Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetim e (p. 188). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark continues, “Epitaphs are a powerful thing. What is said about us when we die is a window into how we lived our lives. Epitaphs reveal the innate desire each of us has within us to leave an impact on the world. Even after we have left this earth, we want to leave something of ourselves behind. We want to be remembered for something.” So many people leave life and death to chance.  For one they have left the fact that there is a God who has made them and who has a purpose for their life to chance.  They have not acknowledge there need for Him.  They have just lived their life as if they didn’t need any help from their Creator.  No that is taking a chance.  And then death.  That is taking

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 18). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark then says, “They are often right across the street, down the hall, or in the seat next to you. You don’t have to go looking for adventure. If you follow Jesus, adventure comes looking for you. Jesus didn’t carry a cross to Calvary so that we could live a halfway life. He died so that we could come alive in the truest and fullest sense of the word.” I love that.  I have lived two adventures this morning.  One was in a Starbucks in Burbank where I talked with a young lady who shared the adventure of her life with me.  She and her husband have just moved here from Baltimore, Maryland.  It was a great time of sharing from our thoughts and our lives. I then went to Aroma Coffee and Tea Co

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 154). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)     Mark right before this thought says, “I thank God for memory. Without it, we’d have to relearn everything, every day. It’s our ability to remember the past that enables us to imagine the future. And that’s the point of remembering His faithfulness, isn’t it? It fuels our future tense faith.”  And then he says, “In my book, success is succession.” He then continues, “If your influence ends with you, it wasn’t worth your time and effort. Your life is a dead end. But if you influence the next generation, you won’t just enter eternity when you die. You will live on in the lives of those you leave behind. That’s what spiritual fathering and mothering is all about— leaving a legacy of wisdo

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 147). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I’m not wanting to spend much time on the fact that I just celebrated my 68 th year going around the sun.  But I did and there are benefits to that fact.  As Dick says, perspective is one of them. He says, “I heard Dr. J. Edwin Orr, a renowned church historian with doctorates from both Northwestern University and Oxford, relate an intriguing anecdote some years ago. As a chaplain on the Pacific island of Moratai in World War II, he was cornered by a young soldier who, having witnessed carnage beyond belief, said, ‘I am an atheist. There is no God!’ Musing on that challenge, Orr said, ‘Son, how much of all there is to know do you think you know?’ Taken aback, the young man faltered. Dr. Orr

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 140). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) One important thing in writing this blog is to find a thought that interests you but it also interests me.  Now if you got this far then I must have quickened your interest and I’m glad I did.  So many people think they are done knowing when they leave school but the reality is you will never be done until you die.  The problem is many people die between their ears before they die physically and that is a great waist. Now Marks says, “The human brain weighs three pounds. It is the size of a softball, and yet with it we have the capacity to learn something new every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the next three hundred million years. God has created us with an unlimited

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 126). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark continues this thought by saying, “As a pastor, I’ve seen this play out over and over again in the lives of the people around me. I’ve learned that if someone has a critical eye, they will always find something to be critical about. And if they have a grateful eye, they will find something to celebrate even in the worst of circumstances. The Bible calls this having a ‘good eye.’” Matthew 6: 22– 23 says, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good , your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness” (NLT). He then says, “Having a ‘good eye’ in life changes how you see yourself and everything around

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 124). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) How sensitive I am is a decision.  Do you realize that?  I have within me the ability to choose how I take something that you do or say.  I cannot control what you do but I do control my reaction to what you do.  As Dick says, “When Scripture says, ‘As a man thinks, so is he,’ it is raw truth. How we approach life and react to its vagaries determines the bulk of our character. How we love is locked into how we think about it. What angers us is triggered by how we think. It is between our ears that we decide how easily offended we will be. When it comes to harsh words from others, whether my skin absorbs like cotton or deflects like Teflon is a decision I make. All of that happens in a three-p