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. 59). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I understand that.   I was talking with a friend today about the difference in my life today.   The fact that I am retired means that I have more control over my life.   I now do what really matters to me.   What about you?   Are you doing what really matters to you?   You can do that and still get paid.   It is all about priority. As John puts it, “If we cease to be busy, do we matter? A person preoccupied with externals — success, reputation, ceaseless activity, lifestyle, office gossip — may be dead internally and not even recognize it. And our world has lots of ‘other things.’ You can get them from infomercials; you can buy them online; you can collect them in your garage and put them in your will. It takes a little, such a tiny little uncluttered space to give the seed

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 55). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I appreciate John’s honesty in this thought.   The total thought is, “The world diverts my soul-attention when it encourages me to think of myself more as a victim than as a human. I am so wrapped up in the hurt I have received that I do not notice the hurt I inflict.”   And I know if we are also honest we could say the same thing about ourselves. We get so self-focused but there are little things that we can do that can change this focus.   He says, "A friend of mine sent me a few sentences from an article she saw online on 'How to Stay Christian in College': . . . make small sacrifices. Make a vow to wake up and go to breakfast every morning, even if your first class isn’t until eleven a.m. Choose a plain cheese pizza rather than pepperoni. You’ll be surprised

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 46). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) A Study in The Journal of the American Medical Association showed that in the twentieth century, people who lived in each generation were three times more likely to experience depression than folks in the generation before them.   Now why is that?   John writes, “Martin Seligman, a brilliant psychologist with no religious ax to grind, has a theory that it’s because we have replaced church, faith, and community with a tiny little unit that cannot bear the weight of meaning. That’s the self. We’re all about the self. We revolve our lives around ourselves. Ironically, the more obsessed we are with our selves, the more we neglect our souls.” Now there are chemical imbalances that bring about depression.   That needs to be checked but a self focus goes a long way to bring i

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.