Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Margaret and I were talking this morning on our drive to her work about how a women friend of ours was unjustly given a lower financial bonus than another person where this woman worked.  And this other person was a man.  And I got to thinking about that injustice later and of how that really would bother Jesus.  And in turn it should bother me. The whole thought that John says here is, “Jesus’ crankiness and compassion came from the same source: his outrageous love for every individual, and his pain when anyone is undervalued.” Is that true of us today who say we are followers of Christ?   

A thought by Dallas Willard (2012-04-24) from his book, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (p. 39). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Such a tremendous privilege  and such a tremendous opportunity.  I get to have a relationship with God which in turn means I get to communicate with him and he communicates with me.  Now in this matter of communication with people understanding is a very important thing to me.  It is not imperative to me to have people agree with me as much as it is to have them understand.  Do you understand what I mean?  Now in this context you can’t answer me back.  This is not a conversation and most prayers are all one sided.  That is not God’s fault but our understanding of prayer is the problem.  Prayer is not to be one sided but to be a conversation.  But this matter of God talking back to us can be a problem. I like something that Dallas said, “‘Why is it,’

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 67). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I am overweight.  That is a problem.  I am short.  That is a fact of life.  There is nothing that I can do to get taller.  I will never be taller than what I am today but I can get smaller.  I have this week already lost 3 lbs.  I at one time weighed 260 lbs.  I had to do something about that and I eventually got down to 210 lbs.  Now through different situations I had gotten back up to 223 lbs. and decided that I wanted to do something about that.  So that is a problem that I am striving to solve. Now John says, “Some people get into trouble because they focus their attention on things beyond their control.”  Somebody leaves you.  They may die or they may decide that they don’t want to be married anymore so you go to pieces and your focus becomes something beyond your

A thought by Dallas Willard (2012-04-24) from his book, Hearing God: Developing aConversational Relationship with God (p. 26). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Right before this thought Dallas says, “Sometimes today it seems that our personal relationship with God is treated as no more than a mere arrangement or understanding that Jesus and his Father have about us. Our personal relationship then only means that each believer has his or her own unique account in heaven, which allows them to draw on the merits of Christ to pay their sin bills. Or possibly it means that God’s general providence for his creation is adequate to provide for each person.” But then he says, “But who does not think there should be much more to a personal relationship than that? A mere benefactor, however powerful, kind and thoughtful, is not the same thing as a friend. Jesus says, ‘I have called you friends’ (John 15:15) and ‘Look, I am w

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from his book, Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes (p. 54). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I have been having a problem with gaining the weight that I have been successful at losing over the years.  I had thrown out all my XXL clothes but the XL clothes that I had kept were starting to get tight so I went out and bought some larger clothes again and by doing that I had just accepted the fact that I was destined to be overweight until last night I stopped and took responsibility to figure out what I needed to do.  I decided to do something about the problem other than buying new clothes.  So I sat down and started thinking and talking with my wife and we came up with a new plan and I started doing it today.  Inside of me I decided to take responsibility not to just accept that I couldn’t do anything about it. John quoted Michael Korda who is the editor in ch

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 52). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you found that true?    You have a choice to make and it is a critical choice.  Do I go right or left?  As John says, “It's an opportunity to take the right action, learn from your mistakes, and begin again.” But so many choose the self-pity road.  I can never do anything right.  Everything is against me.  I can’t believe this is happening to me.  And they keep on the failure freeway and never get off of it until they decide to change the way they think and then do something about it. John shares the “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters” by Portia Nelson, which “describes the process of exiting the failure freeway: Chapter 1 . I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 48). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Wow, that is the truth.  John then says, “People are prone to ruts. And anyone who has been conditioned to think failure is his fate has an especially hard time exiting the failure freeway.” I started doing something this past year that I really enjoy doing.  I take and pickup my wife, Margaret from her work every work day.  That gives us extra time together and also helps her plan her day and check off all her emails at the end of her day.  It also means we spend a lot of time on the LA Freeway system.  Anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour.  Now if I had found a route and decided to stick with it every day coming and going I would spend even more time but I have a helper called Waze that sets and changes how I go each time.  It gives me the best and fastest route a