Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2014-02-21) from his book, The Well-Played Life: Why Pleasing God Doesn't Have to Be Such Hard Work (p. 175). Tyndale Momentum. Kindle Edition. As I was walking back home after doing some reading at the local Peet’s Coffee I was thinking about some of the things that worry me here at 66 going on 67.   They are things that haven’t really bothered me but they do now with my getting older.   And I was wondering what it was in my past that is causing me to be bothered about not having enough money to live on after Margaret retires too.   I never have been concerned about money but now I am.   Why? Of course some would say that I need to be concerned.   I understand that but why is my faith lacking now when I have always lived my life with faith that God would take care and He always has?   And the thought went back to those weeks when we were really close financially and we had to be very careful and remembering how I felt trapped in those times

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus, (2014-02-25) from his book, The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art (p. 54). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. What is your dream?   What is it that keeps you going every day and that energizes you each week to deal with for some the monotony of life?   Yes the monotony of life has within it the potential to enslave us.   I‘ve got to get up and do it all again but if you are getting up to fulfill a dream then you are not enslaved but you are free. I hurt so much for people who are enslaved by the worries, the cares, the aloneness and monotony of their lives. I understand that and I have to fight that every day that I get up.   And I see even at 66 almost 67 the need for a dream.   The battle happens when I tend to be malnourished emotionally and spiritually.   If I haven’t spent enough alone time with God for Him to reinforce and rekindle the dream that He has for my life even at 66 going on 67 then I will start to focus on t

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus, (2014-02-25) from his book,  The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art (p. 43). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. There are so many voices in us clamoring for attention and control. I have spent my morning at Starbucks reading two newspapers and spending time with my friends.   I sat there in my spot with my Dodgers’ hat on reading about how they lost last night and then talking with my friends about what happened.   That is a voice that is inside of me.   It is a voice that has been a part of me since I was a child and it is a voice that at some points has to be controlled.   I used to get so upset when they lost.   It would affect my mood but hopefully I have matured. Now after I left Starbucks I walked about a mile to Peet’s Coffee & Tea where I pulled out my Kindle and did some reading preparing for sharing some thought on this Blog today.   I read and then pulled out my phone and ear phones and started my walk to h

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus, (2014-02-25) from his book, The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art (p. 42). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. That is so true for so many adults today.   Erwin says, “I meet so many people who carry an internal narrative that they have no value and no worth, and are not worthy of love. Some forty-year-old men are still fighting off voices that spoke to them when they were four years old.” What voices inside of you are you listening to?   Maybe it is the voice of an unpleasable parent who listened to their unpleasable parent and lived with that voice inside them and carried it through to you.   Maybe it was a teacher or a coach.   Maybe it was someone who believed in you.   That voice of mom or dad who did all they could to make you feel special resounds inside of you every time you face something new.   What voice are you listening to? Erwin continues, “What others think of us, what others have said about us matters, has

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2014-02-21) from his book, The Well-Played Life: Why Pleasing God Doesn't Have to Be Such Hard Work (Kindle Locations 2219-2220). Tyndale Momentum. Kindle Edition. But we want security and safety.   No way do we want risk.   Our son, Brett’s 35 th bd was this week and he was a very good thing in our life.   But he was a risk.   I spent time with my oldest granddaughter, Ashlyn, yesterday.   Of course she is a very good thing along with Addison and Harper but they each one were a risk and they still are.   But oh how they were worth the risk.   The truth is you wouldn’t even be here if your parents wouldn’t have taken a risk. “In fact”, Leonard says, “recent scientific studies have concluded that humans and organizations endure and mature, not in spite of their willingness to take risks, but because of their risk taking.   For safety’s sake and security needs, we want to make the next moment like the one before it.   Hence, the power of

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2014-02-21) from his book, T he Well-Played Life: Why Pleasing God Doesn't Have to Be Such Hard Wor k (p. 160). Tyndale Momentum. Kindle Edition What a great thought to start a new week.   Leonard continues, “There are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John . . . and you. We each continue the Jesus story on the pages of our own lives as the gospel becomes ‘my gospel’ and then ‘our gospel’ until it finally becomes a special edition ‘fifth Gospel,’ even perhaps a ‘third Testament’—the gospel translated into our lives and written between the lines on the pages of Scripture.” You see, His Gospel is to be lived out through me and you.   We are Jesus to the people around us.   That is why many in this world have such a negative picture of Christ.   That is how we live.   He said that He didn’t come into this world to condemn the world but we do condemn so what He says to those we condemn cannot be heard.   It is not His words they hear but ho

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2014-02-21) from his book, The Well-Played Life: Why Pleasing God Doesn't Have to Be Such Hard Wor k (p. 158). Tyndale Momentum. Kindle Edition. We are living in a world where the self-centered actions of one can bring so much pain on another.   What about the pain of a child when they are told that momma and daddy are breaking up?    Many of you remember and still feel that pain.   I am discussing on my other blog, Bill’s Front Porch how to prevent an affair.   That self-centered act for sure can tear out the heart of a relationship whether it is a mate, a child, a parent and even God.   We each one have the freedom to bring great pain upon another don’t we?   But it doesn’t have to be that way. I like how Leonard takes the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and shows it to be a Game of Life.   He says, “In the traditional RPS game, each gesture has a meaning, a function, and a consequence. Scissors cuts Paper; Paper covers Rock; and Rock