October 29
You can do more through a handful of totally devoted believers than through a churchful of halfhearted ones. -- Bill Hybels
As I grow older, I care less what people think about me and more what God thinks of me. I expect to be with him much longer than with you. -- Robert Baker in Country Road 13
The amount of sleep required by the average person is about five minutes more.
If people were not meant to have late-night snacks, why did God put a light in the refrigerator?
The “Perfect Church”
Ever heard the old cliche’ — “If you ever find the perfect church, please don’t join it. If you do, it won’t be perfect anymore!” The church is made up of people who are saved by God’s grace, but still not perfect!
The RIGHT Imitation
What every church should be is what every Christian should be: elect (born again), exemplary (imitating the right people), enthusiastic (sharing the Gospel with others), and expectant (daily looking for Jesus Christ to return).
Remember this Responsibility:
The world is looking for Spiritual help. When it turns to the church what will it see? Are we “fit to be imitated?” The word “imitate” is synonymous with “follow.” Are we as individuals and as the church something God would want the world to follow?
"Jesus gives us real eyes so we can realize where the real lies." - Michael McInerny
Youth is not entirely a time of life;
it is a state of mind.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old by deserting their ideals.
You are as young as your faith,
as old as your doubts;
as young as your self-confidence,
as old as your fear;
as young as your hope,
as old as your despair. General Douglas MacArthur
NIPPING NEGATIVE REACTIONS
Have you noticed how easy it is to react in a negative manner when something negative happens in your life? Doubt may creep into your thoughts and cause you to question God and His Word. Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) says "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
Samuel Hearne was an adventurer who took an expedition to the mouth of the Coppermine River. He recorded that a few days after the journey was started, Indians stole most of the expedition's supplies. What was the explorer's comment on the theft? Surely he must have been upset and distressed about so great a loss. Not so! The optimistic Hearne wrote:
"The weight of our baggage being so much lightened, our next day's journey was more swift and pleasant."
Remember, negative reactions only make a bad situation worse. Choose to look for the bright side of problems this week. Keep tabs on the results of your optimistic outlook.
You might also want to keep a record of how your perspective is changed.
Interesting web site: http://www.youtube.com/v/RB-wUgnyGv0
"Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill
A young bride was scouring the aisles of the supermarket. Up and down each aisle she went, then started over again. The store manager noticed this and went over to her.
"Can I help you find something, miss?" he asked.
"I's Mrs.!", she said proudly, "I just got married."
"Congratulations, " said the manager. "What can I help you find?"
"Scratch," she replied.
"Scratch?" he asked, "Is that a new cleanser or something?"
"No silly," she replied brightly. "My husband told me that his mother made everything from scratch, so I need to find some!"
Three paramedics were boasting about improvements in their respective ambulance team's response times.
"Since we installed our new satellite navigation system," bragged the first one, "we cut our emergency response time by ten percent."
The other paramedics nodded in approval. "Not bad," the second paramedic commented. "But by using a computer model of traffic patterns, we've cut our average response time by 20 percent."
Again, the other team members gave their congratulations, until the third paramedic said, "That's nothing! Since our ambulance driver passed the bar exam, we've cut our emergency response time in half!"
On Citizens and the Political Process (by Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family)
Q. You have been outspoken about the need for citizens to get involved in the political process. Explain why that is important and how I can go about doing it.
A. You can start by participating in the electoral process. I think it is a disgrace that half the Christians in America aren't even registered to vote, and of those who are, only half go to the polls. America is not ruled by a dictatorship; it is blessed to have a representative form of government that Abraham Lincoln described as being "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
The Constitution declares that you and I are the government. When we withhold our influence and participation, we yield by default to those who promote immoral and destructive policies. We owe it to our children and to future generations to defend the principles in which we believe - the glorious freedom bought with the blood of so many brave young men and women.
Shame on us for failing to do our duty to God and country. It is unconscionable that so many Christians today have concluded that it is somehow immoral to "get political." I don't believe the Founding Fathers intended to exclude people of faith from the process. There is not a scrap of evidence to indicate such.
There are many ways to participate in public policy besides voting. Letters and phone calls to our local officials, congressmen and senators do make a difference. They certainly need to hear from us.
When you write or call, be brief, and restrict each letter to one subject or one piece of legislation. This makes it easier for the person you're writing to to respond and for his staff to organize correspondence.
Remember that elected officials receive thousands of letters of complaint and very few positive responses. If a public official says or does something that you like, respond with a quick note of appreciation, and by all means, remember that democracy works best when the people make their wants and wishes known.
There are three particular temptations that assail Christian leaders: the temptation to shine, the temptation to whine and the temptation to recline.
In 2005, the personal savings rate as a percentage of disposable income in the United States was negative 0.5 percent, which was by far the lowest of any industrialized nation. In France, the savings rate was 11.6 percent. Germany figured in at 10.6 percent. Japan's rate measured 6.7 percent. - Source: Forbes magazine (Sept. 5, 2006)
"By sacrificing his body, Jesus created a new form of community - the Body of Christ around the world. There are people like my friends, stories like our stories, everywhere he is believed and obeyed. His sacrifice reconnects us to reality, to truth, to who God is, to a clear vision of who we are without him and who we are with him." - Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Finding God Beyond Harvard (InterVarsity, 2006)
"If God never became flesh, he could neither redeem us nor reveal to us his promise of eternal life. It is only by becoming like us that God can make us like him, restoring us in his image." - St. Irenaeus, 444 Surprising Quotes about Jesus (Bethany House, 2006)
The letters of the alphabet in order of their frequency of use are,
ETAISONHRDLUCMFWYPGVBKJQXZ.
"The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words." --David McIntosh
"People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts." --Robert Keith Leavitt
No matter how much the church wants to reach out, growth will not happen if the building and the people fail to say "Welcome!" -- Gary Harrison in Leadership
The church should be a community of dates instead of pumpkins. Pumpkins you can harvest in six months. Dates have to be planted and tended by people who will not live to harvest them. Dates are for future generations. -- George Chauncey
If we can convince people that we are onto something that's full of joy, they'll stampede one another to follow us. -- William Treadwell
As I grow older, I care less what people think about me and more what God thinks of me. I expect to be with him much longer than with you. -- Robert Baker in Country Road 13
The amount of sleep required by the average person is about five minutes more.
If people were not meant to have late-night snacks, why did God put a light in the refrigerator?
The “Perfect Church”
Ever heard the old cliche’ — “If you ever find the perfect church, please don’t join it. If you do, it won’t be perfect anymore!” The church is made up of people who are saved by God’s grace, but still not perfect!
The RIGHT Imitation
What every church should be is what every Christian should be: elect (born again), exemplary (imitating the right people), enthusiastic (sharing the Gospel with others), and expectant (daily looking for Jesus Christ to return).
Remember this Responsibility:
The world is looking for Spiritual help. When it turns to the church what will it see? Are we “fit to be imitated?” The word “imitate” is synonymous with “follow.” Are we as individuals and as the church something God would want the world to follow?
"Jesus gives us real eyes so we can realize where the real lies." - Michael McInerny
Youth is not entirely a time of life;
it is a state of mind.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old by deserting their ideals.
You are as young as your faith,
as old as your doubts;
as young as your self-confidence,
as old as your fear;
as young as your hope,
as old as your despair. General Douglas MacArthur
NIPPING NEGATIVE REACTIONS
Have you noticed how easy it is to react in a negative manner when something negative happens in your life? Doubt may creep into your thoughts and cause you to question God and His Word. Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) says "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
Samuel Hearne was an adventurer who took an expedition to the mouth of the Coppermine River. He recorded that a few days after the journey was started, Indians stole most of the expedition's supplies. What was the explorer's comment on the theft? Surely he must have been upset and distressed about so great a loss. Not so! The optimistic Hearne wrote:
"The weight of our baggage being so much lightened, our next day's journey was more swift and pleasant."
Remember, negative reactions only make a bad situation worse. Choose to look for the bright side of problems this week. Keep tabs on the results of your optimistic outlook.
You might also want to keep a record of how your perspective is changed.
Interesting web site: http://www.youtube.com/v/RB-wUgnyGv0
"Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill
A young bride was scouring the aisles of the supermarket. Up and down each aisle she went, then started over again. The store manager noticed this and went over to her.
"Can I help you find something, miss?" he asked.
"I's Mrs.!", she said proudly, "I just got married."
"Congratulations, " said the manager. "What can I help you find?"
"Scratch," she replied.
"Scratch?" he asked, "Is that a new cleanser or something?"
"No silly," she replied brightly. "My husband told me that his mother made everything from scratch, so I need to find some!"
Three paramedics were boasting about improvements in their respective ambulance team's response times.
"Since we installed our new satellite navigation system," bragged the first one, "we cut our emergency response time by ten percent."
The other paramedics nodded in approval. "Not bad," the second paramedic commented. "But by using a computer model of traffic patterns, we've cut our average response time by 20 percent."
Again, the other team members gave their congratulations, until the third paramedic said, "That's nothing! Since our ambulance driver passed the bar exam, we've cut our emergency response time in half!"
On Citizens and the Political Process (by Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family)
Q. You have been outspoken about the need for citizens to get involved in the political process. Explain why that is important and how I can go about doing it.
A. You can start by participating in the electoral process. I think it is a disgrace that half the Christians in America aren't even registered to vote, and of those who are, only half go to the polls. America is not ruled by a dictatorship; it is blessed to have a representative form of government that Abraham Lincoln described as being "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
The Constitution declares that you and I are the government. When we withhold our influence and participation, we yield by default to those who promote immoral and destructive policies. We owe it to our children and to future generations to defend the principles in which we believe - the glorious freedom bought with the blood of so many brave young men and women.
Shame on us for failing to do our duty to God and country. It is unconscionable that so many Christians today have concluded that it is somehow immoral to "get political." I don't believe the Founding Fathers intended to exclude people of faith from the process. There is not a scrap of evidence to indicate such.
There are many ways to participate in public policy besides voting. Letters and phone calls to our local officials, congressmen and senators do make a difference. They certainly need to hear from us.
When you write or call, be brief, and restrict each letter to one subject or one piece of legislation. This makes it easier for the person you're writing to to respond and for his staff to organize correspondence.
Remember that elected officials receive thousands of letters of complaint and very few positive responses. If a public official says or does something that you like, respond with a quick note of appreciation, and by all means, remember that democracy works best when the people make their wants and wishes known.
There are three particular temptations that assail Christian leaders: the temptation to shine, the temptation to whine and the temptation to recline.
In 2005, the personal savings rate as a percentage of disposable income in the United States was negative 0.5 percent, which was by far the lowest of any industrialized nation. In France, the savings rate was 11.6 percent. Germany figured in at 10.6 percent. Japan's rate measured 6.7 percent. - Source: Forbes magazine (Sept. 5, 2006)
"By sacrificing his body, Jesus created a new form of community - the Body of Christ around the world. There are people like my friends, stories like our stories, everywhere he is believed and obeyed. His sacrifice reconnects us to reality, to truth, to who God is, to a clear vision of who we are without him and who we are with him." - Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Finding God Beyond Harvard (InterVarsity, 2006)
"If God never became flesh, he could neither redeem us nor reveal to us his promise of eternal life. It is only by becoming like us that God can make us like him, restoring us in his image." - St. Irenaeus, 444 Surprising Quotes about Jesus (Bethany House, 2006)
The letters of the alphabet in order of their frequency of use are,
ETAISONHRDLUCMFWYPGVBKJQXZ.
"The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words." --David McIntosh
"People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts." --Robert Keith Leavitt
No matter how much the church wants to reach out, growth will not happen if the building and the people fail to say "Welcome!" -- Gary Harrison in Leadership
The church should be a community of dates instead of pumpkins. Pumpkins you can harvest in six months. Dates have to be planted and tended by people who will not live to harvest them. Dates are for future generations. -- George Chauncey
If we can convince people that we are onto something that's full of joy, they'll stampede one another to follow us. -- William Treadwell
posted by joypastordon at 4:27 PM
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