Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) from his book, Poke the Box (Kindle Locations 129-130). AmazonEncore. Kindle Edition. Have you ever thought about the fact that you have to learn to get past the no’s in your life to get to the yes?  With every yes there are going to be no’s.  Do you realize how many different thoughts that I said no to before I said yes to this one that I am writing about right now?  I could not find one today that really gripped me to start writing about until I got to this one by Seth Godin.  Now I could have stopped at one point and said, I guess I’m not in the mood today so I’ll go do something else but I didn’t.  I changed my location from the Seminole Library to Starbucks and continued looking in my Kindle to different thoughts that I had highlighted in my reading until I came to this one.  Something about it clicked and here I am writing. I didn’t get married until I was 27.  There were a bunch of no’s both from me and from them until I came t

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment ( Kindle Location 1102). Kindle Edition. Manipulation has at its core a desire to change situations and people for the manipulator’s good.  It is a self-centered act.  That is why when I know someone is striving to manipulate me and they say it is for my good that it isn’t.   The act of manipulation is for the good of the one manipulating not the one being manipulated. The Bible tells us that the person who doesn’t have God in their life is a selfish being.  David in the Psalms said that in sin did my mother conceive me.  We came into this world living for ourselves and striving to manipulate the world to take care of us and to do what we want.  Have you noticed how a baby when it is hungry does all it can to manipulate you to feed them.  They do not stop and think of how it might not be the best time for you, they are hungry and they want it now.  And that carries over in

A thought by Miles McPherson (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (p. 44). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. That is the truth!  I had a period in my life for three years that I was a real jerk.  It was a tough time for my wife, Margaret but she stuck with me and we are still together living some of the best days of our life.  God has used our life together in so many different unbelievable ways.  We have been able to help so many other marriages in their tough times.  I remember the day that we found out that Margaret had the C word, Cancer.  That was a tough time for us but we held steady and didn’t run from God.  We have made it through with God’s sustaining grace.   She went out this morning and walked 1 ½ hours with my sister.  She is Cancer free after all these years.  She is a survivor. There was a Sunday in my life as a church planter when a good friend of mine came and told me that he was going down the street from our church to plant a

A thought by Jeff Manion (2010-07-14) from his book, The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions (Kindle Location 1785). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. I really like the Psalms in the Old Testament.  I read one every day.  I love them for a lot of different reasons but for one, I like people’s honesty.  They tell God what they feel and He lets them because He understands. In our times of pain and disappointment He knows that we need to see how desperate we really are.  We need help.  We are at the end of the rope and we feel like we are about to slip off the rope.  We can’t make it on our own.  And we want to tell someone.  Now we can tell everyone else that but it won’t make a lot of difference.  It will just be a time that we spew it all out and maybe feel a little better but that is it.  But when we tell Him and we really come to Him in total trust and total dependency and total confidence of His love for us then something more will happen.  It is in our time o

A thought by Jeff Manion (2010-07-14) from his book, The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions (Kindle Locations 311-312). Zondervan. Kindle Edition . On my other blog, bill’s front porch , I dealt with today the fact that we are never going to be problem free.  Problems are inevitable and the same is true of hardships. I think that may come as a surprise to some Christians.  They believe that because they have asked Jesus to come into their life then there will be no hardships in their life but what that means is they haven’t studied too much about the life of Jesus.  One of the reasons why He came to earth was to show us how God would handle hardships.  They will come.  They are a part of His plan to cultivate our dependency on Him and to strengthen us in our resolve and our character.  Now our reaction to the hardship is of major importance.  What do you do?  How do you react?  Do you whine or complain?   Those reactions show a definite immaturity.  God w

A thought by Miles McPherson, (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (p. 33). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. If we could really believe and live that but we usually whine at God and gripe at why He is letting this happen to me.  But if we really understood that God will work all the bad in a Christian’s life into good. You see, Satan throws these things at us to hurt us and to hurt Him but before it gets to us it goes through God’s love and He changes the purpose.  The purpose was to hurt us but God changes the purpose for our good.  Not all things in your life are good.  There is a lot of rotten stuff out there.  God has the power to change them, to protect you from them but He may have a different plan.  Now you can fight Him and not trust Him and it will truly hurt you.  You have a choice and God will not force His way on you but if you trust Him.  If you trust Him He will strengthen you in your area of weakness, He may move you in a total diff

A thought by Andy Stanley (2009-03-31) from his book, The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (p. 49). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. I live by the principle of time that you are either late or on time, that being early just means being on time so I usually am early.  That way, I am always assured of being on time and not late. I wish I could say the same thing about doing things that I’d rather not do.  All my term papers in school were usually put off to the last minute.  I always said that I worked best under pressure but as I’ve gotten older I don’t think that was true.  I just think I was avoiding what I didn’t want to do and waiting till the last minute meant I couldn’t avoid it any longer so I did it.  But it would have been the wise thing to have started it earlier without all the stress, all the pressure. It’s like the person who files an extension for his income tax and finds it doesn’t get any better later so why not do