LET’S ROLL
We have made it through the Christmas Season and the New Year celebrations. Now we face 2003. It is time for action.
Before we rush into the activities of 2003 let’s be sure we have our priorities right. It is only right and proper to turn to the Creator of the universe and place God in the number one place in our priorities. Psalm 37:5; Prov. 3:4-5; Matthew 33:6 all instruct us to put God first. Blessings will follow.
I recently read of a man whose business employs 24,500 people and operates in 7 states and a foreign country. He lists his priorities. First of all, my relationship with Lord comes first. Second, my wife and family. Third, the business.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for the opportunities that are ours in 2003 as we get our priorities in order. LET’S ROLL!
KEEP IT IN THE ROAD
As a teen-ager I was driving late one night. Several people were in the car. I dozed, the wheels slipped off the pavement, the car bounced. A sleepy voice said, “Are you awake?” “Yeah,” I answered. “Keep it in the road, then.”
These words, “Keep it in the road,” came bouncing into my mind this morning as I was thinking about life’s journey into 2003.
What does keeping it in the road have to do with this? May I share a few thoughts with you?
In Jeremiah God tells us that He knows us even while we are still in our mother’s womb and that He has plans for our life. I need to seek out God’s plans and follow them…thus keeping my life in the road.
Psalm 119: 105 “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” By following God’s Word I can keep my life in the road.
Psalm 119:9 “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying Your Word and following its rules.”
Jesus tells us in Matt.6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God…” God has given us the rules by which to live our lives. If we will pay attention and follow the rules we can keep our lives in the road. Let your mind bring to remembrance many other ways God helps us.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that He loves us enough to point out the right path for us to follow as we move forward in 2003. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
OPEN SECRET
What is your secret for success, for long life, or any other accomplishment? The Apostle Paul writes about God’s secret (mystery) in Colossians 1:25-27. A mystery that has been kept hidden (kept secret) but is now disclosed to the saints whom God has chosen to make this mystery known to the Gentiles. What is the mystery? It is Christ in you the hope of glory. The secret is out. God came to save all who will believe in Him.
Caroline Ross Thompson in the devotion for Open Windows for January 8, 2003 writes about her grandmother who lived to be almost 100 years old. When grandmother was in her late 90s I asked her the secret of her longevity. She answered, “To love God, to love people, to work hard, and stay happy. This is my secret for a long life.”
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that the secret is out. God loves everybody! Jesus saves all who believe in Him as the Son whom God gave that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. (John 3:16) Have a TERRIFC DAY !!!
PRAISING GOD
I remember when I first came to have some understanding of the place praise should have in my life. One thing l learned was that God lives in the praises of his people. (Psalm 22:3 KJV).
The bible commands that we praise God . C.S. Lewis became a believer in Jesus Christ. He had trouble with this matter of praise. It seemed to him that God was saying, “What I want most is to be told that I am good and I am great.”. But, praise the Lord, Lewis grew in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He came to have a new understanding of praise.
C.S. Lewis wrote:”Only in the act of worship and praise can a person learn to believe in the goodness and the greatness of God. God wants us to praise him, not because he needs, or craves in any sense, our flattery. But because he knows that praise creates joy and thankfulness.”
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that He reveals Himself to us as we praise Him. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
FRIDAY GEMS
From The Word: Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
John MacArthur, speaking to seminary students, “This is not a time for weak men in weak pulpits in weak churches preaching weak messages.”
Michael Youseff, “Obedience means we must submit our will to God’s.”
Obedience explained by a mother to her children:
(1) Right now. (2) The Right way. (3) With the Right attitude.
Bob Knisley, “You can’t finish the race till you start running, regardless of how much you dream of winning.”
Think right. Be right. Do right. Live right.
Staring over means, “Victories Won” “A Race Will Be Run.” “God’s Will Be Done.” Don’t just sit there……..Start OVER!!!
Pastor Frank Lewis, “It’s always too soon to quit.”
Unknown. “Seize the day. Never have regrets. And most importantly, stay close to your friends and family, for they helped make you the person you are today.”
A warning. “Hate corrodes the vessel that carries it.”
Finally - “God gave us mouths that close and ears that don’t, which should tell us something.”
Today - Out loud and on purpose just Thank and Praise the Lord as He leads us into the year 2003. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
KEEP ON ROLLING
I have heard the song, “Ole Man River.” The song says he just keeps on rolling along. I said to Hazel as I picked up Billy Graham’s Daily Devotion book to read yesterday morning, “Time just keeps on going, doesn’t it?” Indeed it does. Here we are in the third week of January 2003. Seems like it was only yesterday we were celebrating the coming in of a new year. How true it is that time and tide wait for no man.
In imagination you can jump back in time to the events of yesteryear. Some things were good…the first day of May we could take off our shoes and go barefoot! Those days of old were mostly peaceful and pleasant. However, there were some dark times. Death invaded our peaceful times. There was grieving. Sickness was a frequent visitor.
One thing was constant although we were not always aware of it. The love of God was there. I recall that in the lonely hours after my father died mother would sing of God. Be not dismayed what’er betide, God will take care of you. Count your many blessings, see what God has done. Yes, God was very much there.
Time rolls on. Here we are in 2003. Our circumstances have changed. We are not the children, Now we are the parents and grandparents. Life rolls on. But our God is the God who does not change. How wonderful! The God I trusted as a child is the God I trust in the sunset years of life.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for the assurance of the presence of and unchanging God who will guide us in life. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
REALITY
With all the wisdom of teenagers two boys were discussing life and death. One said a man has to do only one thing. He has to die. The other one said there are two things a man has to do. He does have to die but he also has to live until he dies.
In movies and television programs I see the word “Reality” popping up frequently. I think the idea is to try to get us to believe that what we are seeing is not fantasy or make-believe. It is reality. It is true to life.
Some things are real. It is true that we will die. Only two people have gotten out of this world alive. One was Enoch. He was not for God took him. The other was the O.T. prophet, Elijah. He and Elisha were separated by chariots of fire and Elijah went to heaven in whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11). Death is certain. (Heb. 9:27).
I think the reason for these thoughts about death this morning is that in recent day several long-time friends and relatives have moved from earth to heaven. We used to sing an old song that had these words, “We are going down the valley one by one.”
However, along with the sadness of heart and the grieving of spirit due to the separation that death brings, I am comforted by the words of Paul in 1 Thes. 5:13ff. Christians do not sorrow as those who have no hope. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that His children walk through the valley of the shadow of death into the glorious REALITY of heaven. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
Remember the game, “Follow the Leader?” One person was chosen as leader. Whatever he did everyone else had to do. If you couldn’t do it you were eliminated from the game. I could run, jump, stand on my head and many other things. If the leader decided to climb a tree I was out. For some reason I have never been very at climbing trees.
In our lives most of us have had someone that we admired and looked up to. Very often we tried to pattern our life to follow that person. In our spiritual relationship we look to our Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. We sing, “More like the Master I would ever be.” We know that He knows the way so we sing, “My Lord knows the way thru the wilderness. All I have to do is follow.”
In our moments of submission and dedication to Jesus we express our decision in the words written by W.O. Cushing:
“Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus! Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on! Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus! Everywhere He leads me I would follow on!”
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for Jesus our Saviour and “Way-maker.” As you follow Him you will have as TERRIFIC DAY !!!
EXPECTANCY
When something is about to happen there is often what we call an “air of ecpectancy.” Today is a good example of this. The weather forecasters have been predicting that we will have snow. I am sure that every school age child looked out the window this morning to see if it snowed yet. There is an air of expectancy. People are getting to the stores to stock up on milk and bread and whatever else they think they will need to have on hands in case there is a day or two when they can’t get out.
Another time of expectancy is when a mother-to-be is nearing the time of the birth of a child. It is said that she is “expecting.”
As a group of people stood on the Mount of Olives in Palestine 2000 years ago they saw the resurrected Jesus ascend into heaven. They heard an angel that Jesus will come again. Jesus Himself had told the disciples “I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.”
Followers of Jesus today live in the expectation of His coming again. There is an air of expectancy. He could come this very day!
Today – Out loud and purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for the fact that He is coming again. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
FRIDAY GEMS
From the WORD:
Proverbs 15:14 “ A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash.”
Psalm 86:11 “Teach me Your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to Your truth! Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor You.”
From an e-mail- author unkown. “I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.”
Whitney Young – “It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.”
E.W. Howe – “What people say behind your back is your standing in the community in which you live.”
Joyce Holbrook - “The average person thinks he isn’t.”
Susan L. Wiener - “There’s nothing wrong with growing older as long as we continue to grow up.”
Michael Youseff - “When you praise the name of God, you will feel the joy of the Lord.”
Today – Out loud and on purpose do as the Apostle Paul –“ Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!!! Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
CROSSING
Have you considered that we humans do not like to think or talk about death and dying. We use so many different words to express the fact that this earthly life comes to an end. One such expression is “Crossing or Crossing Over.” We have a song with the words. “I won’t have to cross Jordan alone.” Another word frequently used in reference to dying is “Passing.” Moving from earth to heaven, graduation from this life are also used to describe death.
Dr. Norman V. Peale says, “Death is a rainbow bridge spanning the gulf between two worlds.”
Stuart Alsop says, “There comes a time when a dying man needs death the way a tired man needs rest.”
You’ve hear something like this, “I’m sorry you lost your wife.” And the reply, “I didn’t lose her. I know where she is.”
Whatever terms or words or expressions we use to describe it, death is the one reality for every living person. We are going to die.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that the Word says to us, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me.” Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
PRAISE ALWAYS
Psalm 146:1-2 “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, I tell myself. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God even with my dying breath.”
Why does man exist? In an early catechism the answer was, “to praise God and enjoy Him forever.” To praise God is to enjoy God. In fact the purpose of everything God created – including the stones of the earth – is to bring praise to God.
The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (Luke 19) is accompanied by the people shouting joyful praises to the Lord. The Pharisees wanted Jesus rebuke the people. Jesus told them that if they keep quiet the stones will cry out!. Think about that. We are to praise God for all the experiences of our lives. If we fail to fulfill our purpose of praising God…the rocks will shout praise in our place. Really, now, I don’t want a rock doing my job!!
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for all things in your life to the glory of God. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
THEREFORE
My daughter was studying a verse in Hebrews and saw the word “therefore.” She reminded me that through the years Bible teachers have taught us that when we see that word we need to stop ask what its there for.
I decided to look in my Strong’s Concordance to see how many times the word therefore is in the Bible. Would you believe – 0ver 1265 times this word is used to remind us to stop and see what it is there for.
In Psalm 119 the Psalmist writes “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path” (vs105) and in vs. 114 – “You are my refuge and my shield. Your word is my only source of hope.”
We believe the Bible to be the source of our information about God the Father, Jesus the Son and Holy Spirit. Further, the Bible is our source of instruction for living. Therefore, I suggest we check out carefully all the “therefores” we find as we read so we may have a better understanding of what God is telling us.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for the “therefores” to Stop, Look and Listen as the Word speaks to us. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
FRIDAY GEMS
Start with praise! Psalm 135:1-3 “Praise the Lord ! Praise the name of the Lord ! Praise Him, you who serve in the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; celebrate His wonderful name with music.”
Dr. Bud Fray, retired SBC missionary – “Either put your faith on the line or take down the sign.”
John Paul Liederach – “Violence is the choice of people who can imagine no other alternative.”
Dr. Martin Luther King – “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Margaret Thatcher- “What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing you are doing, and knowledge that it is not enough, that you have to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.”
From church bulletins:
Give Satan an inch and he’ll be a ruler.
Be ye fishers of men – you catch them and He’ll clean them.
Read the Bible – It will scare the hell out of you.
Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.
Bill Graham about heaven: “To me heaven is one glorious place. And I’m going.”
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thanbk and Praise the Lord for the words of Paul in I Corinthians 2:9 – “Eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard and mind of man hasn’t conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
ON THE JOB
An elderly Christian woman had the reputation of always having something good to say about everyone. A couple of young men thought they would stump her so they asked, “What do you think of the devil?” She replied , “ Well, he is always on the job.”
I worked in a war plant during WW 11. It was expected of those who worked there that they would be on the job regularly and consistently. It was not taken lightly when a person failed to show up for work.
In our lives day in and day out how are we living? I need to ask myself, “Am I on the job for the Lord ?” God is my Saviour through our Lord Jesus Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me. I promised to live for Him, to follow Him, to obey His commands and abide in His word. Am I on the job every day?
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that in Jesus I am a new creation with a built in desire to be on the job for my Lord every day. Hallelujah ! Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
GLOBAL POSITIONING
There is a piece of equipment which is installed in many of the newer cars that enables a central receiving center to know where your car is at anytime of the day or night. This means you can never be lost. They know where you are.
This same kind of technology enables our military to pinpoint targets many miles away and send a bomb that will hut that target.
Well, now, this is interesting. The scientists who design these locating instruments are getting to where God has always been. Think about it.
Psalm 139 is most revealing. Read it. This psalm tells me that God knows everything about me. Every moment He knows where I am. He knows what I am thinking –which is why I pray that the words my mouth and the meditations of my heart will be acceptable to God. I cannot hide from God for He is everywhere. God has made us so wonderfully complex(vs.14).
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Creator God who made us, who loves us enough to know where we are all the time. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
WORRY
Dr. Michael Youseff, writing in The Leading Way, says: “The English word for “worry” comes from the old German word that means “to strangle or choke.” This is exactly what worry does. It chokes and prevents us from living victorious lives by stifling pour Godly potential.”
I read the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 6:25 ff (NLT). Jesus says very simply and clearly, “Don’t worry.” Worry cannot add a single moment to your life, so don’t worry. Don’t worry about food or drink or clothing. God knows you need these things. He cares about you and will provide for you. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Most worries are about things that never happen. Jesus says, “Don’t worry.”
I’ve found by experience that it is better to trust and praise the Lord than it is to worry. There is a chorus we used to sing in our vacation retreats, “I don’t worry when things go wrong. Jesus fills my heart with a song. It’s amazing what praising can do. Hallelujah!” I suggest you try praising the Lord for everything.
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that we can cast all our worries and cares on Him because He cares for us. Have a TERRIFIC DAY!!!
CONNECTED
When we moved into our home several months ago we found that several connections had to be made. The water line had to be run from the source to the house and connected to lines that served in the house. The same was true of the electric service, the phone service and the cable service. They all had to be connected. We also learned that these services were sometimes interrupted. A storm could cause trees to fall across lines and break them. Sometimes a loose NUT behind the wheel of a car would lose control and hit a power pole causing lines to break.
I think about my experience as a Christian. I grew up in a home where I was in Sunday School most of the time. My family background and roots were were Christian.. However, it was not until one day I realized I was lost, separated from God by my sin nature and bound for a devil’s hell and needed to be saved that the connection was made. I confessed my sin to God and I trusted jesus Christ as my Saviour. I was connected to the source of life. A personal relationship was established with Jesus Christ. As Billy Graham said about heaven, “I’m going.”
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord for that connection through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ assures us of eternal life and a home in heaven. Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!
FRIDAY GEMS
Odd’ ‘n Ends
“People are irreplaceable. God brings people into our lives.”
“The bible is the compass that keeps you on course.”
“A person who asks a question might look like a fool for five minutes, but a person who doesn’t ask is a fool forever.”
“Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching.”
“Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.”
“Stressed” spelled backwards Is “Desserts.”
John Seely Brown – “The job of leadership is not just to make money. It’s to make meaning.”
Depak Chapra – “The best way to motivate other people to help you fulfill your goals is to help them fulfill their goals.”
W. A. Criswell –“I am a Baptist by conviction, not convenience; by intent, not accident; because of truth, not tradition.”
George Washington – “The willingness with which our young people are to serve in any war, no matter how justified, will be perfectly proportionable as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
Today – Out loud and on purpose Thank and Praise the Lord that He lives in the praises of His people (Psa.22:3) Have a TERRIFIC DAY !!!