the clean ones are the funniest. If you’ve heard them before, I hope you’ll like them again; I prefer to call them stories. 

The president and CEO of the dog food company called a meeting of his company salesmen for a pep talk. Things were not going well. 

CEO: “Who has the best sales force?” 

Reply: “We have: We have!”

CEO: “Who has the most attractive TV commercials?” 

Rep: “We have! We have!” 

CEO: “Who has the best looking packaging?” 

Rep: “We have! We have!” 

Over the course of two days, my granddaughter, Sabria, and I made two of the biggest messes that have ever been made in this house. Hers involved Easter egg dye.  Mine involved liquid makeup.  Mine was by far the worst.  Let me explain.

We studied last week that people’s wrong attitudes result in wrong actions. We saw that God’s people contend with the temptation to have these wrong attitudes. In fact, the Bible shows us some folks who had wrong attitudes, and as a result, sinned. Let us study some more wrong attitudes and learn what God expects of us.