I saw this on facebook and had to share! No clue who it belongs to originally but I respect the sentiment.
Category: Daily Living
Who Is Called To Ignorance?
Recently I heard a man say he was called to preach to the ignorant who wished to remain so. He declared that the Lord had called him to preach to those who were uneducated and ignorant and did not want to change. He was called to preach to those who had never had an opportunity to learn and didn’t want to. These people, he declared, were not interested in an education and felt that church was expecting too much of them with bible study.
My heart began to beat rapidly because I had heard another pastor say this before. He also was called to preach to the ignorant who wanted to stay ignorant. It was a statement that resonated in my heart. I thought our job was to preach the good news to the poor so that they would realize their destiny in Christ and would be then rich? I thought that we were supposed to illuminate lives with the word? I thought the good news was that there was a Savior who came to bring them out of ignorance of their state of being and into knowledge of who their Father in heaven had called them to be and what their dominion and authority would be? I thought that our job was not to teach legalism but to teach freedom? I am beyond saddened by this thought process because it seems so far from Christ I don’t even know what to think.
The word warns us about this. It says that there will be false teachers, I just never wanted to know one. To say that someone doesn’t need to know the word for themselves and doesn’t need to learn it makes me wonder what else in life they don’t need to know? To perpetuate ignorance with misused authority is not the understanding of the Bible I read. Some believe thinking puffs up a soul. On the contrary thinking releases a soul to their destiny.
Wisdom cries in the streets. Does God desire only a select few to answer her call? I don’t think that’s the God I serve. I believe the God I serve is pleased when we are a success. Not a success as the world sees it but a success in love. Sorry folks, this is a punch I will never drink. I believe as followers of Christ our attitude should be the same as Jesus when he said:
John 14:12 The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it.
What work had Jesus been doing? Giving revelation. Life changing knowledge, wisdom and power. Proclaiming that if you were poor you no longer had to be poor because he was bringing wisdom not of this world but wisdom eternal. That is the God I serve! The One who believes our future lies in salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
Remind Me Who I Am
Sometimes we lose our way. We find that the opinion of man becomes more important than the opinion of God. In those times we need a little reminder! Thanks to Jason Gray for that reminder today.
1,000 Little Blessings Chapter 2
Nehemiah 8:8 They translated the Book of The Revelation of God so the people could understand it and then explained the reading. 9 Nehemiah the governor, along with Ezra the priest and scholar and the Levites who were teaching the people, said to all the people, “This day is holy to God, your God. Don’t weep and carry on.” They said this because all the people were weeping as they heard the words of The Revelation. 10 He continued, “Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!”
My days have been busy as my husband is out of town and there is much to do. My hands and feet are busily moving from work to home and back again. Yet there is much to be grateful for. This day is holy to God. In other words, this day is set apart. I am not guaranteed tomorrow and yesterday has past. I have only this day.
Today my blessings are many.
1. I woke up and it was raining. What a blessing to have a roof over my head.
2. I thanked God for a hot shower that just flowed from a tap.
3. Yesterday when I went to Starbucks I was hungry and wanted a Protein Bistro Box. They were out of them. Today when I showed up they gave me one for free! Got to love Starbucks and blessings.
4. Sales at the store were great yesterday and the store is full today so I’m sure we’ll see another great day.
5. Today my cousin gave birth to a baby boy. She named him after my uncle, her father, who died suddenly not too long ago. Richard Scott is a beautiful legacy and tribute.
6. I watched a great documentary that will be a blog entry or two as I wrap my head around what I want to say.
7. I took my jeans out of the dryer and put them right one. No jumping up and down and sucking in to button them up.
8. I laughed with friends.
9. I have really good kids!
10. I was able to be a blessing to our community today. Because of that I got my picture taken for the newspaper.
Creating Your Own Life
Read about this welfare mom turned millionaire and ask yourself the question:
Why not me?
Taking the Lord’s Name In Vain
Proverbs 30:7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die : 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies : give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
When I married Doug Young, I took on his last name. I now represented him and claimed to be a part of his family. I now have a choice to make. I can either wear that last name well or make a mockery of it.
This is what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain. We can claim to be followers of Christ, all the while following our own agenda or we can represent him well. Taking the Lord’s name in vain is so much more than we think it is. It’s about our reputation, it’s about our walk with him. It’s about the respect for the name and more importantly his position in our life.
1,000 Little Blessings
I hear some people in the Christian faith say miracles aren’t for today. I say miracles happen every second of every day. We merely have to look for them. You are a witness to blessings and miracles every single day of your life. You hear about them all the time. With cable, Internet and smartphones we are a privileged generations who are a witness to even greater things than any generation before us.
Yet, do you see miracles and blessings for what they are or do you just take them for granted? Do you acknowledge them or do you swipe them away with a wave of your hand as coincidence or luck?
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse.
Even if we choose today a curse rather than a blessing, we still see blessings if we only open our eyes to them.
Ask any woman who has miscarried, if her healthy baby’s cry in the labor and delivery room is a miracle?
Ask anyone whose cell phone rings with the command to get to the hospital immediately because an organ has been donated for their transplant if this moment isn’t a miracle?
Ask any family whose soldier has come home from war if it isn’t a miracle?
Ask anyone whose home has remained standing after a disaster if it wasn’t a miracle?
So today I begin a new series where I’m going to find blessings and hopefully some miracles in my life. I’m going to purposefully look for them. I’m hoping you do too. I’m also hoping you’ll begin to add your voice to mine and we’ll begin to see the world on a whole different level.
So here are my ten blessings for today. If you feel inclined to share I’d love to hear your top 10 too! Even if you just noticed one, post it!
1. I woke up today. Yeah I’m a pretty grouchy morning person but I have to say waking up is a blessing that not everyone gets.
2. I looked around the bedroom as my eyes adjusted in the darkness. It was 4 a.m. My dog Lulu was curled up and stuck in crook of my knee. My husband, Doug, was snoring and hugging a pillow, mouth open and oh so cute! What a blessing to have them beside me.
3. It was a cool fall morning today and the good thread count sheets and the comforter felt, well, comforting. What a blessing to have have warmth on a cool morning.
4. I had a nice hot shower. Not everyone gets to turn on a tap and wait for hot water before getting into a shower.
5. I had groceries in the fridge. I promptly put a roast in the crockpot for dinner and made some oatmeal for breakfast. Food was plentiful this morning. I need to give thanks!
6. I had a few quiet uninterrupted moments to read.
7. I got ready to go to work. Work is a blessing especially if you are a workaholic, which some have accused me of being. 🙂
8. I got into a car that starts. Just the mere fact that I have a car is a blessing.
9. The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming and the birds were singing. I’m not sure if this is three blessings or just one but I said I’d only give 10 things so I’m counting it as one.
10. I was greeted by great employees.
…..And it’s only 9:30 a.m.
In The End
What were you worried about last month on the 24th of August? What were you worried about last year on the 24th of September?
If you’re like me, you were worried about something, you always are, but for the life of you, you can’t remember what it was.
Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Somehow it all works out. Just as God said it would.
So relax! That insurmountable thing that is weighing on your mind today will soon be replaced by the next big mountain. One thing is for sure and that is that there is something new worry coming on the horizon because there always is. What is not for sure is how you will handle it. Will you trust God with the faith it takes to work it out, or will you allow it to consume your days?
In the end it will work out. Maybe it will not work out as you envisioned an outcome, but an outcome nevertheless is on its way!
Ruining Your Teen’s Life
I received this article from Family Life and really loved it! Thought I’d share it.
How to Ruin Your Teens for LifeEleven ways to ensure that your teenager will not be prepared for the future.Tricia Goyer
Editor’s note: Tricia Goyer’s tongue-in-cheek article earlier this summer on “How to Ruin Your Kid for Life” was so popular that we now present her sequel on how to raise a teenager who will not prepared for life.
1. Hide your past mistakes. Put on an act that you are perfect and your teenagers are the ones with all the problems. (After all, if your teens hear what you did in your past, they might want to follow.)
2. Don’t worry about where they are going and what they are doing. You didn’t want to be hounded at that age. You didn’t want to be asked all those questions. Instead, trust that they know how they should act and where they should go.
3. Don’t worry about them getting a summer job and having to work to make money. Teens are only teens once. They need time to have fun with friends and relax. There will be time to work later. They don’t need to worry about a work ethic now.
4. Don’t force them to attend church and youth group. Things are already touchy—you have to hound them about homework, about their friends, and about their clothes—don’t make church another thing you hound them about.
5. Don’t worry about talking to them about sex and purity. You’re their parent, for goodness sake. You don’t want to bring the subject up and have them thinking about you having sex. And you don’t want to think about them in their sexual lives. There are other people more knowledgeable and trained to talk to your teens; leave it to them.
6. Completely shelter your teens from the outside world. Make sure they don’t watch any secular movies or to any secular music. Hide the newspapers, too. Their “world” should only be about your family’s values. They don’t need to learn about all that bad stuff out there. They don’t need to make wise media choices or deal with unwholesome people. They don’t need to see that there’s a world out there that is greatly in need of Jesus. Let someone else deal with impacting and influencing culture.*
7. Tell them, “Do what I say, not what I do.” Make them accept the areas where you fall short, but expect them to do better.
8. Buy your teens whatever they ask for. That’s your role as a parent—to make your teens happy.
9. Don’t let your teen get involved in an overseas mission trip. There are all types of scary things that happen on those trips, and your first priority is to keep your teen safe.
10. Don’t become your teens’ sounding board. They’ll need to learn to figure things out on their own in the future, so they might as well start now.
11. Don’t share with your teen how important God is in your life. A personal relationship with God is personal, and it should stay that way.
*Special note: Point #6 was revised after the initial version led to disagreement from some readers (see comments below). We recognize that parents have a responsibility to protect their children from a hostile culture. Tricia’s point is that OVER-protection can also lead to problems. Tricia rewrote #6 to communicate this more clearly. We welcome any further comments.
Copyright © 2011 Tricia Goyer. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared on MomLife Today, FamilyLife’s blog for moms.
Because It’s Normal!
Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer sing a song that makes me laugh. Are we daughters who are just trying to stick it to our mothers as the song suggests? Is it because we are normal girls who were raised to be princesses by the moms who said they wanted equality? Then they figured out that equality wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and added burdens to their life?
Nancy White is the original writer and the lyrics to the song are:
Daughters of Feminists
(Nancy White)
Daughters of feminists love to wear pink and white
Short frilly dresses they speak of successes with boys,
It annoys their mom.
Daughters of feminists won’t put on jeans
Or that precious construction boot Mama found cute,
Ugly shoes they refuse. How come?
Daughters of feminists think they’ll get married
To some wealthy guy who’ll support them forever
Daughters of feminists don’t bother voting at all.
Daughters of feminists beg to wear lipstick
Each day from the age of three.
Daughters of feminists think that a princess is
What they are destined to be.
How do they get so girlie?
How come they want a Barbie?
Why does it start so early?
Why, when we bring her up just like a fella,
Who does she idolize? Cinderella!
(spoken) Honey she’s a doormat. You think when she marries that prince
he’s not going to expect her to run that entire castle? ..
Look at all those rooms. And he’s always on the road
Snow White? Doing all the housework for seven guys?
In return for room and board. This is no deal. Huh!
Daughters of feminists bruise so easily
Daughters of feminists hurt.
Daughters of feminists curtsey and skip
Daughters of feminists flirt.
They say, “Please mommy can I do the dishes?
And let’s make a pie for my brother!”
Are they sincere?
Are they crazy or
Are they just trying to stick it to mother?
How do they get so girlie?
And how come they want a Barbie?
Why does it start so early?
Daughters of feminists just want to play with their toys!
Copyright Nancy White
oct96
Pastor Susan 