Divine Despair

Tears, idle tears,
I know not what they mean.
Tears from the depths of some Divine despair.
Rise in the heart,
and gather in the eyes.

Lord Alfred Tennyson

Success

Sucess will come to you when:

• The goals you set are God's goals.
• You rely on God to give you the resources to achieve His goals.
• Your deepest motivation is to glorify God and know Him better.

Charles Stanley

My Question

Is the Resurrected Jesus a Jew, or did He lay that down at the Cross?

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when we'd first begun.

John P. Newton

Amazing Grace has always been one of my favorite hymns, and whenever I hear it, I am moved to tears...

The Essay

A university creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing the following elements:
1. Religion
2. Royalty
3. Sex
4. Mystery

The prize-winning essay read:

"My God," said the Queen, "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it!"

Author unknown

Not Everyone Can Be In Your Front Row

Life is a theater-invite your audience carefully. Not everyone is holy enough and healthy enough to have a front row seat in our lives. There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.

It is amazing what you can accomplish when you let go, or at least minimize your time, with draining, negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships/fellowships.

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention to:

Which ones lift and which ones lean?

Which ones encourage and which ones discourage?

Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?

When you leave certain people, do you feel better, or worse?

Which ones always have drama or do not really understand, know, and appreciate you and the gifts that lie within you?

The more you seek God and the things of God--the more you seek quality, the more you seek not just the Hand of God, but the face of God--the more you seek things honorable--the more you seek growth, peace of mind, love and truth around you, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the front row of your life and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

You cannot change the people around you, but you can change the people you are around!

Ask God for Wisdom, and discernment, and choose wisely the people who sit in the front row of your life.

Author Unknown

Humor For The Day

An Indian is horse riding through New Mexico. Suddenly he hears an enormous explosion. He sees a giant mushroom cloud covering the skies; it is an atomic bomb test. The Indian stops, looks, and says to himself, "I wish I had said that!"

Author unknown

This is, indeed, wisdom

It is often argued that the people who will be affected by a major decision should be involved in it. Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal in southern Africa, once resolved a dispute between two brothers about a land inheritance they were to share.
Kruger's decision: let one brother divide the land, and let the other brother have first choice.

Louis E. Boone

Gossip

To silence gossip, do not repeat it.

Profanity

Profanity disgraces the user and demeans the hearer.

Truth

Truth is not determined by how many people believe it.

Doing Good

Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as you ever can

John Wesley

Illusions

One of life's greatest illusions is that sin has no consequences.

Humor For The Day

Roses are red,
Violets are blue-ish
If it weren't for Paul,
We'd all be Jewish.

Anonymous

The Cross of Christ

The Cross of Christ-the Crossroad to Heaven or Hell

From Streams In The Desert

God is in every tomorrow,
Therefore, I live for today,
Certain of finding at sunrise
Guidance and strength for my way;
Power for each moment of weakness,
Hope for each momemt of pain,
Comfort for every sorrow,
Sunshine and joy after rain.

John 3: 16, 17, 19

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. v 16

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. v 17

This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. v 19

The Bible

Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth

The Promised Land

The Promised Land always lies on the other side of the wilderness.
Havelock Ellis

Humor For The Day

Did you hear the one about the teacher who was arrested trying to board an airplane with a compass, a protractor, and a calculator? He was charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.
Gary Fish


Two dolts are walking down the railroad tracks. After a couple of miles, one says, "Man, all these steps are killing me."
The other dolt replies, "It's not all the steps, it's these darned low handrails."


(Jokes taken from: Reader's Digest, Laughter-The Best Medicine)

Take Time

Take time to think;
it is the source of power.

Take time to read;
it is the foundation of wisdom.

Take time to play;
it is the secret of staying young.

Take time to be quiet;
it is the opportunity to seek God.

Take time to be aware;
it is the opportunity to help others.

Take time to love and be loved;
it is God's greatest gift.

Take time to laugh;
it is the music of the soul.

Take time to be friendly;
it is the road to happiness.

Take time to dream;
it is what the future is made of.

Take time to pray;
it is the greatest power on earth.

Author unknown

I Don't Remember Where I Found This Quote

"The purpose and goal of Bible study is not knowledge, but a personal relationship with the Creator who made me, died for me, and offers to live His life through me."


Does anyone know who the person is who quoted this statement?

One of my favorite poems

How The Great Guest Came
by Edwin Markham

Before the cathedral in grandeur rose
At Ingleburg where the Danube goes;
Before its forest of silver spires
Went airily up to the clouds and fires;
Before the oak had ready a beam,
While yet the arch was stone and dream-
There where the altar was later laid,
Conrad, the cobbler, plied his trade.

It happened one day at the year's white end-
Two neighbors called on their old-time friend;
And they found the shop, so meager and mean,
Made gay with a hundred boughs of green.
Conrad was stitching with face ashine,
But suddenly stopped as he twitched a twine:
"Old friends, good news! At dawn today,
As the cocks were scaring the night away,
The Lord appeared in a dream to me,
And said, "I am coming your Guest to be!"
So I've been busy with feet astir,
Strewing the floor with branches of fir.
The wall is washed and the shelf is shined,
And over the rafter the holly twined.
He comes today, and the table is spread
With milk and honey and wheaten bread."

His friends went home; and his face grew still
As he watched for the shadow across the sill.
He lived all the moments o'er and o'er,
When the Lord should enter the lowly door-
The knock, the call, the latch pulled up,
The lighted face, the offered cup.
He would wash the feet where the spikes had been,
He would kiss the hands where the nails went in,
And then at last would sit with Him
And break the bread as the day grew dim.

While the cobbler mused there passed his pane
A beggar drenched by the driving rain.
He called him in from the stony street
And gave him shoes for his bruised feet.
The beggar went and there came a crone,
Her face with wrinkles of sorrow sown.
A bundle of faggots bowed her back,
And she was spent with the wrench and rack.
He gave her his loaf and steadied her load
As she took her way on the weary road.
Then to his door came a little child,
Lost and afraid in the world so wild,
In the big, dark world. Catching it up,
He gave it the milk in the waiting cup,
And led it home to its mother's arms,
Out of the reach of the world's alarms.

The day went down in the crimson west
And with it the hope of the blessed Guest,
And Conrad sighed as the world turned gray:
"Why is it, Lord, that your feet delay?
Did You forget that this was the day?"
Then soft in the silence a Voice he heard:
"Lift up your heart, for I kept my word.
Three times I came to your friendly door;
Three times my shadow was on your floor.
I was the beggar with bruised feet;
I was the woman you gave to eat;
I was the child on the homeless street!"