You can only guide a car when it’s moving, and God can often only help us (or re-direct us) when we are moving in one of the possible directions before us. Get moving and God will let you know whether or not you are going in the right direction.
Quote: John Pritchard, Living Faithfully, 2013, SPCK London, p.30.
“Tradition starts because someone does something twice and then you can’t change it!”
Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia
Fact: Laughter strengthens the body’s immune system.
First rule of happiness: It is not our position in life that makes us happy, but our disposition in life.
Second rule of happiness: “He who laughs… lasts.”
“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist and poet
‘In the first letter to the Corinthians, chapters 12 through 14, some of the wonderful and supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are listed for us, and we are told to eagerly desire them, especially the ‘greater gifts’ as Paul calls them, which includes the gift of healing (12:31). Why are we to eagerly desire these gifts? The answer is for God’s glory, not for our entertainment; because in receiving and using these spiritual gifts we edify and build up the church and bring much honour and glory to God. This begs the question then, if we don’t eagerly desire the greater gifts the Holy Spirit bestows, well then, we are not actually doing what the Word of God implores us to do, and we can then end up quashing the Spirit or suggesting maybe that God doesn’t do miracles anymore!
It is entirely possible that major miracles, such as healing the blind or the crippled or raising the dead etc., may have dried up here in the West, for a time maybe, but the Bible says nothing about such miracles ceasing altogether or that the ‘greater spiritual gifts’ are no longer needed or available. In fact, quite the opposite: Jesus said in John 14v12, ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these.’ Does that actually mean we will do even greater miracles that Jesus did? Well maybe not greater in quality but certainly there has been a greater quantity of miracles since Jesus walked the earth! (We don’t know how many people Jesus healed altogether but there are accounts of thirty healings recorded in the four gospels.)
When it comes to major miracles, maybe God has chosen to be ‘silent’ for a time here in the West, but isn’t that His right, if He chooses? God, in a sense, was ‘silent’ when He allowed the Israelites to remain in Egypt for 430 years… but then God sent Moses who performed many miraculous signs and wonders and the people were set free. I wonder if the Israelites in Egypt said God doesn’t do major miracles anymore! We mustn’t quash the Holy Spirit; we mustn’t limit God or use the argument of ‘silence’ to suggest that God is no longer active in performing miracles.’
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.175-176
In Mark 16:15-20 Jesus again spoke about ‘miraculous signs’ that would be performed by those who have faith: He said, ‘These signs will accompany those who believe’ (v17) – ‘those who believe’ means all believers, all Christians; it means us.
“We have all chosen to be the weight that we are because we have never eaten anything unintentionally or by accident!”
Zig Ziglar
“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like and do what you’d rather not!”
Mark Twain
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
All of us would like to believe there is no such place as hell, but it’s noteworthy that the One who had most to say about hell in the Scriptures is none other than the Son of God, who is love incarnate.
J. Oswald Sanders
J. Oswald Sanders, Effective Evangelism, 1982, OM Literature, Waynesboro, GA, USA, p.60
The only thing wrong with doing nothing is that you never know when you’re finished!
If you continue to take in the Word of God but you don’t do anything with it; you don’t apply it and pass it along, you get spiritually overweight. Then what was designed for your health [and well-being] becomes a detriment to you. You should be exercising [what you learn] and sharing this stuff [in the lives of others]. Any athlete will tell you it’s easy to win games from an armchair. It’s something else to win on the field. Too many churches are filled with “armchair players” who see clearly what everyone else should be doing. But God has not called you to watch from the side-lines. He’s called you to get involved with the game.
Tony Evans
Tony Evans, Time To Get Serious, p.206
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by times; it is the regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
Sydney J. Harris (syndicated columnist)
“The unfathomable sadness of the ‘might have been’! God never opens doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which need never have been shut, imaginations which need never have been sullied. Never be afraid when God brings back the past. Let memory have its way. It is a minister of God with its rebuke and chastisement and sorrow. God will turn the ‘might have been’ into a wonderful culture for the future.”
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, (2000 edition), Worcester: Oswald Chambers Publications, p.100
“In a broken world, sometimes a lie is justifiable but every lie, even the justifiable one, is a sad reminder of our brokenness.”
Allen Verhey (Professor of religion at Hope College, Holland, Michigan)
“It’s easy to tell a lie but hard to tell only one.”
Sissela Bok
Sissela Bok, Lying, 1978, New York: Pantheon, p.28
“Men stumble over the truth from time to time but most pick themselves up as if nothing had happened.” – Sir Winston Churchill
Once discovered, any exaggeration of the truth or withholding of the truth destroys your future credibility.
“Be often alone with Christ and you’ll have much assurance. Be seldom alone with Him and your religion will be shallow and polluted with many doubts and fears.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
At the birth of the Son of God there was brightness at midnight; at the death of the Son of God there was darkness at noon.
Theodore Roosevelt said, “The best leader is the one who has the sense to pick good people to do what he or she wants done, and enough self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
He who thinketh he leadeth but hath no one following him is only taking a walk! – Ancient proverb
It’s interesting and appropriate that the word ‘LEARN’ is also made up from the words ‘EAR’ and ‘EARN’.
“The mediocre teacher tells; the good teacher explains; the superior teacher demonstrates; the great teacher inspires.”
William Arthur Ward
“We hear only about half of what is said to us, understand only about half of that, believe only about half of that and remember only about half of that!”
Mignon McLaughlin (journalist and author)
“When I was eighteen I just couldn’t believe how little my father knew, but by the time I was twenty-one I couldn’t believe how much he had learnt!”
Mark Twain (1835-1910), American novelist and humourist
May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future, and may your home always be too small to hold all your friends.
The people at the top of the mountain didn’t just fall there!
A biologist once observed that the likelihood of the world being produced by chance or ‘good fortune’ is about as great as that of an explosion in a printing shop producing the complete works of William Shakespeare!
Good luck to you, and may the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.
Irish farewell
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
the rains fall soft upon your fields and,
until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
An old Irish blessing
The art of good management is to simply do yourself out of a job. In other words, delegate.
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if we don’t worry about who gets the credit.”
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), 33rd President of USA
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Margaret Thatcher (British prime minister 1979-1990)
Management shortcut: “Don’t teach your people to be nice. Instead, simply hire nice people.” – Anon
Matthew Henry commented on God’s choice of a rib to create Eve: ‘Not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.’ Perhaps this reads a little too much into the rib, but it expresses well the biblical ideal of marriage.
Source: New Bible Commentary, (1994 edition), Leicester: IVP, p.62
The divine intention and biblical institution of marriage: “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” – Genesis 2:24
Stupidity got us into this mess – why can’t it get us out of it?
“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”
Oscar Wilde
“To err is human… but when you wear the eraser out ahead of the pencil, you’re overdoing it!”
Jerry Jenkins (author)
D. H. Lawrence said, ‘If only one could have two lives. The first in which to makes one’s mistakes and the second in which to profit by them.’
A stone with a flawed diamond in it is still far more valuable than a perfect stone with no diamond in it.
In the Bible there are around 2300 references to money, wealth and possessions. It is obvious, then, that someone thought the subject and our attitude towards it, very important!
Today’s culture seems all about… “buying things you do not need with money you do not have to impress people you do not like.”
R. Kent Hughes
“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.”
Margaret Thatcher
“What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.”
George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880), English novelist
“When people are highly motivated it’s easy to accomplish the impossible. And when they are not, it’s impossible to accomplish the easy!”
Bob Collins, (U.S. radio personality)
Opportunities pass, they don’t pause!
“Patience and fortitude conquer all.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), American poet and essayist
“I am not the smartest or the most talented man in the world, but I succeeded because I kept on going and going and going.”
Sylvester Stallone (film star and producer.)
“It takes years of struggle and perseverance to become an overnight success.”
Eddie Cantor
“I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”
Og Mandino
The less you pray the less you want to pray. The more you pray the more you want to pray.
Thine way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be;
Lead me by Thine own hand, choose Thou the path for me.
Not mine, not mine the choice, in things both great and small,
Be Thou my Guide, my Strength, my Wisdom and my All.
H. Bonar
“The next time you feel like God can’t use you, remember the following people: Zacchaeus was too small… Paul was too religious… Timothy had an ulcer… and Lazarus was dead!”
Clemency Fox
“The most important thing is to make the most important thing the most important thing!”
Stephen R. Covey
“He is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is wiser still who from among the things he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best.”
William Gladstone (1809-1898), four-times British prime minister
Don’t share your problems with other people. Eighty percent of them don’t care anyway, and the other twenty percent are actually glad!
Keith DeGreen
To not realise what it is you want is a problem of knowledge.
To not pursue what it is you want is a problem of motivation.
To not achieve what it is you want is a problem of persistence.
Anon.
The best time to take action is that time that falls in-between yesterday and tomorrow.
Augustine said, ‘O God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.’
You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be.
Max Lucado
Where your talents and the needs of the world collide, there lies your vocation.
Aristotle
Ministry: “Once and for all, we need to put to rest the notion that the only way to please God or to make an impact in the world is to be a minister of the gospel. Our work is not something we do in the hope we will have an opportunity to do ministry; it is ministry! God has called us to work. People who have been searching for their divine calling might find it has been under their noses all along.”
Paul J. Meyer
Paul J. Meyer, Unlocking Your Legacy, 2002, Chicago Illinois, Moody Press, p.132
“95 percent of us will never be in occupational ministry, but that does not mean we are not ministers.”
Patrick Morley
“The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.”
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Make your passion your profession.
If Jesus’ tomb was empty then his promises to us are not.
The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate sign of his identity.
“Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.”
Dag Hammarskjöld, statesman and holder of the Nobel Peace Prize.
At the cross it’s as if God says, ‘Over my Son’s dead body will you have to pay for your sin.’
Albert Einstein said: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
Cited by Mark Batterson, 2017, Play The Man, Michigan USA: Baker Books, p.44
‘Biologist Ernst Mayr, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, writes: ‘Since Darwin, every knowing person agrees man descended from the apes. Today, there is no such thing as the theory of evolution. It is the fact of evolution.’ [But is it?] Avowed atheist Richard Dawkins endorses this verdict with a typical truculent flourish: ‘It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who does not believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).
Cited in John Blanchard, 2004, Has Science Got Rid of God, Darlington UK: Evangelical Press, p.55-56
“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.”
Benjamin Whichcote
A diamond is just a piece of coal made good under pressure.
Here are the four secret words for success: Go The Extra Mile.
“Success is doing something that makes you say, “Nothing I ever did made me feel this good.”
Elizabeth Dole
“If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”
Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist and poet
“Success is 99 percent failure.”
Soichiro Honda, founder of the motor company
“If you want to succeed, under promise and over deliver.”
Tom Peters, author and management expert
When non-Christians go through hard times, they often take it as a sign that there is no God, or that God is not loving. In fact, it could be that the loving God is bringing them low so that they cry out to him. – Is there someone you know who you could gently suggest this to?
Explore Bible notes, 6/3/2015
You remember Jesus taught us to pray: ‘Our Father… your will be done on earth’ – which is tantamount to saying God’s will is not being done on earth, at least not all the time. Anyone who thinks God’s will is always been done on earth is not looking at the evidence around them: poverty, murder, child trafficking, terrorism, disease, sickness… Jesus knows that God’s will is not being done all the time on earth, that’s why He tells us to pray daily: ‘Our Father… your will be done on earth… give us this day…’ – It’s a daily prayer.
“It is good for us that at times we have sorrows and adversities, because they often make a man realise in his heart that he is an exile, and puts not his hope in any worldly thing.”
Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Augustinian monk
Source: Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, p.35
Life is like a game of cards: Each person must accept the cards dealt to them and then they alone must decide how to play them in order to win the game.
You can teach a person knowledge and you can teach a person skills but you can’t teach natural talent.
The trouble with common sense is that it is not very common!
Stress comes from having too many gloves and only one pair of hands; too many hats and only one head!
Jesus’ words in ‘The Great Commission’ make the doctrine of the Trinity plain: “God must be thought of as three in one and one in three. The words in Matthew 28:19 do not say (plural), ‘baptize in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ as it would do if there were three separate gods. But neither does it omit the little word ‘of’ and say ‘in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,’ as it would do if these titles only represented aspects of the one God.”
Author, Michael Lloyd (a lecturer in Christian doctrine) writes: “God is Trinitarian. Human beings are made in the image of God. If, therefore, we focus on one member of the Trinity to the neglect of the others, we will live out an imbalanced humanity. Most of us do have one member of the Trinity to whom we most easily relate. If we examine our prayers, we will probably notice that we usually have One of the Three in mind as we pray. And if we look to the life of the church we attend, we shall probably find that it too tends to major on one Person of the Trinity. And we needn’t be too worried about that. The other two aren’t going to be offended! But the one we pray to will want to introduce us to the other two, so we have a fuller, richer and more rounded view – and experience – of God. (…) So it is a good spiritual discipline to try consciously to address in prayer the Person(s) of the Trinity with whom we are less immediately comfortable (…) to bring a Trinitarian balance to our spirituality.”
Michael Lloyd, 2005, Café Theology, London: Alpha International, p.306
Holy Trinity = Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Unholy trinity = the world, the flesh and the devil
Christian trinity = Faith, hope and love.
If Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II were to walk through the door of our church this morning, we would stand in her presence as a mark of respect and, most likely, we would recite the National Anthem. Well, let’s stand now, in the presence of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and let’s affirm our faith in our Triune-God, saying together the Nicene Creed, our ‘Christian Inter-National Anthem’.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic* and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
*note: catholic (with a small ‘c’) means worldwide
Vision starts with identity and purpose
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”
Vincent T. Lombardi (1913-1970), American professional football coach.
“The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.”
William James
Everyone who makes it has a mentor.
Harvard Business Review
“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.”
George Carlin (Comedian)
“Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonise with his thoughts and actions.”
James Allen
We dishonour God when we proclaim a Saviour who satisfies and then go around discontent.
J.I. Packer
God has put a dream inside you. It’s yours, and no one else’s. It declares your uniqueness. It holds your potential. Only you can birth it. Only you can live it. Not to discover it, take responsibility for it, and act upon it is to negatively affect yourself as well as those who would benefit from your dream.
John C Maxwell
John C Maxwell, ‘Put Your Dream to the Test’, 2011, Thomas Nelson: Nashville Tennessee, p.20