Learning From the Energizer Bunny!

I know you’ve seen him – the cute, sandal’s-clad, sun-glasses-wearing bunny who beats a bass-drum and marches along, pausing only long enough to heighten the impact of the tag-line of the Energizer Battery Company’s advertisement – "Still going." But that line has been amended from the original tag-line. According to an article at aaaa.org (website of the American Association of Advertising Agencies), "still going" has been the tag- line for Energizer Batteries since 2016 when Camp+King took over Energizer’s business. Before that, for more than 25 years (1989 till 2016), the tag-line was "Going, and going, and going." A decade after his original launch in 1989, in 1999, Ad Age named the Energizer Bunny one of the top brand icons of the 20^th century and described him as "the ultimate symbol of longevity, perseverance, and determination."



I like the Energizer Bunny. I like him because every time I see that ad’ I am reminded of a vital lesson every Christian must learn. To ultimately be with God in eternity we must make up our minds to keep "going and going and going." Why? First, our Savior who kept going and going and going. Hebrews 12:2 describes Jesus as the "author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God." Hear me now – the "ultimate symbol of longevity, perseverance, and determination" is not the Energizer Bunny, as enduring as he is. No, sir; no, ma’am; no way! That designation was staked and claimed two thousand years ago when Jesus kept going and going and going until He went to the cross and finished what God had sent Him to do (John 17:4; 19:16ff). But even then He wasn’t through going. The Gospel reports that God raised Him from the dead and that, to use the words of Hebrews 12:2 quoted above, He "sat down at the right hand of God." Two thousand years later, the Son of God is still going and going and going in the hearts and lives of genuine Christians who go about preaching and reaching out with the Gospel and doing good to the glory of God! The second reason we need to keep going and going and going is because the devil is on the loose and on the go. He is described in 1 Peter 5:8 as "our adversary the devil [who] walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." After 45 years of intense Bible study I have discovered only one thing about the devil worthy of being imitated by Christ’s followers – he keeps going and going and going. He is relentless in pursuit of his purpose, diabolical as it is. He is committed to hinder us from getting to heaven (1 Thessalonians 2:18). He will use temptation, lust, deceit, falsehood, foes, friends, family, brothers and sisters in Christ – literally anything or anybody he can to drain your spiritual energy and stamina and cause you to quit Christ and His church. He will blind your mind and hide the gospel from your heart if you let him (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). But don’t let Him. In the words of 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16, "faint not" – is, don’t lose heart. One church’s slogan was stated in these words: "Wake up, sing up, preach up, pray up and pay up – but never give up or let up or back up or shut up until the cause of Christ in this church and in this world is built up." When it comes to doing God’s will, let us learn from and be like the Energizer Bunny – keep going, and going, and going ...

       by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Why It’s Called The Golden Rule!

       Kermit the frog is famous not only for talking but for some of the things he said. For instance, "If life were easy, it wouldn’t be difficult." My favorite is the twist he put on the old adage, "Time flies when you’re having fun." Kermit twisted that to say, "Time’s fun when you’re having flies." Now consider a more serious kind of saying and a dangerous kind of twist. One of Jesus’ most famous sayings, long known as "The Golden Rule," is found in Matthew 7:12 – "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." The word "golden" is sometimes used to mean "superb, of the highest degree of excellence." The Golden Rule is still golden! It has a most excellent influence on human relationships. More on that in a moment. Sadly, men and women twist the Golden Rule. The oldest and most cynical twist on the Lord’s words says, "Do unto others before they do unto you." In one online article I read where a man stated explicitly that the Golden Rule does not work in love relationships (or other relationships, either). Instead of the Golden Rule, he suggested lovers use what he called "The Platinum Rule" which, he said, states that we should do unto others as they would like to be done unto. Somebody else put this twist on the Golden Rule – "Whoever has the gold rules."

Now back to why the Golden Rule is so-called. Simply stated it embodies the highest principle of ethical conduct and behavior ever uttered. When honored, it eliminates the pathologies that plague our nation – hatred, prejudice, enmity, crime and greed. It promotes love, peace, patience, kindness, and the practice of common courtesies and manners. It fosters a forgiving attitude. It simply has a superb effect on human relationships when truly and widely practiced. The Golden Rule is almost universally praised. But like so many of the Lord’s words, men and women have shown much more willingness to praise the teaching that practice it. The reason why is clear. It calls us to be proactive, not reactive. I am to "do [also] to them" what I want them to do to me, not "do to them WHAT they do to me." Cain would never have wanted Abel to murder him, but he killed Abel anyway (Genesis 4). Judas would never have wanted Jesus or anyone else to betray him, but he walked right up to the Lord and betrayed Him with a kiss (Luke 22:48). We want others to forgive us, but sometimes we are slow to forgive. We want others to be truthful with us, but are we always straight up with them? Our tendency is to be reactionary. If someone is kind to us, we may (or may not) be kind to them. But if they are unkind to us, why should we continue to be kind to them? When people push on us, why not push back? If someone takes an eye, we sometimes end up taking an eye and an ear or maybe more. We are directed by God’s Spirit, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse" (Romans 12:14) – and just three verses later at verse 17 we read, "Repay no one evil for evil." When our reaction to bad treatment by others is based on feelings and emotions alone, we are on dangerous ground. We turn control of our attitude and conduct over to them, and convince ourselves our own bad behavior is their fault. But what if, just what if, we all treated others – in every relationship and in every situation – the way we want to be treated? Whether the other person changed or not, we would be changed to be more like Christ – and that ALWAYS makes the world a better place. That’s why it’s called the "Golden Rule!"
  by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

How To Make Your World A Little Place!

Bible commentator William Barclay wrote about a young woman named Edith who was very self- centered – "Edith lived in a little world, bound on the north, south, east, and west by Edith." I don’t agree with everything Barlcay wrote in his commentaries, but he very often had, as we say, "a way with words." In those few words about Edith he reminded us why self-centeredness and selfish living is such an awful thing. If we leave self-centered tendencies and habits in our lives unchecked, we not only inadvertently shrink the world we live in down to a little bitty thing, but we shrink ourselves as human beings and make our lives much smaller than God created us to be. The Bible collides head-on with worldly think- ing about "self." Philippians 2:3b urges "with humility of mind let each one regard one another as more important than himself" (New American Standard Bible). But the evidence is everywhere that most people don’t live that way. We like to look at ourselves, hear ourselves, express ourselves, talk about ourselves, display ourselves, promote ourselves, post about ourselves, and seek to fulfill ourselves. In short, millions now live in a little world bounded on the north, south, east, and west by themselves. Consider this article by an unknown source entitled "How To Be Miserable" – "Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use ‘I’ as often as possible. Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious, jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful for favors shown them. Never forget a service you have rendered. Shirk duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others."

In Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus Christ issues this counter-cultural call – "If anyone desires to come after Me, let Him deny himself, and take up His cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Of what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Those words are not hard to understand, but are very difficult to obey. To deny one’s self is more difficult than pulling up a dandelion by the root. It means a lot more than giving up something like chocolate for a week or not spending six hours a day watching TV or on Facebook. Barclay, quoted above, wrote, "To deny oneself means to obliterate self as the dominant principle of life, and to make God the ruling principle, more, the ruling passion of life." This is not the way worldly people live, and sadly, it is not the way many professed followers of Jesus live. The great screen star of days gone by, Katherine Hepburn once observed, "If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased." That thinking is pervasive in our "me-first ... I’m worth it" culture. But the Spirit of God calls us to swim against the strong current of selfishness – "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me’ " (Romans 15:2-3). Here is the great challenge of the Christian life. If you want to live in a little world, make life be all about you. But if you want a bigger and better world for yourself (and others) you must deny yourself! So said Jesus – history’s supreme expert and example on denying selfishness and taking up a cross. Now, will you do with your self? 

        by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN