A while back I gave you a heads up about the scrolls. Now, I can speak from experience. Tonight, Cheryl and I were among guests invited by Commerce Bank to attend a private viewing of this exhibit at Union Station. Many thanks to the folks of Commerce Bank for their hospitality!

Here’s the scoop. Tickets are issued for intervals of every 15 minutes, but you can stay as long as you wish once you are in. Everyone is given an audio wand that provides a good commentary as you make your way through the exhibit. The event begins with a video overview. Even if you know nothing of the Dead Sea Scrolls, you will get enough information for you to appreciate the exhibit and its significance. Everything is well done. From the time we entered until we exited the exhibit into the gift shop took about an hour and a half. You can get information about the exhibit and tickets here. Tickets are limited.

I didn’t “learn” anything that I didn’t know about the scrolls, but I was thrilled to be looking at handwriting on scroll fragments written before Jesus was born. Few archaeological discoveries in history have done more to confirm the authenticity and accuracy of our Bible than the Dead Sea Scrolls. I’m glad we went, and I plan to go again with our pastoral team before the exhibit ends in May.

This afternoon I stopped by one of the fine establishments on my coveted Java List. Outside, a large dumpster sat on the pavement and workers scurried around. The owner of the coffee shop was lamenting that a payday loan shop was going in next door. And, he said, there was already another one in the same strip center.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the proliferation of these storefronts where, typically, you can write a post-dated check for your next payday while they float you a little loan to get you by. You write them a $115 check to get $100 now, or some such thing. These places are controversial, claiming to offer services for small clients that banks fail to provide. Critics point out that they prey on the elderly, desperate, young or ignorant who don’t understand compound interest. They often pay up to 400% interest while digging an even deeper hole than the one they are in already. The Federal Trade Association has a nice little summary. (Take the Dave Ramsey class next time, people!)

The fact there are so many of these places means the demand is great, and that means many people are living from pay check to pay check. Usually, the issue is not the amount one makes, but rather irresponsibility in how that amount is spent. Rather than adjust lifestyle to match income, people often have no spending discipline and never have enough no matter how much money they earn. They are always on the edge of disaster.

All this reminds me of a famous sermon preached many years ago by a famous preacher, R. G. Lee, who was pastor of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis from 1927-1960. The sermon was called Payday Someday. I am afraid far too many of us live spiritually like some do financially. Instead of drawing close to God, we push our lives to max, tiptoeing along the razor-thin edge of sin and hoping not to fall in. We draw down upon God’s amazing grace and mercy, thinking if we can just make it to payday things might work out. Just like the Payday Loan places, though, when something unexpected happens, we suddenly discover the compounding effect of sin when payday rolls around.

I heard that comment the other day as we continue to suffer through our frigid cold spell that now extends through more than 30 days and several inches of snow. I don’t know the political views of the person who made that statement, but I do know that the global warming issue continues to be a “hot” one (pun intended). On one side are those who claim that science proves that the earth is heating up, the polar ice caps are melting and that life as we know it is threatened. The fault, they say, lies with fossil fuels, aerosol sprays and other human pollutants. All of this is said with such passion that it’s hard to distinguish science from political agendas.

The other side claims that there is no real “science” to back up the claims of global warming. They point out that the earth has gone through countless cycles of heating and warming and that there is no real evidence that what we are experiencing now is any more serious than what has always existed. They try to show that their scientists are smarter than the other side’s scientists. This side is also presented with such passion that it’s hard to distinguish science from political agendas.

So, what’s a student of Jesus to think? Whose side should we be on?

I remember that people kept trying to get Jesus to choose sides. Like the time they tried to corner him on paying taxes to Rome or not. You know what he did, don’t you? He held up a coin, asked whose inscription was on it and said, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

Rather than argue with one side or the other, I would love to hold up the earth and ask whose image is on it. Render therefore unto God the things which are God’s. Rather than take sides with liberals or conservatives, what would be wrong with taking whatever steps we can to treat the planet responsibly simply because it belongs to God (Psalm 24:1) and simply because that would be the right thing to do? We used to call that good stewardship. Why throw the coke can in the trash rather than out the car window? Simply because it’s the right thing to do. No agenda, except God’s.