Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 125). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. What do you know for certain?   It seems like it is only what is in your past.   So nothing from this moment on is certain so it has to be lived by faith.   Oh you think you know but you don’t really. I know so many people at my age are living from the certainty that what will make them happy is retirement.   I mean they are working long hours so that they will have enough in their retirement fund to be secure in retirement.   That is their total focus to have enough to live on but really that desire for certainty is robbing them of peace and adventure that comes by living by faith.   They are certain that they will be happy if they have $500.000 saved for their retirement then they can have fun living without any responsibilities. But to me certainty has a boredom factor in it.  ...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 115). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. I have just finished reading the gospel of Mark’s account of the trial of Jesus in front of Pilot.   The Jewish leaders were bringing so many accusations against Jesus to this Roman Governor, Pilot.   After each accusation Pilot would ask Jesus to respond and Jesus response was always silence. Silence is always the best way to deal with accusations.   As Jesus showed us God is the one who will fight for us.   We leave it to Him.   He will always do a better job than we will and He is the only one who can deal with the source.   The battle was won on the cross. One of my dad’s favorite verses was the one in Joshua, “The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace.”   That is how we as Christ-followers handle accusations. So are you handling it or are you letting God han...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 112). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. I am retired minister.   When I was still working my work had a way of setting up a weekly agenda but retirement lends itself to a lot of potential randomness.   Retirement didn’t mean I was done with life it just said I had more control.   And I knew that wasn’t a potential good thing for me so I set out to build some structure to my day, to my week not because I had to but because I wanted to keep on making a difference with my life. I have a clear framework to my day.   It is the reason I am able to keep on growing mentally, socially, financially, physically, spiritually and influentially.   All of those areas are a part of the framework of my life.   They give my day great satisfaction and great productivity. You see no matter what stage you are in your life, you need to be striving ...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 111). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition . This past weekend they did some changes in the Starbucks that I usually go to and they are doing away with the tables where I usually sit.   I said something to my wife, Margaret about it and she said, “You aren’t going to be a cranky old man are you?”   That was very good advice for this old man. It is so easy to live life in the familiar.   You just don’t have to make decisions, you just do the same thing but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.   Someone said that a rut is a grave with the ends knocked out.   There is no adventure, no excitement, no challenge, and no variety in living in the familiar.   I mean, there may be some new people to meet on the other side of Starbucks but for sure there is an opportunity to put one’s selfish desires aside.   And that is always a good thi...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 84). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Do you ever look at a person’s face and wonder what their story is?   Do you ever ask them? Have you ever wanted someone to ask you?   I mean your life has had a difficult turn or a fantastic turn and you would just like to share it but no one asks.   It is so easy for us to walk through life afraid to look at people’s faces.   We are just so busy and we really don’t want to see their faces, we really don’t want to listen to their story because we don’t have time to get involved.   But it is different when we are on the other side. The business of life has made it difficult to connect with people but just a moment of time can make a major difference for them and for you.   I usually sit at Starbucks right by where the drinks come out.   It usually takes a couple of minutes to...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 78). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. The answer I believe is, “no.”   It never has stopped us before and it won’t stop us now.   Then you might ask, “What do you mean?   Has someone always had the ability to know my secrets?”   That really seems to be the problem.   Yes there is now greater potential for Big Brother or Little Sister or whoever to listen in to our conversations.   I mean if you combine video surveillance with secret listening technology that monitors cell-phone traffic, e-mail communication, and your location, which is announced by your cell-phone signal you cannot hide.   And that bothers so many people.   But God has always known where you are, what you are doing or saying and He even knows what you are thinking and that hasn’t changed our behavior.   We still do everything we want with no though...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Reviva l (p. 69). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Have you found that to be true?   We are in the middle of Spring Training in baseball.   I have lived both in Phoenix, Arizona and Seminole, Florida two different times in my life and I love Spring Training.   To me the enjoyable time of Spring Training is not the games but all the other stuff, all of the working on the small stuff, the fundamentals.   It is the small stuff that when put together in the right way make a winning team.   It’s throwing the ball to the right base, it’s the pitcher covering first base, it’s being able to lay down a bunt, it’s hitting behind the runner on a hit and run and so many other small things. The same is true in life.   It’s starting your day with a quiet time in the Bible and in prayer; it’s always telling the truth; it’s being faithful even when you...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Reviva l (p. 64). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Here is the key, Jesus is to be the leader, we are to be the follower.   That is what He taught but we have been consumed by our culture to believe the opposite. I mean there are some who teach that if we do a series of steps we will get God to give us what we want.   But here is the problem of that. Does a follower go to the leader to get them to give them what the follower wants?   No it is the other way around. Somehow we have gotten this in the wrong order.   What does the leader want, what does the leader teach?   Now Jesus all through the Gospels is telling His disciples what His Kingdom is all about.   Now we need to really understand what a kingdom is.   For one it is not a democracy.   There are no elections in a kingdom.   A kingdom has a ruler/leader/king and it...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 54). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition . Change can be a difficult thing for people.   We get use to certain ideas and think they will never change.   Like, who would ever think that our kids or grandkids would never have the need to learn to write?   I know.   It’s called cursive now.   For me it was print or write.   How we say it has even changed.   In thinking about this change I had a little anxiety.   Why in the world don’t they want my grandkids to learn to write in cursive (see I can change)?   That would be horrible.   But then the thought came to me, why did we need to learn to write in cursive in the first place?   I mean we first took all that time with just learning how to print and then along the way they showed us another way to do the same thing.   Why?   I haven’t done any r...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 19). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. That is so true.   I am right now sitting at a Starbucks writing this.   When many people find out that I spend a lot of my time at Starbucks they will usually say something about the coffee.   And I want to jokingly say, “Oh, do they serve coffee?”   I don’t come to Starbucks for the coffee, I come for the people.   It is a place where I can connect with people.   The truth is I have found that “life is at its best when it involves other people.”   Have you found that out yet? If you have spent any time on my 2 blogs, you know that I am retired.   For 3 ½ years my wife Margaret worked at home.   She would work but it also meant that we could have lunch together.   In other words, she was accessible to me but now she works in an office.   That means she leaves a...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) in his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 10). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. My wife, Margaret has changed jobs and in that we have changed locations.   Now for some the thought of changing jobs and then changing locations brings great anxiety into their life.   They will do everything they can to make sure they don’t have to change.   They haven’t found yet that change can be their friend, not their enemy. I’m reading right now though the Gospels in the New Testament and I was reading today an amazing story in Luke.   Jesus was walking in a crowd and a woman touched Him and she was healed of a physical problem she had had for 12 years.   She decided she was tired of the problem and she wanted a change.   Jesus knew something had happened and He asked, “Who touched me?” and with fear she told Him and all those people what had happened.   Jesus then said, “Daughter...

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13), from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 29). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. From what I gather, we are headed into a very fearful time for our nation.   It is some kind of a cliff or something.   And it seems like those who are CHRIST followers are some of the most outspoken and the most fearful. I wonder if God may allow it to happen so we would quit putting our trust so much in our government, our economy, our jobs, our political party, our circumstances and more in Him.   He has a plan and He wants to fulfill it through us.   And fear can be one of His means of waking us up to His plan and His possibilities and to wake up our creativity to solving the mess we in our self-centeredness have gotten us into. What do you think?   

A thought by Leonard Sweet (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (p. 20). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. I understand the need for meditation and solitude for short periods of time.  I really do but life has so much more enjoyment and more meaning when you live it with someone else.  Now relationships are risky.  There can be pain involved but it is worth the risk.  The more pain can mean more fear and more needed courage and confidence.  Where do you get courage and confidence?  Well you get it from a good friend.   So how do you get a good friend?  You get one by being one no matter what. I love the story in the Old Testament of the close friendship of David and Jonathan.  David thought that Saul was also his friend but because of the jealousy of Saul, who was Jonathan’s father, David became Saul’s enemy.  But David and Jonathan still remained close friends....

A thought by Leonard Sweet (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Reviva l (Kindle Locations 136-137). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. We were created by God for relationships.  We have this need built within us to connect.  As God said when He created Eve for Adam, “It is not good for man to be alone.”    He created us for a relationship with Himself but He also knew that we would need a physical relationship with someone else.  But Satan started in the beginning to do all he could to sever the relationship of man to God and to damage the relationship between Adam and Eve.   And he has been doing his best at continuing to keep us from having meaningful relationships.  So we need to do everything in our ability to stop Satan’s plan.  As Ruben Welch in his book said, “ We really do need each other. ”  We need a relationship with God and a relationship with each other. Satan uses so m...

A thought by Leonard Sweet (2012-03-13) from his book, Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Reviva l (Kindle Location 143). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. Have you ever watched The Voice on NBC on Monday night?  If you haven’t, there are 4 celebrities who have their backs to a person who is singing and if they want that person to be on their team they push a button and then they are turned around to see what the person looks like.  They make their choice just on their voice not on their looks.  You wonder sometimes if they wouldn’t have made their chose if they would have seen what they looked like.  In our need to connect so much is based upon our appearance.  I think that is why in many cases social media has been such a success.  We may have more confidence to connect with someone because they don’t know what we look like.  I know the danger in that but I also know the deep loneliness and to many it is worth the risk. ...