Sept 28

Modern mankind can be completely curious about the universe. But only a rare person is curious enough to want to know God. --A. W. Tozer

A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in
is wise enough to watch out for me. --Philip Yancey


Is it true that rabbits prefer stories with hoppy endings?

Time will, ever so slowly, reveal on the outside what God has been working on the inside.

We have so badly abused the expression “Christian life,”
we ought revert to the true Biblical meaning, “the Christ life.”

There is no living Buddha, no living Confucius, no living Mohammed,
but there is a Living Christ. We serve a risen Savior, He‘s in the world today.


It is said, Life’s a trip but it doesn’t come with a map … nay, but it does … the Bible is our Map and it never needs to be refolded.

Put your best foot forward -- and not in your mouth.

“God has not promised us tomorrow, but He has promised us eternity.” (Tony Snow, once White House Press Secretary)

If what you're doing for God does not require a miracle, you’re not doing enough.

Everyone has standards, some are high, some are low.

If you’re doing the best you can, get a bigger can.

THE MAN WHO WALKS WITH GOD ..
.. ALWAYS KNOWS IN WHAT DIRECTION HE IS GOING.

There is no greater mistake than to suppose that Christians can impress the world by agreeing with it.

Our government faces future liabilities of at least $53 trillion—that’s trillion with a “T.” This includes entitlements, government pensions, Medicare, and other promises we have made. It’s $175,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, and acts with a hand that never fails.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when he was in a Nazi prison and was destined to be hanged on year later, made this statement, "In view of our supreme purpose, the present difficulties and disappointments seem trivial."


Do you want ALL of God or only SOME of God ...
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love an enemy or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. -- Wilbur Rees

An Illustration of a “Submissive Mind and Life”
E. Stanley Jones, well-known Christian missionary to India, tells of a situation where the fellow members of his ashram helped him in a problem regarding his spiritual reputation. It seems that for a number of years Jones had supported a prominent man financially. And when the time came that he could no longer support him, the man turned on Jones and attacked him in the public press. So E. Stanley Jones sat down and wrote a letter of reply of a few sentences, the kind of reply in which you don't give your opponent a leg to stand on. As he put it, "the kind of reply you are proud of the first five minutes, the second five minutes you're not so certain, and the third five minutes you know you're wrong." But before he mailed this letter he sent this reply to the people of the ashram to get their opinion of it. They sent it back with three words written on the margin: "Not sufficiently redemptive." As Jones read those words he was devastated. He knew that he was winning the argument, but losing his man. He knew immediately that the "Christian is not in the business of winning arguments, but of winning people." So he tore up the letter and said, "Lord, you'll have to take care of my reputation." A few weeks later he received a letter of apology from the man who had turned on him.
When the self is unsurrendered, it tends to be touchy, easily provoked, unable to bear insults. When the self is surrendered to Christ and the love of Jesus fills and cleanses the self; then we can bear all things, endure all things, and men and women are impacted by our lives. --James S. Hewett

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all;
but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.” --Martin Luther

A Sunday school teacher said to her children, "We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a higher power. Can anybody tell me what it is?"
One child blurted out, "Aces!"

If God were not willing to forgive sin, heaven would be empty. --German proverb

In an attempt to attract a more modern, hipper, high-tech type of customer, Campbell's Alphabet Soup now comes with spell check.

America : A country where half the money is spent buying food, and the other half is spent trying to lose weight.

Cost-free Discipleship Produces Wimps
Brennan Manning in his book, The Signature of Jesus, writes, “We have made it too easy to be a Christian. The sole requirements are the recitation of a creed and attendance at a local church where there is no community and little fellowship. Christianity used to be risky business; it is no longer. Cost-free discipleship produces wimps.” Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.

Anger is only one letter short of danger.

If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.

He who loses money, loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses much more;
He who loses faith, loses all

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.

Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make them all yourself

Obedience Is a Means
"Whenever I take the opportunity to actively love God in personal obedience, I end up sensing a new tenderness in my heart toward Him and a stronger resolve to obey again next time. Obedience is not an end, but a means-a means to express our love to God, and a means to increase our love for God. It is a catalyst in the process of loving God and becoming more like Jesus." Martha Thatcher, The Freedom of Obedience
- Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

- Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

- We could learn a lot from crayons--some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, and some have weird names, but they all have to live in the same box.

September 21

Analysis of Income, Poverty and Health Insurance
The Census Bureau just released an in-depth analysis of income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the U.S. in 2007.
* Real median household income in the United States climbed 1.3 percent between 2006 and 2007, reaching $50,233. This is the third annual increase in real [inflation-adjusted] median household income.
* Meanwhile, the nation's official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5 percent, not statistically different from 2006. There were 37.3 million people in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in 2006.
* The number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006 to 45.7 million (15.3) in 2007.
* Real income rose for black households, the first increase since 1999.
* Real income was statistically unchanged for Hispanic and Asian households.
* National income inequality decreased from 2006 to 2007.
* The poverty threshold for a family of four in 2007 was $21,203.
* 21.5 percent of Hispanics were in poverty in 2007, up from 20.6 percent in 2006.
* 18 percent of children under 18 were in poverty in 2007, up from 17.4 percent in 2006.
* Uninsured children decreased from 8.7 to 8.1 million.
* Uninsured Hispanics decreased from 15.3 to 14.8 million.


A reporter once asked Pope John XXIII, "How many people work here in the Vatican?" to which the dear, old Pope answered, "Oh, about half, I guess."

Offering Our Addictions to God
We should give to God the things that restrict and limit us. We've read of one church where there was an alcoholic in the membership who insisted on buying the wine for Communion. When his pastor asked him why, the man said, "Because there is something about going in to buy that wine, then giving it to the church, and seeing you dedicate it to God and it becoming something that transforms people's lives." Offering to God that which enslaves us is a first step on any road to recovery.

Driving to a new restaurant, a woman took several wrong turns. When she finally found the right road, she asked her husband, "Why didn't you tell me I was lost?"
"I thought you knew where you were going," he replied.
"You always know where you're going when I'm driving!"

A story is told of a father that dropped off his son for Sunday School. He didn't attend church but wanted his son to go. The father's lack of concern rubbed off on his son. After church he picked him up and asked him what the preacher talked about. The boy replied, "I'm not real sure. A parable about cold people or something." "What?" the puzzled father said. The boy explained, "Well, the preacher kept saying many are cold, a few are frozen."

My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it.

The strength of a church is not revealed by how many it seats, but by how many it sends. --W. Stanley Mooneyham

The newly-married husband came home from the office to find his young wife in floods of tears. "Darling, whatever is the matter?" he asked.
"Sweetheart," she sobbed, "the most terrible thing has happened! I cooked my very first Beef Bourguignon for you, and I got it out of the oven to season it, and the phone rang. When I came back from answering the phone," she sobbed again. "I found that the cat had
eaten it!"
"Don't worry, darling," said her husband. "Don't cry. We can get a new cat tomorrow."


Generosity Is the Secret to Our Joy
There is an old rabbinic parable about a farmer that had two sons. As soon as they were old enough to walk, he took them to the fields and he taught them everything that he knew about growing crops and raising animals. When he got too old to work, the two boys took over the chores of the farm and when the father died, they had found their working together so meaningful that they decided to keep their partnership. So each brother contributed what he could and during every harvest season, they would divide equally what they had corporately produced. Across the years the elder brother never married, stayed an old bachelor. The younger brother did marry and had eight wonderful children. Some years later when they were having a wonderful harvest, the old bachelor brother thought to himself one night, "My brother has ten mouths to feed. I only have one. He really needs more of his harvest than I do, but I know he is much too fair to renegotiate. I know what I'll do. In the dead of the night when he is already asleep, I'll take some of what I have put in my barn and I'll slip it over into his barn to help him feed his children.
At the very time he was thinking down that line, the younger brother was thinking to himself, "God has given me these wonderful children. My brother hasn't been so fortunate. He really needs more of this harvest for his old age than I do, but I know him. He's much too fair. He'll never renegotiate. I know what I'll do. In the dead of the night when he's asleep, I'll take some of what I've put in my barn and slip it over into his barn." And so one night when the moon was full, as you may have already anticipated, those two brothers came face to face, each on a mission of generosity. The old rabbi said that there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a gentle rain began to fall. You know what it was? God weeping for joy because two of his children had gotten the point. Two of his children had come to realize that generosity is the deepest characteristic of the holy and because we are made in God's image, our being generous is the secret to our joy as well. Life is not fair, thank God! It's not fair because it's rooted in grace.

Fairness
This parable goes against the business mentality that dominates our lives. We have always been taught: You get out of something directly in proportion to that which you put in it. Yet, that is not what happened in Jesus’ story. In our way of thinking, the laborers who came to the field late got something for nothing. This parable challenges us not to look upon the Kingdom of God, or the church, as a business community. Yet, that is difficult for us to do, because that is our point of reference. What do you think would happen if a person joined the church this morning and immediately after receiving the vows of profession of faith I suggested to the congregation that he or she be nominated as the next chairperson of the Administrative Board. What do you think the reaction would be? Well, I think I know what the reaction would be. The laity would protest as loudly as Simon Peter is protesting to Jesus.
You see, we live in a world of tenure and seniority and it goes against our grain when we hear Jesus say: The first shall be last and the last shall be first. God's grace is not based upon what is fair, but rather what helps.

A sparrow complained to Mother Nature, "You gave beautiful colors to the peacock and a lovely song to the nightingale, but I am plain and unnoticed. Why was I made to suffer?"
"You were not made to suffer," stated Mother Nature. "You suffer because you make the same foolish mistake as human beings. You compare yourself with others. Be yourself, for in that there is no comparison and no pain."


The UN Population Division issued a report in March 2007 stating that the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the next 43 years, passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the total size of the world population in 1950, and it will be absorbed mostly by the less developed regions, whose population is projected to rise from 5.4 billion in 2007 to 7.9 billion in 2050. If you think the world feels crowded now, just wait. In 1800, London was the world’s largest city with one million people. By 1960, there were 111 cities with more than one million people. By 1995 there were 280, and today there are over 300. The number of megacities (with ten million or more population) in the world has climbed from 5 in 1975 to 14 in 1995 and is expected to reach 26 cities by 2015.


The only way to learn strong faith is to endure great trials. --George Mueller

September 14

Disney World: A people-trap operated by a mouse.

The lions showed no interest in Daniel. Why should they? After all, he was nothing but backbone and gut. --Max R. Hickerson

Eight-year-old Sally brought her report card home from school. Her marks were good ... mostly A's and a couple of B's. However, her teacher had written across the bottom:
"Sally is a smart little girl, but she has one fault. She talks too much in school. I have an idea I am going to try, which I think may break her of the habit."
Sally's dad signed her report card, putting a note on the back:
"Please let me know if your idea works on Sally because I would like to try it out on her mother."

Many of our fears are tissue-paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them. --Brendan Francis

Discipleship in Community
Very few people are expert in anything all by themselves. They need a supporting community. Do you know a good musician who was not trained, nurtured and sustained by the music community? Show me an athlete who achieves excellence all alone, apart from the athletic community. Very few wise men become so without the accumulated wisdom of the centuries as expressed in colleges and universities and libraries. Medical people are more like ensembles and symphonies than soloists. What business tycoon does it all on his own without dedicated experts in finance, engineering, personnel, and marketing? Excellence requires participation in, and support of, a community of like-minded people.
Likewise in the church -- a forerunner of the new kingdom. Very few achieve Christian maturity all by themselves. Seldom is the Bible studied diligently without the aid of scholars and teachers. Rarely are people led to generosity by their own impulses. Maurice A. Fetty,

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall." - Confucius

Corporate Effects of Sin
A man is on a boat. He is not alone, but acts as if he were. One night, without warning, he suddenly begins to cut a hole under his seat.
The other people on the boat shout and shriek at him: "What on earth are you doing? Have you gone mad? Do you want to sink us all? Are you trying to destroy us?"
Calmly, the man answers: "I don't understand what you want. What I'm doing is none of your business. I paid my way. I'm not cutting under your seat. Leave me alone!" What the fanatic (and the egotist) will not accept, but what you and I cannot forget, is that all of us are in the same boat. Elie Wiesel

Be Direct
Would that Christians would follow the steps Jesus outlines! Instead we talk in the parking lot or talk to a neighbor about our sister's sins. And they really are not sins anyway. They are usually just something we don't like. Once a church member complained that her children were disgusted with all the negative talk in the church. Her children would not attend anymore. I asked her from whom her kids were hearing this talk. Sheepishly she responded that the kids had been listening to their parents. What Jesus outlines is pretty much commonsense. If we have a problem with someone, we must talk to him not someone else. If we just talk to other people, nothing happens other than our being labeled a bore. John D. Keeny

Work - God planned for us to work: work was a part of God's good creation. Martin Luther said, "God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest."

Our society can buy that. Kennan Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inn chain said, "I believe to be successful, that you have to work at least half a day - it doesn't make any difference which half, the first twelve hours or the last twelve hours!" As someone has wisely noted, the only place success comes before work is the dictionary. David Leininger

Thoughts for the week: "He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass, for every man has need to be forgiven."

"There are no hopeless situations. There are only people who have grown hopeless about them." - Clare Booth Luce

"Love cures people-both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." - Karl Menninger

Forgiveness Written in Stone
A story is told of two friends who were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand, "Today my best friends slapped me in the face."
They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from nearly drowning, he wrote on a stone, "Today my best friend saved my life."
His friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase itaway. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."
So real forgiveness keeps on leaving the sins of others and our hurts in the past. Yet Jesus understands the difficulty of such forgiveness. To keep on forgiving is a God-like characteristic. It is contrary to human nature.

Many Christians Have Stopped Going to Church - Washington Times religion editor Julia Duin says many Christians have stopped going to church because they're not getting meaningful worship, teaching or fellowship.
In her new book, "Quitting Church," Duin says church dropouts often feel like they've heard all the sermons and served their congregations for years, but have simply burned out. As a result, she says many faithful Christians have replaced Sunday worship with private devotions or informal home groups.
She adds that many churches are so focused on families that they pay little or no attention to baby boomers, the elderly and young singles.
Duin urges pastors to first become aware of the problem and then ask people why they're leaving. Too often, she says, church members believe rightly that if they leave, no one will care or even notice.

When asked what they would try to do when wronged, American adults chose forgiveness over revenge six to one. A Gallup Poll found that 48 percent would "try to forgive" while 8 percent would "try to get even." Other responses: discussing the problem (48 percent), overlooking the offense (45 percent), praying for comfort and guidance (27 percent), and praying for the offender (25 percent). And while 14 percent said they would hold their resentment inside, 9 percent said they would try to do something nice for the one who hurt them. -- Pentecostal Evangel

September 7

What would the cause of Christianity be like if thousands of modern Christians
had the same zeal to seek the Savior that the magi had?

We may not be what we want to be, but thank God we are not what we used to be.


WISE WORDS
During this political season let’s be reminded of these wise words.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. - Abraham Lincoln

"Did you ever see the customers in health-food stores?
They are pale skinny people who look half-dead.
In a steak house you see robust, ruddy people.
They're dying, of course, but they look terrific." - Bill Cosby

Mary was discussing the various aspects and possible outcome of the insurance policy with the clerk at the Insurance Agency. During the discussion, she asked. "Suppose I take the life insurance for my husband today for a million dollars, and tomorrow he dies? What will I get?"
The clerk eyed her suspiciously and replied, "Probably a life sentence."

Teaching is not for sensitive souls. While reviewing future, past and present tenses with my ninth-grade English class, I posed the question " 'I am beautiful' is what tense?"
One student raised her hand. "Past tense."

Harry was never shy about reminding people that he played semi-pro baseball.
"My teammates used to call me James Bond," he was telling his friends. "I had all sorts of tricks to confuse the opposition." "That and he batted .007," his wife added.

What does it mean to forgive? Author Ken Sande says that when you really forgive someone—your parent, your spouse, your child, your friend—you are making four specific promises to yourself and to them. You are saying: Number 1. “I will not dwell on this incident.” Number 2. “I will not bring this incident up and use it against you.” Number 3. “I will not talk to others about it.” And Number 4. “I will not allow this matter to stand between us or hinder our personal relationship.”

With Him the calf is always the fatted calf; the robe is always the best robe; the joy is unspeakable; and the peace passes understanding. There is no grudging in God's goodness. He does not measure His goodness by drops like a druggist filling a prescription. It comes to us in floods. If only we recognize the lavish abundance of His gifts, what a difference it would make in our lives! If every meal were taken as a gift from His hand, it would be almost a sacrament.
--Haddon W. Robinson

"I have the most marvelous recipe for meat loaf - all I have to do is mention it to my husband and he says, 'Let's eat out!'"

One of the wise folk sayings of the Russian people is this: Make peace with men, and make war with your sins." Unfortunately, we usually do the opposite!" James W. Cox,

Let us not then be disturbed, neither dismayed, when trials befall us. For if the gold refiner sees how long he ought to leave the piece of gold in the furnace, and when he ought to draw it out, and does not allow it to remain in the fire until it is destroyed and burnt up: much more does God understand this, and when He sees that we have become more pure, He releases us from our trials so that we may not be overthrown and cast down by the multiplication of our evils. Let us then not be repining, or faint-hearted, when some unexpected thing befalls us; but let us suffer Him who knows these things accurately, to prove our hearts by fire as long as He pleases: for He does this for a useful purpose and with a view to the profit of those who are tried. --Chrysostom 3rd century

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. Norman Vincent Peale

At home in my own house there is no warmth or vigor in me, but in the church, when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through. Martin Luther

• Most Affluent City in the U.S.A. The Census Bureau released its annual report on income and poverty last week. It may surprise you to learn that Plano, Texas, is the report's star among cities with populations of 250,000 or more. Plano has the highest income — median household income in 2007, $84,492 — and the lowest poverty rate. Plano is the home to corporate headquarters for Frito-Lay, JCPenney and other companies. Billionaire Ross Perot founded computer giant EDS and Perot Systems, both still based in Plano. Despite its affluence, the median home price is about $225,000.
The poorest city in the nation was Detroit — replacing Cleveland — with a median household income of $28,097. [abcnews.com]
The top 1 percent of all households owned 35 percent of the world's wealth last year. Meanwhile, the top 0.001 percent, ultra-rich households holding at least $5 million in assets, commanded $21 trillion -- a fifth of the world's wealth.

An interesting observation from Nicole Malachowski who debuted in March 2006 as the first female pilot of the elite “Thunderbirds” - the Air Force air demonstration squadron. She was asked what it was like being the first woman Thunderbird. Her answer; “The plane doesn’t know I‘m a woman.”


When our service becomes performance - then it becomes entertainment, and man’s applause becomes the measure of our success.

You only believe that which compels you to action.

"The more progress you make in your spiritual life, the greater your conflict with the forces of evil." (George Whitefield)

“You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.” (James Thurber)

The greatness of a church is not determined by size, but by reach.

Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.

They caught me driving too slow. You mean for driving too fast. No, if I was driving faster, they wouldn’t have caught me.

An easy putt is one made by another player.

The humidity was terrible at the lake. We set out a mousetrap and caught a fish.

Not long ago, the doctor said I had to stop eating fast food, get up earlier, start exercising, and quit being so easily agitated. So what did you do? What could I do? I changed doctors.

Second place just means first loser.

Forgiveness: Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury. E. H. Chapin