Self-Control

I had this little story forwarded to me, and I thought it was quite good, and gives a fresh perspective to us about how our actions can hurt others... Hope you enjoy!

"NAILS IN THE FENCE"

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. So his Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in thefence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is stillthere."

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed! They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.

Maybe you need to ask a friend to forgive you if I have ever left "a hole in their fence!" Don't hesistate to do it.

Consider this quote...

"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it." -Harvey Mackay

Puns are Phunny!

I get a kick out of some puns. I really like the show Frazier, and he takes every opportunity that he can to play with words, and use puns. I know, it is dry humor, but humor nonetheless; and I really enjoy them sometimes... I say that with the risk of being considered really cheesy myself becuase most consider puns to be the worst jokes ever. It is when someone says a pun, most respond by saying, "Oooo, that was a bad joke."

Try these ones on for size...
"Energizer Bunny arrested -- charged with battery."
"A pessimist's blood type is b-negative."
"Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor."
"A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired."
"You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it."
If you have some good ones, please share them!

Well anyhow... With that in mind, I ran across this in my Bible reading time, Jeremiah 3:22, "Return, you backslidding children, and I will heal your backslidings." I know that God is not trying to be funny here, in fact this is a very serious moment. But, according to my study and some commentary, He is taking advantage of a pun.

The Hebrew root word that occurs here in this verse apply for both words, return & backsliding. These are both variations of the same word. So God is using it to His advantage, as if to say, "If you are into returning to something, RETURN to Me and not your sin!"

Beyond the pun, and the funny stuff, I have really seansed this to be a word from the Lord for us American Christians and non-Christians. It is time to return to the Lord!

Hosea 10 says the same thing in verse 12. "For it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness on you." Church, I think that we would all agree that it is time to get ahold of God, and let God get ahold of us...as I say.

Let's return to the Lord, isn't it time? And that is no joke...

Missing the Point!

I wanted to share an illustration today that still strikes me deep as I think about it. I have been preaching from Revelation 2:1-7, where the Lord speaks to the Church of Ephesus about their lossing their first love. We all run the danger of doning that very thing... We get busy, we try to keep things going, but are spread out too thin, and before you know it, we have lost our first love and we have missed the whole point of why we are doing the things we are doing for God because the love in our hearts for the Lord have grown cold.

This story I have run across really speaks to the issue in a vivid way. John MacArthur, Jr., in his book The Ultimate Priority tells the following story…
A number of years ago I read a newspaper account of a christening party in a wealthy Boston suburb. The parents had opened their palatial home to friends and relatives who had come to celebrate the wonderful event. As the party was moving along and the people were having a wonderful time, eating and drinking and celebrating and enjoying one another, somebody said, “By the way, where is the baby?”
The heart of that mother jumped and she instantly left the room, rushing into the master bedroom where she had left the baby asleep in the middle of the massive bed. The baby was dead, smothered by the many coats of the guests.
Christian firend, that is a vivid and disturbing image, revealing to us just how caught up in the work of the Lord we can become, and yet fail in ministering to the Master Himself. Like with the Mary and Martha dilema in Luke 10. But Jesus said that Mary chose the better thing. Which is a warnign to us that if we are not cautious, we can miss the whole point of what we are doing! It really is all about Jesus!
Give this some thought, G. Campbell Morgan said, “No amount of activity in the King’s service will make up for the neglect of the King.”

Hum the lyrics to the song, "Heart of Worship" to yourself, and remember that in all we do and say for the Lord...it is first ALL ABOUT HIM! Don't miss the point.

A Country Funeral...

I had this story sent to me by a friend, and thought I would share it here...it is cute and funny. Hope you enjoy it!

As a young minister in Kentucky, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a grave-side service for a homeless man, who had no family or friends.The funeral was to be held at a new cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be buried there..I was not familiar with the backwoods area, and I soon became lost. Being a typical man, I did not stop to ask for directions. I finally arrived an hour late..I saw the backhoe and the open grave, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. The digging crew was eating lunch. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and I stepped to the side of the open grave. There I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long, as I told them that this was the proper thing to do.The workers gathered around the grave and stood silently, as I began to pour out my heart and soul. As I preached about "looking forward to a brighter tomorrow" and "the glory that is to come," the workers began to "Amen," "Praise the Lord," and "Glory!" The fervor of these men truly inspired me. So, I preached and I preached like I had never preached before, all the way from Genesis to Revelations.I finally closed the lengthy service with a prayer, thanked the men, andwalked to my car. As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I heard one of the workers say to another, "I ain't NEVER seen nothin' like that before, and I've been puttin' in septic tanks for thirty years.