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. 163). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) John tells of a study on this by a research group affiliated with the University of Chicago and they recently listed the ten least happy jobs in the world and the ten happiest jobs in the world.   He said, “What they found was the ten least happy jobs actually were more financially lucrative and offered higher status than the ten happiest jobs. The difference? People in the happiest jobs had a higher sense of meaning. Less money, less status, but a higher sense of meaning.” He then goes on to say, “The main thing you bring home from your work is not a paycheck. The main thing you bring home from work is your soul. Work is a soul function. We’re made to create value.” Solomon, the writer of the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes in the Bible says, “There is nothing better f

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 157). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We are going through some tough times racially right now in our country.   And we are forgetting that each person on each side has the dignity and depth of a soul.   I live in a city where there are many homeless who walk the sidewalks each day with their hand out and I find it difficult to not forget they have the depth and dignity of a soul.   Some of you have the same problem with a Democrat and others a Republican.   But John here is reminding us of something that is so easy for us to forget.   And that is we demean people when we forget they have the depth and dignity of a soul. John continues his thought with “Even the people I don’t like have souls. The soul cries out for connection. To love someone with your soul means your will, your choices, your mind, your thought

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 153). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) “There are two great words in the Bible, Dallas said, that describe the posture of our souls toward other people. One is to bless. The other is to curse. We are creatures with wills, and in every encounter with other people we will what is good for them, or we fail to do so: we will what is bad. We cannot help ourselves.”   John heard Dallas Willard say these words. John then continued this thought with, “Blessing is not just a word. Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. We must think it, and feel it, and will it. We communicate it with our bodies. Blessing is kind of like an ancient dance of the Hokey-Pokey; before you finish you have to ‘put your whole self in.’ Blessing is done by the soul.” I have problems smiling for a camera but I don’t with

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 134). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now it is important to see the difference between being busy and being hurried because as John says. “Busy-ness migrates to hurry when we let it squeeze God out of our lives. Note the differences between the two: Busy                                      Hurried A full schedule                       Preoccupied Many activities                       Unable to be fully present An outward condition            An inner condition of the soul Physically demanding            Spiritually draining Reminds me I need God     Causes me to be unavailable to God ” We need to keep in focus our need for God our total dependence upon Him.   He is our source.   Our significance comes in our relationship with Him not our activity for Him.   As John says, “The grace of signific

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 131). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) John shares, “The soul was not made to run on empty. But the soul doesn’t come with a gauge. The indicators of soul-fatigue are more subtle: • Things seem to bother you more than they should. Your spouse’s gum-chewing suddenly reveals to you a massive character flaw. • It’s hard to make up your mind about even a simple decision. • Impulses to eat or drink or spend or crave are harder to resist than they otherwise would be. • You are more likely to favor short-term gains in ways that leave you with high long-term costs. Israel ended up worshiping a golden calf simply because they grew tired of having to wait on Moses and God. • Your judgment is suffering. • You have less courage. ‘Fatigue makes cowards of us all’ is a quote so ubiquitous that it has been attributed to General

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 127). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) When Jesus came out of the water when He was baptized by John the Baptist a voice from above said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”    John Ortberg says, “Jesus depended on God’s acceptance because he faced massive human rejection. God’s acceptance is stronger than human rejection, but it was not just for him. And the same is true for us. .” John says, “The alternative to soul-acceptance is soul-fatigue.”   We live in that world don’t we?   You see, as John says, “The soul craves rest. Our wills sometimes rejoice in striving; our bodies were made to (at least sometimes) know the exhilaration of tremendous challenge; our minds get stretched when they must focus even when tired. But the soul craves rest. The soul knows only borrowed strength. The sou

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 127). Zondervan. Kindle edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) by Rodney H. Young And I’m sure that is true of you especially at this time of the year. We’ve survived Black Friday and Cyber Monday but there are still more days to come. John tells of a Christian psychiatrist named Frank Lake and that he worked with many people who wanted to serve noble causes, but the stress and demands and difficulties got to them, and soon they became drained and bitter and cynical and discouraged.    Life can do that.   But he got together with the great Swiss theologian Emil Brunner and they looked at the life of Jesus and wondered how He handled it. They saw that “Jesus faced enormous stresses and difficulties and pain. Yet he never got sarcastic or cynical or unloving or burnt out. No one took away his joy.”   What did He do that made su