WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
"Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord"; . . .
Friday, August 17, 2018
Sunday, July 29, 2018
"I get enough."
How 3 words can stop what's stealing your joy: Instead of staying stuck in comparing and competing
Ann Voskamp
"I get enough."
I get enough… because I get enough Jesus – and Jesus for me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough God – and God in me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough grace – and His grace to me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough Love – and His Love all around me, for me, in me, is enough.
I get enough.
When I can’t remember that I get enough – I just have to remember to give thanks.
Eucharisteo always precedes the miracle:
Give thanks – and you get the miracle of knowing that you do get enough. You get enough God.
The disease of not-enough… is cured when you give thanks for more than enough grace.
. . .
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?
If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son – is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?” (Romans 8:32, NIV, MSG)
If God already gave us the extraordinary extravagance of Jesus – He will give the ordinary enough of right now.
The column was originally published on Ann Voskamp’s blog, annvoskamp.com.
www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/29/how-3-words-can-stop-whats-stealing-your-joy-instead-staying-stuck-in-comparing-and-competing.html
Ann Voskamp
"I get enough."
I get enough… because I get enough Jesus – and Jesus for me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough God – and God in me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough grace – and His grace to me is enough.
I get enough… because I get enough Love – and His Love all around me, for me, in me, is enough.
I get enough.
When I can’t remember that I get enough – I just have to remember to give thanks.
Eucharisteo always precedes the miracle:
Give thanks – and you get the miracle of knowing that you do get enough. You get enough God.
The disease of not-enough… is cured when you give thanks for more than enough grace.
. . .
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?
If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son – is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?” (Romans 8:32, NIV, MSG)
If God already gave us the extraordinary extravagance of Jesus – He will give the ordinary enough of right now.
The column was originally published on Ann Voskamp’s blog, annvoskamp.com.
www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/29/how-3-words-can-stop-whats-stealing-your-joy-instead-staying-stuck-in-comparing-and-competing.html
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
She is a friend of my mind.
"She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."
~ Toni Morrison, Beloved
~ Toni Morrison, Beloved
Fear Not
Fear Not
Our fear is a hump we have to get over, and we have to get over it before we can go very far with Jesus. To help an alcoholic or a drug addict, we must first get him or her off the stuff. That is the first step, the first lesson (if you will): to stop drinking or using. Only then does it make sense to talk about other things.
Jesus knew that people, from the day they are born, are slaves to fear, just as much slaves as a drunkard is to his bottle or an addict to his needle. And, until we can stop being afraid, and trust God, nothing else works. We are simply too consumed by fear and worry and anxiety to think about anything else.
For that reason Jesus spent a great deal of time telling us not to be afraid -- telling us directly, and acting out God's grace by feeding people who were hungry and rescuing those in trouble on the sea. God will be there when we need him. Fear not. It the first lesson in the Christian primer, the one on which all the others build.
~ William R. Boyer, Four Miles Out
Our fear is a hump we have to get over, and we have to get over it before we can go very far with Jesus. To help an alcoholic or a drug addict, we must first get him or her off the stuff. That is the first step, the first lesson (if you will): to stop drinking or using. Only then does it make sense to talk about other things.
Jesus knew that people, from the day they are born, are slaves to fear, just as much slaves as a drunkard is to his bottle or an addict to his needle. And, until we can stop being afraid, and trust God, nothing else works. We are simply too consumed by fear and worry and anxiety to think about anything else.
For that reason Jesus spent a great deal of time telling us not to be afraid -- telling us directly, and acting out God's grace by feeding people who were hungry and rescuing those in trouble on the sea. God will be there when we need him. Fear not. It the first lesson in the Christian primer, the one on which all the others build.
~ William R. Boyer, Four Miles Out
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
truth-telling, confronting injustice, and pursuing peace
William Sloane Coffin, Jr., who died at the age of 81, was a scholar, civil rights leader, antiwar activist, and a prophet. He summed up his faith by saying, "I believe Christianity is a worldview that undergirds all progressive thought and action."
He also said, "The Christian church is called to respond to Biblical mandates like truth-telling, confronting injustice, and pursuing peace."
He also said, "The Christian church is called to respond to Biblical mandates like truth-telling, confronting injustice, and pursuing peace."
Monday, July 09, 2018
Hope
"Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on inside. It is about becoming open to the God of newness."
- Joan D. Chittister, Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, 2003, 110.
Turn your face to the sun
"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall always behind you."
- native New Zealand proverb
Failure and Success
"Failure changes us for the better, success for the worse."
- Seneca, Roman philosopher
Live in the Present
"When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future. " -St. Therese of Lisieux, Peacemaking, 1989 ed.
Tuesday, July 03, 2018
Glued to Our Faults
Glued to Our Faults
James S. Hewett once gave an apt example of people not getting the respect they deserve. Especially young people.
He tells about his son, who was using one of those super-adhesive glues on a model airplane he was building. "In less than three minutes," says James Hewett, "his right index finger was bonded to a shiny blue wing of his DC-10. He tried to free it. He tugged it, pulled it, waved it frantically, but he couldn't budge his finger free."
Soon, they located a solvent that did the job and ended their moment of crisis.
Then James Hewitt writes this: "Last night I remembered that scene when I visited a new family in our neighborhood. The father of the family introduced his children: 'This is Pete. He's the clumsy one of the lot.' 'That's Kathy coming in with mud on her shoes. She's the sloppy one.' 'As always, Mike is last. He'll be late for his own funeral, I promise you.'"
James Hewett goes on to say, "The dad did a thorough job of gluing his children to their faults and mistakes. People do it to us all the time. They remind us of our failures, our errors, our sins, and they won't let us live them down.
Like my son trying frantically to free his finger from the plane, there are people who try, sometimes desperately, to free themselves from their past. They would love a chance to begin again. When we don't let people forget their past, when we don't forgive, we glue them to their mistakes and refuse to see them as more than something they have done.
However, when we forgive, we gently pry the doer of the hurtful deed from the deed itself, and we say that the past is just that--the past--over and done with . . ."
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
James S. Hewett once gave an apt example of people not getting the respect they deserve. Especially young people.
He tells about his son, who was using one of those super-adhesive glues on a model airplane he was building. "In less than three minutes," says James Hewett, "his right index finger was bonded to a shiny blue wing of his DC-10. He tried to free it. He tugged it, pulled it, waved it frantically, but he couldn't budge his finger free."
Soon, they located a solvent that did the job and ended their moment of crisis.
Then James Hewitt writes this: "Last night I remembered that scene when I visited a new family in our neighborhood. The father of the family introduced his children: 'This is Pete. He's the clumsy one of the lot.' 'That's Kathy coming in with mud on her shoes. She's the sloppy one.' 'As always, Mike is last. He'll be late for his own funeral, I promise you.'"
James Hewett goes on to say, "The dad did a thorough job of gluing his children to their faults and mistakes. People do it to us all the time. They remind us of our failures, our errors, our sins, and they won't let us live them down.
Like my son trying frantically to free his finger from the plane, there are people who try, sometimes desperately, to free themselves from their past. They would love a chance to begin again. When we don't let people forget their past, when we don't forgive, we glue them to their mistakes and refuse to see them as more than something they have done.
However, when we forgive, we gently pry the doer of the hurtful deed from the deed itself, and we say that the past is just that--the past--over and done with . . ."
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
Monday, June 25, 2018
"Church would be easy if it weren't for people."
"Church would be easy if it weren't for people."
Allister Begg, Truth for Life radio program,
heard on radio 6-25-2018
Allister Begg, Truth for Life radio program,
heard on radio 6-25-2018
Friday, June 22, 2018
"Know how to use the power that you have."
"Know how to use the power that you have."
~ Truthful Grace
~ Truthful Grace
"Preaching should break a hard heart, and heal a broken heart."
"Preaching should break a hard heart, and heal a broken heart."
~ Pastor John Newton, ex drunken slave trader, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"
~ Pastor John Newton, ex drunken slave trader, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"
Sunday, June 17, 2018
the intuitive mind
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
~ Albert Einstein
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
~ Albert Einstein
strength, courage and confidence
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Mindfulness
"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness."
~ James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
~ James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Native American Proverbs and Wisdom
Native American Proverbs and Wisdom
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. – Cherokee
Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance. – Lakota
Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator. – Mohawk
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. – Tribe Unknown
Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant. – Kiowa
Everything the power does, it does in a circle. – Lakota
Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. – Lumbee
The bird who has eaten cannot fly with the bird that is hungry. – Omaha
Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself. – Pima
It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace and live in peace. – Shenandoah
The one who tells the stories rules the world. – Hopi
Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand. – Tribe Unknown
Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you. – Hopi
Lakota Instructions for Living
Friend do it this way – that is,
whatever you do in life,
do the very best you can
with both your heart and mind.
And if you do it that way,
the Power Of The Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.
When one sits in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be responsible because
All of Creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do affects everything in the universe.
If you do it that way – that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as One – whatever you ask for,
that’s the Way It’s Going To Be.
Passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
Native American Ten Commandments
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-proverbs/
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. – Cherokee
Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance. – Lakota
Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator. – Mohawk
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. – Tribe Unknown
Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant. – Kiowa
Everything the power does, it does in a circle. – Lakota
Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. – Lumbee
The bird who has eaten cannot fly with the bird that is hungry. – Omaha
Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself. – Pima
It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace and live in peace. – Shenandoah
The one who tells the stories rules the world. – Hopi
Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand. – Tribe Unknown
Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you. – Hopi
Lakota Instructions for Living
Friend do it this way – that is,
whatever you do in life,
do the very best you can
with both your heart and mind.
And if you do it that way,
the Power Of The Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.
When one sits in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be responsible because
All of Creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do affects everything in the universe.
If you do it that way – that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as One – whatever you ask for,
that’s the Way It’s Going To Be.
Passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
Native American Ten Commandments
- Treat the Earth and all that dwell therein with respect
- Remain close to the Great Spirit
- Show great respect for your fellow beings
- Work together for the benefit of all Mankind
- Give assistance and kindness wherever needed
- Do what you know to be right
- Look after the well-being of Mind and Body
- Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater Good
- Be truthful and honest at all times
- Take full responsibility for your actions
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-proverbs/
The Surgeon's Prayer
"May we be helped to do here whatever is most right."
~ Traditional Native American Prayer
~ Traditional Native American Prayer
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