There was a young man who was at the end of his rope.

Seeing no way out, he dropped to his knees in prayer.

“Lord, I can’t go on,” he said. “I have too heavy of a cross to bear.”

The Lord replied, “My son, if you can’t bear it’s weight, just place your cross inside this room. Then pick out any cross you wish.”

The man was filled with relief. “Thank You, Lord!” he signed, and he did as he was told.

Inside the room, he saw many crosses, some so large the tops weren’t visible. Then he spotted a tiny cross leaning against the far wall.

“I’d like that one, Lord,” he whispered.

“My son,” the Lord replied, “that is the cross you just brought in.”

from Barbara Johnson’s book, Humor Me

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Incredible short interview with Rick Warren,

‘Purpose Driven Life ‘ author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into  another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness,’which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor,  care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, “God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do.” That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

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How to cultivate a meaningful conversation with the Lord.

by Nancy Guthrie

My teenaged son, Matt, always has a great time when he visits my parents. And why shouldn’t he? Matt gets out of bed whenever he wants, eats whatever he wants, and watches whatever he wants on TV. In fact, Matt made a grand discovery at Grandma’s house during his last visit. My mother keeps a bucket of chocolate-chip cookie dough in her refrigerator that Matt enjoyed eating by the spoonful! When he returned from that visit, he began asking me to buy cookie dough from Sam’s Club, just like my mom.

I know having cookie dough easily available isn’t good for either of us, so I said “no” over and over … until last week. Matt’s repeated requests finally wore me down.

That’s one of the big differences between God’s parenting and mine. God doesn’t give me everything I repeatedly ask for when he knows it’s not best for me. But a shallow reading of Luke 11:9-10 could lead me to think otherwise. There Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Is the way to get what I want from God through wearing him down, or getting as many people as possible to ask God for it? What kinds of prayer really move the heart and hand of God?

Secret-Formula Prayer vs. Seeking Prayer

for the complete article: www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2006/marapr/9.22.html

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Just Think,

You’re here not by chance, but by God’s choosing.

His hand formed you and made you the person you are.

He compares you to no one else -

You are one of a kind.

You lack nothing that his grace can’t give you.

He has allowed you to be here at this time in history

to fulfill His special purpose for this generation.

- Roy Lessin

(Roy Lessin is co-founded DaySpring with 3 other ministers and is currently one of its senior writers. For over 34 years he has worked in this Christian company with a ministry focus. Roy’s desire is for his writing to bring glory to God, to be inspired by Christ and to be used by the Holy Spirit in the encouragement of believers throughout the world.)

http://store.dayspring-store.com

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author unknown

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our
cell phones?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we used it to receive messages?

What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it as we traveled?

What if we used it in case of an emergency?

What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?

This is something to make you go, hmmm, where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cellphones, we don’t ever have to worry
about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

And no dropped calls!

Makes you stop and think, “Where are my priorities?”

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I just bought a new computer… well, new hard drive, tower, column, whatever. The nice young man who installed it wore a great amount of cologne/after shave/perfume. Since I am quite sensitive to smells, I had to quarantine the room, run fans & air filters all night, and have a flare-up to boot. Needless to say, I scooted the youngster out of my house as quickly as possible. Lucky him. I prayed that God would somehow make my office habitable again, and He would also control my sensitivities. Aside from the headache, I believe my prayer was answered.

Now for the trauma! I open up email, there are no addresses AND I have to enter something under POP3, for which I haven’t a clue. All my desktop items are gone… I run my life on my desktop because otherwise I can’t find myself. Where is my new, about to be published book? Where are the over 50 bookmarks/favorites I saved on my Internet Explorer? Where am I?

I feel as if I am in a small boat in the middle of a vast ocean, no boundaries except the horizon, no land in “site.” This must be what someone feels like who doesn’t know Jesus Christ and has a chronic illness—lost in a sea of confusion concerning diagnosis, treatment, and life-style changes. I often wonder how anyone could go through life without the God of creation walking beside them. How utterly alone they are.

I am not alone and will not have to stay in this empty, vast unknown territory called the Internet. I have friends who will guide me out of this quandary; but how lost I would be without them. And who is the best friend anyone could ever have in their life? Jesus Christ! God’s answer to all the dilemmas in which we find ourselves, even the ones on the super highway called the Internet.

May you remember all your passwords, find all your documents in the places you thought you left them, Google your way to helpful sites, meet all the wonderful people out there and none of the dorks & sickos, and knock yourself out playing computer games. When the cursor disappears, documents get lost in the Ethernet, you’ve lost yourself in a maze of unknown sites, and you receive 100 spams a day, just remember that God created perfection and man created the computer.

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from email post

THE BUZZARD:
If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

THE BAT: 
 The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place.  If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

THE BUMBLEBEE:
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there
until it dies, unless it is taken out.  It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom.  It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

PEOPLE:
In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee.
We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up!

Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, But faith looks up!

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and trust in our Creator who loves us.

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In the official magazine of the Navel Institute, Frank Koch reported on a very unusual encounter at sea.  As A battleship was coming in for maneuvers in heavy weather.  Shortly after the sun went down, the lookout reported a light in the distance, so the captain had the signalman send a message: “We’re on a collision course.  Advise you to change your course twenty degrees.”  
 

Minutes later a signal came back:  “Advisable for you to change your course.”
 
The captain angrily ordered that another signal be sent:  “I am a captain.  Change course twenty degrees.
 
Again came the reply:  “I’m a seaman, second class.  You’d better change your course.”
 
Furious by this point, the captain barked a final threat.  “I’m a battleship! Change your course!”
 
The signal came back: “I’m a lighthouse.”
 
The captain changes his course!”

God is the lighthouse of our soul. Often times we choose to crash upon the shoals of life instead of listening to the one who knows the way. Pray that each of us keep our eyes fixed on the light of the Son.

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Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some
kind of battle.

If I want my dreams to come true, I mustn’t oversleep.

Of all the things I wear, my expression is the most important.

The best vitamin for making friends…. B1.
The happiness of my life depends on the quality of my thoughts.

The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.

If I lack the courage to start, I have already finished.

My mind is like a parachute…it functions only when open.

The 10 commandments are not a multiple choice.
 

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 by Jonnie Wright

I have no love for you… for I did not pay the ultimate price.

I have no comfort for you… for I am not the Comforter.

I have no safety for you… for I cannot hold you in the palm of my hand.

I have no peace for you… for I have no perfect love.

—————

May you kneel at the cross and receive Christ’s love.

May you be comforted by the Comforter sent by the Father’s love for His daughter.

May you be safe in the cleft of the Rock.

May you have the peace that passes all understanding.

—————–

Take hold of the promises!

Bask in the love!

Live beyond the clichés.

Choose to be comforted.

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