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Simplicity is the answer for people tired and weary. Simplicity is marked by a contented lifestyle that rests in God’s grace. It is the commitment to clear out, scale down, and realize the essentials of what we truly need to live well. The intimate search for wholeness is not found by accumulating more things, but by entering into God’s presence every single day.
Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999), 204
On the Australian coat of arms is a picture of a emu and a kangaroo. These animals were chosen because they share a characteristic that appealed to our forefathers. Both the emu and kangaroo can move only forward, not back. The emu’s three-toed foot causes it to fall if it tries to go backwards, and the kangaroo is prevented from moving in reverse by its large tail. Those who truly choose to follow Jesus become like the emu and kangaroo, moving only forward, never back (Luke 9:62).
Owen Bourgaize
Values can be completely reversed in certain circumstances. You may have heard the story of how when the "Titanic" was sinking, a rich lady was in her cabin when the order to abandon ship was given. There was no time for packing possessions. She noticed two things on her dressing table - her jewel box and a bowl of oranges. She made a rapid assessment of what was most valuable to her in the situation she was in now. Wisely she abandoned her jewels and quickly grabbed some oranges that might give nourishment on the open sea but where jewels would be valueless. The same sort of realisation came to Paul. The things that he believed to be his glories were in fact quite valueless when it came to facing his God. "But what things" states Paul, the ritual, the race, the religion, the righteous - things, says Paul, "that were gain, those I counted loss for Christ."
“Joy is like the hidden note in the glass. Joy is tuning in to what God is doing around you, seeing the world through his eyes, picking up on his delight in us as his children. Anyone can find happiness for a while… Happiness depends on what is happening to you. Joy is different; joy goes deeper. Joy is when your whole being sings because you hav...
The most classic example of a modern servant leader was Sam Walton. He despised corporate fat cats. He could, and would, handle the cash register as well as stock the shelves in any of his Wal-Mart stores. He drove an old, rusty, dented pickup not to prove a point but because it still had plenty of good mileage left in it. He told his staff on more than one occasion that "if American management is going to say to their workers that we’re all in this together, they’re going to have to stop this foolishness of paying themselves $3 million and $4 million bonuses every year and riding around every where in limos and corporate jets like they’re so much better than everybody else."
CLARION CALL OF ONE
The actions of a few are often a clarion call to courage. It requires radical sacrifice and radical commitment to accomplish these things. All that it takes is for one man to refuse to surrender!
Anyone who is familiar with Winston Churchill understands that he was such a man who refused to give in to surrender. His first statement as Prime Minister to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940 was this: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
Three weeks later after the capture of Dunkirk, Churchill rallied his nation with these words:
"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
Five months later, reporting on the war situation to the House of Commons, Churchill said,
"Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible."
In a unique speech to the London County Council, July 14, 1941, he referred to a "comradeship of suffering, or endurance" and told Hitler and his Nazi forces: "We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst-—and we will do our best." And later, "We shall never turn from our purpose, however somber the road, however grievous the cost."
He stirred the boys of Harrow School that same year on October 29:
"Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days: these are great days-—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race."
He pressed, motivated, and drove his countrymen to a victory over the German armies that bombed and harassed them in World War II. One man can make a difference!
(From a sermon by Philip Harrelson, "What the King Desires" 1/30/2009)
"If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth."
CAN YOU SEE THE LAND?
It was a fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island. She intended to swim the channel from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming was not new to her; she had been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The water was numbingly cold that day. The fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats in her party. Several times sharks had to be driven away with rifle fire. She swam more than 15 hours before she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer tried to encourage her to swim on since they were so close to land, but when Florence looked, all she saw was fog. So she quit. . . only one-mile from her goal.
Later she said, "I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land I might have made it." It wasn’t the cold or fear or exhaustion that caused Florence Chadwick to fail. It was the fog.
Many times we too fail, not because we’re afraid or because of the peer pressure or because of anything other than the fact tha...
A Thanks Offering For Heaven
Philippians 3:20 says, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body."
C.S. Lewis said, "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next."
There are many things about heaven that Christians can thank the Lord about. While living on this earth they have to suffer the consequences of sin just as Job came to know the sufferings of this world. He lost children, possessions and knew bad health. Knowing that at the end of his life something wonderful would take place, he said, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes... How my heart yearns within me!"(Job 19:25-27)
The children of God may very well be afflicted with disease, or loss of property. They may be forsaken by their friends as Job was. However, there is going to be a day when their body will be resurrected and they will have a physical body that is healthy, not subjected to sickness, pain or death or overcome by sin. Christians can praise God, for in heaven there is going to be a perfect city where there is no crime, no homeless, no unemployment, no pollution, no corruption in city councils or government. Heaven is victorious with no civil unrest, no terrorism and no more wars. There will be fairness, truth and goodness, and God's holiness will reign. Everyone will be upright and honest.
John Newton wrote, "When I get to heaven, I shall see three wonders there: The first wonder will be to see many people there whom I did not expect to see; the second wonder will be to miss many people whom I did expect to see; the third and greatest of all will be to find myself there"
Choose Christ, Choose Heaven!
When a Dream Dies
When a dreams dies, the world is not the same
You realize in an instant everything has changed
Tomorrow will be different
The plans will all be new
For the dream that you were chasing
No longer lives inside of you.
To know the race is over and you’ve been left behind
Is like a snowflake in the summer
Like a star that will not shine
It’s like crying in an ocean
When nobody else is near
Everything becomes a whisper
That no one else will hear.
It’s a moving toward acceptance
Of the things you cannot see
Of the things you cannot do
Of the thing that will not be
It happens to the best of us; we all must face the day
The dream we had for many years
Has simply gone away.
But in the shattered dreams
There are pieces we can find
To plant as seeds for future things
Until the end of time.
So when a dream is over
Another one will be,
For one dream dies and one is born
To give new life to me.
Copyright March 2006
Spf—Stephen Paul Funderburk
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