Be positive, for goodness sake
Humor me for a moment & tell me who or what I’m describing.
When family members come home, I drop what I’m doing & run to greet them.
I let others know when they’ve invaded my territory.
I take short naps & stretch before rising.
I usually turn around three or four times before lying down.-you need not do this.
I run, romp & play every day.
I eat with gusto & total concentration.
I’m extremely loyal.
I never pretend to be something I’m not.
If what I want is buried, I dig until I find it.
When someone’s having a bad day, I keep quiet, hang close & nuzzle them gently.
I never bite when a growl will suffice.
When I’m happy I dance around & wag my whole body.
No matter how often I’m scolded, I never pout but run right back & make friends.
I delight in small things, even long walks.
WHO AM I? Right, I’m your dog.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we humans were as sweet & nice as dogs? I’m fear we can’t compete but here are a few helpful hints.
Ask friends to share with you the bright spot of their day, instead of “How are you feeling?
Refuse to worry about things you can do nothing about.
Don’t give your advice just because you’re not using it at the moment.
Save time each day to be alone with God, you’ll notice the difference.
Take care of business & don’t let small jobs pile up. It makes you grouchy.
When thinking about the day to come, think of all the good that could happen.
Share what God is teaching you with the person you care the most about.
Talk openly with this person about the state of your attitude.
Count your blessings.
John Stallings- The description of the dog isn't original with me.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
THE DEVASTATION OF PRIDE!
By John Stallings
God is stern in dealing with the arrogant but to the humble He shows kindness. Proverbs 3:34
Many years ago a young boy was taking piano lessons. His mother wanted to reward him for his hard work so she took him to a concert featuring the great pianist Paderewski. As they started to take their seats the mother saw an old friend & for a moment she left her son to say hello. When she turned back, every mother’s nightmare was realized. Her little boy was gone.
The lights were dimmed just then. The curtains were parted. There to his mother’s horror was her son, sitting at the Steinway grand piano. Somehow the little boy had slipped away & wandered on stage, sat down & begun to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Just then the mother noticed a panicked look on her sons face for he looked up & saw the great piano master making his grand entrance. The boy’s expression quickly changed as the master moved to the piano & whispered in his ear; don’t quit! Then leaning over the boy with his left hand Paderewski began filling the bass part. Soon his right arm reached to the other side of the child & he added a running obbligato.
The audience was mesmerized. The little boy was enraptured. The master had chosen cooperation over competition, humanity over performance & instead of embarrassing the little boy & traumatizing him with a memory that would have followed him for life, the two created magic.
Paderewski, legend & world famous master as he was could have thrown a fit. He was no doubt used to having his every whim catered to. The concert was about him & no one else. The piano had to be tuned right & everything in the great Hall had to be to his liking. How tempting it may have been to make this incident all about his talent & his performance.
He could have easily allowed the imposition of that moment to wound his pride & given the boy an incident to try for the rest of his life to live down. But instead he gave him a moment to live up to. It became an occasion to give a child an encouragement to grow, to live & to thrive.
PRIDE, ARROGANCE, VANITY, HAUGHTINESS & FUSSINESS ARE THE STUFF OF TRAGEDY.
They are forms of self-delusion, fig-leaves if you will, that hide our true decaying features. The Bible attacks pride almost from front to back, & especially in the book of Proverbs. If we graze through this book we’ll find plenty to chew on about pride. Pride is mentioned also under names like “stiff-necked” & “Hardness of heart.” Proverbs 16:18 says,--Pride goes before destruction & a haughty spirit before a fall.
In Genesis 11:4, pride is the reason God came down & confounded the languages of the pompous folk who were going to make themselves a name by building a tower to heaven. In Isaiah 14:12-15 pride seems to be the reason Satan fell from heaven. Pride & vanity refuse to see the truth about who we are & they substitute illusion for reality. Pride causes people to look in the mirror & say “How great thou art.” The Bible tells us in Romans 12:3….not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought…1 Peter 5:5 says….God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble….In Luke 14:11 Jesus said,--For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, & whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. Vanity is more concerned with appearance while pride is really based on a desire to be God, at least in one’s own circle of influence.
Centuries ago church leaders saw the sins that were most destructive in people’s lives & felt they needed to be warned about these specific sins. So they listed the most destructive ones they saw in a list of seven deadly sins;
1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Anger
4. Sloth
5. Greed
6. Gluttony &
7. Lust
THERE ARE TWO DISTINCT DEFINITIONS & EXPRESSIONS OF PRIDE.
1. ONE PERTAINS TO THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE.
Pride in the pursuit of excellence has nothing to do with sinful pride. Some people get these mixed up & abandon the pursuit of excellence which isn’t what real Bible pride makes reference to. Christians should be committed to the pursuit of excellence everywhere in life. If we don’t strive for the very best then we become mediocre & that’s not pleasing to God.
· A man walked up to me one night after a service & put his hand out to shake mine & as he did he said, “Brother, I’m just one of God’s nobodies.” I could tell by his limp-cold fish hand shake, the look on his face & his unkempt manner that he was very proud of his humility. In my opinion this attitude can be as prideful as someone dressed to the nines. God doesn’t want us to slop around in our appearance & call it humility for it’s not. Pride isn’t sin when it’s the appreciation of excellence. Pride is sin when it’s God-defying & neighbor disdaining.
2. THE KEY IS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN EXCELLENCE & ARROGANCE.
Pride that brings arrogance is the pride that God despises. If all pride did was make us snooty it wouldn’t be such a problem. But that’s not the real danger pride brings on us.
1. THE FIRST REQUIREMENT OF PRIDE IS BLINDNESS.
Exposure to God will reveal our true fragility & frailty like a well-lit bathroom mirror shows up flaws in our complexion. We can be busy with career & family even church thinking we are being driven by a strong work ethic, moral values or even the Holy Spirit while in reality we may be running from God & ourselves too. Everyone else can see that we are putting on a show but if pride motivates us, we can’t see it. People motivated by pride can witness their children run away, their spouse leave them & watch friends turn away from them yet still refuse to see what’s happening & the part they play. Pride leads us to believe we’re a “cut-above” others. Our pride blinds us to our spiritual need. “When a man thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor.10:12
2. EACH TIME PRIDE IS CHALLENGED IT DRIVES HARDER.
The very fact of the challenging of our pride will make us frantic to improve, not ourselves before God, but improve & sustain our illusion of productivity, sanctimoniousness or compassion. It’s said of radicals that when they lose sight of their true goal they redouble their efforts. Pride is like that. Usually when we hear a sermon or read a piece about pride we think of someone we know, but in reality pride is about us.
3. THE BEST PRIDE-DETECTOR IS HOW MUCH WE ARE BOTHERED BY THE PRIDE OF OTHERS.
We might give in & admit at times that we are prideful but tandem with the thought is “other people are much worse.”
4. A STRONG INDICATOR OF PRIDE IS COMPETITIVENESS.
There’s nothing wrong with liking to win but if our happiness is all tied up in defeating others or knowing that our child is the star of the team, we are building a world of illusion. I have known people who have broken the finger of a friend while competing in a board game, so contentious were they when losing face. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
THERE ARE SEVERAL WEAPONS AGAINST PRIDE & WE SHOULD USE THEM ALL.
1. LET GRATITUDE RULE YOUR HEART.
Read Philippians 2:3-11 often until it gets down into your bones. Imitate it each day. Understand that without God’s grace we’ll never put away our illusions. Ask God to break your pride & vanity using whatever it takes. In the end if we through God’s grace don’t defeat pride we’ll lose everything anyway.
2. THANK EVERYONE EVEN FOR SMALL THINGS.
I don’t feel qualified to use myself as an example here for I have to fight this crazy demon of pride as hard as anyone. One of the reasons I wanted to write this is that it speaks so profoundly to me. May I share a personal testimony?
Some time ago I opened one of my dresser-drawers & saw what I’d seen hundreds of times; I saw my underwear stacked nice & clean waiting for me to reach in & take what I needed. I sat on the bed for a moment thinking that this has been the case all my life. Thanks to a mother & a good wife, I could always count on finding my clothes all clean & fresh, with no fanfare or announcement of any kind. And I could go to the closet & see the same thing; all my clothes hanging in order, needing nothing but maybe a little ironing. For a while I felt terrible that I had let this happen & never said anything about it, at least that I could remember. (You know how hard conviction hits when it comes.) I expressed to Juda how much I appreciated her doing this for me & she looked at me a little non-plussed, a look that says “no big thing.” But to me in that moment it was a big thing & I’ve had a different attitude ever since. I ask God each day to never let me lose that gratitude for “so-called” little things.
3. ASK FORGIVENESS OF GOD FOR THE SIN OF PRIDE.
Go to Him in prayer every few hours & implore Him His mercy. The more this offends you, the more pride you have.
Contrast the story about the little boy & Paderewski at the first of this piece with another true story.
In 1971, I was called to pastor First Assembly of God in Montgomery Alabama. One of my best evangelist friends was at that time breaking onto the world scene & was drawing great crowds everywhere he went. Because I loved & looked up to him so much (& still pray for him every day,) he will be nameless in this piece but many of my friends who read this will know his identity. Not only was he a great preacher, he was also a much loved piano-man/singer. No one could touch him in those years. We were blessed to be able to see a new one thousand seat building constructed under our ministry while in Montgomery & my dream was to have my evangelist friend come & dedicate the new sanctuary for us. After a little arm-twisting he agreed to come but his schedule would only allow him to be with us on a Tuesday night. That was more than O.K with us & our lovely congregation. We advertised so well that the church was overflowing by 6:00 in the evening on the night of the service & the doors had to be closed. My evangelist friend & his entourage arrived fairly early & he walked onto the platform around 7:00, thirty minutes before service time to try out the piano. We had a big new Yamaha piano & I had the best piano tuner in town, a precious spirit- filled man, working on it practically all day the day before the service was to be held on Tuesday. No piano on earth could have been more ready.
Sitting in the audience that night as my friend had his run-through on the piano, were my parents. Mom had reached the stage in her life where she said about what she was thinking & as she watched my evangelist friend, (a man by the way that she had known for years & had cooked many a home-cooked meal for) run his fingers over the ivories, she saw the awful look on his face that told her as well as the rest of the captive audience, that he wasn’t at all happy with the piano. My friend signaled his assistant who was playing the organ that they were finished. He got up in a huff, looked at the beautiful piano as if it was a piece of trash & declared so all could hear him, “Well, I wont be playing that hunk- of junk.”
My mom who was sitting about three rows back, got up (keep in mind now, this was before the service started & in front of over one thousand shocked onlookers) & called the preacher by name & said, “Bro. ------, I knew you when you played the piano when your pants were three inches too short & you wore white work socks, but brother when you played the power of God fell & people were moved & people were saved. Now get back to that piano & play & act like a man instead of a spoiled brat.”
I was somewhere on the property & word reached me that my friend had “tried the piano & it was found wanting.” He had quickly ducked into my office & when I walked in I saw three “unhappy-campers” led by my evangelist friend sitting around on my office furniture swollen up like “bull-frogs in a rain storm.” I plopped down on a chair & looked at my preacher friend whom I’d called in to do something that to me was a perhaps, once in a lifetime experience, & asked him what he thought about everything. Here was his answer; “Pal, I can’t go out there & play that piano, it’s not up to my standards & you can do whatever you want to do, I won’t be out there.”
Can you imagine what that would do to a 34 year old pastor in his first church who’d been blessed by God to build a new building, had it filled to capacity with not only my church folk but hundreds of potential members for our church? I had promoted this evening on my two daily radio programs for months &, well it had to be one of the biggest things that had ever happened to me. Now I had my evangelist friend sitting in my office & he’d already gone out before the captive audience & shown a haughty attitude in front of them & let them know in no uncertain terms that our brand new piano was beneath his dignity & he wasn’t going to touch it. What to do? This situation had the potential to boomerang all over the world if it got out. As far as I could see the only thing that could save it was God working through me with grace & wisdom I didn’t have.
Propelled by God- anointed instinct, I got up & headed toward the auditorium filled with over a thousand happy, eager people who had come to worship & enjoy God. My heart felt as if it were hanging on the outside of my body as I walked onto the platform & greeted the folk, told them we were glad they came & great things were in store for them. I’d never heard of a “panic attack” but looking back I was on the verge of having either that or a running-fit. In the back of my mind I asked God if I’d come all this way to be humiliated in front of my people & the city I’d spent years trying to reach? Keep in mind now that my “world acclaimed” evangelist friend was back in my office sulking & had vowed not to come into the service. God lifted me up on His wings & let me proceed by faith into an opening of choruses everyone knew & we moved on as if everything was normal. If I had done what my friend had told me to do I would have had to tell the people there would be no service, let our church choir sing & preach myself. What a bummer that would have been.
What happened next was almost unbelievable. After we had sung a few songs I started talking, totally speaking faith about the evangelist as if he would be out soon. I know for sure that on some occasions “if you open your mouth God will fill it.” What I said next came straight from my heart. I said, “You know, most of us have five or six preachers we feel are the greatest preachers in the world. I sometimes ask other preacher friends who they consider to be the handful of the best of the best of preachers. Almost every time when the short list of preachers is enumerated our guest preacher will be on that list. Not only is he one of the best preachers in the world but he sells more albums than all the rest of the gospel singers put together.” While I was introducing my friend by faith, unbeknownst to me, he had been hearing this introduction through speakers in my office, had a change of heart & had slipped onto the platform along with his two long-faced assistants & was sitting on the back rows of the platform. I continued by saying, “I know our brother will be out in just a moment”& he said in a rather gruff loud voice, “Bro. ------is already here.” Almost without anything further I introduced my friend & he came to the platform & for 45 minutes he sang his heart out. Then he preached for almost an hour & gave a very productive alter call & the service was closed with great victory. To his credit when he got over his mulley-grubbing, he did a great job. Thank God the people never knew or even suspected what had happened behind the scenes that evening.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusion but looking back after thirty-six years, I know in my heart the brother wouldn’t have come onto that platform unless he’d been given that glowing introduction. My introduction came from an honest heart, for I was saying what I felt at the moment but I have no doubt the big build-up & appeal to his pride was the thing that motivated my evangelist friend & saved the evening. I’ve always made it a point by the grace of God to forgive on the spot & have sought to never let my negative emotions about people go beyond shock & disappointment. Consequently, I’ve never had hard feelings where this brother is concerned.
I’m saddened to say that within a few years of that night my friend fell into the most grievous of sin & was scandalized the world over. His name has since become synonymous with seedy sexual sin & has become the butt of jokes that break the heart of God. Once in a while I’ll hear someone speak my friends name & replay the sins he was caught up in. When that happens, I say in my heart, no-no-no-, lust wasn’t his real problem. The sexual sins he committed were indeed ugly, but in my opinion his real problem was the thing that reared its ugly head almost fifteen years earlier & that was vanity, haughtiness & pride.
Peter said, --Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God…..1 Peter 5:6. In Matthew 21:44 Jesus said ,---Its better for the man to fall on the rock than for the rock to fall on the man, for if the rock falls on the man it will grind him to powder.—Another way of saying its better to humble ourselves than to wait for God to humble us.
The following poem by John Newton illustrates our dilemma;
Once upon a time a paper kite
Mounted to a wondrous height,
Where giddy with its elevation,
It thus expressed self-admiration;
“See how the crowds of gazing people
Admire my flight above the steeple,
How they would wonder if they knew
All that a kite like me can do!
And pierce the clouds beyond their sight;
But Ah! Like a poor prisoner bound,
My string confines me to the ground!
I’d brave the eagle’s towering wing,
Might I but fly without the string.”
It tugged & pulled while thus it spoke,
To snap the string-at last it broke.
Deprived at once of all its stay,
In vain it tried to soar away;
Unable its own weight to bear,
It fluttered downward through the air,
Unable its own course to guide,
Ah! Foolish kite, thou hast no wing;
How could you fly without a wing?
My heart cried out, “O Lord, I see
How much this kite resembles me!
Forgetful that by Thee I stand,
Impatient of thy ruling hand,
How oft I’ve wished to break the lines,
Thy wisdom for my lot assigns!
How oft indulge the fain desire,
For something more or something higher!
But for thy grace & love divine,
A fall this dreadful would have been mine.”
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE DISTRUCTION & A HAUGHTY SPIRIT BEFORE A FALL. Proverbs 16:18-----Jas
By John Stallings
God is stern in dealing with the arrogant but to the humble He shows kindness. Proverbs 3:34
Many years ago a young boy was taking piano lessons. His mother wanted to reward him for his hard work so she took him to a concert featuring the great pianist Paderewski. As they started to take their seats the mother saw an old friend & for a moment she left her son to say hello. When she turned back, every mother’s nightmare was realized. Her little boy was gone.
The lights were dimmed just then. The curtains were parted. There to his mother’s horror was her son, sitting at the Steinway grand piano. Somehow the little boy had slipped away & wandered on stage, sat down & begun to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Just then the mother noticed a panicked look on her sons face for he looked up & saw the great piano master making his grand entrance. The boy’s expression quickly changed as the master moved to the piano & whispered in his ear; don’t quit! Then leaning over the boy with his left hand Paderewski began filling the bass part. Soon his right arm reached to the other side of the child & he added a running obbligato.
The audience was mesmerized. The little boy was enraptured. The master had chosen cooperation over competition, humanity over performance & instead of embarrassing the little boy & traumatizing him with a memory that would have followed him for life, the two created magic.
Paderewski, legend & world famous master as he was could have thrown a fit. He was no doubt used to having his every whim catered to. The concert was about him & no one else. The piano had to be tuned right & everything in the great Hall had to be to his liking. How tempting it may have been to make this incident all about his talent & his performance.
He could have easily allowed the imposition of that moment to wound his pride & given the boy an incident to try for the rest of his life to live down. But instead he gave him a moment to live up to. It became an occasion to give a child an encouragement to grow, to live & to thrive.
PRIDE, ARROGANCE, VANITY, HAUGHTINESS & FUSSINESS ARE THE STUFF OF TRAGEDY.
They are forms of self-delusion, fig-leaves if you will, that hide our true decaying features. The Bible attacks pride almost from front to back, & especially in the book of Proverbs. If we graze through this book we’ll find plenty to chew on about pride. Pride is mentioned also under names like “stiff-necked” & “Hardness of heart.” Proverbs 16:18 says,--Pride goes before destruction & a haughty spirit before a fall.
In Genesis 11:4, pride is the reason God came down & confounded the languages of the pompous folk who were going to make themselves a name by building a tower to heaven. In Isaiah 14:12-15 pride seems to be the reason Satan fell from heaven. Pride & vanity refuse to see the truth about who we are & they substitute illusion for reality. Pride causes people to look in the mirror & say “How great thou art.” The Bible tells us in Romans 12:3….not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought…1 Peter 5:5 says….God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble….In Luke 14:11 Jesus said,--For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, & whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. Vanity is more concerned with appearance while pride is really based on a desire to be God, at least in one’s own circle of influence.
Centuries ago church leaders saw the sins that were most destructive in people’s lives & felt they needed to be warned about these specific sins. So they listed the most destructive ones they saw in a list of seven deadly sins;
1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Anger
4. Sloth
5. Greed
6. Gluttony &
7. Lust
THERE ARE TWO DISTINCT DEFINITIONS & EXPRESSIONS OF PRIDE.
1. ONE PERTAINS TO THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE.
Pride in the pursuit of excellence has nothing to do with sinful pride. Some people get these mixed up & abandon the pursuit of excellence which isn’t what real Bible pride makes reference to. Christians should be committed to the pursuit of excellence everywhere in life. If we don’t strive for the very best then we become mediocre & that’s not pleasing to God.
· A man walked up to me one night after a service & put his hand out to shake mine & as he did he said, “Brother, I’m just one of God’s nobodies.” I could tell by his limp-cold fish hand shake, the look on his face & his unkempt manner that he was very proud of his humility. In my opinion this attitude can be as prideful as someone dressed to the nines. God doesn’t want us to slop around in our appearance & call it humility for it’s not. Pride isn’t sin when it’s the appreciation of excellence. Pride is sin when it’s God-defying & neighbor disdaining.
2. THE KEY IS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN EXCELLENCE & ARROGANCE.
Pride that brings arrogance is the pride that God despises. If all pride did was make us snooty it wouldn’t be such a problem. But that’s not the real danger pride brings on us.
1. THE FIRST REQUIREMENT OF PRIDE IS BLINDNESS.
Exposure to God will reveal our true fragility & frailty like a well-lit bathroom mirror shows up flaws in our complexion. We can be busy with career & family even church thinking we are being driven by a strong work ethic, moral values or even the Holy Spirit while in reality we may be running from God & ourselves too. Everyone else can see that we are putting on a show but if pride motivates us, we can’t see it. People motivated by pride can witness their children run away, their spouse leave them & watch friends turn away from them yet still refuse to see what’s happening & the part they play. Pride leads us to believe we’re a “cut-above” others. Our pride blinds us to our spiritual need. “When a man thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor.10:12
2. EACH TIME PRIDE IS CHALLENGED IT DRIVES HARDER.
The very fact of the challenging of our pride will make us frantic to improve, not ourselves before God, but improve & sustain our illusion of productivity, sanctimoniousness or compassion. It’s said of radicals that when they lose sight of their true goal they redouble their efforts. Pride is like that. Usually when we hear a sermon or read a piece about pride we think of someone we know, but in reality pride is about us.
3. THE BEST PRIDE-DETECTOR IS HOW MUCH WE ARE BOTHERED BY THE PRIDE OF OTHERS.
We might give in & admit at times that we are prideful but tandem with the thought is “other people are much worse.”
4. A STRONG INDICATOR OF PRIDE IS COMPETITIVENESS.
There’s nothing wrong with liking to win but if our happiness is all tied up in defeating others or knowing that our child is the star of the team, we are building a world of illusion. I have known people who have broken the finger of a friend while competing in a board game, so contentious were they when losing face. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
THERE ARE SEVERAL WEAPONS AGAINST PRIDE & WE SHOULD USE THEM ALL.
1. LET GRATITUDE RULE YOUR HEART.
Read Philippians 2:3-11 often until it gets down into your bones. Imitate it each day. Understand that without God’s grace we’ll never put away our illusions. Ask God to break your pride & vanity using whatever it takes. In the end if we through God’s grace don’t defeat pride we’ll lose everything anyway.
2. THANK EVERYONE EVEN FOR SMALL THINGS.
I don’t feel qualified to use myself as an example here for I have to fight this crazy demon of pride as hard as anyone. One of the reasons I wanted to write this is that it speaks so profoundly to me. May I share a personal testimony?
Some time ago I opened one of my dresser-drawers & saw what I’d seen hundreds of times; I saw my underwear stacked nice & clean waiting for me to reach in & take what I needed. I sat on the bed for a moment thinking that this has been the case all my life. Thanks to a mother & a good wife, I could always count on finding my clothes all clean & fresh, with no fanfare or announcement of any kind. And I could go to the closet & see the same thing; all my clothes hanging in order, needing nothing but maybe a little ironing. For a while I felt terrible that I had let this happen & never said anything about it, at least that I could remember. (You know how hard conviction hits when it comes.) I expressed to Juda how much I appreciated her doing this for me & she looked at me a little non-plussed, a look that says “no big thing.” But to me in that moment it was a big thing & I’ve had a different attitude ever since. I ask God each day to never let me lose that gratitude for “so-called” little things.
3. ASK FORGIVENESS OF GOD FOR THE SIN OF PRIDE.
Go to Him in prayer every few hours & implore Him His mercy. The more this offends you, the more pride you have.
Contrast the story about the little boy & Paderewski at the first of this piece with another true story.
In 1971, I was called to pastor First Assembly of God in Montgomery Alabama. One of my best evangelist friends was at that time breaking onto the world scene & was drawing great crowds everywhere he went. Because I loved & looked up to him so much (& still pray for him every day,) he will be nameless in this piece but many of my friends who read this will know his identity. Not only was he a great preacher, he was also a much loved piano-man/singer. No one could touch him in those years. We were blessed to be able to see a new one thousand seat building constructed under our ministry while in Montgomery & my dream was to have my evangelist friend come & dedicate the new sanctuary for us. After a little arm-twisting he agreed to come but his schedule would only allow him to be with us on a Tuesday night. That was more than O.K with us & our lovely congregation. We advertised so well that the church was overflowing by 6:00 in the evening on the night of the service & the doors had to be closed. My evangelist friend & his entourage arrived fairly early & he walked onto the platform around 7:00, thirty minutes before service time to try out the piano. We had a big new Yamaha piano & I had the best piano tuner in town, a precious spirit- filled man, working on it practically all day the day before the service was to be held on Tuesday. No piano on earth could have been more ready.
Sitting in the audience that night as my friend had his run-through on the piano, were my parents. Mom had reached the stage in her life where she said about what she was thinking & as she watched my evangelist friend, (a man by the way that she had known for years & had cooked many a home-cooked meal for) run his fingers over the ivories, she saw the awful look on his face that told her as well as the rest of the captive audience, that he wasn’t at all happy with the piano. My friend signaled his assistant who was playing the organ that they were finished. He got up in a huff, looked at the beautiful piano as if it was a piece of trash & declared so all could hear him, “Well, I wont be playing that hunk- of junk.”
My mom who was sitting about three rows back, got up (keep in mind now, this was before the service started & in front of over one thousand shocked onlookers) & called the preacher by name & said, “Bro. ------, I knew you when you played the piano when your pants were three inches too short & you wore white work socks, but brother when you played the power of God fell & people were moved & people were saved. Now get back to that piano & play & act like a man instead of a spoiled brat.”
I was somewhere on the property & word reached me that my friend had “tried the piano & it was found wanting.” He had quickly ducked into my office & when I walked in I saw three “unhappy-campers” led by my evangelist friend sitting around on my office furniture swollen up like “bull-frogs in a rain storm.” I plopped down on a chair & looked at my preacher friend whom I’d called in to do something that to me was a perhaps, once in a lifetime experience, & asked him what he thought about everything. Here was his answer; “Pal, I can’t go out there & play that piano, it’s not up to my standards & you can do whatever you want to do, I won’t be out there.”
Can you imagine what that would do to a 34 year old pastor in his first church who’d been blessed by God to build a new building, had it filled to capacity with not only my church folk but hundreds of potential members for our church? I had promoted this evening on my two daily radio programs for months &, well it had to be one of the biggest things that had ever happened to me. Now I had my evangelist friend sitting in my office & he’d already gone out before the captive audience & shown a haughty attitude in front of them & let them know in no uncertain terms that our brand new piano was beneath his dignity & he wasn’t going to touch it. What to do? This situation had the potential to boomerang all over the world if it got out. As far as I could see the only thing that could save it was God working through me with grace & wisdom I didn’t have.
Propelled by God- anointed instinct, I got up & headed toward the auditorium filled with over a thousand happy, eager people who had come to worship & enjoy God. My heart felt as if it were hanging on the outside of my body as I walked onto the platform & greeted the folk, told them we were glad they came & great things were in store for them. I’d never heard of a “panic attack” but looking back I was on the verge of having either that or a running-fit. In the back of my mind I asked God if I’d come all this way to be humiliated in front of my people & the city I’d spent years trying to reach? Keep in mind now that my “world acclaimed” evangelist friend was back in my office sulking & had vowed not to come into the service. God lifted me up on His wings & let me proceed by faith into an opening of choruses everyone knew & we moved on as if everything was normal. If I had done what my friend had told me to do I would have had to tell the people there would be no service, let our church choir sing & preach myself. What a bummer that would have been.
What happened next was almost unbelievable. After we had sung a few songs I started talking, totally speaking faith about the evangelist as if he would be out soon. I know for sure that on some occasions “if you open your mouth God will fill it.” What I said next came straight from my heart. I said, “You know, most of us have five or six preachers we feel are the greatest preachers in the world. I sometimes ask other preacher friends who they consider to be the handful of the best of the best of preachers. Almost every time when the short list of preachers is enumerated our guest preacher will be on that list. Not only is he one of the best preachers in the world but he sells more albums than all the rest of the gospel singers put together.” While I was introducing my friend by faith, unbeknownst to me, he had been hearing this introduction through speakers in my office, had a change of heart & had slipped onto the platform along with his two long-faced assistants & was sitting on the back rows of the platform. I continued by saying, “I know our brother will be out in just a moment”& he said in a rather gruff loud voice, “Bro. ------is already here.” Almost without anything further I introduced my friend & he came to the platform & for 45 minutes he sang his heart out. Then he preached for almost an hour & gave a very productive alter call & the service was closed with great victory. To his credit when he got over his mulley-grubbing, he did a great job. Thank God the people never knew or even suspected what had happened behind the scenes that evening.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusion but looking back after thirty-six years, I know in my heart the brother wouldn’t have come onto that platform unless he’d been given that glowing introduction. My introduction came from an honest heart, for I was saying what I felt at the moment but I have no doubt the big build-up & appeal to his pride was the thing that motivated my evangelist friend & saved the evening. I’ve always made it a point by the grace of God to forgive on the spot & have sought to never let my negative emotions about people go beyond shock & disappointment. Consequently, I’ve never had hard feelings where this brother is concerned.
I’m saddened to say that within a few years of that night my friend fell into the most grievous of sin & was scandalized the world over. His name has since become synonymous with seedy sexual sin & has become the butt of jokes that break the heart of God. Once in a while I’ll hear someone speak my friends name & replay the sins he was caught up in. When that happens, I say in my heart, no-no-no-, lust wasn’t his real problem. The sexual sins he committed were indeed ugly, but in my opinion his real problem was the thing that reared its ugly head almost fifteen years earlier & that was vanity, haughtiness & pride.
Peter said, --Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God…..1 Peter 5:6. In Matthew 21:44 Jesus said ,---Its better for the man to fall on the rock than for the rock to fall on the man, for if the rock falls on the man it will grind him to powder.—Another way of saying its better to humble ourselves than to wait for God to humble us.
The following poem by John Newton illustrates our dilemma;
Once upon a time a paper kite
Mounted to a wondrous height,
Where giddy with its elevation,
It thus expressed self-admiration;
“See how the crowds of gazing people
Admire my flight above the steeple,
How they would wonder if they knew
All that a kite like me can do!
And pierce the clouds beyond their sight;
But Ah! Like a poor prisoner bound,
My string confines me to the ground!
I’d brave the eagle’s towering wing,
Might I but fly without the string.”
It tugged & pulled while thus it spoke,
To snap the string-at last it broke.
Deprived at once of all its stay,
In vain it tried to soar away;
Unable its own weight to bear,
It fluttered downward through the air,
Unable its own course to guide,
Ah! Foolish kite, thou hast no wing;
How could you fly without a wing?
My heart cried out, “O Lord, I see
How much this kite resembles me!
Forgetful that by Thee I stand,
Impatient of thy ruling hand,
How oft I’ve wished to break the lines,
Thy wisdom for my lot assigns!
How oft indulge the fain desire,
For something more or something higher!
But for thy grace & love divine,
A fall this dreadful would have been mine.”
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE DISTRUCTION & A HAUGHTY SPIRIT BEFORE A FALL. Proverbs 16:18-----Jas
Five things winners never say.
By John Stallings
It’s not a huge revelation to most of us that words are powerful things. Jesus had much to say about words; especially His words. Luke 4:32 says…..
His words were with power. He said His words were… spirit & life in John 6:63 & in Matthew 24:35 He also said ….His words would never pass away. He was right wasn’t He? Peter said in John 6:68….thou hast the words of eternal life. Jesus said in John 12:48…the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day. In John 14:26 Jesus said… the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance the words I have spoken to you.
Colossians 4:6 says-Let your speech be always with grace & seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man,
Most of us would be helped enormously by streamlining our vocabulary, putting some good things in & taking out some words & expressions that are limiting our effectiveness. Jesus said in Matthew 5:37…let your communications be yea, yea & nay, nay for anything whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34….out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
I’d like to share with you what my experience has taught me that winners never say. First, winners never say:
1. I CAN’T
There would be limited use of this expression in our vocabulary if we were saying things like, “I can’t do that, it’s against my convictions,” or “I can’t go to the mall & spend a lot of money, I’ve already spent too much.”
But other than a few statements like that, winners never say “I can’t.” I can say two things for sure right here; God will on occasion stretch us to cause us to grow in our capacity, & if He stretches us, that means He knows we can handle the new capacity. Philippians 4:13 Paul says….I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
The boxer Mohammad Ali hired a man named Bodini Brown to do nothing but follow him around & tell him he was the greatest & that there was nothing he couldn’t do. A Christian doesn’t have to go to all that trouble because we already have the indwelling Holy Spirit to do that 24/7-365. The Holy Spirit builds us up in our faith & is constantly taking the things of God & revealing them to us. He gives us power to do what we couldn’t do on our own.
We also get encouragement from each other which is the main reason we are admonished not to forsake meeting together so that we can encourage each other. Hebrews 10:25.
Nowadays, we could all legitimately stay home & let our preacher preach to us via streaming video on the internet, or listen to tapes & watch videos, but God has asked us to meet together because He knows how important it is to interact with those of like precious faith.
To put it succinctly, the only time a Christian should use the words “I can’t, is when they are followed closely with the words—“but He can, & I’m with Him.” Another thing winners won’t say is;
2. I’ll TRY
Before we take on an assignment we could very well say “Let me pray about it.” We might say “I need to think about it some more.” If it’s something someone wants us to do we are obligated to say those things because obviously we can’t do everything we are asked to do. If you ask me to do something, I have to ask when you want it done & then I can tell you if I can do it. I may be committed elsewhere. BUT, if we’ve committed ourselves to do something, we shouldn’t go into it with an “I’ll try” attitude.
It’s not a --YES---I’ll TRY---NO option. It’s either yes---or---no---or- I’ll do it.
If we’re always saying “I’ll try,” then trying becomes the new standard of success for us. I can tell you right now that’s beneath your dignity as a child of the High God of heaven in whose image you are made.
We can’t marshall up some skill we don’t have by trying harder. We can either do something or we can’t, if we can’t we should never say “I’ll try.” I wouldn’t go out to the golf course & play Tiger Woods & say, “Well I’m not very good but I’ll try.” My answer to that invitation would be, “I’m not interested in doing that because getting out there & trying real hard isn’t going to hack it.” Then I can bring my Yea-Nay option into play.
If I were invited to go out to the airport & fly a wide-bodied Jet with 300 people on board to Paris, I would decline---nay--- because I know if I sit down at the controls & try hard to fly the plane, that won’t help a bit. That’s one flight that will end in tragedy. The skill of flying a huge jet across the Atlantic can’t be pulled out of me no matter how hard I try. I must first be trained to fly. No one wants to hear a professional pilot say, “I’ll try to stay awake & fly this thing.”
If I say to the people I preach to, “I’ll try to make it Sunday morning,” they may as well go ahead & get someone else to preach because “I’ll try” is very scary. The last words they would want to hear are “I’ll try.” It’s either, Yea, Nay or-- I’ll do it. When I say “I’ll do it, -- that means if I’m alive & not in the hospital, I’ll be there, period. If my car breaks down on the way, I’ll call you to come get me but when I’ve given my word, I’ll be there. I had the option of saying nay, but I gave up that option so now I’m duty bound to be there. A winner will never say;
3. I’ll do it later
Now we’re looking at the giant of procrastination. If it’s worth doing its worth doing now, today. Every time I read the story in Exodus 8 about Moses, Pharaoh & the plague of frogs, I’m amazed. Pharaoh asked Moses to remove the frogs from the land & then Moses asks him when. Pharaoh thought a moment & answered, tomorrow. The man had frogs almost coming out his ears & they could be gone immediately but Pharaoh says, take them away tomorrow. The answer should have been NOW! I guess Pharaoh wanted one more night with the frogs.
Many people won’t do things now because they’re afraid of failure. Many people seem to want to stay in college forever because they’re always changing their major. It’s as if they want to hang onto college life forever & never taste life in the real world. They don’t want to do anything now, but later. Another reason people procrastinate is because they see a big job & it scares them so they never get around to tackling it. I’ve learned a way to help with that & it’s what I call the Salami technique. If you look at a big Salami roll it looks foreboding. Who would want to try to chow down on that? What you do is get a knife & slice it up, that way you can eat it. I say you, because I can’t stand Salami. Large jobs can be challenging so instead of procrastinating, cut the job up into manageable pieces & get on with it.
If there’s a phone call I dread to make, I start by getting the phone number & putting it where I can see it. I’ll be sure & make that call if I can’t say, “well I don’t even have the number handy.” Any preacher knows that if he waits until Saturday to get his Sunday sermons, it’s just too stressful. The way we have to do it is start early in the week & by Saturday; most of the work is done. Now the preacher can be relaxed because all he has to do is preach his message. Winners never say:
4. I have a problem.
NO! You don’t have a problem you have an opportunity. Problems do exist but we shouldn’t see them as problems, we should see them as possibilities. I don’t like problems. They’re too hard to solve. That’s one reason I got away from math as soon as I could because they were always talking about “math problems.” Can you imagine living life in a profession where you were always faced with problems? It makes my blood run cold. And it’s so unnecessary. The problem with a problem is that it puts things on the negative side of the ledger. When you call it an opportunity, now you’ve got a chance to dream, plan & think outside the box.
When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, he didn’t see it as a problem; he saw it as an opportunity. In Genesis 50:20 he told his brothers that what they saw as something destructive to him, God saw it & helped him to also see it as an opportunity to save the world from starvation. We should never solve problems but rather set goals. Now that’s easy.
Let’s look at DIETS; the old “problem” of losing weight. I can tell you without equivocation that it’s impossible to lose weight & keep it off by dieting. I’ve tried it & it doesn’t work. You put it all back on & the body then punishes you by adding a few more pounds for making it suffer.
Not only that; when you say “I’m losing weight” you’re using the word lose. Nobody likes to lose. It sounds too much like “loser.” Who wants to be a loser?
Let’s look at it another way. Obesity is the world’s biggest health problem. You don’t want to die, right? Do you want to feel good? Do you want to look good? Do you want to be able to walk without looking like you’re trying out some funny new dance? Do you want your blood sugar to normalize? Do you want your blood pressure to be in the normal safe range? Do you want your heart to work less & do you want to live longer? Now you’re talking. Make a plan, find out what foods will let you do all those things & write them down & carry the list with you. This list is going to give you all the above things. You’re not on a diet for heavens sake; you’ve got a new goal that’s going to turn your life around. Believe me this isn’t a problem.
When you go into a restaurant, what’s on the Menu isn’t important. What’s on your food list is the only thing that’s important to you. You aren’t dieting, you’re pursuing your goal of a total makeover & it’s not going to be expensive. You’re gonna look & feel good baby!
Let’s look at DEBT! There are places that will charge you thousands of dollars to get you out of debt, maybe even in your lifetime. But you aren’t aiming at being debt free; you’re aiming at having a life that’s stress free. When the phone rings you are tired of disguising your voice to sound like a Chinese person. He no here! He no live here now. He gone!
Are you tired of living like that? Well you have to sell yourself on a stress free way of life where you can walk with your head up & aren’t afraid to go to the mailbox. When that goal gets firmly established, you can trust yourself to go to the Mall & it won’t be long until you’ll be out of debt. Let me say a few words about goals.
a. Make your goals specific.
b. Make your goals realistic.-You’re not going to lose 60 pounds in one month.
c. Have long-term & short-term aspects to your goals.
d. Be flexible. You may want to add or subtract things as you go.
e. Make your goals measurable. If it’s getting weight off, nail your fat-boy britches on the wall (in the basement.) One lady put a picture of a beautiful shapely girl on her refrigerator so that when she raided it at midnight she’d see what she wanted to look like. It worked like a charm & she lost 10 pounds in a month. Her husband however gained 20 pounds.
5. It’s not my fault.
That’s a victim mentality & God doesn’t want us to walk as victims but victors in life. Start taking more & more responsibility for what happens in your life. You may not have caused your employee to make a mess of your business but you hired the employee. You may feel your spouse is your problem but you married them. Start saying things like, “I own this.” “No more excuses.” These are empowering words. There’s’ one thing great about it, if my brain got us into this, my brain can get us out of it.
Here are a few signs that a person has slipped into victim thinking.
They are focused on the past.
They worry about how things should be.
They blame others for their problems.
They feel they have no control over anything.
They often say “If only” & “what if.”
They feel they’re being picked on.
They feel they’re pawns in life’s game.
I think one of the finest examples of a person who refused to become a victim is The Prodigal son in Luke 15:17-18. Listen to his words & notice he didn’t say, “Oh, if only the famine hadn’t come.” He said; …..How many hired servants of my father have bread enough & to spare & I perish with hunger. I will arise & go to my father & say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven & before thee.
This young mans willingness to take the blame for what he’d done & ask forgiveness made him a winner. We live in a world that wants & needs to make victims out of people but God has something far better for us & that is life as a winner. Christ bought that victory for us at Calvary. -------John
By John Stallings
It’s not a huge revelation to most of us that words are powerful things. Jesus had much to say about words; especially His words. Luke 4:32 says…..
His words were with power. He said His words were… spirit & life in John 6:63 & in Matthew 24:35 He also said ….His words would never pass away. He was right wasn’t He? Peter said in John 6:68….thou hast the words of eternal life. Jesus said in John 12:48…the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day. In John 14:26 Jesus said… the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance the words I have spoken to you.
Colossians 4:6 says-Let your speech be always with grace & seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man,
Most of us would be helped enormously by streamlining our vocabulary, putting some good things in & taking out some words & expressions that are limiting our effectiveness. Jesus said in Matthew 5:37…let your communications be yea, yea & nay, nay for anything whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34….out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
I’d like to share with you what my experience has taught me that winners never say. First, winners never say:
1. I CAN’T
There would be limited use of this expression in our vocabulary if we were saying things like, “I can’t do that, it’s against my convictions,” or “I can’t go to the mall & spend a lot of money, I’ve already spent too much.”
But other than a few statements like that, winners never say “I can’t.” I can say two things for sure right here; God will on occasion stretch us to cause us to grow in our capacity, & if He stretches us, that means He knows we can handle the new capacity. Philippians 4:13 Paul says….I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
The boxer Mohammad Ali hired a man named Bodini Brown to do nothing but follow him around & tell him he was the greatest & that there was nothing he couldn’t do. A Christian doesn’t have to go to all that trouble because we already have the indwelling Holy Spirit to do that 24/7-365. The Holy Spirit builds us up in our faith & is constantly taking the things of God & revealing them to us. He gives us power to do what we couldn’t do on our own.
We also get encouragement from each other which is the main reason we are admonished not to forsake meeting together so that we can encourage each other. Hebrews 10:25.
Nowadays, we could all legitimately stay home & let our preacher preach to us via streaming video on the internet, or listen to tapes & watch videos, but God has asked us to meet together because He knows how important it is to interact with those of like precious faith.
To put it succinctly, the only time a Christian should use the words “I can’t, is when they are followed closely with the words—“but He can, & I’m with Him.” Another thing winners won’t say is;
2. I’ll TRY
Before we take on an assignment we could very well say “Let me pray about it.” We might say “I need to think about it some more.” If it’s something someone wants us to do we are obligated to say those things because obviously we can’t do everything we are asked to do. If you ask me to do something, I have to ask when you want it done & then I can tell you if I can do it. I may be committed elsewhere. BUT, if we’ve committed ourselves to do something, we shouldn’t go into it with an “I’ll try” attitude.
It’s not a --YES---I’ll TRY---NO option. It’s either yes---or---no---or- I’ll do it.
If we’re always saying “I’ll try,” then trying becomes the new standard of success for us. I can tell you right now that’s beneath your dignity as a child of the High God of heaven in whose image you are made.
We can’t marshall up some skill we don’t have by trying harder. We can either do something or we can’t, if we can’t we should never say “I’ll try.” I wouldn’t go out to the golf course & play Tiger Woods & say, “Well I’m not very good but I’ll try.” My answer to that invitation would be, “I’m not interested in doing that because getting out there & trying real hard isn’t going to hack it.” Then I can bring my Yea-Nay option into play.
If I were invited to go out to the airport & fly a wide-bodied Jet with 300 people on board to Paris, I would decline---nay--- because I know if I sit down at the controls & try hard to fly the plane, that won’t help a bit. That’s one flight that will end in tragedy. The skill of flying a huge jet across the Atlantic can’t be pulled out of me no matter how hard I try. I must first be trained to fly. No one wants to hear a professional pilot say, “I’ll try to stay awake & fly this thing.”
If I say to the people I preach to, “I’ll try to make it Sunday morning,” they may as well go ahead & get someone else to preach because “I’ll try” is very scary. The last words they would want to hear are “I’ll try.” It’s either, Yea, Nay or-- I’ll do it. When I say “I’ll do it, -- that means if I’m alive & not in the hospital, I’ll be there, period. If my car breaks down on the way, I’ll call you to come get me but when I’ve given my word, I’ll be there. I had the option of saying nay, but I gave up that option so now I’m duty bound to be there. A winner will never say;
3. I’ll do it later
Now we’re looking at the giant of procrastination. If it’s worth doing its worth doing now, today. Every time I read the story in Exodus 8 about Moses, Pharaoh & the plague of frogs, I’m amazed. Pharaoh asked Moses to remove the frogs from the land & then Moses asks him when. Pharaoh thought a moment & answered, tomorrow. The man had frogs almost coming out his ears & they could be gone immediately but Pharaoh says, take them away tomorrow. The answer should have been NOW! I guess Pharaoh wanted one more night with the frogs.
Many people won’t do things now because they’re afraid of failure. Many people seem to want to stay in college forever because they’re always changing their major. It’s as if they want to hang onto college life forever & never taste life in the real world. They don’t want to do anything now, but later. Another reason people procrastinate is because they see a big job & it scares them so they never get around to tackling it. I’ve learned a way to help with that & it’s what I call the Salami technique. If you look at a big Salami roll it looks foreboding. Who would want to try to chow down on that? What you do is get a knife & slice it up, that way you can eat it. I say you, because I can’t stand Salami. Large jobs can be challenging so instead of procrastinating, cut the job up into manageable pieces & get on with it.
If there’s a phone call I dread to make, I start by getting the phone number & putting it where I can see it. I’ll be sure & make that call if I can’t say, “well I don’t even have the number handy.” Any preacher knows that if he waits until Saturday to get his Sunday sermons, it’s just too stressful. The way we have to do it is start early in the week & by Saturday; most of the work is done. Now the preacher can be relaxed because all he has to do is preach his message. Winners never say:
4. I have a problem.
NO! You don’t have a problem you have an opportunity. Problems do exist but we shouldn’t see them as problems, we should see them as possibilities. I don’t like problems. They’re too hard to solve. That’s one reason I got away from math as soon as I could because they were always talking about “math problems.” Can you imagine living life in a profession where you were always faced with problems? It makes my blood run cold. And it’s so unnecessary. The problem with a problem is that it puts things on the negative side of the ledger. When you call it an opportunity, now you’ve got a chance to dream, plan & think outside the box.
When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, he didn’t see it as a problem; he saw it as an opportunity. In Genesis 50:20 he told his brothers that what they saw as something destructive to him, God saw it & helped him to also see it as an opportunity to save the world from starvation. We should never solve problems but rather set goals. Now that’s easy.
Let’s look at DIETS; the old “problem” of losing weight. I can tell you without equivocation that it’s impossible to lose weight & keep it off by dieting. I’ve tried it & it doesn’t work. You put it all back on & the body then punishes you by adding a few more pounds for making it suffer.
Not only that; when you say “I’m losing weight” you’re using the word lose. Nobody likes to lose. It sounds too much like “loser.” Who wants to be a loser?
Let’s look at it another way. Obesity is the world’s biggest health problem. You don’t want to die, right? Do you want to feel good? Do you want to look good? Do you want to be able to walk without looking like you’re trying out some funny new dance? Do you want your blood sugar to normalize? Do you want your blood pressure to be in the normal safe range? Do you want your heart to work less & do you want to live longer? Now you’re talking. Make a plan, find out what foods will let you do all those things & write them down & carry the list with you. This list is going to give you all the above things. You’re not on a diet for heavens sake; you’ve got a new goal that’s going to turn your life around. Believe me this isn’t a problem.
When you go into a restaurant, what’s on the Menu isn’t important. What’s on your food list is the only thing that’s important to you. You aren’t dieting, you’re pursuing your goal of a total makeover & it’s not going to be expensive. You’re gonna look & feel good baby!
Let’s look at DEBT! There are places that will charge you thousands of dollars to get you out of debt, maybe even in your lifetime. But you aren’t aiming at being debt free; you’re aiming at having a life that’s stress free. When the phone rings you are tired of disguising your voice to sound like a Chinese person. He no here! He no live here now. He gone!
Are you tired of living like that? Well you have to sell yourself on a stress free way of life where you can walk with your head up & aren’t afraid to go to the mailbox. When that goal gets firmly established, you can trust yourself to go to the Mall & it won’t be long until you’ll be out of debt. Let me say a few words about goals.
a. Make your goals specific.
b. Make your goals realistic.-You’re not going to lose 60 pounds in one month.
c. Have long-term & short-term aspects to your goals.
d. Be flexible. You may want to add or subtract things as you go.
e. Make your goals measurable. If it’s getting weight off, nail your fat-boy britches on the wall (in the basement.) One lady put a picture of a beautiful shapely girl on her refrigerator so that when she raided it at midnight she’d see what she wanted to look like. It worked like a charm & she lost 10 pounds in a month. Her husband however gained 20 pounds.
5. It’s not my fault.
That’s a victim mentality & God doesn’t want us to walk as victims but victors in life. Start taking more & more responsibility for what happens in your life. You may not have caused your employee to make a mess of your business but you hired the employee. You may feel your spouse is your problem but you married them. Start saying things like, “I own this.” “No more excuses.” These are empowering words. There’s’ one thing great about it, if my brain got us into this, my brain can get us out of it.
Here are a few signs that a person has slipped into victim thinking.
They are focused on the past.
They worry about how things should be.
They blame others for their problems.
They feel they have no control over anything.
They often say “If only” & “what if.”
They feel they’re being picked on.
They feel they’re pawns in life’s game.
I think one of the finest examples of a person who refused to become a victim is The Prodigal son in Luke 15:17-18. Listen to his words & notice he didn’t say, “Oh, if only the famine hadn’t come.” He said; …..How many hired servants of my father have bread enough & to spare & I perish with hunger. I will arise & go to my father & say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven & before thee.
This young mans willingness to take the blame for what he’d done & ask forgiveness made him a winner. We live in a world that wants & needs to make victims out of people but God has something far better for us & that is life as a winner. Christ bought that victory for us at Calvary. -------John
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
There Jimmy goes again
By John Stallings
It seems like only yesterday that we heard Ronald Reagan say “there you go again” to sitting president & his democratic opponent James Earl Carter Jr. in one of the presidential debates. I thought it was, though short & pungent, one of the best lines I’d ever heard a politician use. Reagan has been in his grave now for about three years but Mr. Carter is still engaging in the kind of trash talking that prompted those words out of his mouth so many years ago.
When Carter called the Bush administration the worst in our history it amounted to “the pot calling the kettle black.” It’s not the first time Carter has stuck "foot-in-mouth;" it’s the continuing saga of a bitter, spiteful, vain petty former president. I figured out a long time ago that Jimmy Carter felt he was better, purer, nicer, holier & smarter (and probably toothier) than the rest of us so we might as well get used to his yammering. This latest tirade is really so very Carter-esque.
Jimmy Carter is smart. Wasn’t he at one time nuclear physicists? But it seems he so often exemplifies the man who knows everything except the things worth knowing. Does anyone remember the gas lines that were wrapped around several corners during his tenure in the early eighties? I should be ashamed to admit it but the first time I voted in a national election was in the eighty-four election & did so to cast my vote against four more Carter years.
Then there were the foreign policy debacles not the least of which was the Iranian U.S Embassy hostage crisis. The Carter administration twisted like a snake on hot coals for a year but never was effectual in getting the captives released. While Reagan was giving his inaugural address the captives were flying homeward because when the Ayatollah Khomeini took one look in Reagan’s eyes he knew the jig was up.
I think it’s obvious that Carter never got over the post-1980 defeat & must have a burr the size of West Texas under his saddle. Poor baby. He was such a good boy for a while. He traveled abroad promoting fair elections & even got a Nobel peace Prize (In part probably because the judges wanted to show up Bush.)
Why then, Oh why -this anti-Bush tirade? Well folks, he’s smarter than we are, can’t you see; smarter than all of us put together. That much you can figure out just by listening to him yammer.
John
By John Stallings
It seems like only yesterday that we heard Ronald Reagan say “there you go again” to sitting president & his democratic opponent James Earl Carter Jr. in one of the presidential debates. I thought it was, though short & pungent, one of the best lines I’d ever heard a politician use. Reagan has been in his grave now for about three years but Mr. Carter is still engaging in the kind of trash talking that prompted those words out of his mouth so many years ago.
When Carter called the Bush administration the worst in our history it amounted to “the pot calling the kettle black.” It’s not the first time Carter has stuck "foot-in-mouth;" it’s the continuing saga of a bitter, spiteful, vain petty former president. I figured out a long time ago that Jimmy Carter felt he was better, purer, nicer, holier & smarter (and probably toothier) than the rest of us so we might as well get used to his yammering. This latest tirade is really so very Carter-esque.
Jimmy Carter is smart. Wasn’t he at one time nuclear physicists? But it seems he so often exemplifies the man who knows everything except the things worth knowing. Does anyone remember the gas lines that were wrapped around several corners during his tenure in the early eighties? I should be ashamed to admit it but the first time I voted in a national election was in the eighty-four election & did so to cast my vote against four more Carter years.
Then there were the foreign policy debacles not the least of which was the Iranian U.S Embassy hostage crisis. The Carter administration twisted like a snake on hot coals for a year but never was effectual in getting the captives released. While Reagan was giving his inaugural address the captives were flying homeward because when the Ayatollah Khomeini took one look in Reagan’s eyes he knew the jig was up.
I think it’s obvious that Carter never got over the post-1980 defeat & must have a burr the size of West Texas under his saddle. Poor baby. He was such a good boy for a while. He traveled abroad promoting fair elections & even got a Nobel peace Prize (In part probably because the judges wanted to show up Bush.)
Why then, Oh why -this anti-Bush tirade? Well folks, he’s smarter than we are, can’t you see; smarter than all of us put together. That much you can figure out just by listening to him yammer.
John
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
DON’T GO BACK TO YOUR PAINFUL PAST
By John Stallings
And Jesus said unto them, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
On 9/11/01, the destruction of the World Trade Center & damage to the Pentagon in Washington D.C left us stunned, speechless & humbled. Some brave souls went beyond the call of duty & heroically tried to save the buildings & paid with their lives. Countless stories have been told of the heroic deeds that happened that day.
A little known story is told of a policeman who, situated just outside the entrance of the buildings shouted to the people who streamed out, “Don’t look up, don’t look back, run for your lives.” When you look at many of the pictures taken that day you’ll see thousands of people heeding that wise council.
Looking back always seems to be a temptation for us. I have often wondered how it would feel for a missionary to pack their possessions into a few drums, seal them up, say goodbye to family & friends, step on a ship heading to a remote third world country where they’d be facing unknown dangers, not for a few weeks but for many years, &---- not look back.
Do you remember the song by the Beatles called “Yesterday?”
It went;
“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as if they’re here to stay,
Oh I believe in yesterday.”
Yesterday can look so shiny & beautiful. Someone has said—“Time puts a halo on the past.” It seems we forget the negatives & remember only the positives. I’ve known people who seem to live with their eyes on their rear-view mirrors. They glorify the “good old days” but in all honesty, “the good old days” almost killed me. I’m glad for the present moment in which I live.
The Old Testament contains the story of a group of people who were oppressed, mistreated & demoralized. At one time they were doing great but things changed & they found themselves enslaved to a foreign government. Their days were filled with hard labor & unrealistic expectations. Circumstance that they didn’t want caused them to have to live through some pretty hard & dark chapters. In their despair they cried out to God.
God heard their cry & sent a deliverer. His name was Moses. You will remember that at a very young age Moses himself was a “basket case.” Well, through a long sequence of events I won’t belabor in this piece, most of them downright miraculous, this group of slaves got out of Egypt & headed for a new land filled with awesome opportunity. But something happened in the process. Their road to success took an unexpected turn.
Their captors who had halfheartedly let them go changed their mind & came after them.
“And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, & behold the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: & the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” Exod. 14:10
HAVE YOU EVER FELT YOUR “LUCK” HAD RUN OUT?
Well that’s how these people felt. The promise of a better life had shimmered before their very eyes but now it seemed it was being snatched away. They were under extreme pressure as they saw the Egyptian army headed for them to take them back into captivity. Bummer! All they could do in their terror was cry out to God.
It reminds me of a line from a movie I once saw. A man thought he had shaken off the mafia but they wouldn’t let him go so he lamented-- “Just when I thought I was out, they reached out & pulled me back in.” The Israelites felt that just when freedom was in their grasp, circumstances conspired to “pull them back” into the bondage of the past.
But now another twist enters the story. Instead of looking to God for their deliverance, they chose to blame Moses for the mess. They thought; “if Moses hadn’t delivered them, they wouldn’t be on the verge of death.”
“And they said, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Exod.14:11
HOW OFTEN DO WE DO THE SAME?
But this sort of thing always backfires. What happens when we shift the blame is that bitterness will take over. When we allow regret & bitterness to control our minds we will never see the Promised Land God has for us. Bitterness springs form deep-rooted anger & when anger & bitterness climb into the saddle, everyone who comes near us gets poisoned by it.
Heb.12:15 says, -- “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, & thereby many be defiled.”
When the Israelites saw the chapter they were trying to close coming back on them, they started blaming Moses for their predicament.
ISRAEL WAS READY TO GO BACK TO THEIR PAINFUL PAST
They said it would have been better if Moses had simply left them alone, in bondage to the Egyptians than to die in the desert. They said they’d rather go back to an evil taskmaster than to try to write a new chapter in their lives. Some people are so controlled by sin that they’d rather live an enslaved life than risk a different road that would set them free.
Too many people chose to live in the past because the future scares them. They don’t know what to expect. The Israelites problem was that they didn’t have a real vision for a new life. They didn’t have a dream. They knew where they came from but they didn’t know where they were going.
MOSES ENCOURAGED THE PEOPLE TO GO FORWARD
Exod. 14:13-14 says, -- “And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still & see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today: for the Egyptians which ye have seen today ye shall see the again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Vr.15—And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward.”
What do the Israelites see as they look ahead? Nothing but the Red Sea. God is seemingly telling them to walk into a watery grave. God’s alternative is frightening but it’s the only hope they have. God delivered His people that day & they learned a great lesson; true deliverance will never be achieved by the arm of flesh but by the arm of God’s spirit.
In Genesis 12, tells about Abraham’s nephew who accompanies Abraham to Canaan. Lot & Abraham keep their herds on different plots of land. They remain close & when Lot is captured, Abraham rescues him. Then Lot moves to Sodom. Angels visit him & tell him to leave the wicked city. God is intent on destroying the wicked city but for Abraham’s sake He spares Lot & his family. Lot isn’t all that happy to leave so the angels took them by the hand & led them out of the city. Lot was told to “Flee for your life, don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed.”
You will remember that Lot’s wife looked back & she became a pillar of salt.
LOT’S WIFE ISN’T NAMED. ---THOUGH WE THINK OF HER AS THE WOMAN WHO WAS TURNED TO SALT, THE MOST DRAMATIC CONSEQUENCE WAS SHE WAS FROZEN IN PLACE.
Looking back to our painful past has the same effect on us. We are frozen in place & can’t go forward & be effectual in our present & future. One of the most important things we can learn is that rehashing the past is a pernicious waste of time. If a man is put in jail, its O.K to spend a little time rehashing what he did & why he did it. But a time limit must be placed on the rehashing. He must start to put the past behind him & start asking himself what it will take to live in the moment & do what is necessary to get his freedom. That can’t be accomplished by rehashing his past mistakes.
Looking back with extreme regret & incessant guilt & obsessive chanting of all we’ve done wrong can only stand in the way of our ever doing anything right. I remember an athlete named Donnie Moore who was an outstanding pitcher for the California Angels in the 1980’s. He threw one bad pitch that cost his team the American league pennant in 1986. Some time later, unable to forget that one pitch he took his own life. Regret can take a heavy toll if we’re not able to get past it.
Joseph is one of the best examples in the Bible of a man with a painful past who was able to “get over it” & do great exploits with his life. His own brothers almost killed him out of rotten jealousy & finally sold him into slavery. He was taken to Egypt where while working in Potipher’s house he had a bogus rape charge leveled at him by Potipher’s wife & went to jail for thirteen years.
God miraculously brought Joseph through & made him the second most powerful man in all Egypt. Listen to these words in Genesis 41:50-52;
“And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God said He hath made me to forget all my toil & all my father’s house. And the name of the second called he Ephriam: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Joseph was able to come through these horrendous years victoriously because he kept his eyes focused on God’s purpose for his life. Like Joseph, we should stay focused on the purpose of God behind all our difficult circumstances. We should also seek at all times to stay close to God & allow Him to help us to be reconciled to all those who have done harm to us.
This is the only way to leave our painful past behind.
John
By John Stallings
And Jesus said unto them, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
On 9/11/01, the destruction of the World Trade Center & damage to the Pentagon in Washington D.C left us stunned, speechless & humbled. Some brave souls went beyond the call of duty & heroically tried to save the buildings & paid with their lives. Countless stories have been told of the heroic deeds that happened that day.
A little known story is told of a policeman who, situated just outside the entrance of the buildings shouted to the people who streamed out, “Don’t look up, don’t look back, run for your lives.” When you look at many of the pictures taken that day you’ll see thousands of people heeding that wise council.
Looking back always seems to be a temptation for us. I have often wondered how it would feel for a missionary to pack their possessions into a few drums, seal them up, say goodbye to family & friends, step on a ship heading to a remote third world country where they’d be facing unknown dangers, not for a few weeks but for many years, &---- not look back.
Do you remember the song by the Beatles called “Yesterday?”
It went;
“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as if they’re here to stay,
Oh I believe in yesterday.”
Yesterday can look so shiny & beautiful. Someone has said—“Time puts a halo on the past.” It seems we forget the negatives & remember only the positives. I’ve known people who seem to live with their eyes on their rear-view mirrors. They glorify the “good old days” but in all honesty, “the good old days” almost killed me. I’m glad for the present moment in which I live.
The Old Testament contains the story of a group of people who were oppressed, mistreated & demoralized. At one time they were doing great but things changed & they found themselves enslaved to a foreign government. Their days were filled with hard labor & unrealistic expectations. Circumstance that they didn’t want caused them to have to live through some pretty hard & dark chapters. In their despair they cried out to God.
God heard their cry & sent a deliverer. His name was Moses. You will remember that at a very young age Moses himself was a “basket case.” Well, through a long sequence of events I won’t belabor in this piece, most of them downright miraculous, this group of slaves got out of Egypt & headed for a new land filled with awesome opportunity. But something happened in the process. Their road to success took an unexpected turn.
Their captors who had halfheartedly let them go changed their mind & came after them.
“And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, & behold the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: & the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” Exod. 14:10
HAVE YOU EVER FELT YOUR “LUCK” HAD RUN OUT?
Well that’s how these people felt. The promise of a better life had shimmered before their very eyes but now it seemed it was being snatched away. They were under extreme pressure as they saw the Egyptian army headed for them to take them back into captivity. Bummer! All they could do in their terror was cry out to God.
It reminds me of a line from a movie I once saw. A man thought he had shaken off the mafia but they wouldn’t let him go so he lamented-- “Just when I thought I was out, they reached out & pulled me back in.” The Israelites felt that just when freedom was in their grasp, circumstances conspired to “pull them back” into the bondage of the past.
But now another twist enters the story. Instead of looking to God for their deliverance, they chose to blame Moses for the mess. They thought; “if Moses hadn’t delivered them, they wouldn’t be on the verge of death.”
“And they said, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Exod.14:11
HOW OFTEN DO WE DO THE SAME?
But this sort of thing always backfires. What happens when we shift the blame is that bitterness will take over. When we allow regret & bitterness to control our minds we will never see the Promised Land God has for us. Bitterness springs form deep-rooted anger & when anger & bitterness climb into the saddle, everyone who comes near us gets poisoned by it.
Heb.12:15 says, -- “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, & thereby many be defiled.”
When the Israelites saw the chapter they were trying to close coming back on them, they started blaming Moses for their predicament.
ISRAEL WAS READY TO GO BACK TO THEIR PAINFUL PAST
They said it would have been better if Moses had simply left them alone, in bondage to the Egyptians than to die in the desert. They said they’d rather go back to an evil taskmaster than to try to write a new chapter in their lives. Some people are so controlled by sin that they’d rather live an enslaved life than risk a different road that would set them free.
Too many people chose to live in the past because the future scares them. They don’t know what to expect. The Israelites problem was that they didn’t have a real vision for a new life. They didn’t have a dream. They knew where they came from but they didn’t know where they were going.
MOSES ENCOURAGED THE PEOPLE TO GO FORWARD
Exod. 14:13-14 says, -- “And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still & see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today: for the Egyptians which ye have seen today ye shall see the again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Vr.15—And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward.”
What do the Israelites see as they look ahead? Nothing but the Red Sea. God is seemingly telling them to walk into a watery grave. God’s alternative is frightening but it’s the only hope they have. God delivered His people that day & they learned a great lesson; true deliverance will never be achieved by the arm of flesh but by the arm of God’s spirit.
In Genesis 12, tells about Abraham’s nephew who accompanies Abraham to Canaan. Lot & Abraham keep their herds on different plots of land. They remain close & when Lot is captured, Abraham rescues him. Then Lot moves to Sodom. Angels visit him & tell him to leave the wicked city. God is intent on destroying the wicked city but for Abraham’s sake He spares Lot & his family. Lot isn’t all that happy to leave so the angels took them by the hand & led them out of the city. Lot was told to “Flee for your life, don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed.”
You will remember that Lot’s wife looked back & she became a pillar of salt.
LOT’S WIFE ISN’T NAMED. ---THOUGH WE THINK OF HER AS THE WOMAN WHO WAS TURNED TO SALT, THE MOST DRAMATIC CONSEQUENCE WAS SHE WAS FROZEN IN PLACE.
Looking back to our painful past has the same effect on us. We are frozen in place & can’t go forward & be effectual in our present & future. One of the most important things we can learn is that rehashing the past is a pernicious waste of time. If a man is put in jail, its O.K to spend a little time rehashing what he did & why he did it. But a time limit must be placed on the rehashing. He must start to put the past behind him & start asking himself what it will take to live in the moment & do what is necessary to get his freedom. That can’t be accomplished by rehashing his past mistakes.
Looking back with extreme regret & incessant guilt & obsessive chanting of all we’ve done wrong can only stand in the way of our ever doing anything right. I remember an athlete named Donnie Moore who was an outstanding pitcher for the California Angels in the 1980’s. He threw one bad pitch that cost his team the American league pennant in 1986. Some time later, unable to forget that one pitch he took his own life. Regret can take a heavy toll if we’re not able to get past it.
Joseph is one of the best examples in the Bible of a man with a painful past who was able to “get over it” & do great exploits with his life. His own brothers almost killed him out of rotten jealousy & finally sold him into slavery. He was taken to Egypt where while working in Potipher’s house he had a bogus rape charge leveled at him by Potipher’s wife & went to jail for thirteen years.
God miraculously brought Joseph through & made him the second most powerful man in all Egypt. Listen to these words in Genesis 41:50-52;
“And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God said He hath made me to forget all my toil & all my father’s house. And the name of the second called he Ephriam: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Joseph was able to come through these horrendous years victoriously because he kept his eyes focused on God’s purpose for his life. Like Joseph, we should stay focused on the purpose of God behind all our difficult circumstances. We should also seek at all times to stay close to God & allow Him to help us to be reconciled to all those who have done harm to us.
This is the only way to leave our painful past behind.
John
Please read the following two blogs
I contemplated writing a blog about my feelings about the latest immigration Bill Congress was considering but the thought hit me that well over a year ago I wrote two articles to our national leaders & upon re-reading them I found I couldn’t really add much to them. So if you’d be so kind please read the following blogs—“Please, just lock the door,” & “An open letter to President Bush.”
John
I contemplated writing a blog about my feelings about the latest immigration Bill Congress was considering but the thought hit me that well over a year ago I wrote two articles to our national leaders & upon re-reading them I found I couldn’t really add much to them. So if you’d be so kind please read the following blogs—“Please, just lock the door,” & “An open letter to President Bush.”
John
Monday, May 21, 2007
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
From John Stallings
Dear Mr. Bush.
Good morning sir.
I’m not involved in politics in any way, but have been engaged in gospel ministry for over 40 years. To give you a little background; to my embarrassment, I never voted in a national election until 1980 when I stood in a long line, not so much to vote for Ronald Reagan as to vote against Jimmy Carter. My excuse for not voting before was that I was an evangelist for several decades traveling so much it just never seemed to be convenient. That’s more of an excuse than a reason.
For reasons that would take too long to list, I’ve felt since you were first elected that you were God’s man “for such a time as this.” I’ve said many times that you are “the burning Bush” we needed as our national leader entering the new millennium. I commend you on the admirable commitment to war on terror, & the great measures you’ve taken to protect this nation. The protracted trial of Moussaoui that recently ended shows how clogged our courts would be had we looked at the 9/11 attacks as law enforcement issues as your rival John Kerry advocated, rather than declaring all-out war on terrorism. Thanks again for your great leadership in that regard.
I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded of the jaundiced way you are viewed by the liberal media, the “lefties” & the Hollywood types. I hope & pray that you don’t take it personally & will continue to let it roll off your back like Reagan did. But Mr. President, I implore you to listen carefully to what I have to say.
With gas prices close to $3 a gallon, I know you are thinking soberly about the impact that makes on a family barely getting by in this economy. Though I deplore the high prices, I am one who can still differentiate between the “cost” of a gallon of gas & the “value” of a gallon of gas. For instance a gallon of gas can do more for me than a gallon of Coca Cola which I’m sure would cost about the same. On the other hand that gallon of gas in most people’s lives is much more vital than the Coke would be. As you well know all politicians have to take a close look at “the man in the mirror,” & own up to their role in making gas more expensive. I am also aware that the boutique fuels (perhaps as many as 55) tailored because the environmentalist’s demand it, impact the price at the pump. I also know that there hasn’t been a refinery built in this country since 1976 & this is in great part because regulations & restrictions have stopped companies from building them.
I’ve written extensively on the question of the protection of our borders. I’m sure you know that what’s happening there is unprecedented, not just in our own history but in the history of the world. I’m no stranger to the border between Mexico & America & over the years have visited it many times. I’ve also been to Israel several times & know well the precautions they have in place there. I’ve sat on airplanes for extended stretches while Israeli soldiers, men & women with automatic rifles strapped to their shoulders walked the isles of the plane peering deeply into the eyes of each passenger. I never had a problem with that protocol; as a matter of fact I respected it immensely. But no country to my knowledge has ever had the experience of having this great an influx of tens of millions of foreigners across its borders. As you well know our borders are at present out of control. Mr. President, this is AN INVASION MASQUERADING AS IMMIGRATION.
It seems like vigilance will be needed to avoid the future annexation of the Southwest by Mexico. While this isn’t an original idea with me, might I suggest that we take a hard look at Mexico’s law regarding aliens entering their country? This set of laws has been freely passed around the internet & most people are aware of their stridency. If we adopted the harshness of the laws of the very people who are trampling our law underfoot, we’d stop their transgressions in a heartbeat. Perhaps your friend Vicente Fox wouldn’t approve but certainly two can play the same game. Mr. President, it’s my position that all God’s children are the same in His eyes; He loves us all & expects us to love each other. But these people south of our border seem to feel justified in making this land their own, when they broke down the doors & came in illegally. My reading of the national mood is that in the main, people don’t like what is taking place on our borders; indeed in excess of 75% of Americans highly resent it & will soon make their wrath known at ballot boxes. The idea that these aliens do a job that American’s won’t do isn’t exactly correct; it would be more accurate to say American’s don’t want to do those jobs for $2 an hour.
Some people think your presidency will be undone by the war in Iraq. I don’t think so. I’ve stood behind you on that war & feel it will redound to spreading freedom in a part of the world that desperately craves it. My concern for you is something different. I feel you’ll be seen in years to come as the president who “saved or lost” the Southwest of the United States. Though I’ve never met you I think your heartbeat is that our borders should be open so goods & people can move freely back & forth for the benefit of all. Though this sounds good, Mr. President, I believe it to be a “pie in the sky” ideal that must be discarded before it’s too late. I don’t question for a moment your integrity or good intentions but the moment has arrived to do something meaningful to solve the problem & to defend our borders. To hear some of our Senators speak on this subject you’d think they were elected in Mexico or for that matter any country on the globe except America. What I hear coming out of Washington as remedies to the situation sounds more like it was drafted by bureaucrats at the United Nations than by representatives of the United States. It’s shocking to me that our lawmakers who are in a position to know what’s happening are the least cognizant of the terrible impact of illegal immigration.
In my assessment of the American scene it’s clear(at least to me) that if the upcoming elections put a majority of Democrats in the House & Senate, your last years in office will be, by the Democrats own admission, plagued by hearings, investigations & in all likelihood, an attempt at impeachment. This, as I’ve often heard you say is “politics.” The most casual observer can see that, barring a miracle, the disenchantment among many Republicans, conservatives, independents & indeed many Reagan Democrats is going to lead to a monumental defeat for your party at the polls in November. You will then be pressured to start cutting off funds for the war against terrorism for which so many of our precious young people have already paid the ultimate price. Then we Americans will have to again endure the humiliation of seeing another defeat like the withdrawal from Vietnam. We will then be forced at some future time to dedicate another monument to brave men who gave their lives for honor, country & a lost cause.
One last thing; as regards this immigration debacle; where is the concern among our leaders for American schoolchildren forced to sit in overcrowded classes, for American patients forced to wait in overcrowded hospitals, for American workers whose wages are being undercut, for American drivers forced to sit in unbelievable traffic jams in over-whelmed freeway systems, for the victims of organized gangs, for the American college students who are turned away from publicly funded state universities, for the American taxpayers who have to bear the burden of billions of dollars in increased welfare costs, over-burdened prisons, extra police & security & even adding to the injury, for bilingual education.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that “no child should be left behind” but when all these desperately poor illegal workers are flooding the market, aren’t they also making the future bleak for high school & college graduates by depressing what they can look forward to in future wages? Mr. President, please do the right thing & insist that these aliens abide by our laws. You’ll have to take some more abuse, but you should be used to that by now. These people seem to already think they own this country, & obviously think the rest of us should sit down & shut -up. But to ignore this problem & leave it to the next generation I feel will lead us to the brink of national suicide.
You have a unique opportunity to make the Republican Party a whole party again & return it to the party of Ronald Reagan. Please think & pray hard & long about what you do regarding the aforementioned issues. Millions of Americans will be with you as you grab this problem by the horns. Your actions will speak loud & clear. Not only will you see your polls numbers turn around dramatically, you’ll save your country. Conversely, lack of immediate positive action to plug up the holes in our borders & insist that these people come into our country in a respectful & regimented fashion is, in my view going to further erode support among the people for your presidency. Multitudes of us who voted for you & witnessed your strong beginnings, covet for you just as strong a finish.
We love you very much & will continue to pray for you & Lora each & every day that God will continue to bless & keep you, as well as grant you wisdom that one hundred years of experience could never give you.
Respectfully,
John A. Stallings
From John Stallings
Dear Mr. Bush.
Good morning sir.
I’m not involved in politics in any way, but have been engaged in gospel ministry for over 40 years. To give you a little background; to my embarrassment, I never voted in a national election until 1980 when I stood in a long line, not so much to vote for Ronald Reagan as to vote against Jimmy Carter. My excuse for not voting before was that I was an evangelist for several decades traveling so much it just never seemed to be convenient. That’s more of an excuse than a reason.
For reasons that would take too long to list, I’ve felt since you were first elected that you were God’s man “for such a time as this.” I’ve said many times that you are “the burning Bush” we needed as our national leader entering the new millennium. I commend you on the admirable commitment to war on terror, & the great measures you’ve taken to protect this nation. The protracted trial of Moussaoui that recently ended shows how clogged our courts would be had we looked at the 9/11 attacks as law enforcement issues as your rival John Kerry advocated, rather than declaring all-out war on terrorism. Thanks again for your great leadership in that regard.
I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded of the jaundiced way you are viewed by the liberal media, the “lefties” & the Hollywood types. I hope & pray that you don’t take it personally & will continue to let it roll off your back like Reagan did. But Mr. President, I implore you to listen carefully to what I have to say.
With gas prices close to $3 a gallon, I know you are thinking soberly about the impact that makes on a family barely getting by in this economy. Though I deplore the high prices, I am one who can still differentiate between the “cost” of a gallon of gas & the “value” of a gallon of gas. For instance a gallon of gas can do more for me than a gallon of Coca Cola which I’m sure would cost about the same. On the other hand that gallon of gas in most people’s lives is much more vital than the Coke would be. As you well know all politicians have to take a close look at “the man in the mirror,” & own up to their role in making gas more expensive. I am also aware that the boutique fuels (perhaps as many as 55) tailored because the environmentalist’s demand it, impact the price at the pump. I also know that there hasn’t been a refinery built in this country since 1976 & this is in great part because regulations & restrictions have stopped companies from building them.
I’ve written extensively on the question of the protection of our borders. I’m sure you know that what’s happening there is unprecedented, not just in our own history but in the history of the world. I’m no stranger to the border between Mexico & America & over the years have visited it many times. I’ve also been to Israel several times & know well the precautions they have in place there. I’ve sat on airplanes for extended stretches while Israeli soldiers, men & women with automatic rifles strapped to their shoulders walked the isles of the plane peering deeply into the eyes of each passenger. I never had a problem with that protocol; as a matter of fact I respected it immensely. But no country to my knowledge has ever had the experience of having this great an influx of tens of millions of foreigners across its borders. As you well know our borders are at present out of control. Mr. President, this is AN INVASION MASQUERADING AS IMMIGRATION.
It seems like vigilance will be needed to avoid the future annexation of the Southwest by Mexico. While this isn’t an original idea with me, might I suggest that we take a hard look at Mexico’s law regarding aliens entering their country? This set of laws has been freely passed around the internet & most people are aware of their stridency. If we adopted the harshness of the laws of the very people who are trampling our law underfoot, we’d stop their transgressions in a heartbeat. Perhaps your friend Vicente Fox wouldn’t approve but certainly two can play the same game. Mr. President, it’s my position that all God’s children are the same in His eyes; He loves us all & expects us to love each other. But these people south of our border seem to feel justified in making this land their own, when they broke down the doors & came in illegally. My reading of the national mood is that in the main, people don’t like what is taking place on our borders; indeed in excess of 75% of Americans highly resent it & will soon make their wrath known at ballot boxes. The idea that these aliens do a job that American’s won’t do isn’t exactly correct; it would be more accurate to say American’s don’t want to do those jobs for $2 an hour.
Some people think your presidency will be undone by the war in Iraq. I don’t think so. I’ve stood behind you on that war & feel it will redound to spreading freedom in a part of the world that desperately craves it. My concern for you is something different. I feel you’ll be seen in years to come as the president who “saved or lost” the Southwest of the United States. Though I’ve never met you I think your heartbeat is that our borders should be open so goods & people can move freely back & forth for the benefit of all. Though this sounds good, Mr. President, I believe it to be a “pie in the sky” ideal that must be discarded before it’s too late. I don’t question for a moment your integrity or good intentions but the moment has arrived to do something meaningful to solve the problem & to defend our borders. To hear some of our Senators speak on this subject you’d think they were elected in Mexico or for that matter any country on the globe except America. What I hear coming out of Washington as remedies to the situation sounds more like it was drafted by bureaucrats at the United Nations than by representatives of the United States. It’s shocking to me that our lawmakers who are in a position to know what’s happening are the least cognizant of the terrible impact of illegal immigration.
In my assessment of the American scene it’s clear(at least to me) that if the upcoming elections put a majority of Democrats in the House & Senate, your last years in office will be, by the Democrats own admission, plagued by hearings, investigations & in all likelihood, an attempt at impeachment. This, as I’ve often heard you say is “politics.” The most casual observer can see that, barring a miracle, the disenchantment among many Republicans, conservatives, independents & indeed many Reagan Democrats is going to lead to a monumental defeat for your party at the polls in November. You will then be pressured to start cutting off funds for the war against terrorism for which so many of our precious young people have already paid the ultimate price. Then we Americans will have to again endure the humiliation of seeing another defeat like the withdrawal from Vietnam. We will then be forced at some future time to dedicate another monument to brave men who gave their lives for honor, country & a lost cause.
One last thing; as regards this immigration debacle; where is the concern among our leaders for American schoolchildren forced to sit in overcrowded classes, for American patients forced to wait in overcrowded hospitals, for American workers whose wages are being undercut, for American drivers forced to sit in unbelievable traffic jams in over-whelmed freeway systems, for the victims of organized gangs, for the American college students who are turned away from publicly funded state universities, for the American taxpayers who have to bear the burden of billions of dollars in increased welfare costs, over-burdened prisons, extra police & security & even adding to the injury, for bilingual education.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that “no child should be left behind” but when all these desperately poor illegal workers are flooding the market, aren’t they also making the future bleak for high school & college graduates by depressing what they can look forward to in future wages? Mr. President, please do the right thing & insist that these aliens abide by our laws. You’ll have to take some more abuse, but you should be used to that by now. These people seem to already think they own this country, & obviously think the rest of us should sit down & shut -up. But to ignore this problem & leave it to the next generation I feel will lead us to the brink of national suicide.
You have a unique opportunity to make the Republican Party a whole party again & return it to the party of Ronald Reagan. Please think & pray hard & long about what you do regarding the aforementioned issues. Millions of Americans will be with you as you grab this problem by the horns. Your actions will speak loud & clear. Not only will you see your polls numbers turn around dramatically, you’ll save your country. Conversely, lack of immediate positive action to plug up the holes in our borders & insist that these people come into our country in a respectful & regimented fashion is, in my view going to further erode support among the people for your presidency. Multitudes of us who voted for you & witnessed your strong beginnings, covet for you just as strong a finish.
We love you very much & will continue to pray for you & Lora each & every day that God will continue to bless & keep you, as well as grant you wisdom that one hundred years of experience could never give you.
Respectfully,
John A. Stallings
Friday, May 18, 2007
DEATH BY COMFORT
By John Stallings
Do you know who made the following statement; “I’ve made over 9,000 bad shots, lost over 300 games, and been trusted with 26 shots to determine the outcome of the game, and missed them. I’ve had so many failures; I guess it’s why I’m so successful?”
Basketball legend Michael Jordon, perhaps the quintessential winner of all time, spoke those words.
Because of his joy and enthusiasm, when you watch him you feel as if you’re seeing history in the making. Jordan was cut from his high school team but persisted, and became one of the best athletes of all time.
Michael makes playing basketball look easy, but it took a lot of pain to play with that ease.
I remember the first time I saw Elvis Presley on television. He was singing “Heartbreak Hotel,” and he looked like he owned that stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. Nobody hit like Elvis hit. In those early days, he sang with such fervor that people could hardly believe what they were seeing. He blew a hole in the music world forever.
Just a few short years later, we all watched, painfully embarrassed, as a bloated Elvis sang and danced through his mediocre movies. I asked a thousand times, as many did; Elvis, what happened?
Looking back now, I know what happen.
Elvis succumbed to the promise that drugs made to him. They promised to make things easy and let him live in a hazy, rose-colored world with no pain; not having to follow the path of other mortals.
Elvis could afford it, so he bought the dream.
But what the drugs couldn’t do for Elvis was save him from “the law of diminishing returns.” After a while, it took bigger amounts of drugs just to make Elvis feel like he used to feel without them. Boy, how those drugs cheated Elvis. They ushered him to a comfortable death.
What happened to Elvis was that he got lost in a promise that life’s greatest reward is to be comfortable.
IT WAS DEATH BY COMFORT.
What a tragedy. What the human spirit yearns for is not comfort; but the feeling of accomplishment and the enthusiasm that comes from setting goals and seeing them fulfilled.
One of the saddest things I see is people looking forward with such relish to the idea of total retirement, only to arrive and find it not so great. I once had a friend who was always making the statement that he’d be happy to see the day when “he wouldn’t have to hit a lick at a snake.” When he finally retired, he didn’t live but a short time.
I had another friend who was reared in relative poverty and worked hard to get out of it. By age 49 he was wealthy and comfortable. One day he lay down for a mid-day nap and died in his sleep. His wife told me he never moved the covers she had put around him as he slept. I wonder if he felt he’d achieved it all and nothing was left for him
I’m not saying retirement is wrong, but what I am saying is that it’s not what the human spirit thrives on. To retire from one thing may be just fine, but to seek out a rocking chair will probably not be as satisfying as we might think; and it may be fatal.
Do you know the nation which has the best, most comfortable standard of living for its citizens of any nation in the world?
Denmark.
Do you know the nation with the highest percentage of suicides of any nation in the world?
Denmark.
What does that tell you? It tells me that you can meet every need and solve every problem that people have and it still doesn’t make them content. All you’ve done is remove the very thing it takes to make a person happy and that is, a problem. Sound strange?
Well it’s not strange; it’s our nature.
Many companies have had to remove the video games from their computers because employees were getting hooked on the games. Stop and ask yourself why intelligent people like video games. It’s simple. The challenge of trying to beat a game and winning is what our nature loves.
Recently studies have shown that Nuns in Catholic monasteries live longer than their contemporaries outside and the reason is they are constantly challenging their minds with, study, writing letters, games and other mental stimulus that it keeps them alive. It’s like saying; “as long as the brain is doing something, the body will stay alive to see what happens.”
I once read a story about a man who tried to commit suicide by running. He figured that if he ran himself to death it would look like death from over- exertion and his family could collect his insurance. The first day he ran until he was exhausted and fell in a heap, but he didn’t die. The next day he ran a little farther and fell, but still didn’t die. After about a week of trying to run himself to death, he was able to run so far that he amazed himself. At the end of the first ten days, his body and spirit were so pumped that he didn’t want to die any more.
Neither our bodies nor our spirits want retirement and ease; they want a feeling of accomplishment. I’m not saying we should stick to a tired old regimen or stay with the same old things in life but we can reinvent ourselves at any age and be productive, instead of withering away.
AMOS 6:1 SAYS, ---"WOE TO THEM THAT ARE AT EASE IN ZION."
In Genesis 12; 1-4, God told Abraham to get up and leave his country and go to a land he would show him. Notice, God didn’t tell him, like Moses, that he was going to the Promised Land; it was just a land he would show him.
Please understand; Abraham was 75 years old. He’d lived in Hebron all his life. He had gotten his beard trimmed at the same place for decades, probably just across the street from the high school where he graduated All his relatives were buried there in Hebron. From now on, instead of being called “Abraham of Hebron,” he’d be, “Abraham of someplace God will show me.”
Not only that, Abraham had no children, and at 75 probably had given up the idea.
God’s promise was that he was going to make him A Great Nation. God told him to look up at the canopy of stars at night, and his seed would be as numerous as those stars.
Moses was 80 when God called him from the burning bush in the Egyptian desert. He had gone to the backside of the desert because he had killed a man and his picture was in all the Egyptian Post offices.
At a time in life when most people think about sitting down, Moses began his great life’s work.
Caleb was 85 years old when he looked at a big mountain and said to God, “Give me this mountain.”
I’ve always admired Abraham Lincoln. He ran for public office several times and was defeated. He didn’t give up and was finally elected to the presidency of the United States and became renowned as one of America’s greatest leaders.
Another one of my modern day hero’s was Winston Churchill. Had he died on his 65th birthday, history would have recorded him a failure. However, shortly after that, the Second World War broke out and Briton chose him to lead them during those dark years.
Coronal Harland Sanders received his first social security check at 65 and saw it wasn’t enough to live on, so he started the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.
Treutt Kathy, after losing his two brothers in a plane crash, was lying in bed after a cancer operation and got a vision of the Chich-fil-a chicken sandwich, which later in his life made him a millionaire.
None of these people quit when the going got tough, and were able to do exploits with their lives.
Instead of quitting, we can turn our mistakes into stepping stones and turn negative situations around. But if we take the road of ease, and give up, our lives will turn into aggravation and frustration that will eat like a canker.
One thing we’ll get free each year we live is a trip around the sun. But in reality, it isn’t a “free lunch,” for life on Planet Earth is a series of hardships and much hard work with many obstacles. Most of the time our successes come on the heels of disappointment and failure. There’s a lot of grinding day-to day living to do and most of us will never win the lottery.
BUT AGAIN, EASE, NOT HARD WORK, IS WHAT KILLS NOT ONLY THE BODY, BUT THE SPIRIT OF MAN.
Strain, stress and sweat won’t hurt us but idleness will.
We should think often of the old adage, “When at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.”
If things do get hard for us we can remember that Paul stated emphatically, I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me. (Phil. 4:13.)
Jesus said, all things are possible to him that believeth. (Mark 9:23)
In Mark 10:27 Jesus said, …….. For with God all things are possible.
THOUGH IT’S NOT A SCRIPTURE VERSE, I LIKE THE MAXIM, "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT’S OVER."
You may have been through so much that every cell and microbe in your body screams “give up” but that’s the one thing we must not do.
The man (he’s an imaginary man—but is he?) saw people love each other and he saw that love made strenuous demands on them. He noticed that love required sacrifice and self-denial. He observed that love produced arguments and sometimes terrible anguish. The man decided that love cost too much and involved unacceptable risks. So the man decided not to allow himself to be hurt; he figured that the risk was too great.
The man saw people striving for great goals. He saw men and women striving for great ideals and he also noticed that their striving was mixed with great disappointment and carried great hurts. So the man decided that the great ideals and goals were to costly for him to be involved in. He came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be wise for him to burden his life with this unnecessary striving.
The man looked around him and saw people serving others and giving to the poor and spending time in the care of the homeless and hopeless. He saw the more they helped the more their help seemed to be needed. He saw ungrateful receivers and worn out workers. So the man made the decision not to soil his life with striving and serving people, and to save his self that hurt.
Then the man died and went to the presence of God and presented his comfortable life to God; Whereupon God looked at him and said,
WHAT LIFE?
John
By John Stallings
Do you know who made the following statement; “I’ve made over 9,000 bad shots, lost over 300 games, and been trusted with 26 shots to determine the outcome of the game, and missed them. I’ve had so many failures; I guess it’s why I’m so successful?”
Basketball legend Michael Jordon, perhaps the quintessential winner of all time, spoke those words.
Because of his joy and enthusiasm, when you watch him you feel as if you’re seeing history in the making. Jordan was cut from his high school team but persisted, and became one of the best athletes of all time.
Michael makes playing basketball look easy, but it took a lot of pain to play with that ease.
I remember the first time I saw Elvis Presley on television. He was singing “Heartbreak Hotel,” and he looked like he owned that stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. Nobody hit like Elvis hit. In those early days, he sang with such fervor that people could hardly believe what they were seeing. He blew a hole in the music world forever.
Just a few short years later, we all watched, painfully embarrassed, as a bloated Elvis sang and danced through his mediocre movies. I asked a thousand times, as many did; Elvis, what happened?
Looking back now, I know what happen.
Elvis succumbed to the promise that drugs made to him. They promised to make things easy and let him live in a hazy, rose-colored world with no pain; not having to follow the path of other mortals.
Elvis could afford it, so he bought the dream.
But what the drugs couldn’t do for Elvis was save him from “the law of diminishing returns.” After a while, it took bigger amounts of drugs just to make Elvis feel like he used to feel without them. Boy, how those drugs cheated Elvis. They ushered him to a comfortable death.
What happened to Elvis was that he got lost in a promise that life’s greatest reward is to be comfortable.
IT WAS DEATH BY COMFORT.
What a tragedy. What the human spirit yearns for is not comfort; but the feeling of accomplishment and the enthusiasm that comes from setting goals and seeing them fulfilled.
One of the saddest things I see is people looking forward with such relish to the idea of total retirement, only to arrive and find it not so great. I once had a friend who was always making the statement that he’d be happy to see the day when “he wouldn’t have to hit a lick at a snake.” When he finally retired, he didn’t live but a short time.
I had another friend who was reared in relative poverty and worked hard to get out of it. By age 49 he was wealthy and comfortable. One day he lay down for a mid-day nap and died in his sleep. His wife told me he never moved the covers she had put around him as he slept. I wonder if he felt he’d achieved it all and nothing was left for him
I’m not saying retirement is wrong, but what I am saying is that it’s not what the human spirit thrives on. To retire from one thing may be just fine, but to seek out a rocking chair will probably not be as satisfying as we might think; and it may be fatal.
Do you know the nation which has the best, most comfortable standard of living for its citizens of any nation in the world?
Denmark.
Do you know the nation with the highest percentage of suicides of any nation in the world?
Denmark.
What does that tell you? It tells me that you can meet every need and solve every problem that people have and it still doesn’t make them content. All you’ve done is remove the very thing it takes to make a person happy and that is, a problem. Sound strange?
Well it’s not strange; it’s our nature.
Many companies have had to remove the video games from their computers because employees were getting hooked on the games. Stop and ask yourself why intelligent people like video games. It’s simple. The challenge of trying to beat a game and winning is what our nature loves.
Recently studies have shown that Nuns in Catholic monasteries live longer than their contemporaries outside and the reason is they are constantly challenging their minds with, study, writing letters, games and other mental stimulus that it keeps them alive. It’s like saying; “as long as the brain is doing something, the body will stay alive to see what happens.”
I once read a story about a man who tried to commit suicide by running. He figured that if he ran himself to death it would look like death from over- exertion and his family could collect his insurance. The first day he ran until he was exhausted and fell in a heap, but he didn’t die. The next day he ran a little farther and fell, but still didn’t die. After about a week of trying to run himself to death, he was able to run so far that he amazed himself. At the end of the first ten days, his body and spirit were so pumped that he didn’t want to die any more.
Neither our bodies nor our spirits want retirement and ease; they want a feeling of accomplishment. I’m not saying we should stick to a tired old regimen or stay with the same old things in life but we can reinvent ourselves at any age and be productive, instead of withering away.
AMOS 6:1 SAYS, ---"WOE TO THEM THAT ARE AT EASE IN ZION."
In Genesis 12; 1-4, God told Abraham to get up and leave his country and go to a land he would show him. Notice, God didn’t tell him, like Moses, that he was going to the Promised Land; it was just a land he would show him.
Please understand; Abraham was 75 years old. He’d lived in Hebron all his life. He had gotten his beard trimmed at the same place for decades, probably just across the street from the high school where he graduated All his relatives were buried there in Hebron. From now on, instead of being called “Abraham of Hebron,” he’d be, “Abraham of someplace God will show me.”
Not only that, Abraham had no children, and at 75 probably had given up the idea.
God’s promise was that he was going to make him A Great Nation. God told him to look up at the canopy of stars at night, and his seed would be as numerous as those stars.
Moses was 80 when God called him from the burning bush in the Egyptian desert. He had gone to the backside of the desert because he had killed a man and his picture was in all the Egyptian Post offices.
At a time in life when most people think about sitting down, Moses began his great life’s work.
Caleb was 85 years old when he looked at a big mountain and said to God, “Give me this mountain.”
I’ve always admired Abraham Lincoln. He ran for public office several times and was defeated. He didn’t give up and was finally elected to the presidency of the United States and became renowned as one of America’s greatest leaders.
Another one of my modern day hero’s was Winston Churchill. Had he died on his 65th birthday, history would have recorded him a failure. However, shortly after that, the Second World War broke out and Briton chose him to lead them during those dark years.
Coronal Harland Sanders received his first social security check at 65 and saw it wasn’t enough to live on, so he started the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.
Treutt Kathy, after losing his two brothers in a plane crash, was lying in bed after a cancer operation and got a vision of the Chich-fil-a chicken sandwich, which later in his life made him a millionaire.
None of these people quit when the going got tough, and were able to do exploits with their lives.
Instead of quitting, we can turn our mistakes into stepping stones and turn negative situations around. But if we take the road of ease, and give up, our lives will turn into aggravation and frustration that will eat like a canker.
One thing we’ll get free each year we live is a trip around the sun. But in reality, it isn’t a “free lunch,” for life on Planet Earth is a series of hardships and much hard work with many obstacles. Most of the time our successes come on the heels of disappointment and failure. There’s a lot of grinding day-to day living to do and most of us will never win the lottery.
BUT AGAIN, EASE, NOT HARD WORK, IS WHAT KILLS NOT ONLY THE BODY, BUT THE SPIRIT OF MAN.
Strain, stress and sweat won’t hurt us but idleness will.
We should think often of the old adage, “When at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.”
If things do get hard for us we can remember that Paul stated emphatically, I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me. (Phil. 4:13.)
Jesus said, all things are possible to him that believeth. (Mark 9:23)
In Mark 10:27 Jesus said, …….. For with God all things are possible.
THOUGH IT’S NOT A SCRIPTURE VERSE, I LIKE THE MAXIM, "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT’S OVER."
You may have been through so much that every cell and microbe in your body screams “give up” but that’s the one thing we must not do.
The man (he’s an imaginary man—but is he?) saw people love each other and he saw that love made strenuous demands on them. He noticed that love required sacrifice and self-denial. He observed that love produced arguments and sometimes terrible anguish. The man decided that love cost too much and involved unacceptable risks. So the man decided not to allow himself to be hurt; he figured that the risk was too great.
The man saw people striving for great goals. He saw men and women striving for great ideals and he also noticed that their striving was mixed with great disappointment and carried great hurts. So the man decided that the great ideals and goals were to costly for him to be involved in. He came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be wise for him to burden his life with this unnecessary striving.
The man looked around him and saw people serving others and giving to the poor and spending time in the care of the homeless and hopeless. He saw the more they helped the more their help seemed to be needed. He saw ungrateful receivers and worn out workers. So the man made the decision not to soil his life with striving and serving people, and to save his self that hurt.
Then the man died and went to the presence of God and presented his comfortable life to God; Whereupon God looked at him and said,
WHAT LIFE?
John
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Falwell’s home going.
In the mid seventies I read Jerry Falwell’s book on the book of Proverbs & was greatly blessed by his practical insights. I used some of his thoughts in my teaching of the book. I’ve also read his columns fairly regularly & always found them balanced & thought provoking. My last glimpse of him on video tape was a week or two ago when he sat on his church platform behind one of his guest speakers. He seemed to be very generous to other preachers. From all reports he was so revered at the great school he founded in Lynchburg that they cheered him like a rock star. Also, everyone called him Jerry, which tells you a lot about the man.
Falwell would never have had reason to know I was alive, but I knew him. At times I got aggrevated with him for his hair-trigger tongue. A case in point was what he said after 9/11 about the nation being punished because of the gays, abortionists & various & sundry other sinners. Being a preacher myself, I did understand where he was coming from. The record shows that he did apologize soon after these comments were made. I also was very upset with the way he handled the PTL situation. I knew I didn’t have all the facts but was just exercising my right to be upset. My thoughts at the time were that Jerry let the prospects of getting his own T.V satellite dazzle him but was disenchanted when he found out how much debt PTL was in. From what I’ve read, that debacle as well as the fall of Swaggert & other T.V evangelists cost him many millions of income, a deficit from which he never recovered.
Though I could be wrong, I seriously doubt we’d have ever had Ronald Reagan as our president were it not for Jerry Falwell & the Moral Majority he founded in 1979, the year before Reagan’s first term.
From what I’ve heard & read Jerry was vital & alive right up to the very end & most people’s memories of him will be of seeing him running back & forth from his plane or back & forth from his car. In that respect I’d be fairly certain his passing so quickly with his boots on was an answer to his prayers.
No- I didn’t agree with Falwell on some things but we shared one thing in common & that was our love for Christ & His gospel. I can recognize that in an individual & it always wins my heart. He called himself a fundamentalist which means he took the Bible literally but I have a feeling I took a few things more literally than he did. That would be another blog.
I know he’s in heaven now & because of the caliber of man he was I won’t say R.I. P Jerry.
Instead I’ll say “God’s Speed & Congratulations on a spiritual race well run!!” -------John
In the mid seventies I read Jerry Falwell’s book on the book of Proverbs & was greatly blessed by his practical insights. I used some of his thoughts in my teaching of the book. I’ve also read his columns fairly regularly & always found them balanced & thought provoking. My last glimpse of him on video tape was a week or two ago when he sat on his church platform behind one of his guest speakers. He seemed to be very generous to other preachers. From all reports he was so revered at the great school he founded in Lynchburg that they cheered him like a rock star. Also, everyone called him Jerry, which tells you a lot about the man.
Falwell would never have had reason to know I was alive, but I knew him. At times I got aggrevated with him for his hair-trigger tongue. A case in point was what he said after 9/11 about the nation being punished because of the gays, abortionists & various & sundry other sinners. Being a preacher myself, I did understand where he was coming from. The record shows that he did apologize soon after these comments were made. I also was very upset with the way he handled the PTL situation. I knew I didn’t have all the facts but was just exercising my right to be upset. My thoughts at the time were that Jerry let the prospects of getting his own T.V satellite dazzle him but was disenchanted when he found out how much debt PTL was in. From what I’ve read, that debacle as well as the fall of Swaggert & other T.V evangelists cost him many millions of income, a deficit from which he never recovered.
Though I could be wrong, I seriously doubt we’d have ever had Ronald Reagan as our president were it not for Jerry Falwell & the Moral Majority he founded in 1979, the year before Reagan’s first term.
From what I’ve heard & read Jerry was vital & alive right up to the very end & most people’s memories of him will be of seeing him running back & forth from his plane or back & forth from his car. In that respect I’d be fairly certain his passing so quickly with his boots on was an answer to his prayers.
No- I didn’t agree with Falwell on some things but we shared one thing in common & that was our love for Christ & His gospel. I can recognize that in an individual & it always wins my heart. He called himself a fundamentalist which means he took the Bible literally but I have a feeling I took a few things more literally than he did. That would be another blog.
I know he’s in heaven now & because of the caliber of man he was I won’t say R.I. P Jerry.
Instead I’ll say “God’s Speed & Congratulations on a spiritual race well run!!” -------John
Friday, May 4, 2007
Talkers- Dreamers -Wishers -Dabblers-& Doers
By John Stallings
There are five types of people you’ll find in every area of life. They are in business, education, & even the Church. Only one of these types ever really accomplishes anything, & it certainly isn’t the;
1. Talkers
Talkers gab & blab. They are always talking about what they are going to do but never do anything. These folk have the ability to get people excited. They have the gift of gab. The gift of yada-yada-yada. They can charm the birds down out of the trees with their chatter.
I have met these talkers as a pastor. They come in & know just exactly how to present themselves. They seem to know exactly what you want to hear. They will talk & as they talk they’ll use exaggerated hand motions to paint you a picture of what they will do & help you to do. The problem with these folk is they are all “talky- talky- talky & no walky- walky -walky.” They will get you all excited & leave you hanging on a rope somewhere.
Talkers usually end up bouncing from church to church because they know people will finally catch on to their yada-yada & stop listening.
I learned the hard way about talkers as a young pastor. In my first church I allowed a man I hardly knew & was new to the church to influence me to add another weekly prayer meeting, one he suggested should be an all-nighter. Being inexperienced I felt it would look “nonspiritual” if I declined & some of the faithful members agreed to try it. Can you imagine our surprise when we learned that he wasn’t going to be present at any of them? He was too busy but still he felt the all night prayer meetings were the answer for our church.
A little checking on my part revealed that this man had misrepresented his past & his life had been a series of one spiritual flop after another. Out of twenty years of a so called Christian life, he’d spent half of it in jail & the other half running from town to town presenting himself as something he most definitely wasn’t. Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not against all night prayer meetings but after that experience my question to an individual who suggests we add another night to an already crowded weekly schedule is- where were you ten or twenty years ago when the people of the church were praying & interceding for the lost? Usually the truth is they were out sowing wild oats & living like the devil while the people of the church had been faithfully serving God. They are just talkers & nine times out of ten they won’t be around for more than a month anyway. But you can be sure they’ll be somewhere else giving their yada-yada to someone. The prophet Hosea calls these people “morning clouds” that appear for a little while & then poof, they are no longer visible.
2. Dreamers.
I don’t want to be hard on dreamers because people need their dreams. However, too many dreamers read books, go to seminars, take notes, write mission statements, write out goals & “pray about it” but they never carry through. They never cut a rut from a plan to a practice, from a list to a living ministry. Dreamers are always dreaming but never able to live out their dreams. When I was a kid I used to want to be a cowboy; to be exact, a singing cowboy. I spent many hours of my days dreaming about being like Gene & Roy.
Let me qualify my statements about dreamers. There’s one kind of dreaming that is very powerful so long as a certain ingredient isn’t missing. Let me explain. I suppose my cowboy dreams were normal but at some point I had to lay those childlike dreams aside & dream for my real future.
Since my dad was a pastor we usually lived next to the church. When I was about fourteen, I’d often go over to the church & lock the door & get up behind the pulpit with my guitar & act like I was in an actual service. I’d say, “Now I’m going to sing you a song I wrote.” Then I’d proceed to sing a song, but not one I wrote, because I hadn’t as yet written any songs. I was day-dreaming. Then I’d sing one or two more songs “I wrote.” I wanted to be a songwriter so bad I could taste it. When I finished with the music portion of the service, I’d open the Bible & start preaching to my imaginary audience. Well, I wouldn’t exactly preach, I’d read a little bit & then I’d holler. I’d read a little bit more & holler. It seemed to me that’s what my dad did & all the other preachers I’d heard; they’d read & holler. Then I’d close my imaginary service, slip out the side door & go home, hoping no one was the wiser.
If you came to one of my services today, over fifty years later, in all probability here’s what you’d see & hear. I’d get up & welcome the people & tell them we want to sing them a song or two that I wrote. Then Juda & I will proceed to do our best to sing for the folk. But these songs would be songs I actually did write, because now I have some songs of my own. Then I’d open my Bible & read a few scriptures, expound on them & there would be several spots that I’d raise my voice to emphasize a point. But if I’d never gotten out of the dreaming stage, if I’d never gotten up before a real audience of people, all the practicing & all the secret dreaming wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere.
So I think I can say all my boyhood dreams came true. Dreaming is a powerful & necessary thing but dreaming alone isn’t enough. An individual must make the effort & be willing to work & do all necessary to bring those dreams into fruition.
3. Wishers.
These people wish things would change all by themselves but they will not act to change them. They wish they had a better prayer life. They wish they knew the Bible better. They wish they could get to church more often. They wish they had a better devotional life but never open their Bibles between visits to church. They wish the church had more money to reach out to the lost but they never give any. If wishes were horses beggars would ride.
I heard a story about a preacher who got up in his church & said, “This church is on its knees now, but I can see this church rising.” All the people said amen. Then he said, “This church is not only gonna rise, this crawling church is gonna walk.” Everyone said amen. Then he said “This church isn’t only gonna walk this church is gonna run.” You guessed it, everyone shouted amen. Then the preacher said, “Brothers & sisters, God has shown me that if we’ll all start being liberal with our tithes & offerings, this church someday very soon is gonna fly.” Then everything got real quiet & one man on the backseat said, “Let her crawl brother, let her crawl.”
4. Dabblers.
Dabblers love the feeling of starting a new project but they never finish anything. Dabblers get bored easily. They shine one shoe & leave the other not shined. Dabblers often leave a wave of disappointment behind them. They dabble a little here & they dabble a little there but never bring anything to completion. There are far too many Christians who dabble at serving God.
God is a finisher. He finished creating the earth. Jesus hung on the cross & said “It is finished.” He didn’t as some supposed on that day say, “I am finished.” He said “It is finished.” He said the great plan of God that was established before the foundations of the earth were laid was finished. Too many people have exchanged the word finished for the words, “I’m through.” I’m through with that church.” I’m through with this marriage.” “I’m through with school.” They are always getting through with things but never finishing them. The word finished carries with it a sense of “bringing to perfection.”
When the carpenters are through with a house they bring in the finishers. The finishers put the Crown molding around the edges & corners of the rooms. They hang the doors & make sure they are well balanced & open & close smoothly. A house left “unfinished” would be a rather ugly house even though it had four walls & a roof. Many people in high society send their young women to “finishing school.” There they learn the finer points of being a lady so they can later be at ease & poised in the circles they’re expected to move in.
We can never be truly successful if all we do is dabble. To be successful at anything, we must put our all into it, for one thing is certain, we’ll only get out of an enterprise what we put in it. My mother wanted me to learn to play the piano & was willing to pay for me to learn but I can’t play the piano today because all I wanted to do was dabble & play chopsticks. I suspect I’m not alone in that.
The only accomplishers in this world are the;
5. DOERS.
Doers make things happen. Doers don’t just wish things would happen. They don’t dream & talk about it. Doers aren’t dabblers. They actually get things done. Doers are daring. They are movers & shakers. Doers build churches. Doers build businesses. Doers are the ones with the testimonies. No church, business or enterprise has ever gotten off the ground without a few doers. We will always have more than enough of the others but we must “Be doers of the Word not just hearers.”
Doers don’t go by their feelings. I read an article somewhere that said “80% of the world’s work is done by people who aren’t feeling well.” That didn’t really surprise me. Many people will sit & wait until the “mood” strikes them before they’ll move on a project. They have to have a certain feeling but the problem is the feeling seldom comes. As I read the article, I thought, you know, I’ll bet the man who wrote that it wasn’t feeling well when he wrote it. And it wouldn’t surprise me if some who read this article won’t be feeling all that great as they read it. As I think about it, I’m not feeling all that great as I’m writing it. But none of that matters because what do our feelings have to do with anything? Can we allow feelings to rule us when they can change overnight for no apparent reason? I’m sure you’ve learned by now that if you’re going to get anything done you must put your feelings on the back burner & go to work because feelings will fall in line as we move. It was William James who said, “We don’t feel our way to a different way of acting, we act our way to a different way of feeling.”
Do you want me to tell you how the shake off depression? Get up & start doing something. Now if you have some sort of deep dark depression & are being treated for it that’s between you & you doctor but I’ll bet he’ll tell you you’re better off doing than just sitting. If you wake up depressed, tell depression you’re going to work & you’ll take the depression with you. Chances are great that you’ll leave depression behind as soon as you start moving.
There is so much in the Bible about DOING! James tells us; ---“Draw nigh to God & He’ll draw nigh to you.” He also told us—“Faith without works is dead, being alone.” One of my favorite verses of scripture is Daniel 11:32….But the people that do know their God shall be strong & do exploits.”
All who want to do something special with your life, why don’t you resolve with me to stand up on your feet & let’s move? Let’s be doers of the Word & works of God.
John
By John Stallings
There are five types of people you’ll find in every area of life. They are in business, education, & even the Church. Only one of these types ever really accomplishes anything, & it certainly isn’t the;
1. Talkers
Talkers gab & blab. They are always talking about what they are going to do but never do anything. These folk have the ability to get people excited. They have the gift of gab. The gift of yada-yada-yada. They can charm the birds down out of the trees with their chatter.
I have met these talkers as a pastor. They come in & know just exactly how to present themselves. They seem to know exactly what you want to hear. They will talk & as they talk they’ll use exaggerated hand motions to paint you a picture of what they will do & help you to do. The problem with these folk is they are all “talky- talky- talky & no walky- walky -walky.” They will get you all excited & leave you hanging on a rope somewhere.
Talkers usually end up bouncing from church to church because they know people will finally catch on to their yada-yada & stop listening.
I learned the hard way about talkers as a young pastor. In my first church I allowed a man I hardly knew & was new to the church to influence me to add another weekly prayer meeting, one he suggested should be an all-nighter. Being inexperienced I felt it would look “nonspiritual” if I declined & some of the faithful members agreed to try it. Can you imagine our surprise when we learned that he wasn’t going to be present at any of them? He was too busy but still he felt the all night prayer meetings were the answer for our church.
A little checking on my part revealed that this man had misrepresented his past & his life had been a series of one spiritual flop after another. Out of twenty years of a so called Christian life, he’d spent half of it in jail & the other half running from town to town presenting himself as something he most definitely wasn’t. Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not against all night prayer meetings but after that experience my question to an individual who suggests we add another night to an already crowded weekly schedule is- where were you ten or twenty years ago when the people of the church were praying & interceding for the lost? Usually the truth is they were out sowing wild oats & living like the devil while the people of the church had been faithfully serving God. They are just talkers & nine times out of ten they won’t be around for more than a month anyway. But you can be sure they’ll be somewhere else giving their yada-yada to someone. The prophet Hosea calls these people “morning clouds” that appear for a little while & then poof, they are no longer visible.
2. Dreamers.
I don’t want to be hard on dreamers because people need their dreams. However, too many dreamers read books, go to seminars, take notes, write mission statements, write out goals & “pray about it” but they never carry through. They never cut a rut from a plan to a practice, from a list to a living ministry. Dreamers are always dreaming but never able to live out their dreams. When I was a kid I used to want to be a cowboy; to be exact, a singing cowboy. I spent many hours of my days dreaming about being like Gene & Roy.
Let me qualify my statements about dreamers. There’s one kind of dreaming that is very powerful so long as a certain ingredient isn’t missing. Let me explain. I suppose my cowboy dreams were normal but at some point I had to lay those childlike dreams aside & dream for my real future.
Since my dad was a pastor we usually lived next to the church. When I was about fourteen, I’d often go over to the church & lock the door & get up behind the pulpit with my guitar & act like I was in an actual service. I’d say, “Now I’m going to sing you a song I wrote.” Then I’d proceed to sing a song, but not one I wrote, because I hadn’t as yet written any songs. I was day-dreaming. Then I’d sing one or two more songs “I wrote.” I wanted to be a songwriter so bad I could taste it. When I finished with the music portion of the service, I’d open the Bible & start preaching to my imaginary audience. Well, I wouldn’t exactly preach, I’d read a little bit & then I’d holler. I’d read a little bit more & holler. It seemed to me that’s what my dad did & all the other preachers I’d heard; they’d read & holler. Then I’d close my imaginary service, slip out the side door & go home, hoping no one was the wiser.
If you came to one of my services today, over fifty years later, in all probability here’s what you’d see & hear. I’d get up & welcome the people & tell them we want to sing them a song or two that I wrote. Then Juda & I will proceed to do our best to sing for the folk. But these songs would be songs I actually did write, because now I have some songs of my own. Then I’d open my Bible & read a few scriptures, expound on them & there would be several spots that I’d raise my voice to emphasize a point. But if I’d never gotten out of the dreaming stage, if I’d never gotten up before a real audience of people, all the practicing & all the secret dreaming wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere.
So I think I can say all my boyhood dreams came true. Dreaming is a powerful & necessary thing but dreaming alone isn’t enough. An individual must make the effort & be willing to work & do all necessary to bring those dreams into fruition.
3. Wishers.
These people wish things would change all by themselves but they will not act to change them. They wish they had a better prayer life. They wish they knew the Bible better. They wish they could get to church more often. They wish they had a better devotional life but never open their Bibles between visits to church. They wish the church had more money to reach out to the lost but they never give any. If wishes were horses beggars would ride.
I heard a story about a preacher who got up in his church & said, “This church is on its knees now, but I can see this church rising.” All the people said amen. Then he said, “This church is not only gonna rise, this crawling church is gonna walk.” Everyone said amen. Then he said “This church isn’t only gonna walk this church is gonna run.” You guessed it, everyone shouted amen. Then the preacher said, “Brothers & sisters, God has shown me that if we’ll all start being liberal with our tithes & offerings, this church someday very soon is gonna fly.” Then everything got real quiet & one man on the backseat said, “Let her crawl brother, let her crawl.”
4. Dabblers.
Dabblers love the feeling of starting a new project but they never finish anything. Dabblers get bored easily. They shine one shoe & leave the other not shined. Dabblers often leave a wave of disappointment behind them. They dabble a little here & they dabble a little there but never bring anything to completion. There are far too many Christians who dabble at serving God.
God is a finisher. He finished creating the earth. Jesus hung on the cross & said “It is finished.” He didn’t as some supposed on that day say, “I am finished.” He said “It is finished.” He said the great plan of God that was established before the foundations of the earth were laid was finished. Too many people have exchanged the word finished for the words, “I’m through.” I’m through with that church.” I’m through with this marriage.” “I’m through with school.” They are always getting through with things but never finishing them. The word finished carries with it a sense of “bringing to perfection.”
When the carpenters are through with a house they bring in the finishers. The finishers put the Crown molding around the edges & corners of the rooms. They hang the doors & make sure they are well balanced & open & close smoothly. A house left “unfinished” would be a rather ugly house even though it had four walls & a roof. Many people in high society send their young women to “finishing school.” There they learn the finer points of being a lady so they can later be at ease & poised in the circles they’re expected to move in.
We can never be truly successful if all we do is dabble. To be successful at anything, we must put our all into it, for one thing is certain, we’ll only get out of an enterprise what we put in it. My mother wanted me to learn to play the piano & was willing to pay for me to learn but I can’t play the piano today because all I wanted to do was dabble & play chopsticks. I suspect I’m not alone in that.
The only accomplishers in this world are the;
5. DOERS.
Doers make things happen. Doers don’t just wish things would happen. They don’t dream & talk about it. Doers aren’t dabblers. They actually get things done. Doers are daring. They are movers & shakers. Doers build churches. Doers build businesses. Doers are the ones with the testimonies. No church, business or enterprise has ever gotten off the ground without a few doers. We will always have more than enough of the others but we must “Be doers of the Word not just hearers.”
Doers don’t go by their feelings. I read an article somewhere that said “80% of the world’s work is done by people who aren’t feeling well.” That didn’t really surprise me. Many people will sit & wait until the “mood” strikes them before they’ll move on a project. They have to have a certain feeling but the problem is the feeling seldom comes. As I read the article, I thought, you know, I’ll bet the man who wrote that it wasn’t feeling well when he wrote it. And it wouldn’t surprise me if some who read this article won’t be feeling all that great as they read it. As I think about it, I’m not feeling all that great as I’m writing it. But none of that matters because what do our feelings have to do with anything? Can we allow feelings to rule us when they can change overnight for no apparent reason? I’m sure you’ve learned by now that if you’re going to get anything done you must put your feelings on the back burner & go to work because feelings will fall in line as we move. It was William James who said, “We don’t feel our way to a different way of acting, we act our way to a different way of feeling.”
Do you want me to tell you how the shake off depression? Get up & start doing something. Now if you have some sort of deep dark depression & are being treated for it that’s between you & you doctor but I’ll bet he’ll tell you you’re better off doing than just sitting. If you wake up depressed, tell depression you’re going to work & you’ll take the depression with you. Chances are great that you’ll leave depression behind as soon as you start moving.
There is so much in the Bible about DOING! James tells us; ---“Draw nigh to God & He’ll draw nigh to you.” He also told us—“Faith without works is dead, being alone.” One of my favorite verses of scripture is Daniel 11:32….But the people that do know their God shall be strong & do exploits.”
All who want to do something special with your life, why don’t you resolve with me to stand up on your feet & let’s move? Let’s be doers of the Word & works of God.
John
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