Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book. Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 21). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We want so much to impress other people.   To show them that we are the smartest but in reality that is a waste of time.   The key is to learn, to be challenged to grow not for us to impress or to bring others down. John spent some time with Dallas Willard who was a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California and a great Christian writer.   Dallas told him that, “Toward the end of one of his philosophy classes a student raised an objection that was both insulting toward Dallas and clearly wrong. Instead of correcting him, Dallas gently said that this would be a good place to end the class for the day. Afterward, a friend approached Dallas: ‘Why did you let him get away with that? Why didn’t you demolish him?’ Dallas replied, ‘I was practicing the discipli

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 258). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Some have the mistaken idea that answered prayer is all in our faith and in what we do. If we don’t get the answer we’ve prayed then something is wrong with us.   But Mark says, “If you don’t get the answer you prayed for, it’s not a fail. After all, the answer is up to God. Prayer is the way we put the ball in God’s court. The only way you can fail is by failing to ask.” Now in many ways timing is the key.   We may pray that it happens now but now may not be the way God sees it.   Mark says, “I’m a lifelong asthmatic, and albuterol has literally saved my life countless times. And while I continue to pray for the elimination of all symptoms via miraculous healing, I will thank God for every other miracle along the way! Even if God chooses not to heal

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 51). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I remember hearing the story of this house being in a flood.   The people in it started praying for God to deliver then.   Some people came in a rowboat and asked them to get in but they said, “The Lord will provide.”   They must have prayed that God would provide in a certain way.   The waters got to the point that they had to climb up on the roof and a helicopter came to rescue them and they didn’t get in and they said, “The Lord will provide.”   Of course they died and when they got to heaven they asked God why He didn’t take save them, why He didn’t provide and He said, “But I sent you a rowboat and a helicopter.”   But it wasn’t what they were looking for. God does provide in so many ways but it isn’t what we believe a miracle looks like.   I

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 262). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Jesus when He came to the tomb where His good friend Lazarus was buried asked Martha, Lazarus sister a question.   He had just talked about the fact that He was the resurrection and the life and He asked Martha this point blank question, “Do you believe this?”    Mark says, “Remember: Jesus hadn’t called Lazarus out of the tomb quite yet, so Martha was still in the depths of despair. Hope was four days dead. Yet Martha responds with her simple profession of faith: ‘Yes, Lord.’” (John 11: 27 NLT) Mark continues, “One little yes can change your life. One little yes can change your eternity. The litmus test is the same now as it was then. The only question on God’s final exam is: Do you believe this? It’s not a multiple-choice question. It’s true or false.

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 259). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) That is not its foundation.   It is built on the Resurrection. As Mark puts it, “The footer of our faith is one fundamental fact— the empty tomb. After cheating death by calling Lazarus out of his tomb, Jesus walked out of His own tomb under His own power! That’s the ultimate apologetic— there is no argument against it. If the resurrection didn’t happen, Christianity ranks as history’s cruelest hoax. We’re not just wasting our lives worshiping Him. We’re living a lie. But if Jesus walked out of the tomb two thousand years ago, all bets are off. Or maybe I should say, all bets are on Jesus.” But so many want to believe in Jesus as a very good teacher, a very good man who made a difference.   As Mark says, “Most people have no hesitation acknowledging

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 251). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark continues, “Whether they are tears of joy, tears of sorrow, or tears of pain— not one teardrop is lost on God.”   Maybe you need that thought today.   Maybe you are going through a very rough spell and it is about to get you down and you would like to break down and cry and it would be great to do it with a friend.   Or you maybe are going through an exciting time and you just feel like crying with joy and it would be great to do it with a friend.   Maybe your pain is so great and you just can’t handle it because it is so unbearable and you just feel like crying and it would be great to have a friend close to you.   Jesus is right next to you and He really cares about you and your tears are precious to Him. We are looking here in this section o

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 249). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) How do you feel after you’ve failed?   You feel miserable but what you do after failure is the key to having a dream realized.   As Mark says, “Few things kill pride faster than failure! And that’s the point. God doesn’t want to kill the dream He’s given you, but He does want to crucify anything that would keep Him from getting all of the glory when you ultimately succeed.”   He also says, “When God takes something away from us, it doesn’t always mean that He takes it away forever. In fact, God often takes things away with the express purpose of giving them back. And when He does, we’re able to see the miracle for what it is. If you’ve lost love and found it again, you know whereof I speak. The same is true of health and wealth. It’s much more diffi