October 6, 2009

Number 40

VIEWPOINT

October is Bible School Emphasis Month at Cedar Grove.  To emphasize the importance of Bible reading, Bessie Moore gave me this cute article.  It’s called CELL PHONE vs. BIBLE. 

What would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our mobile phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to think about.  Where is my Bible?

Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill. . . .

And NO DROPPED CALLS!

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Speaking of Bible class, did you hear about the Sunday school teacher who asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem?  A small child replied, “They couldn't get a baby-sitter” (from Lynn Pulliam)

I look forward to seeing you Sunday with a Bible, a smile, and a positive word!  RA

The Set of the Soul

Zig Ziglar says, “Every choice you make has an end result.”   Of course he wasn’t the first to state that principle; he just said it in an emphatic way. 

“Life’s Two Ways” would be a good subtitle for Psalm 1.  It illustrates the difference in life choices.  The wicked person is blown away in judgment while the righteous person is like a towering oak.

The importance of choices was also emphasized by Jesus (Matthew 7:13, 14).  He pointed out that there are Two Inviters (Satan and Christ), Two Gates (wide and small), Two Ways of Life (broad and narrow), and ultimately Two Destinies (Hell and Heaven).

The funny thing about human nature is we always tend toward the easy choice:  “We have confused the free with the free and easy” (Adlai E. Stevenson). 

Many things about your life are not ours to choose. We didn't choose to be born to our mother and father.  Matter of fact, none of us chose to be born at all! We didn't choose a body build, a nose, or ears.  And we can't rework many of the things that have happened to us since being born – where we grew up, educational opportunities, career choices, or many of our relationships.

What we can choose is the attitude we will take toward all those things. We don't have to wallow in self-pity and defeat. 

Time and again we see that it's not what happens to people that's important.  It's what they do about it.  The power of this concept is captured in a poem that Jimmy Pulliam reminded me of.  It was written in 1916 by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

But to every mind there openeth,
A way, and way, and away,
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth, 
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
The way his soul shall go.

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.