Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Miles McPherson, (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (p. 69). Baker Books. Kindle Edition . I am spending a lot of time reading the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John over and over this year in order the get to know Jesus better.    I wanted to see how He reacted and responded to situations but that doesn’t mean that I have a relationship with Him. I am a Los Angeles Dodgers fan.   I have followed the Dodgers for nearly 60 years.   Now I have listened on radio and watched Vin Skully on TV for a big part of those years.    He has been the play-by- play announcer for the Dodgers since 1950.   I know his voice, I know what he sounds like but I have never talked with him.   I have no relationship with him. I can read the gospels over and over and even memorized them but until I connect with Jesus in a personal way He only is a great role model.   And He wants to be and can be so much more. Have you connected to Him through pr

A thought by Miles McPherson (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (p. 44). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. That is the truth!  I had a period in my life for three years that I was a real jerk.  It was a tough time for my wife, Margaret but she stuck with me and we are still together living some of the best days of our life.  God has used our life together in so many different unbelievable ways.  We have been able to help so many other marriages in their tough times.  I remember the day that we found out that Margaret had the C word, Cancer.  That was a tough time for us but we held steady and didn’t run from God.  We have made it through with God’s sustaining grace.   She went out this morning and walked 1 ½ hours with my sister.  She is Cancer free after all these years.  She is a survivor. There was a Sunday in my life as a church planter when a good friend of mine came and told me that he was going down the street from our church to plant a

A thought by Miles McPherson, (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (p. 33). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. If we could really believe and live that but we usually whine at God and gripe at why He is letting this happen to me.  But if we really understood that God will work all the bad in a Christian’s life into good. You see, Satan throws these things at us to hurt us and to hurt Him but before it gets to us it goes through God’s love and He changes the purpose.  The purpose was to hurt us but God changes the purpose for our good.  Not all things in your life are good.  There is a lot of rotten stuff out there.  God has the power to change them, to protect you from them but He may have a different plan.  Now you can fight Him and not trust Him and it will truly hurt you.  You have a choice and God will not force His way on you but if you trust Him.  If you trust Him He will strengthen you in your area of weakness, He may move you in a total diff

A thought by Miles McPherson (009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (p. 76). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. Now Satan understands this and he does everything to appeal to our selfish nature by having us gripe and moan and be discouraged.  But what would happen to our view of each day if we saw it as God sees it? Have you ever thought that what you look at as negative from your self-focus could be ideal from a God’s focus?  That the circumstance that you are going through is setting you up to do what He has created you to do?  I mean that disappointment that has come into your life may be an ideal way to show those around you how Christ is making a difference in your life.  If our reactions are the same as those who don’t know Him then how are we any different?  Oh we may pray before our meals or go to church every Sunday or pay our tithe or hate abortion or the gay lifestyle but we react to the negatives of our lives just as a non-Christian would. 

A thought by Miles McPherson (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Locations 914-915). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. I find it so interesting how people believe that they can have a relationship without talking.  Somehow our little boys are learning that from watching their dads who never talk to their wife, their kids, and their parents or even to God.  They are teaching their sons a very harmful lesson.  Their family is dying because of their not connecting with those around them. The same is true in our relationship with God.  That relationship is also enhanced through talking.  And that is a something that Satan wants to keeps us doing.  He knows the power that is available to us from a relationship with God and He knows that we are week in that relationship if we don’t talk to God. I am just now seeing this as an important time in my day.  Oh I always have some of those quick acknowledging times with Him – thank You for this meal, Go

A thought by Miles McPherson (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Location 332). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. Well today is the day that we celebrate love, at least the emotional part of love.  The truth is that is what we view as the definition of what love is but it is really more than that. When I was young I had a weird idea about love.  I didn’t want to cheapen it so I made a self-commitment to when I told that someone that I loved them, the next question would be, will you marry me?  I told two ladies that and asked them both THE question and I got it right on the second one.  I made my lifetime commitment to Margaret Ann Fletcher on November 9, 1974 in Maud, Ohio Wesleyan Church.  We have said that we have never contemplated divorce, murder, yes.  We have been married 37 years – 34 good ones and 3 bad ones.  Those 3 years were what I call my jerk time but Margaret held on and we made it through.  In every marriage there will be t

A thought by Miles McPherson (2009-11-01) in his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Location 1006). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. God wants us to meet the needs of those around us.  That is one of the parts of being created in God’s image that we so many times miss because of our self-focus.  He is here to meet our needs and that is one of our purposes as Brian Moll, my pastor said yesterday. Margaret and I are moving to Florida for one reason.  When God made it clear to me that I was going to Florida to help in meeting the needs of a widow in our family, my mother, then everything fell into place. It is unbelievable how God has worked everything out.  That is the first reason for our going but there are also so many benefits: close to my brother, sister and brother-in-law, warm weather, the Gulf, our own condo, and other purposes.  One purpose comes because we are moving into a 55 and older community.  What a tremendous opportunity to make a difference.  N

A thought by Miles McPherson (2009-11-01). DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Locations 1024-1025). Baker Books. Kindle Edition . God gives us each day to live, not endure.   It is our choice.  Because I have a relationship with God and I believe in a big God and I believe He knows what He is doing then I believe He built today for me for a reason.  That is living life with confidence with faith.  So what is there to learn today, what is there to do today and who is there for me to encourage today?   That is what living life is all about. “This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24 (NKJV) So what is your choice for today, living or enduring? 

A thought by Miles McPherson, (2009-11-01) from his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Locations 1018-1019). Baker Books. Kindle Edition . I am writing on my other blog, bill’s front porch , about what James in his New Testament book says about patience.  It is what we as a family need right now.  I like what Margaret, my wife has been saying, our plans are written in pencil.  We have changed our plans over and over in the last few months about when Margaret and I are going to load up the U-Haul with all our stuff here in Oceanside, New York and head down to our condo in Seminole, Florida.  The truth is each time we made the plans they seemed like a good idea until the day we changed them.  There were different things out of our control that needed to fall into place for our plans to happen but the truth is they weren’t out of God’s control.  We may not see the why now but down the road we will see that the time we finally did it was perfect.  That is why my

A thought by Miles McPherson, (2009-11-01) in his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Location 424). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. That is truly a God thing, to have that perspective in our lives, that God is out ahead working things out for us.  Now of course that isn’t true of everyone.  It is only true of those who have a relationship with God through Jesus.  Now let’s say that this perspective is just what you needed to hear, to believe today.  This is exactly what you needed today.  During my time of prayer I prayed that God would show me what thought needed to be shared today for some particular person who would read this today.  God wanted to speak to you personally and He was going to use today’s blog to do that.  Now you come across it somewhere but you decide to not click on it and read it so then you wouldn’t have benefited from the thought that God had provided for you personally today.  in order to receive the benefit you had to do something. Go

A thought by Miles McPherson, (2009-11-01) in his book, DO Something!: Make Your Life Count (Kindle Location 419). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. Miles who played professional football in the NFL tells of the three times he was cut or fired from a team and how it affected him each time.  The same action brought three different reactions to him, sad – mad and then glad.  The difference with the last one was he had learned to trust that God had a plan. Yesterday we were looking at an impossible situation and the answer came back as no, not at this time.  Now when you have prayed, really prayed about something and you don’t get the answer that you wanted there is disappointment and some pain but there is also victory.  God could have but He didn’t so you know that He has a better plan.  That is where trust comes in.  The pain of the first no really hurt but it also brought us to a deeper time of prayer which also brought us to a deeper commitment to His plan.  So the pain brought