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Chuck Swindoll in his book, Improving Your Serve, gives a memorable illustration:
Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until the new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family in the move to Europe for six to eight months, and I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you direction and instructions.
I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival I drive down to the office. I am stunned! Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the receptionist’s room and she is doing her nails, chewing gun, and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing, the carpet has been vacuumed in weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned.
I ask for you and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, “I think he’s down there.” Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office (which has been turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas).
“What in the world is going on, man?”
“What do ya’ mean?”
“Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?”
“Letters? Oh, yeah – sure, got every one of them. As a matter of fact … we have a letter study every Friday night since you left. We even divide all the personnel into small groups and discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of those things were really interesting.
You’ll be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two! Great stuff in those letters!”
“Okay, okay – you got my letters, you studied them and meditated on them, discussed them and even memorized them. BUT WHAT DID YOU DO ABOUT THEM?”
“Do? Uh – we didn’t do anything about them.”
For more from Chuck, visit http://www.insight.org
We should be like little Johnny. After church, Johnny tells his parents he has to go and talk to the minister right away. They agree and the pastor greets the family.
"Pastor," Johnny says, "I heard you say today that our bodies came from the dust & when we die our bodies go back to dust.”
"Yes, I’m glad you were listening. Why do you ask?"
Johnny says, "Well you better come over to our house right away and look under my bed ’cause there’s someone either comin’ or goin’!"
Can you all see what I have in my hand? A receipt. And what purpose does a receipt serve? It is the proof that the payment has been made. That’s what Jesus’ resurrection is. The receipt. The proof that the payment is made, that death and sin no longer have power over us.
I once heard the story about a wealthy man who had no need for pocket change, yet he still took the time to bend over and pick up lost pennies and other coins. Whenever the man found a coin he would stop look at it in his hand, then after standing quietly for a moment, he would then put the coin in his pocket and continue walking. He was once asked about his unusual habit. “Why does a man who has no need for money stand still as though he had just found a gold coin?” The man replied, “When I find a coin I look at the words, ‘In God We Trust,’ and I can hear God asking me, ‘Do you still trust me?’ Once I’m cert...
Jesus calls us to be people who
Live in present-tense.
An average person¡¦s anxiety is focused on :
40% -- things that will never happen
30% -- things about the past that can’t be changed
12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress
8% -- about real problems that will be faced
Stop trying to grapple with the what ifs¨ and let God take care of it. You simply make that long term investment in God’s kingdom day by day.
While touring Italy, a man visited a cathedral that had been completed on the outside only. Once inside, the traveler found an artist kneeling before an enormous wall upon which he had just begun to create a mosaic. On some tables nearby were thousands of pieces of colored ceramic. Curious, the visitor asked the artist how he would ever finish such a large project. The artist answered that he knew how much he could accomplish in one day. Each morning, he marked off an area to be completed that day and didn’t worry about what remained outside that space. That was the best he could do; and if he faithfully did his best, one day the mosaic would be finished.
Today in the Word, September 5, 1995, p. 32.
THE BLAME GAME
Wayne Dyer writes: "All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you...You may succeed in making another feel guilty of something by blaming him; you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy."
Susan Jocoby writes about people who profoundly believe they are always losers in the game of life. She calls them "injustice collectors" (Pritchard, "Have You Stopped Blaming Others for Your Problems?")
* They endlessly repeat how others have mistreated them.
* They view the world as hostile and unfair to them.
* They are "beachcombers of misery" who see each grievance as a treasure to add to their collection.
* They have a hidden need to feel wronged.
* They live by the childish notion that life should always be fair to them.
"The tendency to blame others is deeply ingrained in human nature...Left to ourselves; we will do anything to avoid taking personal responsibility for our actions. Third, it tells us that blaming others is often nothing more than a subtle twisting of the truth in order to take the heat off of ourselves. Fourth, it tells us that without a deep working of the grace of God within us, we will do exactly what Adam and Eve did" (From a sermon called, "Have You Stopped Blaming Others For Your Problems?" www.keepbelieving.com).
(From a sermon by Paul Barreca, The Blame Game - Taking Responsibility in a World of Excuses, 6/11/2011)
EXCUSES, EXCUSES
We live in a word of excuses. Here are some complied by the Readers Digest that have been offered for not showing up for work:
"I dreamed I was fired, so I didn't want to get out of bed."
"I was up all night arguing with God."
"A raccoon stole my work shoe off my porch."
"I wasn't thinking and accidentally went to my old job."
"While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog."
"I didn't have money for gas, because all the pawnshops were closed."
"My dog dialed 911, and the police wanted to question me about what 'really' happened."
And for not doing your homework, RD reported on the following excuses:
"Another pupil fell in a lake, and I jumped in to rescue him but unfortunately my homework drown."
"My father had a nervous breakdown and he cut it up to make paper dolls."
"I didn't do it, because I didn't want the other kids in the class to look bad."
(http://laughs.rd.com)
Bernie May of Wycliffe Bible Translators wrote, "As an airplane pilot, from the first time I sat in the beginner’s seat beside my instructor I was taught to ’trust’ my instruments. ’Your instincts will fool you,’ my instructor rightly told me. ’You must learn that even though you may feel you are flying south, if your compass says you are flying east, you’d better believe it.’ Often when a plane is surrounded by swirling mist and being buffeted by strong winds, you may feel you are in a dive and be tempted to pull back on the controls. But if your instruments say you are flying level - or even climbing - you’d better believe them. To pull back on the...
The college graduate is presented with a sheepskin to cover his intellectual nakedness.
AMERICANS IN PAIN
Americans in households making less than $30,000 a year spend nearly 20% of their lives in moderate to severe pain vs. less than 8% of those in households earning above $100,000, finds a study by Princeton economist Alan Krueger and Stony Brook Univ. professor Arthur Stone. The type of pain people reported typically fell on either side of the rich-poor divide. Those with higher incomes welcome pain almost by choice, usually through exercise. At lower incomes, pain comes as the result of work. People with chronic pain also work less, costing U.S. businesses up to $60 billion annually. Although interacting with a spouse or friend lowered pain, those suffering chronic pain tended to socialize much less. They also spent more time watching TV (25% of their day vs. 16% for the average person).
(Time 5/2/08)
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