May 10
When you're too busy for family, friends or most importantly, God, you really are too busy.
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it in the nest.
'We are all beggars who have found bread, and we merely want to tell another beggar where we found it,'
Take the Bible Literally? 36% of Americans believe the Bible is the "actual Word of God" and is to be taken literally, while 40% say it is the Word of God although not everything in it should be taken literally. (Pew Research Center 4/4/09)
The Mosaic That Shows Us the Face of God
A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.
That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: "I make God visible." But others who see us together can say: "They make God visible." Community is where humility and glory touch.
Mothers
If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper--not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness - not godliness. Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love is present through the trials. Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive. Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood. Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart. Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.
As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.
Author Unknown
Abraham Lincoln: No man is poor who has had a godly mother.
In an old Peanuts strip, Peppermint Patty and Violet are reflecting on being a grandmother. After Patty declares that she would like to be a grandmother, Violet agrees and says it would be nice because all they have to do is “sit and rock” (not quite the case, is it?) The girls then decide that the trouble with being a grandmother is that first you have to be a wife and then a mother…and Violet sighs, “I know it…it’s all those preliminaries that get me!”
William Ross Wallace: The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.
Worldwide network: A brief history of the internet
1969 The internet is created by the US Department of Defense with the networking of computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.
1979 The British Post Office uses the technology to create the first international computer networks.
1980 Bill Gates's deal to put a Microsoft Operating System on IBM's computers paves the way for almost universal computer ownership.
1984 Apple launches the first successful 'modern' computer interface using graphics to represent files and folders, drop-down menus and, crucially, mouse control.
1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates the world wide web – using browsers, pages and links to make communication on the internet simple.
1996 Google begins as a research project at Stanford University. The company is formally founded two years later by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
2009 Dr Stephen Wolfram launches Wolfram Alpha.
One idea relates to praying before a meal in a restaurant. you can tell the server, "We're going to pray for our meal in just a few minutes. Is there anything that we can pray for you about?"
The Orchard of Your Life
A grapevine is a most productive plant. Spreading out its branches, each is intended to bring forth fruit. No vine grower is foolish enough to invest his time and effort in cultivating vines merely for the foliage on its branches. He looks for results. Fruits! As the branches of Christ in the Kingdom of God, we are expected to produce the fruits of spiritual life. And no, we're not speaking of spiritual apples, grapes, pears, or peaches this morning. We're talking of what's going on in the orchard of your life. What are you producing?
Saint Paul once enumerated in his writings what those fruits of the spirit were. He said, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." How's that for a fruit basket? A good list for the cultivation of life's orchard. With these fruits in mind, what's going on in your orchard?
C.S. Lewis wrote, "God has designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy without bothering about religion. God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
You and I live in the period of history where we have access to more information than ever before. We have so much information that it produces what has been called the "Paralysis of Analysis." It was the poet T. S. Eliot who wrote:
Where is the wisdom--we have lost in knowledge.
Where is the knowledge--we have lost in information.
Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and many accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
The beauty of our faith is that God gave us more than information--he gave us Himself. He gave us more than rules and outward appearances. He gave us a relationship with him. Colossians 2:10, "In Him you have been made complete." Only he can satisfy your deepest longing and bring order to your innermost being. In Jesus Christ, God’s word became flesh. He is alive!
Knowing the entire Bible by heart, and understanding it so well that you can explain every single verse, is of little use to you, unless the biblical Word penetrates your inmost being, as the rain penetrates the tiniest roots of a tree in order in order to rise and to fill the whole tree and to bring forth leaves and fruit.
Source of Our Power
The story is told of a native from a remote mountain village who had the opportunity to visit a large modern city for the first time. He could not bring much home with him, and he had little money. But he was amazed at the electric lights which he saw everywhere.
So he bought a sack full of electric lights bulbs and sockets with switches so he could turn them off and on.
Arriving home he hung the light bulbs in front of his home and on his and his neighbor's trees. Everyone watched him with curiosity and asked him what he was doing, but he just smiled and said, "Just wait until dark--you'll see."
When night came he turned on the switches, but nothing happened.
No one had told him about electricity. He did not know the light bulbs were useless unless connected to the source of their power.
Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." There are many people who do not know that the way they are living their lives is useless. They got the education; they got the job; they made the family; and bought the home but when the sunsets and night comes and they reach for the switch nothing happens. They do not know that there is a source, which makes all these things light up!
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once was asked, "How do you measure the success of your work?" She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, "I don't remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in Love. This is the only success that counts."
Well, it is "cool" when we stay connected to Christ's Servant Mentality when we get up in the morning and go through the day looking constantly (natural as breathing) for ways we can be Christ-like servants.
Instead of ending your prayers 'in Jesus' name', try using an expanded version of this phrase, like "I am asking this Lord, because your Son authorized me to do so and because I am certain it is what He wants me to ask. Grant it not because of any worth in me, but because Your Son had earned it."
God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. D. L. Moody
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all." -- Dale Carnegie
"There is a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing head-on the hard truths and saying, 'We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail.'" -- Jim Collins
"You cannot see faith, but you can see the footprints of the faithful. We must leave behind "faithful footprints" for others to follow." -- Dr. Dennis Anderson
"A good plan is like a road map: It shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there" -- H. Stanley Judd
“The greatest discovery of this generation is that a human being can alter their life by altering their attitude.” -- William James
Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton. One student asked the renowned German theologian, "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?" Barth's answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son Jesus."
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it in the nest.
'We are all beggars who have found bread, and we merely want to tell another beggar where we found it,'
Take the Bible Literally? 36% of Americans believe the Bible is the "actual Word of God" and is to be taken literally, while 40% say it is the Word of God although not everything in it should be taken literally. (Pew Research Center 4/4/09)
The Mosaic That Shows Us the Face of God
A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.
That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: "I make God visible." But others who see us together can say: "They make God visible." Community is where humility and glory touch.
Mothers
If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper--not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness - not godliness. Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love is present through the trials. Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive. Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood. Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart. Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.
As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.
Author Unknown
Abraham Lincoln: No man is poor who has had a godly mother.
In an old Peanuts strip, Peppermint Patty and Violet are reflecting on being a grandmother. After Patty declares that she would like to be a grandmother, Violet agrees and says it would be nice because all they have to do is “sit and rock” (not quite the case, is it?) The girls then decide that the trouble with being a grandmother is that first you have to be a wife and then a mother…and Violet sighs, “I know it…it’s all those preliminaries that get me!”
William Ross Wallace: The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.
Worldwide network: A brief history of the internet
1969 The internet is created by the US Department of Defense with the networking of computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.
1979 The British Post Office uses the technology to create the first international computer networks.
1980 Bill Gates's deal to put a Microsoft Operating System on IBM's computers paves the way for almost universal computer ownership.
1984 Apple launches the first successful 'modern' computer interface using graphics to represent files and folders, drop-down menus and, crucially, mouse control.
1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates the world wide web – using browsers, pages and links to make communication on the internet simple.
1996 Google begins as a research project at Stanford University. The company is formally founded two years later by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
2009 Dr Stephen Wolfram launches Wolfram Alpha.
One idea relates to praying before a meal in a restaurant. you can tell the server, "We're going to pray for our meal in just a few minutes. Is there anything that we can pray for you about?"
The Orchard of Your Life
A grapevine is a most productive plant. Spreading out its branches, each is intended to bring forth fruit. No vine grower is foolish enough to invest his time and effort in cultivating vines merely for the foliage on its branches. He looks for results. Fruits! As the branches of Christ in the Kingdom of God, we are expected to produce the fruits of spiritual life. And no, we're not speaking of spiritual apples, grapes, pears, or peaches this morning. We're talking of what's going on in the orchard of your life. What are you producing?
Saint Paul once enumerated in his writings what those fruits of the spirit were. He said, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." How's that for a fruit basket? A good list for the cultivation of life's orchard. With these fruits in mind, what's going on in your orchard?
C.S. Lewis wrote, "God has designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy without bothering about religion. God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
You and I live in the period of history where we have access to more information than ever before. We have so much information that it produces what has been called the "Paralysis of Analysis." It was the poet T. S. Eliot who wrote:
Where is the wisdom--we have lost in knowledge.
Where is the knowledge--we have lost in information.
Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and many accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
The beauty of our faith is that God gave us more than information--he gave us Himself. He gave us more than rules and outward appearances. He gave us a relationship with him. Colossians 2:10, "In Him you have been made complete." Only he can satisfy your deepest longing and bring order to your innermost being. In Jesus Christ, God’s word became flesh. He is alive!
Knowing the entire Bible by heart, and understanding it so well that you can explain every single verse, is of little use to you, unless the biblical Word penetrates your inmost being, as the rain penetrates the tiniest roots of a tree in order in order to rise and to fill the whole tree and to bring forth leaves and fruit.
Source of Our Power
The story is told of a native from a remote mountain village who had the opportunity to visit a large modern city for the first time. He could not bring much home with him, and he had little money. But he was amazed at the electric lights which he saw everywhere.
So he bought a sack full of electric lights bulbs and sockets with switches so he could turn them off and on.
Arriving home he hung the light bulbs in front of his home and on his and his neighbor's trees. Everyone watched him with curiosity and asked him what he was doing, but he just smiled and said, "Just wait until dark--you'll see."
When night came he turned on the switches, but nothing happened.
No one had told him about electricity. He did not know the light bulbs were useless unless connected to the source of their power.
Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." There are many people who do not know that the way they are living their lives is useless. They got the education; they got the job; they made the family; and bought the home but when the sunsets and night comes and they reach for the switch nothing happens. They do not know that there is a source, which makes all these things light up!
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once was asked, "How do you measure the success of your work?" She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, "I don't remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in Love. This is the only success that counts."
Well, it is "cool" when we stay connected to Christ's Servant Mentality when we get up in the morning and go through the day looking constantly (natural as breathing) for ways we can be Christ-like servants.
Instead of ending your prayers 'in Jesus' name', try using an expanded version of this phrase, like "I am asking this Lord, because your Son authorized me to do so and because I am certain it is what He wants me to ask. Grant it not because of any worth in me, but because Your Son had earned it."
God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. D. L. Moody
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all." -- Dale Carnegie
"There is a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing head-on the hard truths and saying, 'We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail.'" -- Jim Collins
"You cannot see faith, but you can see the footprints of the faithful. We must leave behind "faithful footprints" for others to follow." -- Dr. Dennis Anderson
"A good plan is like a road map: It shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there" -- H. Stanley Judd
“The greatest discovery of this generation is that a human being can alter their life by altering their attitude.” -- William James
Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton. One student asked the renowned German theologian, "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?" Barth's answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son Jesus."
posted by joypastordon at 7:20 PM
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