Plant don’t chant
Quote
Stop Making Excuses… If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were chocolate and nuts, we’d all have a happy Christmas.
Life is like riding a bicycle; if you want to keep moving you have got to keep pedalling. Of course, it’s okay to free-wheel occasionally but keep that up for too long and you’ll end up falling off.
MADE-IT = Make A Determined Effort – Invest Time
R. Ian Seymour
“People and rubber bands have one thing in common: they both must be stretched to be effective.”
John Maxwell
The way to ‘TRIUMPH’ is found in the first syllable of the word.
To triumph is to TRY with UMPH!
“One of the greatest reasons people cannot mobilize themselves is that they try to accomplish great things. Most worthwhile achievements are the result of many little things done in a single direction.”
Nido Quebin, speaker and writer
“It’s no good trying to shine if you don’t take the trouble to fill your lamp.”
Robert Browning
“Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.”
Winston Churchill
“How will you ever know what you can accomplish if you never try? ‘Try or cry,’ that’s my slogan. Either try or stop crying about it. Confidence will come in the doing.”
Rich DeVos, co-founder of Amway Corporation
It’s been said that only the broken can become masters at mending.
“The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.”
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British lexicographer and writer
“I have yet to find a man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit on criticism.”
Charles Schwab (1862-1939) American industrialist
We should spend as much time thanking God for answered prayer as we did pleading for it!
“When someone does something well, applaud them. In doing so, you’ll make at least two people happy.” – Samuel Goldwyn
“He who praises everybody praises nobody.”
Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
Put people up not down.
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British Prime Minister
“Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important.”
T. S. Elliot (1888-1965), British poet and dramatist
One with God is a majority!
He who rides the tiger can never dismount lest he be eaten alive.
Asian proverb.
“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”
Charles Kingsley.
“A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.”
Mary Kay Ash
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Get to know your neighbour is a piece of cake (‘cake bomb’ new neighbours)!
As ministers we are to take people, one step at a time, from A to Z: from Antagonistic Atheist to Zealous, Zappy Christian.
Aim to lead one person to Christ every year… ‘Lord, give me one person’… then disciple them. If we all did that, in twelve months we’d be able to start a new church!
Sharing
JESUS
Changes
LIVES
Set the evangelists free to evangelise. Release one to restore many. Paul says in Ephesians 4v11 (NIV1984): “It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.” Christ gave to His church some to be evangelists: Don’t tie evangelists down. Eagles tied to a stake have no soar left in them! We must set the evangelists free to do what they have been gifted to do… mission not maintenance! But that must not become an excuse for everyone else to down tools! Personal evangelism is not an option for the church. It’s a command not a suggestion.
The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
Nobody is perfect; but who is this ‘Nobody’ anyway?
“I’m not a perfectionist: my parents were, though.”
Anon.
Determine to pay the price and do whatever it takes to ‘make it’ into the top ten percent of your chosen field, and the rewards will be fantastic!
“Every day do something that will inch you towards a better tomorrow.”
Doug Firebaugh
“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”
– John Ruskin (1819-1900), English art critic and social reformer.
Wherever you go always leave the place better for having visited, and whatever you do always leave things better than you found it.
“Feedback is the food of champions.”
Ken Blanchard, author, speaker
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
Dr Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1994), clergyman and writer
“Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it, than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.”
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773), English Statesman and author
You can’t have it all; else where would you put everything?
“Become a possibilitarian.”
Norman Vincent Peale
“It’s a funny thing, life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it.”
W. Somerset Maugham
There is no defeat in life, save from within: If you are not beaten there, then you are bound to win.
“I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.”
George Burns
It is better to have tried to succeed and failed than to have tried nothing and succeeded.
You win some you lose some or you win some you learn some.
“Failure is delay, but not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end street.”
William Arthur Ward
Failure is success in disguise.
“Failure is success if we learn from it.”
Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), magazine publisher
“You will never be saved by works; but let us tell you most solemnly, that you will never be saved without works.”
T. L. Cuyler
All good wine has the flavour of the ground it was cultivated in. If it doesn’t then it’s just plonk!
“The trouble with some people is that they have no invisible means of support.”
Dr Joseph Murphy
G.K. Chesterton said: “If there were no God there would be no atheists.”
Atheism’s creed is clear and cruel: we began as a fluke, we live as a farce and we end as fertilizer.
John Blanchard.
The modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion. He would be incapable of such resentment if God were only a myth.
Fulton Sheen
Plan, Pray, Trust and Obey.
“Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and I will show you a man who can comprehend God.”
John Wesley (1703-1791), English preacher and founder of Methodist Church
“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and domain of an intelligent and powerful Being.”
Sir Isaac Newton
It is much easier not to have faith.
Follow your gut feelings, your intuition, and turn head faith into action.
R. Ian Seymour
I wasn’t born a believer. I was told about Christ and I saw Christ in others, but I doubted before I came to believe in Jesus. If doubt results in questions… that lead to answers… that are accepted, then doubt has done an excellent job.
If it’s of God you can forget about it, because if it is He won’t.
Believing is not seeing, otherwise there would only be a few hundred believers in 1st century Palestine. And yet, believing is seeing.
“God made the world round so that we would never be able to see too far down the road.”
Isak Dineson
“God made us in His own image and we, unfortunately, like to repay the favour!”
Tony Compolo
If Christ isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.
“It is only the loyal soul who believes that God engineers circumstances.”
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, (2000 edition), Worcester: Oswald Chambers Publications, p.359
Either God is in control of He isn’t. Which way is it with you?
God does not play dice! – Albert Einstein
“Faith is like stepping out on tissue paper, believing that when you do, God will put solid rock beneath your feet!”
Bob Gass
The depth of a person’s faith is always tested when their pocket is challenged!
“The family that plays together stays together.” (Motto on the box of Trivial Pursuits board game.)
“It’s quantity of time at home and quality of time at work that counts; don’t get the two mixed up!”
Brian Tracy
A happy family is an advance on heaven.
Fear makes the monster seem bigger than it is.
When it comes to fear the best defensive is an offensive.
“The greatest mistake a man can make is to be afraid of making one.”
Elbert Hubbard (writer)
Prepare for war a long time, so that you might win more easily.
Publilius Syrus (c. 43BC)
Don’t give in, dig in. Don’t give up, follow up.
“Always take the offensive. Never dig in.”
General George S. Patton (1885-1945), US military commander
“When life knocks you down, try to fall on your back because if you can look up, you can get up.”
Les Brown (motivational speaker and author)
Don’t sweat the small stuff!
Think constantly about the things you long for and not the things you fear.
“Behold the fool saith, ‘Put not all thine eggs in one basket’ – which is but a manner of saying, ‘Scatter your money and your attention.’ But the wise man saith, ‘Put all your eggs in one basket and then, watch the basket’.”
Mark Twain (1835-1910), novelist and humourist
“Above all, be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” – James Allen (1864-1912), English author.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemes of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28-29). To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to deny that Jesus is the Christ; that is to deny God; to sin. All other sins will be forgiven. This is the only exception! Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the ‘persistent, deliberate rejection of the Spirit’s call to salvation in Christ’ means a refusal to confess our rebellion and seek God’s remedy in Christ.
Explore Bible notes, 16/12/2004
“In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemies; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), philosopher and writer
I don’t get even; I get odder!
If you had to pay just one penny of the debt for your own sin, it would make you a co-redeemer with Christ… You can’t earn forgiveness you can only accept it. It is by grace you have been saved.
Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
Holding a grudge is like letting someone live rent-free in your head.
A grudge is something that doesn’t get better when you nurse it!
You can’t nurse a grudge and make things better.
“As every cat knows some things need to be buried.”
Ruth Bell Graham
We are prone to minimize our own offences (and so require only a light dose of forgiveness), while we maximize the offences of others (and the heavy doses of forgiveness they require and that we find hard to dispense.
The only people we should even get even with – are those who have helped us!
“Make the other person like himself a little bit more and I promise you that he will like you very much indeed.”
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773), English Statesman and noted author of “Letters to His Son”.
It’s worth going out of our way to maintain friendships, not only to save ourselves from eventually slipping into isolation but also because it’s part of the divine ecology: ‘It is not good for man to be alone’.
John Pritchard
John Pritchard, Living Faithfully, 2013, SPCK London, p.120
To win some be winsome
“It’s the friends that you can call up at 4 o’clock in the morning that matter.”
Marlene Dietrich