Newkirk Church of Christ

Scott’s Thoughts

April 20, 2025

 

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:14–15, ESV)

I can remember when it cost a lot of money to buy an eight-track tape player. At the time it was designed to be semi-portable and came with a bracket for mounting in the car. However, it had an optional cabinet that would allow you to take it in the house and listen to the tapes in the house. It was great and outlasted most of my tapes because eight-track tapes had a design flaw that was not noticeable at first. As the tape traveled through the cassette, the tape rubbed against itself so after some time the tape would break and become useless.

The next great invention with tapes was the cassette tape. It played one side then the tape could be removed and flipped over to play the other side. These tapes were smaller but were still subject to wear and tear which led to their evidential failure. In both of these tape players, the players outlasted the tapes and were eventually replaced by something else. Then the CDs became a big thing. Yes, I bought that also. My first one would only handle one disk at a time. But I have one in storage that could load up to six CD’s at once and easily shift between them. These players were soon replaced by DVDs and Blue Ray players because they had greater storage capacity. Today, we have satellite radio that will connect to any kind of music tailored to our specific preference. If we don’t want to pay the fee for the satellite company, our car radio most likely has the ability to connect to our phone to play the music we have downloaded from the internet.

As far as music goes, many people can’t detect the subtle difference in notes while the ear that has been trained can spot the errors instantly. So, each new device has been made to improve our ease and comfort for listening to something that relaxes us and is soothing to our ears. I’m sure that in the future there will be additional changes in such devices. They will become smaller, more reliable, and have greater capacity. We will always want the device that will reproduce the clearest sound with the most accurate reproduction of the original.

However, sometimes we want to be challenged in our thinking and listen to a speaker rather than music. What I really want to notice today is that the value of any of these devices is that the message delivered to us is of much more importance than the device used to deliver it. We want the music or message delivered without corruption. God’s word is meant to be delivered to the world without corruption. It is God’s message, not the speaker that is important!

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17, ESV)

Thanks for listening and keep on shining.

—Scott

2020 Mission Trip to Kramatorsk, Ukraine

Day 1 & 2 | 10/12/20 | 10/13/20 | 10/14/20 10/16/20 | 10/17/20 | 10/18/20 | 10/18/20 10/19/20 | 10/20/20| 10/21/20 | 10/23/20  | 10/25/20 | Summary Report

 

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Tact

Tact is one of the lost arts of the twenty-first century. Someone has defined tact as the art of removing the stinger from the bee without getting stung. Harry Truman, put it this way, “Tact is the ability to step on a man’s toes without messing up the shine on his shoes.” At least that would be very tactful.

The dictionary defines tact as “the ability to manage others with consideration for their feelings; and sympathetic understanding.” Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16).

In a classic “Peanuts” comic, Charlie Brown is warned that all the girls are angry with him. The girls confront him with many complaints and then ask, “What have you got to say for yourself?” Rather than arguing, Charlie says, “Nothing. You girls are absolutely right, and I’m glad to hear you feel this way.” After they leave he turns to look at the reader and says, “My soft answer hath turned away a whole flock of wrath.”

Many of the little things that disturb the peace of homes, the church, and nations are due to the lack of tact on the part of somebody. The Bible says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov. 15:1).

May we be more tactful each day in our dealings with others.

—Mark T. Tonkery
Norval Park Church of Christ
Zanesville, OH