It’s easy to overlook those three little words. Yet they appear at the front end of some of the most often-quoted passages. The warning in 1 Cor. 15:33 is not just that “evil companions corrupt good morals,” but that there is a possibility of deceiving ourselves into thinking otherwise. Gal. 6:7 asserts the truth that “whatever a man sows, this he will also reap,” but only after establishing the fact that most men convince themselves of the opposite.

The Southside Lectures are now twenty-nine years old. This year’s program is, without a doubt, one of the very best. It became clear from the first day that the subjects discussed were just right for each person to whom they were assigned. Each of the speakers addressed his subject with talent, concern, and dignity, and with a sense of urgency.

What are the Southside Lectures? A series of sermons on a special topic concentrated in a short time span so as to give special emphasis to some spiritual matter. These lectures require some special effort on your part. If you attend as you should, you’ll be dog-tired by the time the lectures end next Thursday. But it will be a special tired.

Fundamentals are a vital concern for whatever the project or enterprise. Without a firm foundation, any endeavor is eventually doomed to failure. Fundamentals are the things that undergird something, the foundation on which that thing rests. The Christian system has certain fundamental things that underlie it. These are necessary fundamentals. Here are some suggestions concerning those essential parts.

The dog days of summer. The doldrums. The summer lull. Everybody has a different name for the upcoming time of year. I have found that these descriptions all have one thing in common – when the weather gets got, there is a tendency for Christians to get cold. If we’re not careful, we can become so caught up in making plans and going different places that we neglect the work that must be done right here at home.

Moses says, “We spend our days as a tale that is told” (Psalm 90:9). What a truism! We have only so many – how many, no one knows, saving for Him who gave us the days. But they are ours to spend. It’s important how we spend them, what we buy with them.

When they are all tied together, they become our tale that is told. Every tale is different, lived in different cultures and societies, lived in distinctive families, lived in differing circumstances, enjoying different pleasures and enduring different tragedies.

The book of Acts is a book of conversions. It is the historical record of the apostles fulfilling the Great Commission of Christ, “go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15). They did so in Jerusalem, Samaria, Caesarea, and in the uttermost parts of the world. They did so with great success.

“Perspective” was originally the science of optics. It is now used in conversation to describe a mental view or disposition; it’s how one views life. For this little piece, perspective is your viewpoint about life.

How we view life is vital to our happiness as well as to our eternal destiny. May I offer a few suggestions about a good perspective?

I had a car accident. It was minor, but it was my fault. It wrecked my whole week. It was all I could think about. Until my daughter had to get three stitches in her upper lip after a close encounter with a see-saw. She became my world at that moment. Until the next morning when we got the call about Teena Harris. Her father, Glenn, had just finished teaching a class on the Miracles of Jesus. “We could use one right now,” he said in the somber, subdued waiting room.

Believe it or not, I was young once. I remember some things about being young that were not easy; in fact, downright perplexing. I remember when I reached puberty. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I didn’t understand all these new feelings I was having. New things popped into my mind without permission, stuff that had never been there before. I began to notice things I had never even thought of before. It was a difficult time for me. I think it must be so for most all youngsters–if they’d just admit it.