July 22
All of us have wondered at times why God doesn't do more to fix our problems. But our human eyes often fail to see that God isn't rushing to change our circumstances because he is concerned with a much more serious problem--our character. While you struggle with the woes of this world, God's main occupation is preparing you for the world to come. The focus of what God is doing in your life takes place in you, not around you. -- Andy Stanley, "Like A Rock"
"Worry looks around, sorry looks back, Faith looks up."
No doubt it sounds strange, but in order to love God with all your strength, you have to admit that you are weak and that your strength is limited. By doing this, you acknowledge God as the true source of your strength, and that in your weakness, he is strong. You become strong as you become totally dependent upon him, allowing his strength to work through you. God doesn’t ask you to take steps of faith alone; he is with you in every step, filling you with a grace-charged strength. God only asks you to take one step of faith at a time.
Sweatshirt with Pigpen from Charlie Brown on it with the saying: “The world needs messy people ... Otherwise the neat people would take over.”
If we are willing to take hours on end to learn to play a piano, or operate a computer, or fly an airplane, it is sheer nonsense for us to imagine that we can learn the high art of getting guidance through communion with the Lord without being willing to set aside time for it. It is no accident that the Bible speaks of prayer as a form of waiting on God. --Paul S. Rees
The young man from Mississippi came running into the store and said to his buddy, "Bubba, somebody just stole your pickup truck from the parking lot!" Bubba replied, "Did you see who it was? "The young man answered, "I couldn't tell , but I got the license number.
When we stand in the middle of a lifestorm, it seems as if the storm has become our way of life. We cannot see a way out. We are unable to chart a course back to smoother waters. We feel defeated--and broken. Will that brokenness produce a cynicism that will keep us forever in the mire of "if only" thinking? Or will we yield up that brokenness to the resources of One who calms the winds and the waves, heals the brokenhearted, and forgives the most grievous of sins? The choice is ours. --Verdell Davis, "Riches Stored in Secret Places"
There are two types of chaos: the chaos of creativity vs. the chaos of over-creation and incompletion. Which one best describes you? —Leslie Boyer, “Managing Chaos,”
If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.
Only 14 percent of evangelicals in the United States believe poverty is something that churches should take the lead in addressing. That's still more than triple the rate of the average population (4 percent). - Source: Barna.org (June, 2007)
"Being a Christian doesn't mean hovering above the ugliness of life. It means we are given the weapons necessary to face wickedness with the hope of creating something good in its place." - Paul Coughlin, No More Jellyfish, Chickens, or Wimps
"The God-life cannot be domesticated or used – it can only be entered into on its own terms. Holiness does not make God smaller so that he can be used in convenient and manageable projects; it makes us larger so that God can give out life through us, extravagantly, spontaneously. The holy is an interior fire, a passion for living in and for God, a capacity for exuberance in the presence of God." - Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way
Police excuse angry computer user for outburst BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man who startled his neighbors when he hurled his computer out of the window in the middle of the night, was let off for disturbing the peace by police who sympathized with his technical frustrations. Police in the northern city of Hanover said they would not press charges after responding to calls made by residents in an apartment block who were woken by a loud crash in the early hours of Saturday. Officers found the street and pavement covered in electronic parts and discovered who the culprit was. Asked what had driven him to the night-time outburst, the 51-year-old man said he had simply got annoyed with his computer.
"Who hasn't felt like doing that?" said a police spokesman.
While escaping any official sanction the man was made to clear up the debris.
Americans spent more last year on bottled water than on iPods and movie tickets -- a whopping $15 billion.
If people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent obese, U.S. researchers predicted on Wednesday.
Eating beef ' is less green than driving'
Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday. Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef. Taking into account all the processes involved, they said, four average sized steaks generated greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 80.25lb of carbon dioxide.
This also consumed 169 megajoules of energy.
That means that 2.2lb of beef is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions which have the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by an ordinary car travelling at 50 miles per hour for 155 miles, a journey lasting three hours. The amount of energy consumed would light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.
FEEL USELESS AND HOPELESS?
Ever feel like the world is a tuxedo - and you're a pair of brown shoes? Just remember, you're in good company
NOAH was a drunk
ABRAHAM was too old
ISAAC was a daydreamer
JACOB was a liar
GIDEON was afraid
JONAH ran from God
ZACCHAEUS was too small
TIMOTHY was too young
JOHN the BAPTIST was called "crazy"
And all of them, and each of us, is forgiven by God in Christ Jesus! Look out world, here we come!
When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through. --Corrie Ten Boom
Can't remember life before mobiles? Chances are you'll also struggle to recall your home phone number and family birthdays.
According to a survey released Friday, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things.
A quarter of those polled said they couldn't remember their landline number, while two-thirds couldn't recall the birthdays of more than three friends or family members.
The tech-savvy young fared worse than older people. The under-30s could remember fewer birthdays and numbers than the over-50s, according to the survey.
Two-thirds said they relied on their phone or electronic organizer to remember key dates.
"People have more to remember these days and they are relying on technology more for their memory," said Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin.
"I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again." -- Stephen Grellet
"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." -- Frank A. Clark
"What is harder than rock, or softer than water? Yet soft water hollows out hard rock. Persevere." -- Ovid, Roman poet
"The person rowing the boat seldom has time to rock it." -- Author Unknown
From “A Woman’s Journey to the Heart of God
“We have explored how Mary of Bethany was intent on abiding with the Lord and how her service overflowed from it. Because she sat at His feet, she expressed her love for Him. She depicts the abiding servant. Martha represents the busy servant. She loved the Lord, but in her serving, she became anxious and bothered. She was not at REST. Everything she did was in some sense a chore, and chores can easily become burdens. Since her identity came from her service, she had little time to sit at the feet of Jesus. She had stepped out of her Lord’s yoke.
If we are consistently joined to the Lord, we will seek His guidance before accepting any additions to our schedule or any commitments to serve. His desire is to give us rest and burdens that are light. This doesn’t mean that we are not busy, but it does mean that in our God-directed busyness, His strength and grace are with us. When our service is the will of God, we have His power to do what He gives us to do. We experience His refreshment in the process of our work that is done for Him.
Where do you suppose Jesus wanted Martha the day He visited her home - in the kitchen, or at His feet? I think He desired her to be at His feet. If Martha had as much as a crust of bread and a fish or two, then they were in good shape for a meal. The Lord was there, and He provides all that we need, including rest.”
Oswald Chambers says:
“Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on Him. A great many Christian workers worship their work. The one concern of a worker should be concentration on God, and this will mean that all the other margins of life, mental, moral, and spiritual, are free with the freedom of a child! A worker without this solemn dominant note of concentration on God is apt to get his work on his neck; there is no margin of body, mind or spirit free, consequently he becomes spent out and crushed. There is no freedom, no delight in life; nerves, mind and heart are so crushingly burdened that God’s blessing cannot rest.”
Watchman Nee says in his piece, “Treasure in a Vessel.”
“All the worry and fret of God’s children would end if their eyes were opened to see the greatness of the treasure hid in their hearts. Do you know there are resources enough in your own heart to meet the demand of every circumstance in which you will ever find yourself? Do you know there is power enough to move the city in which you live? Do you know there is power enough to shake the universe? Let me tell you once more - I say it with the utmost reverence: You who have been born again of the Spirit of God - you carry God in your heart!
Do you realize what happened at your conversion? God came into your heart and made it His temple. In Solomon’s days, God dwelt in a temple made of stone; today He dwells in a temple composed of living believers. When we really see that God has made our hearts His dwelling place, what a deep reverence will come over our lives! Has it really come home to you that wherever you go you carry with you the Holy Spirit of God? You do not just carry your Bible with you, or even much good teaching about God, but God Himself!
Why is it that some of God’s children live victorious lives while others are in a state of constant defeat? (my note: why are some Marys and some Marthas?!) The difference is not accounted for by the presence or absence of the Spirit (for He dwells in the heart of every child of God) but by this, that some recognize His indwelling and others do not. Some recognize the divine ownership of their lives while others are still their own masters. True revelation of the fact of the Spirit’s indwelling will revolutionize the life of any Christian.
Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration the second. A day comes in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the ABSOLUTE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST.”
CHRIST IN ME - the hope of glory!!
WORDS OF WISDOM
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert Einstein
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph." -- Haile Selassie
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -- Calvin Coolidge
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." -- Abraham Lincoln
THE DEVIL'S BEATITUDES
If the devil were to write his beatitudes, they would probably go something like this:
1. Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians--they are my best workers.
2. Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked--I can use them.
3. Blessed are the touchy who stop going to church--they are my missionaries.
4. Blessed are the troublemakers--they shall be called my children.
5. Blessed are the complainers--I'm all ears to them.
6. Blessed are those who are bored with the minister's mannerisms and mistakes--for they get nothing out of his sermons.
7. Blessed is the church member who expects to be invited to his own church--for he is a part of the problem instead of the solution.
8. Blessed are those who gossip--for they shall cause strife and division that please me.
9. Blessed are those who are easily offended--for they will soon get angry and quit.
10. Blessed are those who do not give their offering to carry on God's work--for they are my helpers.
11. Blessed is he who professes to love God but hates his brother and sister--for he shall be with me forever.
12. Blessed are you who, when you read this, think it's about other people and not yourself--I've got you too
"Worry looks around, sorry looks back, Faith looks up."
No doubt it sounds strange, but in order to love God with all your strength, you have to admit that you are weak and that your strength is limited. By doing this, you acknowledge God as the true source of your strength, and that in your weakness, he is strong. You become strong as you become totally dependent upon him, allowing his strength to work through you. God doesn’t ask you to take steps of faith alone; he is with you in every step, filling you with a grace-charged strength. God only asks you to take one step of faith at a time.
Sweatshirt with Pigpen from Charlie Brown on it with the saying: “The world needs messy people ... Otherwise the neat people would take over.”
If we are willing to take hours on end to learn to play a piano, or operate a computer, or fly an airplane, it is sheer nonsense for us to imagine that we can learn the high art of getting guidance through communion with the Lord without being willing to set aside time for it. It is no accident that the Bible speaks of prayer as a form of waiting on God. --Paul S. Rees
The young man from Mississippi came running into the store and said to his buddy, "Bubba, somebody just stole your pickup truck from the parking lot!" Bubba replied, "Did you see who it was? "The young man answered, "I couldn't tell , but I got the license number.
When we stand in the middle of a lifestorm, it seems as if the storm has become our way of life. We cannot see a way out. We are unable to chart a course back to smoother waters. We feel defeated--and broken. Will that brokenness produce a cynicism that will keep us forever in the mire of "if only" thinking? Or will we yield up that brokenness to the resources of One who calms the winds and the waves, heals the brokenhearted, and forgives the most grievous of sins? The choice is ours. --Verdell Davis, "Riches Stored in Secret Places"
There are two types of chaos: the chaos of creativity vs. the chaos of over-creation and incompletion. Which one best describes you? —Leslie Boyer, “Managing Chaos,”
If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.
Only 14 percent of evangelicals in the United States believe poverty is something that churches should take the lead in addressing. That's still more than triple the rate of the average population (4 percent). - Source: Barna.org (June, 2007)
"Being a Christian doesn't mean hovering above the ugliness of life. It means we are given the weapons necessary to face wickedness with the hope of creating something good in its place." - Paul Coughlin, No More Jellyfish, Chickens, or Wimps
"The God-life cannot be domesticated or used – it can only be entered into on its own terms. Holiness does not make God smaller so that he can be used in convenient and manageable projects; it makes us larger so that God can give out life through us, extravagantly, spontaneously. The holy is an interior fire, a passion for living in and for God, a capacity for exuberance in the presence of God." - Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way
Police excuse angry computer user for outburst BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man who startled his neighbors when he hurled his computer out of the window in the middle of the night, was let off for disturbing the peace by police who sympathized with his technical frustrations. Police in the northern city of Hanover said they would not press charges after responding to calls made by residents in an apartment block who were woken by a loud crash in the early hours of Saturday. Officers found the street and pavement covered in electronic parts and discovered who the culprit was. Asked what had driven him to the night-time outburst, the 51-year-old man said he had simply got annoyed with his computer.
"Who hasn't felt like doing that?" said a police spokesman.
While escaping any official sanction the man was made to clear up the debris.
Americans spent more last year on bottled water than on iPods and movie tickets -- a whopping $15 billion.
If people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent obese, U.S. researchers predicted on Wednesday.
Eating beef ' is less green than driving'
Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday. Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef. Taking into account all the processes involved, they said, four average sized steaks generated greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 80.25lb of carbon dioxide.
This also consumed 169 megajoules of energy.
That means that 2.2lb of beef is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions which have the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by an ordinary car travelling at 50 miles per hour for 155 miles, a journey lasting three hours. The amount of energy consumed would light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.
FEEL USELESS AND HOPELESS?
Ever feel like the world is a tuxedo - and you're a pair of brown shoes? Just remember, you're in good company
NOAH was a drunk
ABRAHAM was too old
ISAAC was a daydreamer
JACOB was a liar
GIDEON was afraid
JONAH ran from God
ZACCHAEUS was too small
TIMOTHY was too young
JOHN the BAPTIST was called "crazy"
And all of them, and each of us, is forgiven by God in Christ Jesus! Look out world, here we come!
When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through. --Corrie Ten Boom
Can't remember life before mobiles? Chances are you'll also struggle to recall your home phone number and family birthdays.
According to a survey released Friday, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things.
A quarter of those polled said they couldn't remember their landline number, while two-thirds couldn't recall the birthdays of more than three friends or family members.
The tech-savvy young fared worse than older people. The under-30s could remember fewer birthdays and numbers than the over-50s, according to the survey.
Two-thirds said they relied on their phone or electronic organizer to remember key dates.
"People have more to remember these days and they are relying on technology more for their memory," said Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin.
"I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again." -- Stephen Grellet
"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." -- Frank A. Clark
"What is harder than rock, or softer than water? Yet soft water hollows out hard rock. Persevere." -- Ovid, Roman poet
"The person rowing the boat seldom has time to rock it." -- Author Unknown
From “A Woman’s Journey to the Heart of God
“We have explored how Mary of Bethany was intent on abiding with the Lord and how her service overflowed from it. Because she sat at His feet, she expressed her love for Him. She depicts the abiding servant. Martha represents the busy servant. She loved the Lord, but in her serving, she became anxious and bothered. She was not at REST. Everything she did was in some sense a chore, and chores can easily become burdens. Since her identity came from her service, she had little time to sit at the feet of Jesus. She had stepped out of her Lord’s yoke.
If we are consistently joined to the Lord, we will seek His guidance before accepting any additions to our schedule or any commitments to serve. His desire is to give us rest and burdens that are light. This doesn’t mean that we are not busy, but it does mean that in our God-directed busyness, His strength and grace are with us. When our service is the will of God, we have His power to do what He gives us to do. We experience His refreshment in the process of our work that is done for Him.
Where do you suppose Jesus wanted Martha the day He visited her home - in the kitchen, or at His feet? I think He desired her to be at His feet. If Martha had as much as a crust of bread and a fish or two, then they were in good shape for a meal. The Lord was there, and He provides all that we need, including rest.”
Oswald Chambers says:
“Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on Him. A great many Christian workers worship their work. The one concern of a worker should be concentration on God, and this will mean that all the other margins of life, mental, moral, and spiritual, are free with the freedom of a child! A worker without this solemn dominant note of concentration on God is apt to get his work on his neck; there is no margin of body, mind or spirit free, consequently he becomes spent out and crushed. There is no freedom, no delight in life; nerves, mind and heart are so crushingly burdened that God’s blessing cannot rest.”
Watchman Nee says in his piece, “Treasure in a Vessel.”
“All the worry and fret of God’s children would end if their eyes were opened to see the greatness of the treasure hid in their hearts. Do you know there are resources enough in your own heart to meet the demand of every circumstance in which you will ever find yourself? Do you know there is power enough to move the city in which you live? Do you know there is power enough to shake the universe? Let me tell you once more - I say it with the utmost reverence: You who have been born again of the Spirit of God - you carry God in your heart!
Do you realize what happened at your conversion? God came into your heart and made it His temple. In Solomon’s days, God dwelt in a temple made of stone; today He dwells in a temple composed of living believers. When we really see that God has made our hearts His dwelling place, what a deep reverence will come over our lives! Has it really come home to you that wherever you go you carry with you the Holy Spirit of God? You do not just carry your Bible with you, or even much good teaching about God, but God Himself!
Why is it that some of God’s children live victorious lives while others are in a state of constant defeat? (my note: why are some Marys and some Marthas?!) The difference is not accounted for by the presence or absence of the Spirit (for He dwells in the heart of every child of God) but by this, that some recognize His indwelling and others do not. Some recognize the divine ownership of their lives while others are still their own masters. True revelation of the fact of the Spirit’s indwelling will revolutionize the life of any Christian.
Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration the second. A day comes in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the ABSOLUTE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST.”
CHRIST IN ME - the hope of glory!!
WORDS OF WISDOM
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert Einstein
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph." -- Haile Selassie
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -- Calvin Coolidge
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." -- Abraham Lincoln
THE DEVIL'S BEATITUDES
If the devil were to write his beatitudes, they would probably go something like this:
1. Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians--they are my best workers.
2. Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked--I can use them.
3. Blessed are the touchy who stop going to church--they are my missionaries.
4. Blessed are the troublemakers--they shall be called my children.
5. Blessed are the complainers--I'm all ears to them.
6. Blessed are those who are bored with the minister's mannerisms and mistakes--for they get nothing out of his sermons.
7. Blessed is the church member who expects to be invited to his own church--for he is a part of the problem instead of the solution.
8. Blessed are those who gossip--for they shall cause strife and division that please me.
9. Blessed are those who are easily offended--for they will soon get angry and quit.
10. Blessed are those who do not give their offering to carry on God's work--for they are my helpers.
11. Blessed is he who professes to love God but hates his brother and sister--for he shall be with me forever.
12. Blessed are you who, when you read this, think it's about other people and not yourself--I've got you too
posted by joypastordon at 2:27 PM
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