September 7, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

This is probably going to take a little imagination; maybe a lot of imagination. Let's say you go to buy a new car and you're going to pay in cash. So, let's make up a number - $30,000 in cash. Now, the dealer stamps the invoice Paid In Full. He says it will be here in two weeks. You show up all excited about getting your new car and you say, "Here I am. Remember me?" He says, "Oh yeah! Sure!" And he gives you this gift-wrapped box, shakes your hand and walks away. You go, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" He says, "No, open the box, I think you're going to like it." So you open it up and here's a new steering wheel, a new carburetor, and a new hub cap. You go, "Hey, wait, Buddy! These are just spare parts! I paid the full price! I should get the full product."

September 6, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

As a kid, I often rode my bike up to the old theater on 79th Street for the Saturday afternoon flick. But this day was different. They handed me this strange-looking pair of glasses made of cardboard with tinted plastic lenses. Those goofy-looking glasses opened up a whole new world where the events in a movie no longer just stayed flat on the screen. They leaped off the screen and right into my face. Hello, 3-D!

September 5, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

We met this couple at a conference we were attending. They were telling us about how just the day before, a storm had blown in across the lake while they were down at the beach.

September 4, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Now, the problem with professional football games is they keep slowing down for huddles and time outs; especially those commercials. I'll tell you when they don't slow down. It's near the end of the game where your team is behind, and with two minutes left, a team often skips the huddle, all the delays, and they just go right from one play to the next. They forget the game plan; there's two minutes left. They go for broke!

September 1, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

He was five years old, and his mommy wasn't feeling well. So she was taking a nap. His little two-year-old sister wanted an ice cream cone, so he did what Mommy would do. Yeah. He picked up the car keys Mommy had left on the kitchen table, took his little sister out to the car, put her in the back seat, turned on the car and somehow started driving (this is a true story). Then Mr. Five-Year-Old pulled out into the main thoroughfare at the corner. Thankfully, a police officer saw the car going by apparently without a driver from what he could see. That got his attention! He pursued the mystery car and managed to get the driver to pull over. Needless to say, there was one shocked policeman when he opened the door and saw a little boy at the wheel. I'd say it's a pretty good thing he stopped him.

August 31, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Now if you've ever been a football widow, you understand how long those games seem to take. "I want my husband back. When is this thing going to be over?" Of course the commercials help it feel a lot longer, but you might ask yourself, "Well, what about all those huddles? I mean what a waste of time! Do they have to do that? There's a game to win. These guys are stopping after every play to get their heads together." Well, of course, it's not a waste of time at all. If they try to play without that regular huddle, they're going to all go off in all kinds of directions, all kinds of confusion. Oh, by the way, and so will we.

August 30, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I've lived in the city; I've lived in the country. And when I live in the country... there are a lot more farm animals, so I learn a lot. I've actually learned a lot about donkeys. It's kind of fun to hear their braying. I mean there's no other animal that sounds quite like a donkey. Now, the ones that I knew best, the gray one and the brown one, but they both have the same marking on their back. It's one long dark line along their spine and then there's a shorter dark line across their shoulders. It actually makes a cross. One old farmer told my wife that all donkeys have that cross, and that they have it because a donkey carried Jesus to His birth and on Palm Sunday. I don't know the reason, but there's no doubt that many donkeys carry the cross on their backs.

August 29, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I'll bet you remember these familiar words, "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." Sure you do. Well, I hope you do, or else you had a deprived childhood. Because most of us grew up on those words. It's that little book, The Little Engine That Could. I think Fred Flintstone must have read it to his kids. I mean it's that old. Remember, the little engine tries to make it up to the top of the mountain, with this train load of toys. It's a mountain no other train was able to navigate. And as he gets near the top, he says, "I think I can. I think I can (puff, puff, chug, chug)." Oh, I've read it so many times to my kids and my grandkids. Well, as you remember, of course, he makes it to the top of the mountain. It's a great book. It's got a great philosophy of life. It's a great confidence builder. But maybe right now you've hit a mountain that you really can't climb. Maybe you need to read that book again - or I've got an idea. How about a much better book.

August 28, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Raising children! You know, it's not easy to know what's best for those little lives that God entrusts to us is it? A lot of times we don't know until years later if we did too much or not enough, or just the right amount. We have choices to make about discipline, medical treatment, and education. We've got to decide where the boundaries are going to be; what happens if they go out-of-bounds. Some choices actually make the difference between life and death.

August 25, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Hey, I really like Florida. It's a great place, but I'll probably never live there. I enjoy going there, but my problem is I'm a four-seasons freak. I grew up with the four seasons. I enjoy the changes of season. I think I would miss that a lot. Of course, I grew up in the north and I probably got used to it.

August 24, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

The real Noah stirred things up when he was here. Guess what? He did it again a few years ago. Yeah, on the big screen they did a Noah movie Noah and his ark. Yeah, the movie version; it had a big launch when it came out. And actually Captain Noah proved that he still has the ability to be controversial. Except this time, it was mostly among Bible people.

August 23, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

The Kentucky Derby always has its share of drama. I remember the 2006 Kentucky Derby. That was a blowout! A horse named Barbaro took the lead in America's most famous race and left every other horse in the dust. Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby by an astounding 6 & 1/2 lengths! Many thought that horse could go on to be one of the few who has ever won the Triple Crown. Well, sadly, an injury ended that dream. But it didn't take away the glory of Barbaro's dramatic Kentucky Derby victory.

August 22, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

My wife and I had just visited her father and we were driving on this busy Interstate that's right near a large city. Suddenly everyone was coming to a complete stop, and we immediately thought, "Oh, there's got to be an accident, or maybe construction."

August 21, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Gross and net. Yeah, that's the words that you can use to describe what you really can use from your paycheck. Gross, of course, is the total amount you get in the paycheck. Then, of course, that's not what you can use, because net is the amount that's left after taxes, right? That's what you've still got in the net. You've never even seen the government's share... and that's what's gross. Well, they call what goes to the government withholding tax. Now, it's not just the government that's in the withholding business. No, you and I are too, and it's gross.

August 18, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

It was one of those scenes in the news that's hard to forget. It was the image of a Korean ferry just rolling into the sea with all the passengers disappearing with it beneath the waves. It was heartbreaking to look at all those loved ones on the dock grieving inconsolably over children who would never come home again. What was outrageous was that the captain was one of the first to abandon ship. They charged him with negligence of duty and abandoning people in need. Sadly, there are a lot of captains that can be charged with crimes like that.

August 17, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Now, I haven't seen my son angry very often, but I remember one time. And I think it's safe to say that he was "fit to be tied." See, he had this elaborate race car set that his grandparents had given him, and it was all set up in the basement. Then the cars raced with each other and they did these loops, and went around these curves. He loved that! I mean, he loved this thing. And there were dump trucks that could be loaded and unloaded with gravel, and he had all kinds of lights and sounds, and bells and whistles.

August 16, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Words fail at a time like this. I mean even words like "apocalyptic"... "war zone"... "total devastation."

August 15, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

One sure way to finally be successful is to write a book about success. It doesn't have to be a book about your success. You can just study what made major corporations or some other leaders successful, and you can write about their success. It probably would be a bestseller.

August 14, 2023

In the days we live in, we are surrounded by angry people who are one provocation away from an explosion. It's apparent at times, by how they're enraged about seemingly small things. You know they already had to have a very full glass for it to take just a single drop to make them spill all over everybody. Our easily-triggered and quickly-provoked anger should scare us. Because rage crushes reason and makes us blind to the expensive consequences of our eruption.

August 11, 2023

Download MP3 (right click to save)

In ongoing attempts to establish more regular exercise in our lives, my wife and I had moved into this walking kick. And, you know, that was a good idea. Actually, my wife took the research approach, including reading books on walking, which I wasn't sure was necessary since I've been walking since I was about a year old. One of those books was by a man who literally walked across America. I was hoping that was not one of my wife's goals for our exercise program. I was intrigued, though, by an observation made by this super-walker. When someone asked him what the greatest obstacle was in his long hike across the country, (You want to guess?) he gave a pretty surprising answer. He said, "The little pebbles I got in my shoes."