September 27

A vision without action is called a daydream; but then again, action without a vision is called a nightmare.

Baseball superstar Hank Aaron said, "It took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. In golf, it took one afternoon."

My heart has committed sins that my hands haven't gotten around to yet. --Michael Horton,

Jesus left . . .
His purse to Judas; His body to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus;
His mother to John the Beloved disciple; His seamless robe to the soldiers;
His peace to His disciples; His last supper to his followers;
His baptism to new believers; His love to the children.;
His healing to the sick; His teachings to the hungry in mind and spirit;
His church to society; His Gospel to the world; His hope for the hopeless.
His presence with all of God's children (quoted by Robert Strand, Fascinating Facts about Jesus (Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Press), #50.)

Americans now have about 25 consumer electronic products in every household, compared with just three in 1980. many products now require large amounts of power to run.
The biggest offender is the flat-screen television. As liquid crystal displays and plasma technologies replace the old cathode ray tubes, and as screen sizes increase, the new televisions need more power than older models do. And with all those gorgeous new televisions in their living rooms, Americans are spending more time than ever watching TV, averaging five hours a day.
The result is a surge in electricity use by TVs, which can draw more power in a year than some refrigerators now on the market.
Another power drain is the video game console, which is found in 40 percent of American households. Energy experts — and many frustrated parents — say that since saving games is difficult, children often keep the consoles switched on so they can pick up where they left off.

William Barclay told a story about someone changing signs. That is, at an intersection of the road, one sign would point to the city of Seattle and another sign would point to the city of Tacoma. And the boy wondered to himself: How many people could I send down the wrong road if I changed the signs? Your very life is a sign post with a sign on it. Are you sending people down the wrong road or the right road?

I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

The Cumulative Effect of Sin
Time-lapse photography compresses a series of events into one picture. Such a photo appeared in an issue of National Geographic. Taken from a Rocky Mountain peak during a heavy thunderstorm, the picture captured the brilliant lightning display that had taken place throughout the storm's duration. The time-lapse technique created a fascinating, spaghetti-like web out of the individual bolts. In such a way, our sin presents itself before the eyes of God. Where we see only isolated or individual acts, God sees the overall web of our sinning. What may seem insignificant -- even sporadic -- to us and passes with hardly a notice creates a much more dramatic display from God's panoramic viewpoint. The psalmist was right when he wrote, "Who can discern his [one's own] errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me." (Psalm 19:12-13).

Designed to Be Lived Up
Ted Engstrom of World Vision fame tells how one day he was cleaning out an old desk drawer. He found a flashlight he hadn't used in a year. He turned it on but there was no light. He shook it, and then he unscrewed one end to release what were probably dead batteries. The batteries wouldn't come out, but finally, after some effort, he shook them loose. What a mess he found! Corroded batteries with liquid acid seeping all over the mechanism - all because he hadn't used the flashlight regularly!
Batteries are designed to be turned on, to be used, not neglected or ignored. What you and I refuse to use we will surely lose. We're meant to he turned on, too. Our gifts are to be used! Our lives are not meant to be "waited out" but to be lived up! Are you and I living up to the gifts and talents God has given us? What kind of commitment do we have to ourselves and to the graces within us?

“We crucify ourselves between two thieves; regret for yesterday, and fear of tomorrow.” (Fulton Ourslur)

Too many churches in America have the vision, “Just be nice until the Lord comes.”

I used to ask God to help me.
Then I asked if I might help God.
I ended up by asking God
to do his work through me. Hudson Taylor

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

"Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them." -- Jim Rohn

"If you want to reach a goal, you must 'see the reaching' in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal."-- Zig Ziglar

"An unwritten want is a wish, a dream, a never-happen. The day you put your goal in writing is the day it becomes a commitment that will change your life. Are you ready?"

"Goal-setting illuminates the road to success just as runway lights illuminate the landing field for an incoming aircraft." -- Nido Qubein



Where to Put the Pies
I was in a small rural church one time that had a major dispute about where the pies should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for the annual turkey supper. One woman actually left the church community because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the pies on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the refrigerator. "It's not the right way to do it", she said. "We've never done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that way now. I won't have any part of that kind of thing. Those new people are going to ruin this church. They don't know anything. They aren't even from around here."
Sound familiar to anyone?
The apostle John came up to Jesus one day. "Jesus", he said, "I was walking down the road with the rest of the disciples, and we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We tried to stop him because we don't know who he is; we tried to stop him because he's not one of us.

Every minute 47 Bibles are sold or distributed throughout the world.

Thought for the week: "Obstacles are only what you see when you take your eyes off the goal." - Anonymous

Habits are first cobwebs, then cables. Spanish proverb

If we analyze Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, that address contains 362 words and 302 of them are one syllable. It's simple and direct but powerful and effective.

"There ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You've got to say, 'I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it.' It's called perseverance." -- Lee Iacocca