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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
Art Linkletter used to have a program on TV called "People Are Funny." If you watch people long enough you will agree. Just this past evening I saw something that I never thought I would see on a game show. My wife and I had just finished supper and we sat down to watch "Wheel of Fortune."
One of the puzzles was particularly difficult for the contestants and they bought every vowel they could. Which meant that the last consonent completely solved the puzzle to the point where all that had to be done to win was read. The woman who inserted the last consonent was looking at a puzzle that read "OVERHAND AND SHEEPSHANK ARE TYPES." She read it as "OVERHAND AND SHEEPS HANK ARE TYPES." I don't know, maybe she thought it was about a handkerchief for a ewe.
Thousands of dollars on the line and she couldn't read the solution. "Overhand" and "sheepshank" are knotts, as any self-respecting former Assistant Cubmaster would know. But, it's pronounced "SHEEP SHANK." Makes you wonder if she would pronounce "machine," "MAC HINE," thinking it to be a Scottish Lord. Now here's the real clincher with the puzzle. The guy who was next stumbled on the words and barely got them right himself.
People are funny. The solution to the problem is right before their eyes and they can't read it because they have neglected a certain part of their education. Like people who come across Mahershalalhashbaz or Ashurbanipal or Chedorlaomer for the very first time. That's when you realize that they may not have been educated in the one area that's tested every day; their understanding of the Word of God.
Concerning the Word of God, the apostle Paul wrote to a young preacher named Timothy, "Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15 The only way God can open His class is when we open the Word. Is your class time about ready to begin?
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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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