Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle Locations 3205-3206). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Today is the Monday after the long Thanksgiving Day weekend and this is the day that many of you go back to work and to many this would be called Black Monday.   They really enjoyed the time off and they just don’t want to go back to work.   Do you feel that way?   Mark quotes Martin Luther King who says something very meaningful about our work.   He says, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” We are headed into the celebration of Christ’s birth.   ...

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle Location 3162). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) In looking at this matter of criticism Mark said, “In my opinion, criticism is a cop-out for those who are too lazy to solve the problem they are complaining about.” So true.   I don’t like to be criticized but I’d rather be criticized than not doing something for fear of being criticized.   Back when we moved to Las Vegas to plant a church there was someone who criticized us for taking our family to such a wicked city.   But I value the 15 years of ministry we had there and the ministry that our daughter and son-in-law are still doing in making a difference in someone’s life every day in that city that God cares about.   He goes on, “Instead of criticizing movies or music, produce a film or an album that is...

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle Locations 3091-3092). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We have somehow gotten the idea that God’s will is what we do, where we live and who we are with. But as Mark says, “It’s not.”   But we still search and search and pray and pray for what is God’s will for our lives especially when we are going through tough circumstances.   Because things are tough then I must not be in God’s will.   So we keep searching.   Mark says, “The will of God has already been revealed— that you be conformed to the image of Christ. That’s your destiny and pre-destiny! And you can do that here or there or anywhere! You can do that no matter what job you have or who you marry.” He goes on to say, “Too often our prayers revolve around changing our circumstances, when sometimes those...