This Is Your Brain on Jingles

Posted on March 7, 2026 by salooper57

(Plus: Don’t Trust Your AI)

See if you can finish these advertisement jingles and slogans and identify what they were intended to sell. (Hint: If you have difficulty, say the jingle aloud. For example: “Fly the friend blank blank blank,” holding out the blanks shorter or longer, depending on the length of the underline.)

 1. “You’ve come a long way, baby, to get where you got to today. You’ve got your own _____________ now baby. You’ve come a long, long way.”

 2. “Fly the friendly ___ __ ______.”

 3. “___… ___… Good! ___… ___… Good! That’s what _________  ____ are: “___… ___… Good!”

 4. “I can’t believe __ ___ ___ _____ thing!”

 5. “Thing go _______ with ____ _____, things go better with ____.”

 6. “In the valley of the ______ – ‘ho-ho-ho!’ – ______ ______.”

 7. “____a____, the San Francisco _____.”

 8. “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz __ ____ __ _______ __ is.”

 9. “Hold the ________, hold the _______, special _____ ____ _____ __.”

10. “Oh, I wish I were an _____ ______ _______, that is what I’d truly __ __ be.”

(Answers can be found at the end of this article.)

If you were able to fill in most or all the blanks, I know two things about you: 1) Even though you’re old (the jingles and slogans I chose are from fifty or sixty years ago), you’ve got a good memory; and 2) What you have watched and listened to on television and radio (and laptops, tablets, and phones) has had an impact on you.

Perhaps the impact of individual advertisements was greater fifty or sixty years ago because there were not as many of them. Today, we are overwhelmed with messaging. We pull up to a gas pump and find 25 separate messages competing for our attention. Some regard safety (“Shut Off Engine”; “No Smoking), others are about purchase points (“Pay Inside/Pre-Pay”; “Credit Card/Debit Card”) or are product and price related (Unleaded/Premium/Diesel/ E-85). Then there are the products being sold and services offered: a car wash, coffee, pizza, donuts, etc. Our brain can hardly handle all the input.

If you successfully filled in the blanks above, your good brain has been carrying around a lot of worthless stuff for the past 50 plus years. (If you didn’t know my generation’s worthless stuff, your brain is probably being filled with your generation’s worthless stuff, which it will carry around for the next 30, 40, or 50 years.) Whether it is something our brains actively take in (say a book we read or a movie we watch with friends) or something that we passively receive (a “Shut Off Engine” warning or an “I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener” jingle), the information we take into our brains is the food that feeds our minds.

It used to be – or I felt at the time – that viewers could watch the evening news and receive accurate reporting, which everyone knew would be interrupted by advertisements at set times. These days, the reporting itself is a kind of advertisement, meant to persuade viewers to buy into a political brand or take a particular side on a contemporary social or moral issue. Does this stuff stick in our brains the same way the Oscar Mayer jingle did?

What our minds take in has an impact on our mental and spiritual wellbeing. I am not saying that we cannot watch the evening news or a movie with friends, but we must keep a kind of antivirus program always running so that distortions can be quarantined and attacks be deflected. The gold standard antivirus for our minds is a full download of the Bible.

I’m not talking about a few encouraging verses here and there. We need to have the Bible’s big story, its metanarrative, as the scholars call it, running in the background of our minds. Then, when some movie scene or news report clashes with the Bible’s story, alarms will sound. We will be able to quarantine the possible infection until we have had a chance to examine it for inaccuracies and distortions.

I’ve already made clear that watching the news or enjoying a movie with friends is something we can do—if our antivirus program is running. But we must be careful not to input more data from movies and news programs than we do from trusted Christian sources (principally the Scriptures, but also good preaching, and conversations with fellow disciples). If we are spending more time with Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow than with Jesus and Paul, it won’t be long before our thinking is out of kilter.

If you are already spending more time with Hannity and Maddow than with Jesus and Paul, decide to change that and begin taking steps to implement your decision. The renewal of the mind is not accomplished with commercial jingles and newscast jingoism, but with the Holy Spirit and God’s word.

*****************************

Answers:

1. “You’ve come a long way, baby, to get where you got to today. You’ve got your own cigarette now baby. You’ve come a long, long way.” (Virginia Slims)

 2. “Fly the friendly skies of United.”

 3. “Umm… Umm … Good! Umm… Umm … Good! That’s what Campbells soups are: Umm… Umm … Good!” (Campbells Soups)

 4. “I can’t believe I at the whole thing!” (Alka Seltzer)

 5. “Thing go better with Coca Cola, things go better with Coke!” (Coca Cola)

 6. “In the valley of the jolly – ho-ho-ho! – Green Giant.” (Green Giant canned veggies)

 7. “Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat.” (Rice-a-Roni)

 8. “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz—oh, what a relief it is.” (Alka Seltzer)

 9. “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us.” (Burger King)

10. “Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener, that is what I’d truly love to be!” (Oscar Mayer Wieners)

One More Thing: Don’t Trust Your AI

I turned to AI last week for an illustration. I was looking for a story about someone who failed in a particular arena but, when given a second chance, succeeded. The AI produced the story of Stephen Elop, who was CEO at Nokia during its market collapse. AI went on to describe how Nokia was bought up by Microsoft and took Elop on as an executive officer. But Elop did not have good working relationships at Microsoft, and his leadership was blamed for creating instability in his department. Microsoft let him go but, according to AI, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella eventually rehired him to serve as a consultant.

That was the kind of illustration I was looking for to promote my sermon The God of Second Chances, but I needed a few more details. So, I asked AI what year Elop was fired by Microsoft and what year he was rehired. The answer surprised me: AI reported that Elop was never rehired by Microsoft. So, I copied and pasted its previous answer and wrote, “This is the answer you gave me a few moments ago.” AI responded simply: “I was wrong.”

No apology that I remember. No embarrassment about getting caught in a lie. I asked the AI if it had no shame. It answered that it was not programmed to feel shame.

I might trust it more if it was.

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Don’t Give Up on God (2 Samuel 7)

Posted on March 4, 2026 by salooper57

It’s always too soon to give up on God. This encouraging message follows God’s promise of a king through troubles and exile. (Video length: 26 minutes (approximate.)

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All Things Are Yours: A Compelling Vision of the Christian Life

Posted on February 28, 2026 by salooper57

You are reading an open letter from a prominent preacher. He is not without his critics, of course, but you find him profoundly interesting. It is a long letter, and part-way down on the second page, you come across this startling line: “For everything belongs to you … Everything belongs to you.”

“Uh-oh,” you think, “he must be one of those prosperity gospel preachers. Health and wealth. Name it, claim it! These guys are all the same.”

But this guy is not a prosperity gospel preacher. He comes from a much older generation of Bible teachers. You could even say that he comes from the original generation of Bible teachers, for the words I’ve quoted above come from the pen of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).

Those words, “Everything belongs to you,” are among the most surprising Paul ever wrote. They occur in the context of his plea for unity among the status-hungry Corinthian Christians. He urged them to stop carving up the church of Jesus Christ into Paul and Apollos and Cephas (Peter) factions. The Corinthians were acting as if these teachers owned them. Paul saw it the other way round: “All things are yours,whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas…” (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).

To Paul, the divisions in the Corinthian church were a shame. I use the word intentionally. It brought shame on these people to whom everything belonged to act as if they were minions and toadies. Paul was theirs, and so was eloquent Apollos and brave Cephas. They should make use of them.

Paul had a soaring vision of the freedom and authority of ordinary Christians. Whatever might happen to them, they have the power to make it their own. The world was theirs; they owned it. So, why carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, as if they were its servants? They could make the world serve them.

Life was theirs. How would they employ it? Would they complain about life, as a worker complains about an imperious boss? Would they be a cog in the wheel of life, forced to do what they could not help doing, or would they take control, forcing life to serve their purpose?

Not only did life belong to the Corinthians, so did death (Paul has in mind their own deaths, not someone else’s). Since Jesus wrested death from the service of the evil one (Hebrews 2:14-15) and made it a slave in his Father’s house, death cannot hurt God’s children. It is, admittedly, an ugly and ill-mannered slave, but Christians needn’t fear it. When death comes for them, they can use it to help them fulfill their purpose.

The Corinthians could also own the present. Too many people are enslaved by the past and incapable of taking ownership of the present. Things that happen around them or happen to them resist their control. They are powerless before them.

For some people, the future is a greater tyrant than the past. Everything they do and say must satisfy the future’s demands. They dare not spend money; the future may require it. They dare not put their thoughts in writing; it may come back to haunt them in the future. They dare not have children—who knows what harm the future might cause?

In Paul’s glorious vision of the Christian life, Jesus’s people have the power to force the world, life, death, things present, and things to come to serve their purpose. But Christians can only do this if they know their purpose and where they fit in the divine scheme of things.

Where they fit becomes clear in Paul’s next line: “All are yours, and you are Christ’s…” All things are the Christians when the Christian is Christ’s. I think that the house with my name on the deed belongs to me, but that house will have me as its slave if I am not careful. I will spend my time serving it, thinking about its needs, trying to make it look good, and spending my hard-earned money and valuable time to provide for it. But when I belong to Christ, I can take ownership of the house, giving it its due (maintenance, insurance payments, even landscaping and a fresh paint job), but using it to serve my needs, not the other way around.

It is similar with all the things on Paul’s list. For example, as a pastor and former Hospice chaplain, I have seen how death could own people, order their every thought and action—and not just those on death’s doorstep. Some people pass their days (I won’t say they live) in fear of death. But I’ve also seen people own death, take control of it, and make it serve them.

But this is only possible for those who know where they fit and who know their purpose. What is their purpose? Put briefly, it is to glorify God by becoming like Jesus. Once someone has adopted that as their one great purpose in life, everything is bound to serve them. Life will help them become like Jesus, even its daily irritations and setbacks. Death will help them become like Jesus, and they will not fear it. Things present (the overbearing parent, the unexpected interruption, the beautiful sunset) will serve them in reaching their goal. Things future (the job interview, the debt payment, the midterm elections) will line up to help them.

Everything must serve the person whose overarching goal is to glorify God by becoming like Jesus. When that is not a person’s goal, he or she will end up enslaved to life, death, the world, the present, and the future. To such people, Paul’s compelling vision of the free and strong Christian can only seem like a fantasy.

In Paul’s glorious vision of the Christian life, Jesus’s people have the power to force the world, life, death, things present, and things to come to serve their purpose.

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The God of Second Chances (Joshua 3-4)

Posted on February 25, 2026 by salooper57

Once you’ve failed, are you out of the game for good, or is there such a thing as a second chance? This is not an academic question. We need to know. The Bible’s answer, given in various ways, is clear: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – is the God of Second Chances!

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Friends in Unexpected Places: Jesus and the Pharisees

Posted on February 21, 2026 by salooper57

For years, I thought that the New Testament picture of support for and opposition against Jesus was painted in black and white. I don’t know why I thought that – I doubt I ever heard pastors or professors put it that way. Nevertheless, I assumed that the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herodians – the people who constituted Israel’s Jewish leadership – were unified in their opposition to Jesus, while the “common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37). But there is more to the story than that.

I was never quite sure what to do with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They were Pharisees, and of course the Pharisees were Jesus’s earliest and most vocal adversaries. But Joseph was explicitly said to be a secret disciple of Jesus, and Nicodemus was, at the very least, helpful to Jesus. (But I think he joined Jesus’s camp in the end.)

It is true that Jesus had many enemies, but he also found friends in unexpected places, even among the members of groups that publicly opposed him. The New Testament hints that there were cracks in the anti-Jesus bloc and portrays the Jewish leadership as anything but monolithic.

The group that was most vehement in its antipathy toward Jesus was the Pharisees. Yet one of Jesus’s early personal (and positive) encounters was with “a man of the Pharisees” named Nicodemus. He was influential: John refers to him as a “member of the Jewish ruling council (the Sanhedrin), and Jesus calls him “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10). At their first meeting, Nicodemus spoke candidly: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.” Notice the “we” in that sentence. Nicodemus was apparently not the only Pharisee who held Jesus in high regard.

We meet Nicodemus again in chapter 7. He is on the floor of the Sanhedrin, attempting to deter the council from arresting Jesus. He argues that Jewish law prohibits an arrest without cause. His argument is airtight: what Jewish council member is going to flout the Jewish law? But this is where we see a rift open among the Jewish authorities. Having no answer, one of Nicodemus’s fellow-Pharisees turns on him instead. “Are you from Galilee too?” he snarls.

Nicodemus was not the only council member, still less the only Jewish leader, who thought that Jesus might be a good man. Most notably, there was wealthy Joseph of Arimathea, another council member, who was a secret disciple during the time of Jesus’s ministry. When Jesus was executed, Joseph came out of the discipleship closet. He boldly went to the Roman prefect and requested that Jesus’s body be given into his care. Then, with Nicodemus’s help, Joseph buried Jesus in his own tomb.

There were other people in Jewish leadership who thought Jesus was the Messiah, or at least that he was an honorable person. In John 12, we read that “…many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue…” It is doubtful that all these believers came from the Pharisees, for after the resurrection there was a Jesus movement among the Sadducees, specifically among the priests (Acts 6:7)!

If one reads the gospels closely, one discovers that Pharisees are with Jesus on various occasions. What were they doing there, especially when they had already decided to put out of the synagogue anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Messiah? Perhaps they were there collecting evidence to use against Jesus, but nothing in the text suggests that. It is more likely that they were trying to decide if Jesus was the Messiah. As late as John 9, it is evident that the Pharisees were not unified in their opposition to Jesus (John 9:16).

In Luke 13:31, it was Pharisees who warned Jesus that Herod was looking to kill him. It is possible, as some scholars think, that the Pharisees’ real motive was to frighten Jesus into leaving. But seeing the divisions that existed among the Jewish leadership regarding Jesus, it is also possible that their warning was in earnest and came from good intentions.

What can we learn from this? I think we can learn that the biblical story is more complex than we are sometimes led to believe. Those of us who teach must be careful not to oversimplify the story in our rush to improve people’s feelings or adjust their behaviors.

We can also learn this: Jesus may have friends where one least expects them. If he could have friends on the Sanhedrin and among his fiercest critics, he might have friends in Congress—on what we think of as the wrong side of the aisle. He might have friends in Tehran in the Majlis, or in the drug-infested housing development on your city’s south side, or on the faculty of that famously progressive/conservative university that you despise. I cannot assume that Jesus has no friends over there; I can only make sure that I am being his friend right here.

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Ungraven Images (Exodus 19-20)

Posted on February 18, 2026 by salooper57

Placing the Ten Commandments within the big picture of the Bible

Why did God prohibit the making of idols when every other religion used idols in worship? In this sermon, we see that God had a very good reason for forbidding graven images: he had already made “ungraven” images!

We might think of the law as a bundle of regulations that God wants us to keep–and he’ll get mad if we don’t. That misses something important. The law is about relationships: to God, to others, and to oneself. In this sermon, we discover the law is a wonderful, albeit provisional and temporary, gift.

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Christians: Navigating the Approval Process

Posted on February 14, 2026 by salooper57

A couple of years ago, The Wall Street Journal published a piece by Alex Janin titled “The Longevity Clinic Will See You Now—for $100,000.” Apparently, practices calling themselves “longevity clinics” have been opening all around the country. People, mostly wealthy people between 40 and 60, are paying up to $100,000 a year for what Janin says are “sometimes unproven treatments, including biological-age testing, early cancer screenings, stem-cell therapies, and hair rejuvenation.”

Normally, new drugs and therapies go through three rounds of exhaustive testing, beginning with dozens, and then hundreds, and then thousands of volunteers. The results of this testing are reviewed by the FDA throughout the process. Only after this three-stage testing process is complete and the data reviewed can the product be submitted for approval.

The Bible has a word for something (or someone) that has been tested and approved. It is an important word to understand, for it describes a process that is crucial to spiritual formation in Christ. It is not easy to translate into English, as contemporary versions have discovered. The NIV translates the word differently in different verses: “approved,” “tested and approved,” and “stood the test.” Other versions have “proved,” “been proved,” “passed the test,” “tried,” “tried and true,” and more.

The word is “dokimos” in Greek and provides insight into the process that God uses to develop people. It alerts us to the fact that God desires that all his people receive approved status. But, of course, that means all his people must undergo testing. Ugh!

But the testing process is necessary. It instills confidence in the person being tested, which is crucial for happiness and success. It also assures people outside Christ that the approved person is reliable. As such, this process is a key component in the spread of the gospel.

Last evening, my wife and I watched Olympic figure skating (ice dance) and saw a married couple from the U.S. take silver and skaters from France take gold. I’ve read that Olympic ice dancers routinely practice on the ice for 4 to 6 hours a day and do conditioning training for an additional 2-3 hours a day. By the time they compete for gold, they have been tested thoroughly, both in training and in competition. They skate out onto the ice equipped with both skill and confidence.

We all have products in our homes – hair dryers, clothes dryers, refrigerators, circular saws, dehumidifiers, coffee makers, extension cords, etc. – that have a label with a UL symbol. This means that the product line has been extensively tested and approved by Underwriters Laboratories. That symbol gives merchants and consumers confidence in the product they are selling and buying.

God wants his people to have confidence in him and in his work in them. And he wants their friends, neighbors, and co-workers to be able to trust them. But confidence comes at a price—just ask those Olympic skaters! That price is testing.

We think of testing as a bad thing because it is hard. But testing, when it is intended to make us strong and confident and happy and productive, is not a bad thing, though it remains a hard thing. Sometimes it is so hard that we don’t think we can endure it. But God knows our limits and he is careful to protect us.

What kind of trials do people go through to achieve approved status? One word that shows up in connection with dokimos is the Greek word thlipsis, which the NIV translates as “trouble,” “affliction,” “distress,” “anguish,” and “persecution.” Its principal idea is of pressure or stress: something that either squeezes us or threatens to pull us apart. Such experiences act as clinical trials. The trials are not intended to prove our resilience, strength, or intelligence. They do not test for spirituality, at least not directly. They test our faith (James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7). The question for which such tests provide an answer is this: How long will we continue to trust God as the pressure rises.  

Becoming “dokimos” is akin to be vetted for a position or responsibility. To be “dokimos” is to be battle-tested, field-proven, reliable under real world strain.

But it is not only hardship that tests us. Wealth is another test of faith. So is flattery, as the proverb makes clear: “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.”

God wants his children to have the experience of being certified as “dokimos.” We should want it too, for with it comes effectiveness, confidence, and joy. But that means we should thank God for our trials and do our best to trust him while they last, for we have this promise: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test” (literally, “when he becomes dokimos”), “he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).

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The Passover: He Delivers (Exodus 12)

Posted on February 11, 2026 by salooper57

When Jesus “explained to [his disciples] what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), you can be sure he spent considerable time talking about Passover.

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Jesus and His Enemies

Posted on February 7, 2026 by salooper57

(Why did he have so many?)

It is hard to understand how meek and mild Jesus could have stirred up so much antagonism among Israel’s leaders that they would want to get rid of him. But he did. And it did not take long. As Jesus’s public ministry grew and his reputation spread from Galilee to Judea, there was an accompanying rise in animosity toward him. As early as Mark 3, the Pharisees (whom St. Paul characterized as Judaism’s strictest sect), began plotting Jesus’s ruin. This happened within the first year (possibly even within the first six months) of Jesus’s ministry.

The Pharisees were a religious sect, but they were joined in their opposition to Jesus by what might be called a political party: the Herodians. While the Pharisees objected to Jesus on religious grounds, the Herodians’ objections were political. When Jesus burst on the scene with talk about a kingdom, the Herodians began a threat assessment. When he started attracting crowds that numbered in the thousands, they concluded that he posed a threat. Since their hold on power depended on their ability to detect and disarm threats to the political status quo, they wanted to be ready to move against Jesus, should that become necessary.

Along with the Pharisees and the Herodians were the chief priests and the Sadducean party, to which they belonged. If the Pharisees were a religious sect and the Herodians were a political party, the Sadducees were a little of both. Though they considered the Pharisees rivals (and inferiors), they also thought it was in their best interests to silence Jesus. They feared that the whirlwind surrounding him might move the Roman governor to act. He did not usually intervene, preferring that Jewish leaders deal with potential problems, but he expected them to keep things under control. If they failed to do so, he would punish them by removing and replacing their leaders. The high priest, for example, was supposed to hold office for life, but several had been unseated within a matter of months. The Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Herodians all had reasons for wanting Jesus out of the picture.

Consider these Scriptures, beginning with that very early passage from Mark: “Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus” (Mark 3:6). John 5:18: “For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” Matthew 12:14: “But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.” Luke 13:31: “At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.’” Mark 11:18: “The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.” Luke 19:47 “Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.” Mark 14:1 “Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him.”

I’ll stop there, rather than risk lengthy and boring repetition, but I wanted to make clear that Jesus’ life was threatened by one or more groups for nearly the entire time of his ministry. Three attempts (that we know about) were made on his life prior to the crucifixion, one in Galilee and two in Judea. As early as the events in John 7, the Sanhedrin – Israel’s ruling council – met to discuss the “Jesus problem” and formulate a plan for getting rid of him. During the final months of his earthly ministry, the danger to Jesus increased even more. The various parties that comprised Israel’s coalition government – never friends and frequently adversaries – were working hand in hand to get rid of Jesus. From their perspective, it was no longer a question of if, but of when, they would act.

Jesus’s enemies were enemies because they feared him. It was not his well-oiled political machine that evoked fear. They were not afraid of him because he commanded armies (though they should have been—see Matthew 26:53). They feared him because he spoke the truth, and that truth threatened their control.

The “friend of sinners” did not set out to make enemies, though he had many. But he loved those enemies (Matthew 5:44). He blessed those who cursed him, prayed for those who misused him (Luke 23:34), and did good to those who hated him (Luke 6:27). He laid down his life for them.

There is no better friend than Jesus. But if someone insists on having him as an enemy, they will have the best enemy anyone could ever have.

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Laughter Will Not Die (Genesis 22)

Posted on February 4, 2026 by salooper57

God’s promise to Abraham to bless all the peoples of the earth is put at risk – and God is the one who puts it there. This sermon helps us understand God’s purpose in the world and the purpose of tests in our lives. We also discover an absolutely remarkable place that appears at important moments throughout the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

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