Sunday's Positive Thread

gloriajean — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 04:52:31 GMT

No one can live for himself alone for then he will have no purpose in life.
To give
of self is one of life's greatest joys and blesses us with a full and rich
life. Lord, help
me to be selfless and loving to those around me.

Scripture for the day:

"O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds
among the peoples. Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his
wonderful works. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who
seek the LORD rejoice. Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his
presence continually." ~Psalm 105:1-4

Meditation for the day:

We can seek God early in the day, before God gets crowded out by life's
problems, difficulties or pleasures. In that early quiet time we can
gain a calm, strong confidence in the goodness and purpose in the
universe. We need not seek God only when the world's struggles prove
too much and too many for us to bear or face alone. We can seek God
early, when we can have a consciousness of God's spirit in the world.
Sometimes we seek God only when our difficulties are too great to be
surmounted in any other way, forgetting that if we sought God's
companionship before we needed it, many of our difficulties would never
arise in the first place!

Prayer for the day:

I pray that I may not let God be crowded out by the busyness of life.
I pray that I may seek God early and often.

Hello my friends! It was a beautiful Saturday here today - and we were at
my husband's brother and wife's place out in the country about an hour's
drive from here, celebrating her 60th birthday! It was a fun afternoon and
they have a large deck and we all could sit out there - it was nice, but
windy. The only drawback were the bees that kept coming there! At least
they didn't sting anyone. It was a blessing to be there and see everyone -
talk of the Wedding etc. too, and just sit and relax - lots of good food and
tasting their wines, they make wines out of anything, watermelon, muskmelon,
tomatoes, wild grape (what I had) chokecherry, blueberry and more. They love
doing it and they all taste great! Just found out that I'm having Ollie
here when they are gone tomorrow - his second home. Praying for all of
your intentions and thanks so much for your prayers for us.
Remember if anyone wants to see some Wedding pics, email me and I'll send
them.

PRAYER FOR THE PRESENT MOMENT

Dear God. I spend so much time reliving yesterday or
anticipating tomorrow that I lose sight of the only time
that is really mine - the present moment. You give me
today one moment at a time. That's all I have - all I ever
will have.
Give the faith which knows that each moment contains
exactly what is best for me. Give the hope which trusts
You enough to forget past failings and future trials.
Give the love which makes each moment an anticipation of
eternity with You. We ask this in the name of Jesus who is
the same yesterday, today and forever. Amen.

WHO SHOULD READ THE BIBLE
Author Unknown

The Young - To learn how to live.
The Old - To know how to die.
The Ignorant - For wisdom.
The Learned - For humility.
The Rich - For compassion.
The Poor - For comfort.
The Dreamer - For enchantment.
The Practical - For counsel.
The Weak - For strength.
The Strong - For direction.
The Haughty - For warning.
The Humble - For exaltation.
The Troubled - For peace.
The Weary - For rest.
The Doubting - For assurance.
The Sinner - For salvation.
The Christian - For guidance.

THE PROMISE

There was once a man who lived a pretty normal life. He never thought he was
a bad person, but he wouldn't let anyone run over him either. Then one day
God touched his heart and the man accepted Jesus Christ as his personal
Savior. The man was so overjoyed with his new feeling that he promised the
Lord that he would tell everyone he met about Jesus and lead at least 100
people to this great thing he had found.

But the man soon found that leading people to Christ was not an easy thing
to do. Most of his friends thought he was crazy and soon distanced
themselves from him. The man almost gave up several times, but he would
still tell anyone he could about the Good News and how it had changed his
life and filled him with such peace and happiness.

Then the man died.

The man found himself in a room. All the things that he had done and said in
his lifetime, all the bad things he had done, all the bad thoughts he had
had all came back to him and was flashed before him in a moment of time.

Then he saw a vision of himself, the time he got saved, he saw himself there
on his knees promising God that he would spread the Gospel to at least 100
people.

The man fell to his knees and wept.

Then Jesus stood before the man and told him, "Arise my child, and tell me
why you weep?" The man answered, "Lord, I have committed all these terrible
things in my life, and I have even lied to you." The Lord looked puzzled and
asked the man, "How have you lied to Me?" "I promised you that I would lead
100 people to you Lord, and even though I tried with all my might, I did not
lead one single person to you. I broke my promise to you and lied to you."

Then Jesus smiled at the man and wiped the tears from his eyes, "My child,
you did not break your promise to Me." The man said, "But Lord, I did not
lead one single person to you!" Jesus answered, "My child, do you remember
the time in the restaurant when you sat down to eat, and you prayed,
thanking The Father for your food? Well, there was a lady sitting in that
same restaurant. The lady was sick with sin, and even though I had tried to
reach her several times, she ignored Me. She was thinking of going home and
taking her life, and she was planning to take her children's lives too. But
this lady saw you pray, and it broke her heart. A door opened in that lady's
heart, and she allowed Me to come in.

The lady went home, and instead of ending her life, she accepted Me and
asked Me to take control of her life. This woman found her faith, and she
showed it to every one she knew, including her children, and when they
became ready, they asked Me to take control of their lives. One of the
children grew up to become a powerful evangelist and led many to Me. So My
child, be of good cheer. You kept your promise. Your small but consistent
acts of faith led not 100, but 100,000 to Me."

The man was overjoyed, but still he felt guilt. 'My Lord," he said, "What
about all those other bad things I have done?" Jesus then smiled and said,
"Don't worry about those, I paid the price for you. You see, we both kept
the promises we made."

--Author Unknown

IF YOU ARE GOING TO FLY
By Larry Davies

There is a parable about a wild goose shot down by a local hunter.
Only wounded in one wing, he landed safely in a barnyard. Naturally
the local turkeys and chickens were quite startled by this sudden
visitor from the sky. As they became more comfortable with this
stranger, however, it was only natural to ask about what they had seen
but never experienced: "Tell us what it's like to fly?"

"It's wonderful!" said the Goose who told story after story of his
flights. "It's beautiful to soar out in the wild blue yonder! Why this
barn looks only an inch high and all of you look like tiny specks from
such a distance. First you fly high and then you can glide and enjoy
the astonishing scenery."

All the birds were quite impressed by the goose's stories. Later they
asked him to tell more stories about flying. Soon, it became a weekly
event for the goose to entertain all the barnyard birds with his
stories. They even provided a little box for him to stand so everyone
could see him better.

But the strangest thing happened or maybe I should say… never
happened. While the domestic birds very much enjoyed hearing about the
glories of flight, they never tried to fly themselves. And the wild
goose, even though his wing healed, continued to talk about flying but
never actually flew again.

As pastor of a church, I find this parable frightening. Why? Because
it hits too close to home. How easy it is to talk about being a
Christian without acting like one. How easy it is to stand in church
and say, "Jesus is Lord," without actually turning our lives over to
His direction. How easy it is to sit in our comfortable seats and
ignore a world in desperate need of our witness. How easy it is as a
minister to talk about ministry without actually doing it. It's easy
to talk but you must really flap those wings to fly.

Jesus spoke to his disciples about what it takes to actually fly and
follow Him: "`If any of you wants to be my follower,' he told them,
`you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and
follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose
it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the
Good News, you will find true life.'" (Mark 8:34-35)

"Shoulder your cross and follow me." Other versions of the Bible
quote: "Take up your cross and follow me." I used to think the cross
stood for the pain of being a Christian. In other words: "If you
really want to follow me, you must be willing to endure pain and
suffering." This is not an exciting thought and also not completely
true. Although pain strikes all of us, it's not what Jesus had in
mind. If this were about pain we would be keeping `pain' diaries to
see which one suffered most: `pain' winners go to heaven.

So, what does it truly mean to `shoulder your cross and follow
Christ?'

Well, you're not going to believe this but I think Jesus is talking
about flying.

"What? Larry, have you lost your mind? Where is flying mentioned in
the Bible?"

Jesus is talking about being committed to your mission. Jesus accepted
the suffering because that was his mission. The cross was Jesus
Christ's ultimate mission and he was committed to seeing it through to
the end. A bird's mission is to fly but you must first be committed to
the work and effort of flapping your wings over and over
until you learn to fly. Our decision to take up the cross and follow
God regardless of the cost is our cross and our commitment to flap our
wings until we finally fly.

But flying is the best part. It may be safer to stay in the barnyard
but look at what you will miss. What would it be like to truly soar
and ride the air currents? If we live always so carefully protecting
and watching our own self-interests, making no effort for anyone but
ourselves we'll miss the best part of life: Knowing our mission and
having the inner satisfaction of carrying it out to the best of our
ability.

A song in the musical "Godspell" said it best: "Day by day, day by
day: Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray: to see thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly, day by day. If we
learn from God to see more clearly, love more dearly and follow more
nearly we will take our cross and fly.

STOLEN CAR
(A Lesson For All Of Us)
-author unknown

I was sitting at a stop light this morning. The lady in front of me
was going through papers on the seat of her car, and when the
light changed to green she did not obey its command -- a green
light is a commandment - NOT a suggestion.

When the light turned to red, and she had still not moved, I began
(with my windows up) screaming epithets and beating on my steering
wheel. My expressions of distress were interrupted by a policeman,
gun drawn, tapping on my window. Against my protestations of, "You
can't arrest me for hollering in my car," he ordered me into the back
seat of his squad car.

After about two hours in a holding cell, the arresting officer advised
me I was free to go. I said, "I knew you couldn't arrest me for what
I was yelling in my own car. You haven't heard the last of this."

The officer replied, "I didn't arrest you for shouting in your car. I
was directly behind you at the light. I saw you screaming and beating
your steering wheel, and I said to myself, "What a jerk. But there is
nothing I can do to him for throwing a fit in his own car. Then I
noticed the 'Cross' hanging from your rear view mirror, the bright
yellow 'Choose Life' license tag, the 'Jesus is Coming Soon' bumper
sticker, and the Fish symbol, and I thought you must have stolen the
car."

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Sunday's Positive Thread