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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
In which room of your house do you spend the most time? Now, in which room of your house do you spend the most time actively doing something? The room in which most people spend the most time is the bedroom. However, time spent there is just that; it is time not activity. Bedrooms are for sleeping. Unless you're a restless sleeper chances are you do very little other than dress in your bedroom. However, here is where the differences lie. The room you're most active in is dependent upon your gender and role in your family.
If you are the wife, you probably spend the bulk of your active time in either the bathroom or the kitchen. If you are the husband, your activity centers are also the bathroom but add the garage. Probably right about now you're thinking what about the living room or family room where we watch TV. Unless it's interactive TV all you do is sit and watch. In fact one pundit I read years ago said that approximately 72% of all people who watch TV in the evening fall asleep at some time.
Ah, but now you've got me. You have a computer in your family/living/kitchen/den/bedroom. Using a computer is an activity. But how active are you if you are sitting down? No, activity involves the entire body; legs, arms, hands, feet and torso. Getting dressed for work and preparing meals and piddling around in a garage are activities which burn calories that you can't replace with a piece of bread. Your body is totally involved and you are accomplishing a goal which requires movement.
Now then, let's put you in the church building. You remember the church building; the building where the body of Christ assembles. As a minister, I have contact with other ministers. It is a consensus that those who are active in the church building are also active outside the church building. So what do you do in the church building? That is, other than stand up and sing or sit down and listen. That's the problem with what you do in the church building. It's all called serving. Who really wants to serve?
Jesus, following a dispute among the apostles as to who should sit in the place of honor with Jesus in glory, said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:25-28 Now, about your activity as a Christian...
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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