What Are You Writing? Failure By Punctuation!

WHAT ARE YOU WRITING?

FAILURE BY PUNCTUATION?

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

I. THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD MADE AND GAVE TO US,

WHAT WE DO WITH THIS DAY COULD BE OUR GIFT TO THE LORD!

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

A. I have a book that a girl named Louise bought when I was teaching school. She ordered it from the Book of the Month Club. The title of the book is THE ANYTHING BOOK, it has a pretty pink cover.

Louise was so mad when she got the book, it is empty, not one word in the pages. I looked it up, and it was not a misprint or a no print, it was designed

to be blank. You make the book what you what it to be?

I bought the book from Louise and I have used it many times.

I will use the book for this message.

God’s gift to us was this day.

B. I TAKE MY JOURNAL FOR THIS YEAR, AND FLIP THROUGH THE PAGES.

I see where I have been to the rest home, where I have studied, or made a home visit.

II. YOUR LIFE IS A STORY LINE.

A. You are a pencil in the hand of the Lord.

You are writing your LIFE BOOK, one line, one page, one chapter at a time.

B. One of these days you will lay your pencil down and the final words will be the dash on your grave stone.

C. There will be recorded the day of your birth and the day of your death.

You did little the day you were born, and you do nothing the day after your death.

It is the dash between those two days that matter.

D. What are you writing?

What did you write today?

This month have you visited and loved someone in the rest home? Hospital?

How did you treat those that you love?

E. I think we should live so the Preacher can tell the truth at your funeral.

Often times Preachers have to dodge the bullet when they preach funerals.

F. Mommy, what have you written this week?

Daddy, what has your story line been?

G. Christian, if you were taken to court for your Christianity would there be enough evidence to prosecute you?

How much Bible did you read this week?

Have you prayed for the lost this week?

Are you faithful to church?

III. WHAT KIND OF CHURCH WOULD THIS CHURCH BE,

IF EVERY MEMBER WERE JUST LIKE ME?

A. I was near Danville, Kentucky playing music in the mid 1970’s, I walked into the cemetery around the church and read the tomb stones, it is a hobby of mine.

One tomb stone:

WAS IN GOOD HEALTH WHEN STRUCK BY A TREE

THREE DAYS LATER DEATH.

AS YOU ARE I ONCE WAS,

AS I AM YOU SOON WILL BE,

SO PREPARE TO MEET OUR MAKER.

B. Recently, I drove by a local Baptist church.

They have a little sign and limited space to post messages, so the sign read this message:

NEED FILL DIRT and a phone number ...

Well what does that mean? Did they need fill dirt, or did they have fill dirt to move? After many calls they changed the sign.

Now the sign says: WE NEED FILL DIRT

Adding one word made an unclear statement clear.

IV. IT IS AMAZING HOW IMPORTANT PROPER PUNCTUATION REALLY IS TO UNDERSTANDING.

A. Is it possible to have wisdom without understanding?

We need to have a great understanding of God’s word, His church, and the family.

B. There are several punctuation marks.

A system or arrangement of marks used in writing to separate or arrange words in a good

logical order.

1. ? --- a question mark. In Spanish, they have an upside question mark to start a question

so you know it is a question as you begin reading.

2. , --- a comma indicates a pause or division.

3. . ---period used at the end of a sentence or abbreviation used to indicate finality.

4. ! --- exclamation mark is used to show excitement, sharp vehement expression or to

give a command or order.

5. : colon is chiefly function between a major sentence and listed elements or clauses.

6. ; semi colon punctuation that directs attention that follows.

V. WHEN YOU ARE DOWN --- WATCH THE PUNCTUATION ---

WE KNOW THE PUNCTUATION CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE ON WHAT THE WORDS SAY.

A. When I taught school I used this illustration about punctuation.

A man was sent by a cow ranch owner to buy a prize bull to breed with his stock. This one bull had won state championships and was a rare blue blood