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(Note: I’m starting a new category today I call “tense truths.” Truth because it’s, well, true! Tense because it’s often misunderstood or has other balancing truths that need to be considered.)
Tense Truth: God still speaks to those who will listen. True, people sometimes misunderstand, misuse, or manipulate others with “messages from God.” Regardless, God is willingly and faithfully engaged in the pursuit of communicating with His people.
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I may as well be dead.
That’s the way David put it.
Ask anybody on the street about getting messages from God; nine out of ten of them will assume you’re joking or clinically nuts.
Ask George Strait about messages from God, and he’ll sing to you about seeing flowers growing in the sidewalk at just the right time, or in the miracle of seeing his baby girl born.
Ask theologians, pastors, and writers about hearing from God, at least in somewhat-Evangelical circles, and you’ll get two kinds of responses. One is something of a mystical free-for-all – sort of like a friend of mine I’ll call Weird Wally. [click to continue…]
Have you ever felt trapped beyond escape by someone or something completely beyond your control? Ever felt locked in by a disease or an addiction, the traffic or a relationship, a really stupid choice or a really stupid world? Instead of raging or retreating, try calling the Gate Crasher.
Here’s what the psalmist said about Him:
There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Prisoners in misery and chains,
Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
And broke their bands apart.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
And for His wonders to the sons of men!
For He has shattered gates of bronze
And cut bars of iron asunder.
(Psalm 107:10-17)
Today I celebrate my God, the Gate Crasher!
Iron Breaker!
Chain Buster!
He’s mighty to save the least of us who call on Him from the pits of our despair and bondage.
What iron, you ask?
What gates?
[click to continue…]
Okay, so the guys at SynerJACK are talking about stress this week, and I just vomited out of my journal from a couple of years ago. (It’s ugly… you probably don’t want to read it.)
But I found a real stress reliever video. Supposedly it’s from an old Girl Scout song, but it made its way into a Discovery Channel commercial. If you need a happy reminder that God and life and the world are good, watch this.
If you want to irritate somebody by putting a happy little song in their head that’s hard to get rid of, forward this to somebody else.
And the next time you’re pumping gas, remember… [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on April 23, 2008
in Allocating Your Resources,Consumers,Enlarging Your Capacity,Executing Your Plan,Five LV Laws,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Money,Principle of Increase,Time
I mentioned in my previous post that it’s possible to live in such a way that laughs at the future. Just so we’re clear, we’re in “life hack” territory. We’re talking about what to do with your money, your time, your relationships, your attitudes, and your spirit.
Look at this biblical description:
“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25)
What is it about this woman that put her in a place where she wasn’t wringing her hands every time somebody predicted the end of life as we know it?
1. Establish trust in those who know you best.
“Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm,all the days of her life” (v. 11-12, NLT).
For years I assumed that her husband trusted her in a moral sense, but this is much deeper. This man trusted her with his business, his family, and his money. She had earned his trust. How? By adding value to his life.
By doing a little more, being faithful to tasks assigned, or by keeping the trust of those who know you best, you create a compelling future. Take it from somebody who has both earned and betrayed trust: it takes months and years to earn trust, and you can destroy it – and your confidence in the future – in a matter of minutes.
2. Buy like an investor, not like a consumer.
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I guess it was the first face-off between parent and teacher in Carrie’s life. She was a little freaked in first grade about some impending disaster reported as fact in her science class – global warming, the death of the ozone layer, or something. We were riding in the car, and she asked me what I thought (in first-grade language, of course) about the certain impending doom of planet.
I found myself speaking from the depths of my soul – using words I’d never put together in the same sentence before.
“Carrie,” I said, “never, never, never believe anyone who would make you afraid of the future.”
I came by that honestly. I remember asking my dad at about the same age, “Did you know that the Russians have enough bombs to destroy every American?” He replied, “Yes, and we have enough bombs to blow up every Russian.” That more or less ended the Cold War for me. (By the way, you just haven’t lived until you’ve heard “Shout to the Lord” sung in Russian. Those American Idol contestants got nothin’ on our brothers and sisters in the former Soviet Union.)
This all came back to me last week. I was shopping with my wife at Walmart and passed a display of some sort of DVD series or books or something. The basic idea was, “spend your money on this to learn about how we’re all going to hell in a handbasket.” I passed.
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“The winter is over. The rain and snow have gone. Come away with me, my love, come away.
“I miss our time together. How long has it been since I heard the sound of your voice in the morning? Come away with me, my love, come away.
“I have seen you struggling, and I’ve heard your cries in the night. I have been with you, even when you felt alone. I have been faithful, even when you were losing faith in Me. I have been patient, even when you were impatient with Me. Now the flowers are budding, and the time of singing has come. Come away with me, my love, come away!
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The question was relevant and greatly needed. A wife in couples counseling once asked, “How do I deal with resentment so that I don’t explode at my husband and say things I’ll regret?”
“You toss the Oreo,” I replied.
To their honestly-delighted quizzical looks (she loved Oreos), I explained:
Here’s a communication technique that can help you communicate your feelings and ask for your partner’s help. I call it “tossing the Oreo.” And no, I don’t mean getting mad and hurling cookies at your spouse!
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The people in Pisa needed professional help. Seems their most famous landmark was, well, leaning.
Well, duh!
Actually, a few years ago someone discovered that the Tower was very slowly beginning to lean too much. So the city fathers had an emergency meeting and decided there was only one thing to do. They would bring in architects and professional builders who would make sure the tower didn’t topple over. One mandate, however: keep the tower from falling over, but don’t correct the tilt! In other words, make sure it stays like it is. After all, who would travel to see the standing Tower of Pisa?
It’s amazing the time and effort – sometimes even large amounts of money – we will invest in order to remain the same. And that in a world where the constant is change.
If you’re reading this, regardless of who you are, change is the one thing that is required of you, as well. It’s the one thing you and I have in common. It’s also the one thing we have a tendency to resist. Leo Tolstoy once said, “Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one wants to change himself.”
Jesus once told a story about a farmer, some seed, and four types of ground. The seed, He said was the “word of the Kingdom.” Only one kind of ground (a type of heart) received the seed to the degree that it made lasting change. Something would have to change about the ground to experience the maximum effect (change) of the seed.
There are four types of life change, based on the Parable of the Sower. You are somewhere on this list right now:
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A Turning Point Story
This is for all you jocks, coach dads, and soccer moms out there who never were in the band or had a kid in one. Other than my year of football futility, the primary point of my non-academic energy was spent in the band. And during football season, I got to wear the fuzzy hat. Yep, I was the drum major – the band’s field director during my junior and senior year.
The high point of marching season was traveling to either the Florida or Mississippi coast to participate in a regional band contest. Can you imagine the energy, the excitement that fills a stadium when more than 30 bands gather and perform, with no football team in sight for miles? Unlike football games, where half the crowd heads for the concession stands, at a contest people in the stands cheer loudly for every slick move, every powerful burst through the line. And did I mention that there isn’t a football team in sight?
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Sunday afternoon we had a big group of couples at our house. I was hanging out with the men when Robin walks in and says, “There’s somebody at the door you need to talk to.”
Translation: Somebody’s going to ask for our money, and you’re going to make that decision.
Optional Further Translation: I don’t want to make that decision, but I reserve the right not to like it! (She knows I’m a sucker for Girl Scouts, local bands, or anybody else raising money by selling something.)
This was no Girl Scout. Boy Scout either. It was a guy about my age. And he was selling oranges.
That’s right, oranges. Grapefruit, too. And I bought them. Half a case of them, in a household of two, for $39.50.
I live half a block from a major supermarket. We don’t eat oranges that much. Grapefruit? Never.
But I bought. And I’d like to tell you why. (Yes, there are reasons beyond being a sucker.)
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