Feb 21
Mother Theresa's prayer:
May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
"When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go. Only one of two things will happen—either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly!" – Unknown
"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road." – Dag Hammarskjold
"When it is the Spirit of God and not fear that unites us in community, no distance of time or place can separate us." – Henri J. M. Nouwen
"It's not your position in life; it's the disposition you have which will change your position." – Dr. David McKinley
"Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost." – Robert Schuller
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 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 the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Author Unknown
The Devil's Future "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
A friend shared with me her way of handling the deceiver-tempter: "When Satan comes to remind me about my past, I remind him about his future."
One thing Satan does is continually accuse us before God. Knowing that he does this, we can remind him not only about his future in hell but also that Christ shed his blood on the cross and gave his life to pay for our sins and has washed them all away. So what's there to accuse us of if we have confessed our sins to Christ and asked for and accepted his forgiveness?
Furthermore, because Christ died for us and cleansed us from our sins, we can, in Jesus' name resist the devil and, as James said, he will flee from us. Satan hates the name of Jesus. Be sure to mention it when he comes to tempt you.
Prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you forgive all who confess their sins and ask for your forgiveness. Help me always to resist the devil in Jesus' name, knowing that he will flee from me and has no power over me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
He who governed the world before I was born shall take care of it likewise when I am dead. My part is to improve the present moment. --John Wesley
13.8 cups: The average annual consumption of salt for American males. For women it's 9.7 cups.
"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event--it is a habit."--Aristotle
"Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."
Dante's View
In Death Valley there is a place known as Dante's View. There, you can look down to the lowest spot in the United States, a depression in the earth 200 feet below sea level called Bad Water. But from that same spot, you can also look up to the highest peak in the United States, Mount Whitney, rising to a height of 14,500 feet. One way leads to the lowest and the other way to the highest. From that point, called Dante's View, any movement must be in one or the other direction.
There are many times in life when we stand where the ways part and where choices must be made. It is often easier to trip along downhill than to walk the steady, or maybe rocky, uphill path. But the path uphill leads to a cross -- an empty cross. And the one that walks beside us is the one who hung there and defeated it.
Raised In The 16th and Kicked Out In The 21st
The complaint is sometimes made about clergy or parochial school children that they don't live in the "real" world. Often there is the attempt to protect people from the "real" world -- the world of evil and temptation, gangs and death, alcoholics and addicts. I had a 20-something lady tell me, "My mother raised me in the sixteenth century and then kicked me out in the 21st -- and I wasn't ready for it." Jesus knows this "real" world of temptations, and undeserved suffering and death.
Lent: Spring Training For Christians
When I was a boy, I was told, "Baptists don't do Lent." No one knew why. I suspect that it was an anti-Catholic thing which I pray we are over. It was the old argument, "whatever they do, we don't!" - a curiously convoluted, twisted and unhealthy way to decide on religious practices.
Whatever the reason for "not doing Lent," I think it is a great loss for any Christian not to prepare for Good Friday and Easter. Every spring the baseball players prepare for the season with spring training; every spring ordinary people prepare for summer by doing "spring cleaning." So why shouldn't Christians prepare for the most important events in Jesus' ministry - what he did for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, what he did for us on Golgotha's cross and at the empty tomb?
If it helps you, think of Lent as a kind of Christian spring training and spring cleaning.
The well of Providence is deep. It's the buckets we bring to it that are small. --Mary Webb
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” —Aldous Huxley
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” —Viktor Frankl
A Collapse of Concentration
We have all gone through times of testing - times which tried our patience and tested our faith. Christians are not immune from troubles. I played in nationally-rated chess tournaments for years. The one thing all tournament chess players had to guard against was making a mistake when your position was under attack. The pressure of defending a difficult position would often cause careless errors. I'll never forget a game I was playing against a much-higher ranked player than myself who was from Fresno. Even though the position was relatively even, I was applying a lot of pressure. Every time he parried one threat I seemed to find another way to continue the attack. Finally, he made a blunder and lost a knight and the game. Afterwards I was analyzing the game with some other Fresno chess players. Their attitude was: you only won because our player made a mistake. They didn't realize that fatal mistake was preceded by a series of pressure-creating moves that finally resulted in a collapse of concentration. All tournament chess players face that - they have to try to not emotionally respond to a tense situation on the chessboard and allow their game to fall apart.
This is why God allows testing to come our way. He wants us to learn how to not respond to the pressure, and learn how to go through the difficulty without being crushed emotionally.
Knowing Temptation
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is . . . A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means - the only complete realist." C.S. Lewis
You Got an "A" for Yesterday
Remember, life is a test. If you woke up alive this morning, then you got an "A" for yesterday. Unknown
The Power of Temptation
John Piper says that sin (lust for example) "gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier." E. Lutzer,
The Lenten Waiting Place
Wilderness was the wild place, the waiting place, the place of preparation. It also connected then, as it does now, to very basic spirituality: a place to grapple with God, a place to learn dependence on nature and its provisions, a place of extremes or contrasts, of wild beasts and desert. It is the Lenten space par excellence. William Loader,
Four-year-old Jason was visiting his grandparents. Grandpa was in his study intently reading. Jason walked in carrying a peach, said something Grandpa didn't catch, and handed the peach to him. Thinking his wife had sent him a snack, Grandpa took it and ate it. Just as he swallowed the last bite, Jason, with lip quivering, said, "But, Pap, I didn't want you to eat it. I just wanted you to get the worm out!"
"If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead." - Johnny Carson
"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts." -- Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915, Educator and Reformer
"Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep." -- Denis Waitley
Prevailing Sins -A recent survey of readers ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge to them:
1. Materialism
2. Pride
3. Self-centeredness
4. Laziness
5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness
5. (Tie) Sexual lust.
7. Envy
8. Gluttony
9. Lying
Survey noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God (81 percent) and when they were physically tired (57 percent). Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent), avoiding compromising situations (76 percent), Bible study (66 percent), and being accountable to someone (52 percent).
Q: How do you keep your husband from reading your e-mail?
A: Rename the mail folder to "instruction manuals"
May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
"When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go. Only one of two things will happen—either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly!" – Unknown
"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road." – Dag Hammarskjold
"When it is the Spirit of God and not fear that unites us in community, no distance of time or place can separate us." – Henri J. M. Nouwen
"It's not your position in life; it's the disposition you have which will change your position." – Dr. David McKinley
"Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost." – Robert Schuller
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 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 the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Author Unknown
The Devil's Future "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
A friend shared with me her way of handling the deceiver-tempter: "When Satan comes to remind me about my past, I remind him about his future."
One thing Satan does is continually accuse us before God. Knowing that he does this, we can remind him not only about his future in hell but also that Christ shed his blood on the cross and gave his life to pay for our sins and has washed them all away. So what's there to accuse us of if we have confessed our sins to Christ and asked for and accepted his forgiveness?
Furthermore, because Christ died for us and cleansed us from our sins, we can, in Jesus' name resist the devil and, as James said, he will flee from us. Satan hates the name of Jesus. Be sure to mention it when he comes to tempt you.
Prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you forgive all who confess their sins and ask for your forgiveness. Help me always to resist the devil in Jesus' name, knowing that he will flee from me and has no power over me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
He who governed the world before I was born shall take care of it likewise when I am dead. My part is to improve the present moment. --John Wesley
13.8 cups: The average annual consumption of salt for American males. For women it's 9.7 cups.
"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event--it is a habit."--Aristotle
"Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."
Dante's View
In Death Valley there is a place known as Dante's View. There, you can look down to the lowest spot in the United States, a depression in the earth 200 feet below sea level called Bad Water. But from that same spot, you can also look up to the highest peak in the United States, Mount Whitney, rising to a height of 14,500 feet. One way leads to the lowest and the other way to the highest. From that point, called Dante's View, any movement must be in one or the other direction.
There are many times in life when we stand where the ways part and where choices must be made. It is often easier to trip along downhill than to walk the steady, or maybe rocky, uphill path. But the path uphill leads to a cross -- an empty cross. And the one that walks beside us is the one who hung there and defeated it.
Raised In The 16th and Kicked Out In The 21st
The complaint is sometimes made about clergy or parochial school children that they don't live in the "real" world. Often there is the attempt to protect people from the "real" world -- the world of evil and temptation, gangs and death, alcoholics and addicts. I had a 20-something lady tell me, "My mother raised me in the sixteenth century and then kicked me out in the 21st -- and I wasn't ready for it." Jesus knows this "real" world of temptations, and undeserved suffering and death.
Lent: Spring Training For Christians
When I was a boy, I was told, "Baptists don't do Lent." No one knew why. I suspect that it was an anti-Catholic thing which I pray we are over. It was the old argument, "whatever they do, we don't!" - a curiously convoluted, twisted and unhealthy way to decide on religious practices.
Whatever the reason for "not doing Lent," I think it is a great loss for any Christian not to prepare for Good Friday and Easter. Every spring the baseball players prepare for the season with spring training; every spring ordinary people prepare for summer by doing "spring cleaning." So why shouldn't Christians prepare for the most important events in Jesus' ministry - what he did for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, what he did for us on Golgotha's cross and at the empty tomb?
If it helps you, think of Lent as a kind of Christian spring training and spring cleaning.
The well of Providence is deep. It's the buckets we bring to it that are small. --Mary Webb
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” —Aldous Huxley
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” —Viktor Frankl
A Collapse of Concentration
We have all gone through times of testing - times which tried our patience and tested our faith. Christians are not immune from troubles. I played in nationally-rated chess tournaments for years. The one thing all tournament chess players had to guard against was making a mistake when your position was under attack. The pressure of defending a difficult position would often cause careless errors. I'll never forget a game I was playing against a much-higher ranked player than myself who was from Fresno. Even though the position was relatively even, I was applying a lot of pressure. Every time he parried one threat I seemed to find another way to continue the attack. Finally, he made a blunder and lost a knight and the game. Afterwards I was analyzing the game with some other Fresno chess players. Their attitude was: you only won because our player made a mistake. They didn't realize that fatal mistake was preceded by a series of pressure-creating moves that finally resulted in a collapse of concentration. All tournament chess players face that - they have to try to not emotionally respond to a tense situation on the chessboard and allow their game to fall apart.
This is why God allows testing to come our way. He wants us to learn how to not respond to the pressure, and learn how to go through the difficulty without being crushed emotionally.
Knowing Temptation
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is . . . A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means - the only complete realist." C.S. Lewis
You Got an "A" for Yesterday
Remember, life is a test. If you woke up alive this morning, then you got an "A" for yesterday. Unknown
The Power of Temptation
John Piper says that sin (lust for example) "gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier." E. Lutzer,
The Lenten Waiting Place
Wilderness was the wild place, the waiting place, the place of preparation. It also connected then, as it does now, to very basic spirituality: a place to grapple with God, a place to learn dependence on nature and its provisions, a place of extremes or contrasts, of wild beasts and desert. It is the Lenten space par excellence. William Loader,
Four-year-old Jason was visiting his grandparents. Grandpa was in his study intently reading. Jason walked in carrying a peach, said something Grandpa didn't catch, and handed the peach to him. Thinking his wife had sent him a snack, Grandpa took it and ate it. Just as he swallowed the last bite, Jason, with lip quivering, said, "But, Pap, I didn't want you to eat it. I just wanted you to get the worm out!"
"If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead." - Johnny Carson
"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts." -- Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915, Educator and Reformer
"Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep." -- Denis Waitley
Prevailing Sins -A recent survey of readers ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge to them:
1. Materialism
2. Pride
3. Self-centeredness
4. Laziness
5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness
5. (Tie) Sexual lust.
7. Envy
8. Gluttony
9. Lying
Survey noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God (81 percent) and when they were physically tired (57 percent). Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent), avoiding compromising situations (76 percent), Bible study (66 percent), and being accountable to someone (52 percent).
Q: How do you keep your husband from reading your e-mail?
A: Rename the mail folder to "instruction manuals"
posted by joypastordon at 10:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home