Category Archives: Churchy stuff… you gotta laugh.

Don’t Dabble with the Details

🚶‍♀️ Walking Through The Word™ Project 2025

📅 July 01, 2025 – Acts 10:1–23

🪶 “DON’T DABBLE WITH THE DETAILS”

God gives Cornelius specific directions:

Send men to get Simon Peter, who is staying with Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.

Let’s back up a bit …

Before God gives Cornelius directions. He also gave Peter instructions.

Peter was told to stay with Simon the tanner.

📜 Then God shows Peter a vision — not once, but THREE TIMES — and tells him:

👉 “Don’t call unclean what I have made clean.”

⏳ At that same moment, Three men show up at the tanner’s house asking for Peter.

Peter is told by the Spirit to go with them — because GOD sent them.

Why Does God tell Peter to go? Let’s break this down a little further.

Peter is still contemplating his vision of seeing Three blankets come down from heaven, full of clean and unclean animals.

God says: “EAT.”

Peter nearly rebukes Him: “I’ve never eaten anything unclean.”

God says: “What I SAY is clean, IS clean. Don’t argue.”

And then — boom — three “unclean” men show up.

Yes the Gentile men coming for him, a Jew, were unclean. However God was showing Peter in the vision that all three men He now called clean.

Instead of rebuking the men, he invites them in, lets them stay the night, and he leaves with them the next morning.

🧭 THESE WERE THE INSTRUCTIONS:

Stay with Simon the tanner.

Not Simon the blacksmith.

Not Simon the fisherman.

SIMON. THE. TANNER

Next…

The Gentiles were told go to the Simon the tanner’s house.

Ask for Simon the one they also call Peter.

And Last,

Peter GO with them.

📣 THIS WAS HUGE.

Jews didn’t eat with Gentiles — let alone travel with them or invite them into their homes.

God was setting the stage for people like YOU and ME to eventually be included in God’s plan for salvation.

🌪️ BUT WHAT IF…

Peter had said,

“Yeah, no thanks. I think I’ll go stay with Simon the fisherman instead. That just makes more sense to me.”

The three men show up at the Simon the tanner’s house and… well, there’s only one Simon. So it must be him.

They convince this Simon to go back with them to Caesarea.

He thinks he’s off to teach a leather-working workshop.

The servants of Cornelius are super confused, but just go with the plan.

A couple of days later, the men arrive with Simon the tanner at the home of Cornelius.

Now Cornelius is confused, “…wait, what?” Is this even related to what I was praying? He assumes everything is going as planned.

The next day Simon ends up giving a full-on TED Talk about hide-stretching techniques.

Cornelius starts a Vocational school and they name it:

👜 HOLY HIDES™ – “Leatherwork with Legacy.”

🏛️ Caesarea becomes famous for its handcrafted goods.

Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit is standing outside, like: “Uhh… this is not what I had in mind.”😳

This is where a previous pastor would say, “ARE YOU WITH ME NOW?”

And I’d be sitting there thinking:

“Umm… actually no. What are you even talking about?”

And that’s the point. If you’re confused — GOOD.

That’s what I WANT you to feel right now.

Because …

🚫 ONE DETOUR from God’s instructions…

🚫 ONE “I think I know better”…

…and suddenly the whole mission turns into something completely different. In this case, from discipleship to craftsmanship.

📌 If God has told you to do something specific —

➡️Even if it doesn’t make sense.

➡️Even if no one has done it before.

➡️Even if it breaks religious tradition…

✨It’s probably Him.✨

✅ DON’T DABBLE WITH THE DETAILS.

✅ Follow His instructions closely.

✅ Don’t circle back and say, “Well, God said this, but I figured I’d do that instead.”

You could end up leading people down a path they were never meant to travel.

Remember to always:

📝 Follow God’s instructions.

🎯 Stay on God’s Path.

🙏 Trust Him on the journey.

Improving your relationships

ID-100114874 Businessman Cover His Head with bag by pakorn www.freedigitalphotos.netPastor George Pearsons delivers a truly inspiring and educational message on communication pitfalls that we all experience but, nobody has “talked” about.

Have a Kleenex handy for tears of Joy. Pastor George brought the message to life with real situations most of us experience, either as the speaker or the listener in a conversation. It was so funny my eyes leaked.

Here are two ways to enjoy the message.   Audio and Video see emic website for third option to download audio message.   Audio is the preferred option.

Audio link:  Opens link in new window/tab

Audio link 2:  Does not open link in new window/tab. (mobile users)

Video link:    Video is playing some users still having issues with playback.

Thank you Pastor George Pearsons and the staff at Eagle Mountain International Church for you online messages and streaming coverage of the miracles and more on Eagle Mountain.   See www.emic.org for more information, video archives, and schedules of upcoming events.

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Image courtesy of pakorn/freedigitalphotos-net

 

The infamous visitor card shuffle. Do you welcome or dance with the visitors?

WomanCoffeeIn determining what God is doing in our area so we can join Him, we decided to see what is going on.   We’ve been visiting various churches and I’ve noticed there is a peculiar dance going on at the entrance.   I’ll call it the visitor card shuffle.  It’s as if certain greeters get a commission for the number of visitor cards they turn in filled out.

Remember when Montgomery Wards used to have those tables with the credit applications.  If you filled one out you received jewelry or some kind of gift.  Now those people were on commission for each application they turned in.  The visitor card shuffle reminds me of this.  People would move to the other side of the entrance to hopefully avoid those pushing the applications.

The same thing happens in our churches.  Why does a person who will probably never come back after doing the visitor card shuffle with insistent card pushers want to leave their name and address? So they can be reminded of the awkward event by another person who isn’t listening?

I do understand the business practice of retention calling.  It just seems odd for a church to do that.  It makes the person being called think that the church person cares about them.  Not that they are just a name on a list that is someone’s assignment. I would think we would want people to be lead by God to attend a church.   Believe me if they are not led by the Spirit to your church and to join your fellowship you really don’t want to mislead them into thinking that your church cares about them.  When they find out You’ll be damaging them and your church.

Now I realize that there are some genuine old fashioned churches who really do care about people and are serious about staying connected.  But, they do this completely different.   They get to know the people rather than do a mini interview at the door.  Sometimes I have felt like I should just have handed the greeter my resume’.   Churches today should not be looking for what the Visitor can do for them but what they can offer a visitor.

If you want visitors to come back, feed them some rich scriptures, be hospitable and nice.  Welcome them to the place that has changed your life and tell them why you go there.

Keep the dancing for worship and instead welcome new people with open arms and a grateful heart.

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