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. 171). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We so easily get into this trap of entitlement.   I mean even Christians can mistakenly believe that we are entitled to stuff but all that we have is because of His grace.   John continues this thought by saying, “and without a grateful heart the soul suffers. Because the soul needs gratitude.” I find it so easy at this Season to feel that we deserve gifts.   I mean I expect my family to give me gifts.   It’s Christmas but that is not the reason for this Season. Yes we celebrate a gift that was given but we were very undeserving of that gift.      John continues.   He says, “Here’s the deal: The more you think you’re entitled to, the less you will be grateful for. The bigger the sense of entitlement, the smaller the sense of gratitude. We wonder why in our world we keep

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 169). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Here is what John says to do… “Today, when you greet people, begin your conversation with a little complaint. The Bible calls that grumbling, as in ‘Do everything without grumbling.’ It might be a complaint about something in your life: your health, your job, money problems, the fact that you don’t have a spouse, the fact that you do have the spouse that you have. It might be something about the person you’re greeting. You don’t like how they’re dressed. Or you just don’t like their personality, or maybe you’re jealous. Just greet a friend or colleague with something like, ‘Man, did I have a horrible night’s sleep.’ I’d be thrilled if you couldn’t think of anything. ” He continues,  “ Tomorrow, try to greet people with a word of gratitude. I hope this is a lot easier for

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