March 22
God grades on the cross, not the curve. -Bumper sticker
"Eighty-eight percent know their astrological signs with half of the entire population reading their horoscopes at least once a month -- outnumbering scriptural readers by two to one." --Salt,
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
-Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005, Sr. Pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church (Memphis, TN)
If you want to be happy for an hour, take a nap.
If you want to be happy for a week, take a vacation.
If you want to be happy for a month, get married.
If you want to be happy for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want to be happy for a lifetime, help other people.
What would happen if we all worked daily, in our everyday experience, to become and have a mind like Christ? What if we really put into practice the daily experience of placing others before ourselves? Let us that follow the way of Jesus actually follow the way of Jesus by having the mind of God. The practice of Phillipians 2 everyday means to let others in front of you in line, showing compassion and kindness to those that are frustrated and angry, and the giving of ourselves to others in real ways. What if we actually became the compassion of Christ? We begin by becoming ourselves, daily taking on the mind of Christ and seeing others through the eyes of God. Seeing and knowing that you are connected in everyway to others and that your kindness will be like a pebble thrown in a pond creating ripples that reach the whole pond. Meditate day and night on the compassion and love of Christ. Let the mind of Christ take you over as you take captive your thoughts and make them obedient to the commands of Christ. Let them ripple!!
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." -- Dwight Eisenhower
"Think of the number of trees and blades of grass and flowers, the extravagant wealth of beauty no one ever sees! Think of the sunrises and sunsets we never look at! God is lavish in every degree." -- Oswald Chambers
"The person who would like to make his dreams come true MUST STAY AWAKE." -- Richard Wheeler
"I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves." -- Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
"Be careful of the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful of the friends you choose for you will become like them." -- W. Clement Stone
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." -- Albert Einstein
A Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest met at the town's annual 4th of July picnic. Old friends, they began their usual banter. "This baked ham is really delicious," the priest teased the rabbi. "You really ought to try it. I know it's against your religion, but I can't understand why such a wonderful food should be forbidden! You don't know what you're missing. You just haven't lived until you've tried Mrs. Hall's prized Virginia Baked Ham. Tell me, Rabbi, when are you going to break down and try it?" The rabbi looked at the priest with a big grin, and said, "At your wedding."
Thought for Today Every day do something you don't want to do. Pick up someone else's trash. Surrender your parking place. Call the long-winded relative. Carry the cooler. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Helen Keller once told the Tennessee legislature that when she was young, she had longed to do great things and could not, so she decided to do small things in a great way. Don't be too big to do something small.
DEAD BATTERY A few years ago the battery in my beat-up VW Beetle had died because I left the lights on overnight. I was in a hurry to get to work on time so I ran into the house to get my wife to give me a hand to start the car. I told her to get into our second car, a prehistoric oversized gas guzzler, and use it to push my car fast enough to start it. I pointed out to her that because the VW had an automatic transmission, it needed to be pushed at least 20 mph for it to start. She said fine, hopped into her car and drove off. I sat there fuming wondering what she could be doing. A minute passed by and when I saw her in the rear-view mirror coming at me at about 30 mph. I realized that I should have been a bit clearer with my directions.
Soft Cookies Have Become Crispy?
Put a slice of fresh bread on top of an aluminum foil sheet in the cookie jar. The bread will dry out and the cookies will become a tad softer.
Kierkegaard tells a parable about a flock of geese. Each Sunday it seems these geese would gather in the shade of the barn to hear the gander preach of the glorious destiny of geese. He would describe the grand purpose for which they were created, namely flying. Week after week they were enthralled by his messages about soaring above the clouds. Meanwhile, the geese were getting more and more plump until at Christmas time they were eaten and none of them ever experienced the exhilaration of real flight.
Kierkegaard called his tale "The Domestic Goose." We might call our tale this morning "The Domestic Christian."
A few years ago, Martin Marty said that ministers should stop reminding Christians that they cannot win salvation by good works, since "nobody is trying hard anymore."
IF YOU are worried about how much you owe on your credit cards, this might put things in perspective: America’s national debt limit was increased to $9 trillion. That’s $9,000,000,000,000 — enough to buy Buckingham Palace 9,000 times.
Historically, today’s national debt is the highest in dollar terms, but not as a percentage of GDP. In 1946 it was $270 billion — 122 per cent of GDP.
Today it is 65 per cent of GDP, very close to the postwar high of 67 per cent in 1996.
America has had a national debt since 1791, when it was $75 million. Today it rises by that amount every hour.
$9 TRILLION
Is roughly four times Britain’s GDP
Equates to $1,500 for every man, woman and child in the world
Would buy all the tea in China. In fact it would buy all the tea in the world for the next 2,000 years.
Is enough to solve the Palestinian crisis by rehousing every Israeli and Palestinian family in a £1.5m detached house in Henley-on-Thames
Would build 28 Eiffel Towers — constructed out of gold.
America has had a national debt since 1791, when it was $75 million. Today it rises by that amount every hour.
Miss Jones had been giving her second-grade students a lesson on science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron.
Now it was question time, and she asked, "My name begins with the letter 'M' and I pick up things. What am I?"
Little Johnny in the front row proudly said, "You're a mother!"
We often try to fix problems with WD-40 and duct tape. God did it with a nail.
Sitting at the bar after a game, Joe said to a club member, "I'm not about to play golf with Jim Walsh anymore."
"Why not?"
"Well, he found his lost ball two feet from the green," said Joe.
"That's possible."
"Not when I had his ball in my pocket!"
The people we like the least may need our love the most.
- Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb - but how well you bounce.
More On Work By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (582.3)
What we do to make a living plays such a critical role in our lives that it's worthwhile to ask ourselves now and again whether we're in the right job.
There are four dimensions of job satisfaction: what you do, who you work for, who you work with, and what you're paid. If there's a big deficiency in any one of these, you should consider changing your job by fixing what's broke or finding another one.
Remember, you do have a choice. Sure, you need a job, but it's a trap to believe you need the job you have. Like it or not, you could lose your job at any time for a whole lot of reasons. And if you do, you'll get a new job--often a better one.
To have a good life, you need a good job, one where you can feel a sense of achievement in what you do, where you can be proud of whom you work for, and where you like and respect the people you work with.
As Disraeli said, "Life is too short to be little." Don't belittle your life by demeaning work.
No job is inherently demeaning. Physical labor can be as rewarding and meaningful as management. Every job can be performed in a manner that is significant and worthwhile. What is demeaning is a job where you are pressured to compromise your values or where you work for or with people or a company you aren't proud to associate with--a boss who's dishonest, disrespectful, irresponsible, or unfair, or coworkers who don't care about quality and excellence.
John Ruskin said, "The highest reward for your toil is not what you get for it, but what you become by it." Your job should make you a better, as well as a happier, person.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
On Fear
The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within that endangers him, not the storm without. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
"Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love, time is eternity." --Henry Van Dyke
A minister was opening his mail one morning. Drawing a single sheet of paper from an envelope he found written on it only one word: "FOOL".
The next Sunday he announced, "I have known many people who have written letters and forgot to sign their name.
"But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and had forgotten to write a letter."
"I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change." -- Jim Rohn
I asked God to grant me patience. God said, No.
Patience is a by-product of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is earned.
I asked God to give me happiness. God said, No.
I give you blessings. Happiness is up to you.
I asked God to spare me pain. God said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.
I asked God to make my spirit grow. God said, No.
You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. God said, No.
I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things.
I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.
God said... Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.
i'M NEW TO THIS. wHAT IS THIS "cAPS lOCK" BUTTON FOR?
My wife still doesn't like the new bass boat I gave her for Valentine's Day.
Connecting With the Unchurched
Having studied the growing numbers of unchurched adults in America for more than two decades, George Barna indicated that we are approaching one of the two times of year when massive numbers of the unchurched alter their pattern and attend a church service. “Every year, many previously unchurched people return to a church for one or more Easter season services. More often than not, this is the result of one of two motivations: the compelling invitation of a close friend who accompanies them to the service, or a personal crisis that compels them to seek God more fervently. Impersonal marketing efforts generally have limited impact in persuading the unchurched to break their normal Sunday morning habits.”
"Eighty-eight percent know their astrological signs with half of the entire population reading their horoscopes at least once a month -- outnumbering scriptural readers by two to one." --Salt,
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
-Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005, Sr. Pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church (Memphis, TN)
If you want to be happy for an hour, take a nap.
If you want to be happy for a week, take a vacation.
If you want to be happy for a month, get married.
If you want to be happy for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want to be happy for a lifetime, help other people.
What would happen if we all worked daily, in our everyday experience, to become and have a mind like Christ? What if we really put into practice the daily experience of placing others before ourselves? Let us that follow the way of Jesus actually follow the way of Jesus by having the mind of God. The practice of Phillipians 2 everyday means to let others in front of you in line, showing compassion and kindness to those that are frustrated and angry, and the giving of ourselves to others in real ways. What if we actually became the compassion of Christ? We begin by becoming ourselves, daily taking on the mind of Christ and seeing others through the eyes of God. Seeing and knowing that you are connected in everyway to others and that your kindness will be like a pebble thrown in a pond creating ripples that reach the whole pond. Meditate day and night on the compassion and love of Christ. Let the mind of Christ take you over as you take captive your thoughts and make them obedient to the commands of Christ. Let them ripple!!
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." -- Dwight Eisenhower
"Think of the number of trees and blades of grass and flowers, the extravagant wealth of beauty no one ever sees! Think of the sunrises and sunsets we never look at! God is lavish in every degree." -- Oswald Chambers
"The person who would like to make his dreams come true MUST STAY AWAKE." -- Richard Wheeler
"I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves." -- Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
"Be careful of the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful of the friends you choose for you will become like them." -- W. Clement Stone
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." -- Albert Einstein
A Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest met at the town's annual 4th of July picnic. Old friends, they began their usual banter. "This baked ham is really delicious," the priest teased the rabbi. "You really ought to try it. I know it's against your religion, but I can't understand why such a wonderful food should be forbidden! You don't know what you're missing. You just haven't lived until you've tried Mrs. Hall's prized Virginia Baked Ham. Tell me, Rabbi, when are you going to break down and try it?" The rabbi looked at the priest with a big grin, and said, "At your wedding."
Thought for Today Every day do something you don't want to do. Pick up someone else's trash. Surrender your parking place. Call the long-winded relative. Carry the cooler. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Helen Keller once told the Tennessee legislature that when she was young, she had longed to do great things and could not, so she decided to do small things in a great way. Don't be too big to do something small.
DEAD BATTERY A few years ago the battery in my beat-up VW Beetle had died because I left the lights on overnight. I was in a hurry to get to work on time so I ran into the house to get my wife to give me a hand to start the car. I told her to get into our second car, a prehistoric oversized gas guzzler, and use it to push my car fast enough to start it. I pointed out to her that because the VW had an automatic transmission, it needed to be pushed at least 20 mph for it to start. She said fine, hopped into her car and drove off. I sat there fuming wondering what she could be doing. A minute passed by and when I saw her in the rear-view mirror coming at me at about 30 mph. I realized that I should have been a bit clearer with my directions.
Soft Cookies Have Become Crispy?
Put a slice of fresh bread on top of an aluminum foil sheet in the cookie jar. The bread will dry out and the cookies will become a tad softer.
Kierkegaard tells a parable about a flock of geese. Each Sunday it seems these geese would gather in the shade of the barn to hear the gander preach of the glorious destiny of geese. He would describe the grand purpose for which they were created, namely flying. Week after week they were enthralled by his messages about soaring above the clouds. Meanwhile, the geese were getting more and more plump until at Christmas time they were eaten and none of them ever experienced the exhilaration of real flight.
Kierkegaard called his tale "The Domestic Goose." We might call our tale this morning "The Domestic Christian."
A few years ago, Martin Marty said that ministers should stop reminding Christians that they cannot win salvation by good works, since "nobody is trying hard anymore."
IF YOU are worried about how much you owe on your credit cards, this might put things in perspective: America’s national debt limit was increased to $9 trillion. That’s $9,000,000,000,000 — enough to buy Buckingham Palace 9,000 times.
Historically, today’s national debt is the highest in dollar terms, but not as a percentage of GDP. In 1946 it was $270 billion — 122 per cent of GDP.
Today it is 65 per cent of GDP, very close to the postwar high of 67 per cent in 1996.
America has had a national debt since 1791, when it was $75 million. Today it rises by that amount every hour.
$9 TRILLION
Is roughly four times Britain’s GDP
Equates to $1,500 for every man, woman and child in the world
Would buy all the tea in China. In fact it would buy all the tea in the world for the next 2,000 years.
Is enough to solve the Palestinian crisis by rehousing every Israeli and Palestinian family in a £1.5m detached house in Henley-on-Thames
Would build 28 Eiffel Towers — constructed out of gold.
America has had a national debt since 1791, when it was $75 million. Today it rises by that amount every hour.
Miss Jones had been giving her second-grade students a lesson on science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron.
Now it was question time, and she asked, "My name begins with the letter 'M' and I pick up things. What am I?"
Little Johnny in the front row proudly said, "You're a mother!"
We often try to fix problems with WD-40 and duct tape. God did it with a nail.
Sitting at the bar after a game, Joe said to a club member, "I'm not about to play golf with Jim Walsh anymore."
"Why not?"
"Well, he found his lost ball two feet from the green," said Joe.
"That's possible."
"Not when I had his ball in my pocket!"
The people we like the least may need our love the most.
- Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb - but how well you bounce.
More On Work By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (582.3)
What we do to make a living plays such a critical role in our lives that it's worthwhile to ask ourselves now and again whether we're in the right job.
There are four dimensions of job satisfaction: what you do, who you work for, who you work with, and what you're paid. If there's a big deficiency in any one of these, you should consider changing your job by fixing what's broke or finding another one.
Remember, you do have a choice. Sure, you need a job, but it's a trap to believe you need the job you have. Like it or not, you could lose your job at any time for a whole lot of reasons. And if you do, you'll get a new job--often a better one.
To have a good life, you need a good job, one where you can feel a sense of achievement in what you do, where you can be proud of whom you work for, and where you like and respect the people you work with.
As Disraeli said, "Life is too short to be little." Don't belittle your life by demeaning work.
No job is inherently demeaning. Physical labor can be as rewarding and meaningful as management. Every job can be performed in a manner that is significant and worthwhile. What is demeaning is a job where you are pressured to compromise your values or where you work for or with people or a company you aren't proud to associate with--a boss who's dishonest, disrespectful, irresponsible, or unfair, or coworkers who don't care about quality and excellence.
John Ruskin said, "The highest reward for your toil is not what you get for it, but what you become by it." Your job should make you a better, as well as a happier, person.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
On Fear
The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within that endangers him, not the storm without. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
"Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love, time is eternity." --Henry Van Dyke
A minister was opening his mail one morning. Drawing a single sheet of paper from an envelope he found written on it only one word: "FOOL".
The next Sunday he announced, "I have known many people who have written letters and forgot to sign their name.
"But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and had forgotten to write a letter."
"I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change." -- Jim Rohn
I asked God to grant me patience. God said, No.
Patience is a by-product of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is earned.
I asked God to give me happiness. God said, No.
I give you blessings. Happiness is up to you.
I asked God to spare me pain. God said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.
I asked God to make my spirit grow. God said, No.
You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. God said, No.
I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things.
I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.
God said... Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.
i'M NEW TO THIS. wHAT IS THIS "cAPS lOCK" BUTTON FOR?
My wife still doesn't like the new bass boat I gave her for Valentine's Day.
Connecting With the Unchurched
Having studied the growing numbers of unchurched adults in America for more than two decades, George Barna indicated that we are approaching one of the two times of year when massive numbers of the unchurched alter their pattern and attend a church service. “Every year, many previously unchurched people return to a church for one or more Easter season services. More often than not, this is the result of one of two motivations: the compelling invitation of a close friend who accompanies them to the service, or a personal crisis that compels them to seek God more fervently. Impersonal marketing efforts generally have limited impact in persuading the unchurched to break their normal Sunday morning habits.”
posted by joypastordon at 2:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home