April 11
A pastor friend put sanitary hot air hand dryers in the rest rooms at his church and after two weeks took them out.
I asked him why and he confessed that they worked fine but when he went in there he saw a sign that read, "For a sample of this week's sermon, push the button."
Easter is Death in Reverse
The bones recalcified.
The joints ligamented
The muscles retendoned
The veins blood filled
The heart restarted
The nerves electrified
The skin saturated
And up from the grave He arose
Benjamin Franklin's Epitaph In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph. Franklin didn't profess to be an orthodox Christian; he was more a deist, a believer in a clock-maker God, who made the universe and has left it alone. But it seems he must have been influenced by the Church's teaching of the resurrection. Here's the epitaph he wrote for himself:
"The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and guilding, lies here, food for worms, but the work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more in a new & more perfect edition, corrected and amended by the author."
Ants in The Pants of Faith
Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don't have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving. Frederick Buechner
If a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. Francis Bacon
Easter Calendar - Easter is the only day on the Christian Calendar that is set by the moon. In the Western Church Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Spring equinox. All this makes ancient sense (believe it or not), since it means that Easter coincides, in our part of the world at least, with the greening of the earth.
"The date of the triumph of Jesus is Good Friday, not Easter Day. Yet if the story had ended there, the victory would have been barren. What remains is not to win it, but to gather in its fruits. Consequently St. John does not present the Resurrection as a mighty act by which the hosts of evil are routed, but rather as the quiet rising of the sun which has already vanquished night. The atmosphere of the story has all the sweet freshness of dawn on a spring day." William Temple
You can’t hide from God by missing church.
The prayer closets of God’s people are where the roots of the church grow.
Religious differences are not nearly so disastrous as religious indifferences.
The way to preserve peace in the church is to preserve the purity of it.
Some people who watch “Saturday Night Live” come to church “Sunday Morning Dead.”
After the baptism of his baby brother in church, little Johnny sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."
The richest 2% of the world's population owns more than half of the world's household wealth. The findings may be surprising, for what makes people "wealthy" across the world spectrum is a relatively low bar.
The research indicates that assets of just $2,200 per adult place a household in the top half of the world's wealthiest. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world, just $61,000 in assets is needed. If you have more than $500,000, you're part of the richest 1%, the United Nations study says. Indeed, 37 million people now belong in that category. Half live on less than $2 a day. Sure, you can now be proud that you're rich. But take a moment to think about it, and you'll probably come to realize that the meaning behind these numbers is harrowing. For if it takes just a couple of thousand dollars to qualify as rich in this world, imagine what it means to be poor.
Half the world, nearly 3 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. The three richest people in the world –- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú -- have more money than the poorest 48 nations combined.
OVERCOMING THE NEGATIVE
"I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then whenever doubts, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal - and soon they'll forget my number." -- Edith Armstrong
"De-program yourself. The news is not the news. It is the bad news. It is deliberately shocking. The more you accept it as the news, the more you believe that 'that's the way it is,' and the more fearful and cynical you will become." -- Steve Chandler
"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." -- John Wooden
"Issue a blanket pardon. Forgive everyone who has ever hurt you in any way. Forgiveness is a perfectly selfish act. It sets you free from the past." -- Brian Tracy
"If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest." -- Publilius Syrus
"Start from wherever you are and with whatever you've got." -- Jim Rohn
What is even more powerful than the reception Jesus received as He began the countdown of the most important week in human history is that when He left the city out of the western gate the following Friday, carrying a cross, and now mocked by the same crowd, He was doing what only a king can do for His people. He was laying down His life so that when we receive Him as King of our hearts, we someday can have a triumphal entry into another city—the city of heaven.
1. --Tim Roehl
2. Give me proof - give
me something I can touch and see - and I will believe.
"There is no money crisis, only an idea crisis. We need new ideas on how we can do what we really want to do." -- Mark Victor Hansen
"Money never starts an idea; it's the idea that starts the money." -- Mark Victor Hansen
WHAT'S 'NORMAL' FOR CHURCHES TODAY? Half of all congregations have fewer
than 100 regularly participating adults, 25% have fewer than 50. Fewer than 10% of congregations have more than 1,000 participating adults. Fifty-two percent of congregations are located in small towns and open country. More than two-out-of-three congregations report sponsoring or supporting a thrift shop. More than one-third are involved in tutoring. More than 80% have or support a food pantry. Most of the growing churches have informal services, preaching styles that are narrative or story-telling, and emphasize prayer and music (especially electronic).
Secrets Of Great Golf
A reporter was interviewing Jack Nicklaus. He said, "Jack, you are spectacular, your name is synonymous with the game of golf. You really know your way around the course. What is your secret?"
To which Jack replied, "The holes are numbered!"
Thoughts on Doubt ...
✓ Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is can't believe; unbelief is won't believe. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with darkness. John Drummond (1851-1897)
✓ Doubt is the disease of this inquisitive, restless age. It is the price we pay for our advanced intelligence and civilization -the dim night of our resplendent day. But as the most beautiful light is born of darkness, so the faith that springs from conflict is often the strongest and the best. Billy Graham (1918- )
I asked him why and he confessed that they worked fine but when he went in there he saw a sign that read, "For a sample of this week's sermon, push the button."
Easter is Death in Reverse
The bones recalcified.
The joints ligamented
The muscles retendoned
The veins blood filled
The heart restarted
The nerves electrified
The skin saturated
And up from the grave He arose
Benjamin Franklin's Epitaph In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph. Franklin didn't profess to be an orthodox Christian; he was more a deist, a believer in a clock-maker God, who made the universe and has left it alone. But it seems he must have been influenced by the Church's teaching of the resurrection. Here's the epitaph he wrote for himself:
"The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and guilding, lies here, food for worms, but the work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more in a new & more perfect edition, corrected and amended by the author."
Ants in The Pants of Faith
Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don't have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving. Frederick Buechner
If a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. Francis Bacon
Easter Calendar - Easter is the only day on the Christian Calendar that is set by the moon. In the Western Church Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Spring equinox. All this makes ancient sense (believe it or not), since it means that Easter coincides, in our part of the world at least, with the greening of the earth.
"The date of the triumph of Jesus is Good Friday, not Easter Day. Yet if the story had ended there, the victory would have been barren. What remains is not to win it, but to gather in its fruits. Consequently St. John does not present the Resurrection as a mighty act by which the hosts of evil are routed, but rather as the quiet rising of the sun which has already vanquished night. The atmosphere of the story has all the sweet freshness of dawn on a spring day." William Temple
You can’t hide from God by missing church.
The prayer closets of God’s people are where the roots of the church grow.
Religious differences are not nearly so disastrous as religious indifferences.
The way to preserve peace in the church is to preserve the purity of it.
Some people who watch “Saturday Night Live” come to church “Sunday Morning Dead.”
After the baptism of his baby brother in church, little Johnny sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."
The richest 2% of the world's population owns more than half of the world's household wealth. The findings may be surprising, for what makes people "wealthy" across the world spectrum is a relatively low bar.
The research indicates that assets of just $2,200 per adult place a household in the top half of the world's wealthiest. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world, just $61,000 in assets is needed. If you have more than $500,000, you're part of the richest 1%, the United Nations study says. Indeed, 37 million people now belong in that category. Half live on less than $2 a day. Sure, you can now be proud that you're rich. But take a moment to think about it, and you'll probably come to realize that the meaning behind these numbers is harrowing. For if it takes just a couple of thousand dollars to qualify as rich in this world, imagine what it means to be poor.
Half the world, nearly 3 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. The three richest people in the world –- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú -- have more money than the poorest 48 nations combined.
OVERCOMING THE NEGATIVE
"I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then whenever doubts, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal - and soon they'll forget my number." -- Edith Armstrong
"De-program yourself. The news is not the news. It is the bad news. It is deliberately shocking. The more you accept it as the news, the more you believe that 'that's the way it is,' and the more fearful and cynical you will become." -- Steve Chandler
"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." -- John Wooden
"Issue a blanket pardon. Forgive everyone who has ever hurt you in any way. Forgiveness is a perfectly selfish act. It sets you free from the past." -- Brian Tracy
"If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest." -- Publilius Syrus
"Start from wherever you are and with whatever you've got." -- Jim Rohn
What is even more powerful than the reception Jesus received as He began the countdown of the most important week in human history is that when He left the city out of the western gate the following Friday, carrying a cross, and now mocked by the same crowd, He was doing what only a king can do for His people. He was laying down His life so that when we receive Him as King of our hearts, we someday can have a triumphal entry into another city—the city of heaven.
1. --Tim Roehl
2. Give me proof - give
me something I can touch and see - and I will believe.
"There is no money crisis, only an idea crisis. We need new ideas on how we can do what we really want to do." -- Mark Victor Hansen
"Money never starts an idea; it's the idea that starts the money." -- Mark Victor Hansen
WHAT'S 'NORMAL' FOR CHURCHES TODAY? Half of all congregations have fewer
than 100 regularly participating adults, 25% have fewer than 50. Fewer than 10% of congregations have more than 1,000 participating adults. Fifty-two percent of congregations are located in small towns and open country. More than two-out-of-three congregations report sponsoring or supporting a thrift shop. More than one-third are involved in tutoring. More than 80% have or support a food pantry. Most of the growing churches have informal services, preaching styles that are narrative or story-telling, and emphasize prayer and music (especially electronic).
Secrets Of Great Golf
A reporter was interviewing Jack Nicklaus. He said, "Jack, you are spectacular, your name is synonymous with the game of golf. You really know your way around the course. What is your secret?"
To which Jack replied, "The holes are numbered!"
Thoughts on Doubt ...
✓ Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is can't believe; unbelief is won't believe. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with darkness. John Drummond (1851-1897)
✓ Doubt is the disease of this inquisitive, restless age. It is the price we pay for our advanced intelligence and civilization -the dim night of our resplendent day. But as the most beautiful light is born of darkness, so the faith that springs from conflict is often the strongest and the best. Billy Graham (1918- )
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