"Most of the important things in the world have been accompanied by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." – Dale Carnegie
"Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open." – Unknown
"The last thing one knows is what to put first." – Blaise Pascal
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." – Albert Einstein
"Today is the first day of the rest of your life." – Charles Dederich
"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." – General Norman Schwarzkopf, US Army General
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." – Wayne Gretzky
"Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it." – Mark Twain
Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied,
That maybe it couldn't, but he would be one
Who wouldn't say no till he tried.
So he buckled right in, with a trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried, he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done & he DID it!
In one well-known study, a group of psychologists asked people living in the Dyckman public housing project in northern Manhattan to name their closest friend in the project; 88 percent of the friends lived in the same building, and half lived on the same floor. In general, people chose friends of similar age and race. But if the friend lived down the hall, then age and race became a lot less important. Proximity overpowered similarity. Another study, done on students at the University of Utah, found that if you ask someone why he is friendly with someone else, he'll say it is because he and his friend share similar attitudes. But if you actually quiz the two of them on their attitudes, you'll find out that what they actually share is similar activities. We're friends with the people we do things with, as much as we are with the people we resemble.
– Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point (New York: Little, Brown
And Company, 2000), p. 35. Cited on www.Sermons.com
Beautifully printed copy available.
See below for details.
1. Rise and pray every day: "Again today, dear God, I commit an
trust my life and way to you. I'm available. Please use me to
be as Jesus to every life I touch."
2. Don't sweat the small stuff.
3. Remember these simple sentences: "I was wrong." "I am
sorry." "Please forgive me." "Thank you." Say them
whenever needed and say "I love you" often—whether
needed or not.
4. Come apart and rest a while before you come apart—stress
is a killer.
5. Remember, "Nothing changes if nothing changes."
6. Don't nurse grudges: "Failing to forgive is like drinking poison
and waiting for the other person to die."
7. Carpe diem. Seize the day. "Opportunity comes to pass—
not to pause."
8. Quit the blame-game—"It's choice, not chance, that
determines destiny."
9. Control your thinking or your thinking will control you. "What
the mind dwells on the body acts on."
10. Invest your life in a worthwhile cause by having a noble
purpose for which to live—one that is bigger than yourself—
one that will help make your world a better place in which
to live.
11. Be a positive realist. You will always see what you are looking
for: "Two men look out the same prison bars. One sees mud,
the other stars."
12. The greatest abilities are availability, dependability and
responsibility."
13. "There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience."
14. "Smooth seas never make skillful sailors."
15. When God is silent: "I believe in the sun even when it isn't
shining. I believe in love even when I am alone. I believe
in God even when he is silent."
16. Cry when needed. "Every unshed tear is a prism through
which all of life's hurts are distorted."
17. Laugh a lot. It's still the best medicine.
18. Remember, "The bumps are what we climb on."
19. Fear not. At least 95 percent of the things we fear never
happen. Trust God for the other five percent.
20. Have faith and put God first with your time, talents and tithe.
"Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun" (Psalm 37:3-6, NIV).
A beautifully presented printed copy, framed or non-framed of "New Year's Tips for Better Living" is available and can be purchased on the ACTS online store atwww.actscom.store
As we start the New Year, it's time to rethink and possibly reshuffle our priorities so that we spend more time living the kind of life we and those who love us would be proud of. This poem called "What Will Matter" may provide a useful guide:
What Will Matter Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave. What will matter is not your success but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone. What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters.
"What Will Matter" copyright 2003 Michael Josephson
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
7. The Asian Tsunami ... Thoughts From Chuck Swindoll
By Chuck Swindoll in a letter to a friend who wanted to know where God was.
A good place to begin is this: A great deal depends on one's perspective, derived from one's theological/philosophical position. Life can be viewed horizontally or vertically, that is, strictly from a human point of view (the horizontal), or strictly from a divine vantage point (the vertical).
Viewed Horizontally I find it noteworthy that God gets blamed by critics who see everything from the horizontal. This humanistic position makes mankind the center of attention and the heart and soul of existence. We see/hear this from every corner, expressed succinctly in the statement "It's all about me." From that perspective, should someone say, "God has nothing to do with any of these disasters"—then God is severely criticized for His passivity, being aloof and uninvolved in human suffering and indifferent to earthly tragedies. Being a God of love, He is supposed to guard us from all harm, always make us happy, and certainly keep us comfortable.
From that same horizontal perspective, should someone else say, "God is absolutely involved, active, and wholly engaged, concerned about each heartbreak, each tragedy, every disaster"—then the humanistic public really has a field day. They would then see Him as cruel, even sadistic, since He could stop all of it, but chooses not to. Viewed strictly from a horizontal perspective, basing the logic on human reasoning, God is portrayed at fault either way. It was this kind of thinking that caused Elie Wiesel, one of the better-known WW II holocaust survivors, to depart forever from his traditional Jewish roots at a tender young age, as he describes his disillusionment with God's silence and absence amidst the horrors he witnessed in the death camps, recorded in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Night.
Viewed Vertically However, when one's perspective is vertical and based on a biblical frame of reference, then He is seen as Sovereign over this universe and fully responsible for the unfolding of His plan on earth. Mankind is not the center of attention nor does life revolve around us. I should add that holding to this position means there must be room left for "the mystery of His will" as it relates to good and evil. Let me address that briefly. In the beginning of all life, God made all things good—everything remained in that perfect condition until sin entered, polluting and corrupting not only individual lives but this earth as well.
The curse that fell on humanity as well as nature was devastating in its extent. As a result of sin's universal impact, our sovereign God established specific laws and principles that remain to this day. Among them, certain realities were set in motion: such as consequences following wrongdoing, human struggles and sicknesses, international conflicts and wars, tragedies and disasters, grief and loss and death, to name only a few. Had sin never entered, none of those things would have existed or been of concern. But because it has, an unending litany of problems have and always will accompany life on this planet. In fact, according to prophetic Scripture, they will increase and intensify until the Son of God returns and takes up His rightful place as King and kings and Lord of Lords on planet earth.
Finally, let me go back to my earlier comment regarding "the mystery of His will." Though some theologians would not justify my doing so, I find it helpful to divide His will into at least two categories ... for lack of better terms, His permissive will and His directive will. Without going into both, I'll summarize by saying that tragic events like this Tsunami disaster, the Holocaust, an enormous earthquake, or a flood or even a 9/11 event would fall under the heading of His permissive will. Being sovereign, God was neither surprised by nor absent from anything that occurred.
For reasons beyond our understanding, He permitted them to occur. Being outside the realm of humanity's logical ability to explain (that's why I use the word, "mystery"), it is common to misinterpret such permission, rush to judgment (based on the horizontal mentality) and cast blame on God, not comprehending that He does so because all of it fits into the overall plan He has devised. That plan is moving inexorably toward the final climax where mankind will ultimately realize that He, in fact, is the reason we exist and He, in fact, is Lord, not we. Cruel and unfair and even sadistic as it may seem, all of it "works together for good" in the grand scheme of things—from His [God's] perspective, not ours. For His glory, not ours. In the final analysis, like it or not, "It's all about God."
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