Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

“Therefore it is the duty of a brave man not to shut his eyes when anything threatens, but to put it before him and to search it out as it were in the mirror of his mind, and to meet the future with foreseeing thought, for fear he might afterwards have to say: This has come to me because I thought it could not come about. If misfortunes are not looked for beforehand, they quickly get a hold of us.” —Ambrose

Sad: The Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to NOT denounce infanticide. Seriously?!?

Turn off the tube: “The study involved more than 13,200 adults in Spain who were all college graduates, and were around 37 years old at the study’s start. Participants were followed for about eight years, over which there were 97 deaths. Those who watched three or more hours of TV a day were twice as likely to die over the study period, compared with those whose watched TV for one hour or less daily, the study found. And, oddly, even compared to other activities that are sedentary—like driving a car or using a computer—watching TV still appears to be deadlier.”

A good overview of ISIS in Iraq.

A challenging thought from Dr. Tim Elmore for anyone who works with students: Addictions: One Reason Not To Take The Easy Road.

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” —William James 

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” —Peter Marshall

 

Poetry Saturday—If

Ella Wheeler Wilcox‘Twixt what thou art, and what thou wouldst be, let
No “If” arise on which to lay the blame.
Man makes a mountain of that puny word,
But, like a blade of grass before the scythe,
It falls and withers when a human will,
Stirred by creative force, sweeps toward its aim.

Thou wilt be what thou couldst be. Circumstance
Is but the toy of genius. When a soul
Burns with a god-like purpose to achieve,
All obstacles between it and its goal
Must vanish as the dew before the sun.

“If” is the motto of the dilettante
And idle dreamer; ‘tis the poor excuse
Of mediocrity. The truly great
Know not the word, or know it but to scorn,
Else had Joan of Arc a peasant died,
Uncrowned by glory and by men unsung. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

Links & Quotes

link quote

These are links to articles and quotes I found interesting today.

“Truth wears well. Time tests it, but it right well endures the trial. … What a poor thing is the temporary triumph of falsehood!” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Proverbs 12:19

The “stimulus” that wasn’t: CBO Again Repeats Faulty Methodology

“The word ‘mercy’ here is extracted from misericordia, the Greek word for ‘misery.’ The full meaning of this word is: ‘to take to heart the misery of another, with the intention of giving him comfort and relief.’ So being merciful means taking on another person’s hurt!” Read more from David Wilkerson.

[PHOTOS] Amazing story captured in Life magazine of a 1950s nurse Maude Callen.

[VIDEO] Largest Lunar Impact Caught By Astronomers

What the IRS is trying now even has the ACLU upset: Stop The Assault

Wow! Check out this tweet from Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov

Poetry Saturday—A Psalm Of Life

LongfellowTell me not, in mournful numbers,
   Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
   Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
   Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
   Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
   And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
   Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
   In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
   Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
   Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
   We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
   Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
   With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
   Learn to labor and to wait. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And, And, And

AndIt’s a great question that the apostle James asks: What good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? (James 2:14)

It simply doesn’t work!

In fact, it’s a waste of time if all I do is…

  • …speak a blessing over someone’s life
  • …claim a promise in Scripture
  • …pray
  • …walk with God for years
  • …provide outstanding hospitality

“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead, James says a couple of verses later (v. 17).

No matter the language—and, y, en, et, und, ve, kai—we need to add the “and” of action to our faith-filled belief.

I need faith AND action

  • …speak the blessing AND be the blessing
  • …claim a promise AND act on it
  • pray AND do
  • …walk with God AND bring others along with me
  • …entertain AND get out in the streets

“I will show you my faith by what I do!” (v. 18).

Faith and, and, AND works.

Heavenly Father, help me to get this right. I don’t want to preach it well or believe it strongly, unless I’m going to live it consistently, too.

Am I A Doer?

This quote from J.C. Ryle has really been working on me…

“Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I often fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that insensibly you become dead to its power. I fear lest your religion should sink down into a little vague talk about your own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ’s side is altogether neglected. Oh, beware of this state of mind! Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only.”

Holy Spirit, bring Your conviction if my amazement at the Gospel ever slackens. May I always hear the Word gladly, and do the Word quickly.

The Danger Of Nothing

I know they’re out there, but I personally have never met someone who said, “I once followed God, but I have now decided to stop following Him. I’m doing my own thing now, and God has nothing to do with me.”

No, it’s usually a gradual drift away from God, not a deliberate decision. But the sad part of this is: most of these people still think they are following Him.

How does this happen? The prophet Zephaniah has an interesting take. He said that people drifted away because they did nothing. Check this out:

  • They do not seek the Lord
  • They do not inquire of Him
  • They are complacent 
  • They sit still in their sin
  • They think God isn’t doing anything

The remedy: action!

  • Seek the Lord
  • Do what He commands
  • Seek righteousness
  • Seek humility

Doing nothing is dangerous. You may drift away from God and not even realize it.

Get busy … stay active … stay close to Him!

Winner Or Whiner?

This morning on John Maxwell’s “Minute With Maxwell” he said: “Winners know they have to do the right thing and then they’ll feel good. Whiners want to feel good before they do the right thing.

I have learned this is true in my life. If I wait until I feel like do something, I’ll make all kinds of excuses to avoid doing it. But if I do what I know I’m supposed to do I’ll feel good that I did it.

Good feelings follow good actions.

Winners do right to feel good.

Whiners wait to feel right before they do anything.

Behavioral psychologist William James wrote: “Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.” (emphasis mine)

So let me ask you: Are you going to be a winner or a whiner today?

City On Our Knees (book review)

If you are familiar with the popular musician/songwriter TobyMac, you may recognize the title of this book from the song with the same name: City On Our Knees. And if you like the message of the song, you will find the book an excellent way to see the message in action.

The overriding message in the song is one of choice:

If you gotta start somewhere why not here
If you gotta start sometime why not now
If we gotta start somewhere I say here
If we gotta start sometime I say now

You and I can choose to start something that will make a difference. This book is a collection of short stories that show people who did just that: they made a choice that made a difference.

They are stories set in the present, and stores from a couple of hundred years ago; they are stories of the educated and the illiterate; the young and the old; the trained and the untrained; men and women. Everyone can find a story that will energize them and help them to choose to act… to choose to make a positive difference.

I can imagine these short stories being especially impactful around a family dinner table, in a Sunday School class, or maybe in a youth group. Wherever you read these stories, let them be the catalyst to help you start now!

I am a Bethany House book reviewer.

How Do You Feel About Today?

A friend’s status update on Facebook this morning read:

(Me having a chat with the day): Listen here, Day, I gotta lot of stuff to get done, so don’t get any ideas. And btw it’s going to take more than missing homework and wetted beds to stop me! Muahahahaaa!

This reminded me of a conversation the old preacher Smith Wigglesworth had with an acquaintance:

“How do you feel today, Smith?” the friend asked.

“I never ask Smith how he feels,” Wigglesworth replied. “I tell Smith how he feels.”

Great advice from both my friend and Smith Wigglesworth: Don’t wait until you feel like doing something before you do it. Tell your Day how it’s going to go—and then tell yourself how you’re going to feel about it—and then just do it!

Carpe diem! Seize the day and make it a good one!