Mon, Aug 30, 2010 9:00 AM
If we’re not careful and deliberate, we can go through life with a horizontal perspective, always looking around, never looking up, and that can create a negative sense of urgency…even anxiety!
Radio Bible teacher Chuck Swindell says, “When we look at life with a horizontal perspective, the urgent takes center stage. It’s loud. It’s popular. It’s product oriented. The horizontal highlights all the human stuff…like human achievement, human importance, human logic, human significance, human opinion, human efficiency, human results! It demands our time and attention…it’s urgent.”
It’s no wonder so many people are stressed out, having anxiety attacks and popping Prozac like they were tic tacs. They are looking at life horizontally—not taking enough vertical gazes to get their balance. Gordon Dahl in his book, Work, Play andWorship in a Leisure Oriented Society, writes, “Most middle class Americans tend to worship, their work, to work at their play and play at their worship. As a result, their values get distorted and their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair.
Why don’t you start this week out with a little vertical perspective—in fact, as a vertical exercise, read some scripture verses aloud to help you get started. Here are a few.
Psalm 139:7-10 (NLT)
I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
Psalm 27:1-3 (NLT)
The Lord is my light and my salvation—
so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
When evil people come to devour me,
when my enemies and foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
Though a mighty army surrounds me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
I will remain confident.
Psalm 27:6-8 (NLT)
Then I will hold my head high
above my enemies who surround me.
At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
singing and praising the Lord with music.
Hear me as I pray, O Lord.
Be merciful and answer me!
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
It’s true, a vertical perspective can help keep you from a horizontal panic attack.
Make a great day!
Mon, Aug 23, 2010 9:56 AM
I recently saw a question that asked “If your life were a dollar, how are you spending it?” Don’t read on until you’ve thought about your answer. How are you spending your life? John Piper in his book, DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE, gives this prospective. “I tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life.” Consider the story in the February 1998 edition of the Reader’s Digest which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their job in the Northeast when he was 59 and she was 51.” Now they lived in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. At first, when I read it, I thought it might be a joke—a spoof on the American dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream: come to the end of your life as your one and only precious God given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your creator, be this: play softball and collect shells! Picture then before Christ at the great day of judgment, Look, Lord. See my shells. This is a tragedy and people are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest. Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life!”
Piper is right, don’t waste your life. Find a cause to give yourself to, (after all, you’ve been given certain gifts by God to serve others with), and find people that you can invest yourself in—because it’s people, not profits, that we will spend all of eternity with!
Make a great day!
Mon, Aug 16, 2010 10:15 AM
Two friends were walking through the desert. During one point of the journey they had an argument, and one slapped the other in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt but, without saying anything, wrote in the sand: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.”
They kept on walking until they found an oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.
After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.”
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?”
The other friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can blow it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”
I think forgiveness is really a sign of how someone feels about themselves. For when you forgive someone, you no longer are building your identity around something that happened in your past—rather you are putting the past in proper perspective and it gives you the ability to “press on towards the price….”
Dr. Richard Dobbins provides a great definition of forgiveness. “It’s a conscious, deliberate act of the will that delivers the forgiven from guilt and shame, and delivers the forgiver from anger and pain. Forgiveness does not have to be received to be given or given to be received—but when given and received, it reconciles the forgiven to the forgiver.”
So maybe we should learn to write our hurts in the sand, and to carve our benefits in stone.
Make a great day!
Thu, Aug 12, 2010 2:04 PM
I read a story about a young man from a wealthy family who was about to graduate from high school. It was a custom in their affluent community for parents to give their graduating children a new car, and the boy and his Dad spent weeks visiting one dealership after another. The week before graduation they found the perfect car. The boy was certain it would be in the driveway on graduation night.
On the eve of his graduation, however, his father handed him a small package wrapped in colorful paper. It was a Bible. The boy was so angry he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again.
Several years later, the news of the father’s death finally brought the son home again. Following the funeral, he sat alone one evening going through his father’s possessions when he came across the Bible his Dad had given him. Overwhelmed by grief, he cracked it open for the first time. When he did, a cashier’s check dated the day of his high school graduation fell into his lap—in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.
God is sovereign; life is short. Just because things don’t always get delivered to us the way we think they should, doesn’t mean that God is not providing His blessings. His blessings come in different packages and at different times—but be confident that they are always a part of His divine plan for us. After all, we are “His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good deeds.”
Mon, Aug 2, 2010 3:01 PM
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you just weren’t connecting? Maybe it was a teenager who looks at you as if you’re speaking Greek, or a preacher in the hallway at a ministers’ function who is constantly looking over your shoulder at others in the room. Frustrating, isn’t it?
One of the deepest needs we all have is to connect with others; to feel that somebody will understand and relate to us. It doesn’t matter what age or stage of life in which you find yourself—we all need people with whom we can connect.
In his book Connecting, author Larry Crabb states, “When two people really connect, something is poured out of one and into the other that has the power to heal the soul of its deepest wounds and restore it to health.” He goes on to say that, while the one who receives experiences the joy of being healed, the one who gives knows the even greater joy of being used to heal. “Something good is in the heart of each of God’s children that is far more powerful than everything bad in the world. It’s there waiting to be released and work its magic. But you have to be connected.”
That’s great! At every stage of life you are going to need relationships. In fact, I’ve found that in the ministry, friendships are not optional, they are essential!!
To have good friends and to be a good friend, you need to…
MAKE THE FIRST MOVE
We often miss the opportunity to connect with others, simply because we are waiting for them to take the initiative.
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly”[Proverbs 18:24].
THINK ABOUT OTHERS FIRST
A friendship can become energy-draining if it is only one-sided. A good friend disciplines himself to focus on the friend more than themselves.
“Care about them as much as you care about yourselves” [Philippians 2:4].
USE YOUR WORDS TO BUILD
Our speech is a building tool. Interestingly, in the book of Genesis, when the people were building the Tower of Babel to reach heaven, their pride provoked God, so He stopped the project—not with some extreme act of nature, but by taking away their ability to communicate with one another. As a result, the project came to a halt.
Our words are designed to build up, to encourage, and to motivate, not to destroy.
“Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word is a gift” [Ephesians 4:29].
LEARN TO LISTEN
Listening is a great quality you can use to enhance friendships. True friends know how to listen with their heart as well as their ears!
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear” [James 1:19].
Friendships…there is no better feeling in life than the feelings you experience when you are surrounded by the friends you love and who love you!
Speaking of friends…
- “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you need is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “If you live to be 100, I want to live to be 100 minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” – Winnie the Pooh
Jesus says, I call you friend!
Make a great day!
Tue, Jul 20, 2010 1:07 PM
Tue, Jul 20, 2010 12:57 PM
There is a story of a ninety-two year old lady who was moving into a nursing home. As she was being wheeled down the corridor, the attendant began to describe the room. “I love it,” the old women gushed. “But you haven’t even seen the room yet,” the attendant reminded her. “That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind.”Wow, now there’s an important life lesson…much of your success is decided in advance—or “arranged in your mind.” That is a choice! Circumstances will never determine your amount of happiness. Circumstances only highlight who you already are. That’s probably why the apostle Paul wrote so many scriptures about our mind…he encourages us “to be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2); “to be made new in the attitude of your minds” (Ephesians 4:23). He talks about “thinking on things that are true, pure and admirable”…he even suggests that we, “set our minds on things above not on earthlythings” (Colossians 3:2). Ok, heaven is our ultimate goal and I want to go there…but I also want to enjoy the journey in getting there! That’s why it so important to choose the right attitude. I read the following in a church bulletin recently and thought it was really good:
Today I can complain about my health, or
I can celebrate being alive.
Today I can moan that it is raining, or
Be joyful at all that grows from the rain.
Today I can regret all I don’t have or
Rejoice, in everything I do.
Today I can mourn everything I have lost, or
Eagerly anticipate what’s to come.
Today I can complain that I have to work, or
Celebrate having a job to go to.
Parents…Today I can resent the mess the kids make, or
Give thanks that I have a family.
Today I can whine about the housework, or
Be happy I have a house.
Today I can choose to make it a great day!
Wed, Jul 14, 2010 9:26 AM