From “Bits and Pieces”

     Sometimes we lose perspective, but before we deal with people we should try to regain it.  This is a good way to do it.  🙂

Many years ago a senior executive of the then Standard Oil Company made a wrong decision that cost the company more than $2 million. John D. Rockefeller was then running the firm. On the day the news leaked out most of the executives of the company were finding various ingenious ways of avoiding Mr. Rockefeller, lest his wrath descend on their heads.

There was one exception, however; he was Edward T. Bedford, a partner in the company. Bedford was scheduled to see Rockefeller that day and he kept the appointment, even though he was prepared to listen to a long harangue against the man who made the error in judgment.

When he entered the office the powerful head of the gigantic Standard Oil empire was bent over his desk busily writing with a pencil on a pad of paper. Bedford stood silently, not wishing to interrupt. After a few minutes Rockefeller looked up.

“Oh, it’s you, Bedford,” he said calmly. “I suppose you’ve heard about our loss?”

Bedford said that he had.

“I’ve been thinking it over,” Rockefeller said, “and before I ask the man in to discuss the matter, I’ve been making some notes.”

Bedford later told the story this way:

“Across the top of the page was written, ‘Points in favor of Mr. _______.’ There followed a long list of the man’s virtues, including a brief description of how he had helped the company make the right decision on three separate occasions that had earned many times the cost of his recent error.

“I never forgot that lesson. In later years, whenever I was tempted to rip into anyone, I forced myself first to sit down and thoughtfully compile as long a list of good points as I possibly could. Invariably, by the time I finished my inventory, I would see the matter in its true perspective and keep my temper under control. There is no telling how many times this habit has prevented me from committing one of the costliest mistakes any executive can make — losing his temper.

“I commend it to anyone who must deal with people.”

Bits & Pieces

, September 15, 1994, pp. 11-13.

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From the Writings of Joseph Philpot

 

     We can learn a lesson from the willow tree.

“They will spring up… as willows by the flowing streams.”

Isa_44:4

The willow, we know, cannot exist without water; it must be near the brook or river, or it withers and dies. Take a young willow and plant it upon a mountain top or in the sandy desert, and it soon droops and perishes. But take the barest twig off the willow, and plant it near a stream, so that the water may reach it, and it will soon shoot downwards and push a vigorous stem upwards.

So it is with the child of grace — he must live by the river side; he must dip his roots into that“river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,”and by it he must be continually bathed, or he droops and dies. He cannot live in the world, away from Jesus, his word, ordinances, house, people, presence, Spirit, and grace, any more than a willow can live upon the mountain top. He cannot live among carnal men, cut off from union and communion with his great and glorious Head, any more than the willow can thrive and grow in the wilderness. How beautifully is this set forth by the prophet Jeremiah —“Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is — for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit”(Jer_17:7; Jer_17:8). The saints of God, then, grow like“willows by the flowing streams.”

How enduring, also, is the willow. What life in every branch! and even when cut down low, still reviving“through the scent of water”(Job_14:9), and shooting out its branches afresh. May we not see in this a fitting emblem of the child of God, and admire how, like the willow, he preserves life and vigor when the nobler trees of the forest are blown down by the storm or are cut down for fuel?

　

　

From “Morning and Evening” by C.H. Spurgeon

 

     This is what it feels like to be forgiven, and this is the response we should have. 

“The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”

Eph_1:7

Could there be a sweeter word in any language than that word “forgiveness,” when it sounds in a guilty sinner’s ear, like the silver notes of jubilee to the captive Israelite? Blessed, for ever blessed be that dear star of pardon which shines into the condemned cell, and gives the perishing a gleam of hope amid the midnight of despair! Can it be possible that sin, such sin as mine, can be forgiven, forgiven altogether, and for ever? Hell is my portion as a sinner-there is no possibility of my escaping from it while sin remains upon me-can the load of guilt be uplifted, the crimson stain removed? Can the adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be loosed from their mortices, or the doors be lifted from their hinges? Jesus tells me that I may yet be clear. For ever blessed be the revelation of atoning love which not only tells me that pardon is possible, but that it is secured to all who rest in Jesus. I have believed in the appointed propitiation, even Jesus crucified, and therefore my sins are at this moment, and for ever, forgiven by virtue of his substitutionary pains and death. What joy is this! What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! My soul dedicates all her powers to him who of his own unpurchased love became my surety, and wrought out for me redemption through his blood. What riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive at all, to forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive for ever! Here is a constellation of wonders; and when I think of how great my sins were, how dear were the precious drops which cleansed me from them, and how gracious was the method by which pardon was sealed home to me, I am in a maze of wondering worshipping affection. I bow before the throne which absolves me, I clasp the cross which delivers me, I serve henceforth all my days the Incarnate God, through whom I am this night a pardoned soul.

Excerpt from “What Really Ails America” By William J. Bennett

     There are things we need to realize as citizens of what has always been called the greatest country on earth.  The freedoms we enjoy have been fought for, and others have paid a price for them.  With freedom comes responsibility.  We have a responsibility to use our freedom to build, to make better, to improve, and to help and love people around us.  Our country is great because our people are great, but if our great people do not stand up for what they believe in; if they’re not willing to fight for what’s right, then our great people have ceased to be great, and our country will cease to be great.  You have a question to answer.  Will you be great?  Will you stand for what you believe in?  Will you fight for what’s right? 
     We can no longer afford to be a people who leave it to others to do what we should do ourselves.  You can make a difference.  You have the ability to touch someone with your life.  You can teach, You can inform, You can help, You can love.  You have no excuse.  Will you make the choice to be great?
     We must give voice, hands, and feet to our faith, to our beliefs, to our values every day that we live.  God does not call His people to stand aside, to lay down, to give way to evil without so much as a by your leave, and if you think He does then you had better ask yourself whether you truly know Him or not. 
     The following is an excerpt from a speech that really shows where our country is at.  A line in the sand is being drawn, and our country (Our Great Country) hangs in the balance.  Which side of that line are you going to be on?

Last year I compiled the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, a statistical portrait of American behavioral trends of the past three decades. Among the findings: Since 1960, while the gross domestic product has nearly tripled, violent crime has increased at least 560%. Divorces have more than doubled. The percentage of children in single-parent homes had tripled. And by the end of the decade 40% of all American births and 80% of minority births will occur out of wedlock. These are not good things to get used to.

In 1940 teachers identified the top problems in America’s schools as: Talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise and running in the hall. In 1990, teachers listed drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, suicide, rape and assault. These are not good things to get used to, either.

There is a coarseness, a callousness and a cynicism to our era. The worst of it has to do with our children. Our culture seems almost dedicated to the corruption of the young. We have become inured to the cultural rot that is setting in. People are losing their capacity for shock, disgust and outrage…

The ancients called our problem acedia, an aversion to spiritual things and an undue concern for the external and the worldly. Acedia also is the seventh capital sin–sloth–but it does not mean mere laziness. The slothful heart is stepped in the worldly and carnal, hates the spiritual and wants to be free of its demands.

When the novelist Walker Percy was asked what concerned him most about America’s future, he answered, “Probably the fear of seeing America, with all its great strength and beauty and freedom…gradually subside into decay through default and be defeated, not by the communist movement, but from within, from weariness, boredom, cynicism, greed and in the end helplessness before its great problems.”

I realize this is a tough indictment. If my diagnosis is wrong, then why, amid our economic prosperity and military security, do almost 70% of the public say we are off track? I submit that only when we turn to the right things–enduring, noble, spiritual things–will life get better.

Most important, we must return religion to its proper place. Religion provides us with moral bearings, and the solution to our chief problem of spiritual impoverishment depends on spiritual renewal. The surrendering of strong beliefs, in our private and public lives, has demoralized society.

Today, much of society ridicules and mocks those who are serious about their faith. America’s only respectable form of bigotry is bigotry against religious people. And the only reason for hatred of religion is that it forces us to confront matters many would prefer to ignore.

Today we must carry on a new struggle for the country we love. We must push hard against an age that is pushing hard against us. If we have full employment and greater economic growth–if we have cities of gold and alabaster–but our children have not learned how to walk in goodness, justice and mercy, then the American experiment, no matter how gilded, will have failed.

Do not surrender. Get mad. Get in the fight.

Excerpts from What Really Ails America, condensed from a speech by William J. Bennett, delivered December 7, 1993 at the Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., reprinted in Reader’s Digest, April, 1994.

“The Versatile Blogger” Award

    I want to thank Chooksta for the shout out about my blog.  I’m humbled and deeply honored by her thinking of me.  I started my blog as just a way to deal with my life.  To deal with pain, to deal with too much time on my hands, to give me something to focus on, and to use as an outlet to share my love for Christ.  I never really thought that someone might actually read it, so it’s been a very nice surprise that anyone actually would.

The rules of  “The Versatile Blogger” award are:

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers.
2. Inform the bloggers of their nomination.
3. Share 7 random things about yourself.
4. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
5. Add the “Versatile Blogger” award picture on your post.

7 random things about me:

1. I don’t like movies or t.v. shows that use foul language and have nudity in them.
2. I’ve watched every episode of Mash at least twice.
3. “Shane” and “The Shawshank Redemption” are two of my favorite movies.
4. I’ve read every single Louis L”Amour western he’s written.
5. Watch NFL football
6. Teach a Sunday School class
7. Love Jesus Christ, the Bible, my wife and daughter more than anything else.

Twelve is the best I can do so my Nominations are:

1. fromtheheartof http://throughhimwithhiminhim.wordpress.com/
2. Drusilla Mott http://drusillamott/
3. Megan http://foreverbeautiful.wordpress.com/
4. joycedevivre http://joycedevivre.wordpress.com/
5. Matt http://mattsmonthlymusings.wordpress.com/
6. Fi (Wonderfully Wired Mum) http://wonderfullywired.wordpress.com/
7. Deborah http://prayzhimtoday.wordpress.com/
8. the arrested son http://christianongtangco.wordpress.com/
9. stephaniemadrid http://stephaniemadrid.wordpress.com/
10. fforhire http://fforhire.wordpress.com/
11. RiverUnderWater http://riverunderwater.wordpress.com/
12. stayleanandbuilt http://stayleanandbuilt.wordpress.com/

Belief in Action (Source Unknown)

     The following is something all of us should think about.  When do our beliefs begin to make a difference? 

The world is full of nominal Christians–but how many are Christians in deed? The Bible makes it clear that mere belief is not enough.

A United States Senator recently quoted a very moving, yet indicting poem, “Listen Christian!” (by Bob Rowland), which reads as follows:

I was hungry,
and you formed a humanities club
and discussed my hunger.
Thank you.
I was imprisoned
and you crept off quietly
to your chapel in the cellar
and prayed for my release.
I was naked
and in your mind
you debated the morality of
my appearance.
I was sick
and you knelt
and thanked God
for your health.
I was homeless
and you preached to me
about the spiritual shelter
of the love of God.
I was lonely
and you left me alone
to pray for me.
Christian,
you seem so holy;
so close to God.
But I am still very hungry,
and lonely,
and cold . . .

This poignant poem is an obvious modification of the words of Jesus Himself as recorded in Matthew 25:35, 36: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.”

From “Morning Thoughts” by Winslow

     This is what we have in Jesus.  A lively hope that cannot fail.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

1 Peter 1:3

TO be sensible of this amazing power in the soul is to be born again-to be raised from the grave of corruption-to live on earth a heavenly, a resurrection-life-to have the heart daily ascending in the sweet incense of love and prayer and praise, where its risen Treasure is. It possesses, too, a most comforting power. What but this sustained the disciples in the early struggles of Christianity, amid the storms of persecution, which else had swept them from the earth? They felt that their Master was alive. They needed no external proof of the fact. They possessed in their souls God’s witness. The truth authenticated itself. The three days of His entombment were to them days of sadness, desertion, and gloom. Their sun had set in darkness and in blood, and with it every ray of hope had vanished. All they loved, or cared to live for, had descended to the grave. They had now no arm to strengthen them in their weakness, no bosom to sympathize with them in sorrow, no eye to which they could unveil each hidden thought and struggling emotion. But the resurrection of their Lord was the resurrection of all their buried joys. They now traveled to him as to a living Savior, conscious of a power new-born within them, the power of their Lord’s resurrection. “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” But is this truth less vivifying and precious to us? Has it lost anything of its vitality to quicken, or its power to soothe? Oh, no! truth is eternal and immutable. Years impair not its strength, circumstances change not its character. The same truths which distilled as dew from the lips of Moses, which awoke the seraphic lyre of David, which winged the heaven-soaring spirit of Isaiah, which inspired the manly eloquence of Paul, which floated in visions of sublimity before the eye of John, and which in all ages have fed, animated, and sanctified the people of God, guiding their counsels, soothing their sorrows, and animating their hopes, still are vital and potent in the chequered experiences of the saints, hastening to swell the cloud of witnesses to their divinity and their might. Of such is the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection. Oh, what consolation flows to the Church of God from the truth of a living Savior-a Savior alive to know and to heal our sorrows-to inspire and sanctify our joys-to sympathize with and supply our need! Alive to every cloud that shades the mind, to every cross that chafes the spirit, to every grief that saddens the heart, to every evil that threatens our safety or imperils our happiness! What power, too, do the promises of the gospel derive from this truth! When Jesus speaks by these promises, we feel that there is life and spirit in His word, for it is the spoken word of the living Savior. And when He invites us to Himself for rest, and bids us look to His cross for peace, and asks us to deposit our burdens at His feet, and drink the words that flow from His lips, we feel a living influence stealing over the soul, inspiriting and soothing as that of which the trembling evangelist was conscious, when the glorified Savior gently laid His right hand upon him, and said, “Fear not: I am the first and last: I am he that lives, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Is Jesus alive? Then let what else die, our life, with all its supports, consolations, and hopes, is secure in Him. “Because I live, you shall live also.” A living spring is He. Seasons vary, circumstances change, feelings fluctuate, friendships cool, friends die, but Christ is ever the same. Oh, the blessedness of dealing with a risen, a living Redeemer! We take our needs to Him-they are instantly supplied. We take our sins to Him-they are immediately pardoned. We take our griefs to Him-they are in a moment assuaged.

　

Attributed to Henry Ward Beecher (Source Unknown)

     This little story has a message that’s very powerful.  The more you read it and think about it the more profound it becomes. 

Good Deeds Performed Unconsciously

A farmer goes to market to purchase grain. He puts the bags containing it into his wagon, and drives slowly home. As the wagon jolts over the stony road, one of the bags becomes untied, and the grain is scattered along the way. The birds catch some of the grain and fly off with it, and drop it in distant places. Some is blown in different directions by the winds. Thus the farmer goes on for miles, without knowing what he is doing; but the next summer finds the scattered seed. It starts and grows, and when he sees his own grain he does not know it. He did not even know that he lost it. And so it is with good deeds. Men often perform them unconsciously, and they bear fruit, and when they see that fruit they do not know that it is the result of anything they have done.

–Beecher

From “Goszner’s Treasury” by Johannes Gossner

     Sometimes we forget that God is in control, that creation-all we experience with our senses-is His gift to us, and that His time table is not ours, but would the author of such precision, such design, leave an end unfulfilled?   Let us not take for granted the gifts He gives us or the ultimate fulfillment of His divine plan.   

 

Little children, it is the last time. 1Jn_2:18. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Heb_10:37. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 1Th_5:2

 

Thus the apostles think and speak of the coming of the Lord. They never considered themselves safe, but watched day and night and kept themselves ever ready to receive Him. If “the last time” commenced over eighteen hundred years ago, how can much of it be left? Who can count on the fraction of a second? How, according to the admonition in 2Pe_3:11-15, we ought to be diligent in holy conversation and godliness, to wait and long for the coming of the day of God! How earnestly we ought to strive to be found blameless of Him if He were to come to-morrow! The Savior Himself warns us in Luk_21:34-36. All this ought in our day to be well considered: for we are nearer to this “day,” which will surely come, by eighteen hundred years, than the first Christians who even then hoped to live that day and daily prepared themselves for it. Alas! who knows how near the terrible judgments that are to precede that day, may be to us? No one believes it before it falls upon men as a ”snare,” and as ”a thief in the night.” Ye children of light, do not sleep! Awake! ye daughters and ye brides of the Lamb, the Bridegroom is at hand: He is at the door. We are not safe a single hour. He may swiftly and suddenly come upon us. Blessed is he who shall then be awake, who together with the bride shall long for His coming and meet Him with the shout, “Come, Lord Jesus! ” Examine yourself daily to see if you will be able confidently to cry thus if you will be able to stand in His presence. He has eyes like flames of fire, eyes that will detect and bring to light all dishonesty and every unfaithfulness, no matter how well hidden in the heart. Do not hesitate in clearing out of your hearts everything that is not pleasing to His eye.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, do not delay,
O hasten our salvation!
We often tremble on our way.
In fear of tribulation.
Then hear us when we cry to Thee;
Come mighty Judge, come, make us free
From every evil. Amen!

　

 

From “Daily Meditation” by the Rev. George Bowen

     Most of us human beings don’t like to think about death, but how can we really understand the gift of life without it’s contemplation?  This world offers many things to it’s inhabitants that are illusive and transitory which hold seeming value but turn to dust over time and reveal their true worth.  This world offers an infinite variety of paths to follow, but in the end they all seemingly end at one place.  It’s the wise person who gives as much thought to the end of life as to the beginning . . . . 

 

” . . . grave, where is thy victory?” –

1Co_15:55.

In great cities we find monumental arches, columns, obelisks and tablets, telling of victories won by man over man; but death writes his name loftily on all these, saying, ” Man’s victories are my victories.” But the monumental trophies of death are found in all cities great and small, in all places, in fact. Death lords it everywhere and over all. Scarcely has humanity begun to put on nobility or virtue in any quarter, before death appears and sweeps away the excellent object, terrifying the stricken admirers with the display of its prodigious power.

Yet we make bold to say, ” Where is thy victory, O grave? Where, death, thy sting?” We tell death to the face that the captives whom he has apparently taken are not to be found in his chambers. In fact we can point to them in mansions where death has no admission. We can show the Son of God, once dead on Calvary, standing at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And with him the saints redeemed from the earth, the noble, the beautiful, the virtuous, dwelling in habitations not made with hands, clothed in purity, exempt from pain and sorrow, and not at all despondent because of their mortal remains sleeping in dust. How art thou become a picture of confusion, death, standing there with a crumbling bone in thy hand and looking at a celestial being walking amid the groves of the New Jerusalem, once connected with earthly life by that bone, now wearing many crowns of perfection bestowed by him who died and rose again! After having conquered all, behold, thou art thyself conquered, and a new in violable life given to those who once succumbed to thee. Behold the keys of death and hades are in the hands of our Lord; and what wonder if hereafter thou shouldst be compelled to restore even the dust of the once dead. Sweep as thou wilt with thy scythe from pole to pole; there is a sword impending over thee. Thou thyself shalt die. What canst thou do to him whose life is hid with Christ in God? He will sit upon a throne in the day when thou shalt be driven to darkness.

　

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