- Will Rogers.Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you should have remained a virgin..'- Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)<><>I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: - 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.'- Eleanor Roosevelt<><>Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement..- Mark Twain<><>The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible- George Burns<><>Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.- Victor Borge<><>Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.- Mark Twain<><>By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.- Socrates<><>I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.- Groucho Marx<><>My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.- Jimmy Durante<><>I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.- Zsa Zsa Gabor<><>Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.- Alex Levine<><>My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.- Rodney Dangerfield<><>
Money can't buy you happiness .... But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.- Spike Milligan<><>Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP .- Joe Namath<><>I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.- Bob Hope<><>I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it..- W. C. Fields<><>Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.- Winston Churchill<><>Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty .. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out..- Phyllis Diller<><>By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.- Billy Crystal<><>
And the cardiologist's diet: - If it tastes good spit it out.
May your troubles be less, may your blessings be more, and
may nothing but happiness come through your door.
Welcome to MasterLife book 2! Join us every Wednesday evening 6pm in the E-2 building Room 312.
Friday, May 27, 2011
A Time to LAUGH!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Fear of Fire by ICR
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Does God think your life STINKS?
Several of us sat around one night discussing the greatest achievements and inventions of the 20th century. Some suggested the airplane, others the automobile, still others penicillin. One elderly gentleman piped up and shouted "DEODORANT!" We all laughed but agreed he had a point. No one likes to be close to someone who stinks.
I thought of Ephesians 5:1 - Does God consider my life today a fragrant offering or does my spiritual life stink? During my daily hygiene routine I bathe and then put on deodorant to prevent an unwanted odor from creeping out of my armpits. Spiritually I must also 'wash' my sins away through confession and repentance and then apply the Holy Spirit to my desires, activities and relationships to prevent my abrasive, selfish nature to creep out through my attitudes, words and actions. By dieing to self the Holy Spirit produces unconditional love and a life God recognizes as a fragrant offering.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." Rom 12:1
Pray that God will reveal to you places where your life may 'stink' and the insight and strength to make changes so that your life may become a fragrant offering.
Monday, May 2, 2011
The Pearly Gates
from Reveling Through Revelation pp. 101-102 by J. Vernon McGee
The names of the 12 tribes may be inscribed on the 12 gates, but the important feature is the material of construction. Each is a perfect pearl. This is the one jewel that sets forth the Church.
See Matt 13:45-46 The earl of great price.
The Church is the pearl of great price. The comparison of the formation of the Church to the formation of a pearl is striking and suggestive. The pearl is different from all other precious gems, for instead of coming from the earth, the pearl comes from the sea. Other stones are mined from the earth, found in rock and ore. They are taken out, cut, polished to reveal their beauty. But the pearl comes out of the sea, and it comes out of a living organism. A little grain of sand or some other particle begins to cut into the side of a living organism. To protect itself, the organism sends out a fluid to coat the object. Layer upon layer coats it until a beautiful pearl is formed.
The New Jerusalem is the home of the Church, and the gates of pearl are there to remind us throughout eternity that we were a little grain of sharp, dirty sand that was a hurt in the side of Christ. We were not attractive: we were in rebellion against God, walking according to the course of this world. But Christ took that ugly thing -- that was you -- and covered it with His righteousness. You and I are covered with Him. The beauty is not in the grain of sand, but in what the organism puts around it. God sees us in Christ, and He is lovely. The pearl was lightly esteemed by Israel, but was precious to the Gentiles. We have no value in ourselves, yet we are the pearl of great price. The price that is put upon a thing gives it its value. The price that He paid gives us value. Christ gave His life to get us, and to Him we are precious.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Let us never forget!
The world hasn't just become wicked...it's always been wicked. The prize doesn't always go to the most deserving.
Irena Sendler
There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.
She had an 'ulterior motive'.
She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews (being German).
Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids).
She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.
The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.
She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.
After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family.
Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was not selected.
President Obama won one year before becoming President for his work as a community organizer for ACORN
and
Al Gore won also--- for a slide show on Global Warming.
63 years later
In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER
Please read the little cartoon carefully, it's powerful.
Then read the comments at the end.
I'm doing my small part by forwarding this message.
I hope you'll consider doing the same..
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!
Now, more than ever, with Iraq , Iran , and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth',
It's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again !!
This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!
Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world..
Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.
Please don't just delete it.
It will only take you a minute to pass this along..
Thanks!
Monday, April 18, 2011
How we konw He lives.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Dismissing Grace by Jill Carattini
The Gospel of Mark recollects a scene that makes me cringe every time I hear it. I wish I could say it was the account of Judas's betrayal of Christ, or the description of Jesus sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. But it is not.
In the first chapter of his testimony to the life of Jesus, Mark describes a man with leprosy who comes to the feet of the unusual rabbi in great need. On his knees, he begs with a statement of certainty, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." To this Jesus responds with an act of healing that would indeed change everything in the life of man pushed to the outskirts of a society, declared leprous in more ways than one. Jesus heals him and then immediately tells the thankful man not to tell anyone. The command is troubling to me, but more so is the story that follows.
As an aside, Mark's Gospel, the shortest of the four, is largely concerned with getting the message of Christ out without delay. He opens his account with a single-sentence introduction, and his favorite word throughout the book is a Greek word meaning "immediately" or "at once." The story of the leprous man is no different.
In response to this man kneeling at Jesus's feet, Mark describes Jesus immediately willing and sympathetic. "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be clean!' Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured" (1:41-42). Mark conveys a compassionate savior who is near to us, reaching out with a power that is relevant to our lives. In the Gospel of Mark, the divine equation is not only apparent but spoken with urgency. God is near; Christ has come; if you will seek him, you will find him.
But the passage continues. Jesus sends the healed man away "at once" and "with a strong warning." "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them" (1:44). It is at this point in the account that I find myself getting quite self-righteously concerned. How difficult is it for a man who was just healed to respond in gratitude by heeding Jesus's simple instructions? It is a strange command, yes, but isn't this the least he can do?
Yet Mark reports a man eager to speak of the power he has seen. "Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news." Adding uncomfortably, "As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere."
The chapter concludes with hope, the story on a positive note (people still find their way to Jesus), but it is often no match for the discomfort I feel. The story Mark tells hinges on the concepts of action and reaction; the words "at once," "immediately," and "as a result" remind us unpopularly that behavior has consequences. Of course, I know we are not islands. I rejoice when the act of falling at Jesus's feet causes a move of compassion in Christ and healing in the hearts of those who need. But I cringe at the thought of my own wrong behavior causing consequences to God. I don't want to think about my ability to grieve the Holy Spirit with my anger, or my foolishness, or my disobedience. I don't want to think about the times I have gotten in God's way, "fixing" the catastrophes through which the Spirit may have been reaching someone, turning away from Christ's simple instructions and forcing him to lonelier places.
And yet, isn't this the reality of the Cross itself? At the actions of humanity, he was dismissed to the loneliest place of all. I, too, am free to act and react, to make choices and affect others. But behavior has consequences; there is always a cost. My behavior brought something into the world that wasn't meant to be there, something God chose to remove by bearing it—by bearing me—upon the Cross. There is indeed a cost, but so there is also a redeemer.
Again and again, whether we reject it or truly hear it, the Christian story requires us to wrestle with the one who responds on our behalf. How often has he reached out to us with compassion only to find that touch rebuffed? How often have we rejected his grace, wisdom, or way, believing we know better? Yet even here, even unto death, his hope and work remains: O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I have longed to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks...
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Is it still winter in your soul?
In order for our lives to bear the fruit of the spirit (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control) "sap" must flow. The sap of the Holy Spirit. Without it our lives will be bare and ugly like the trees up north in winter. Unlike the trees, the sap of the Holy Spirit is not waiting for winter to pass. It needs each of us to truly die to self.
![]() | Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. | |
![]() | Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. |
Is your life looking a little bare? Come join us for MasterLife 2! Learn how to really slay the flesh
and avoid "sin reruns".
Sunday, March 27, 2011
He Knows
Thursday, March 10, 2011
True JOY from the ICR
Into the joy of Jesus, deeper and deeper I go,
Rising with soul enraptured far from the world below;
Joy in the place of sorrow, peace in the midst of pain,
Jesus will give, Jesus will give,
He will uphold and sustain.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Privilege of Prayer - by Beth Moore
Beth Moore on the Privilege of Prayer
The privilege of prayer is the flagship proof that God created man to participate in His kingdom agenda and not just dangle from His fingers like a puppet. That a sovereign God welcomes mere human beings to touch His heart and affect His work is nothing less than stunning. A fresh read of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom in Genesis 18 ought to leave us reeling with the privilege and responsibility of divine access.
“What if there are 50 righteous people, Lord? Would You spare the city of the judgment it has earned?” “Or five less than 50?” “What about 40 people, Lord?” 30? 20? 10?
Scripture calls Abraham by one of the most intimate titles in Holy Writ—“the friend of God.” The freedom such closeness had granted him is illustrated nowhere more remarkably than in Abraham’s intercession. He drew near to God the way God esteems most.
Figuratively speaking, Abraham approached the Maker of heaven and earth balanced on two knees: one of humility (“I who am but dust and ashes,” v. 27, NKJV) and one of boldness (“I will speak but once more,” v. 32). Without both knees pressed firmly to the ground, the intercessor tumbles in the dust with the first harsh wind of worldly resistance.
“The Judge of all the earth” will indeed do right. He cannot do otherwise. But He honors nothing more highly in all creation than a people who willingly align themselves with His agenda through the wonder of prayer.
John 1:12 tells us that “as many as received Him ... He gave the right to become children of God.” By His sovereign authority, every child of God has been assigned certain inalienable rights and responsibilities. Chief among them is prayer.
Over and over God invites us on the pages of Scripture to “Ask!” Humbly. Believingly. Persistently.
To feel caught in the psychological trap of powerlessness is the furthest cry from the position we’ve been given as children of God. No matter what befalls us as a nation, at no time are we victims of a system. We are no further from change than the space of our knees to the ground.
Prayer penetrates doors we will never be privy to enter. Prayer breaks hearts that have been hardened by even the most ruthless pursuit of position. Prayer bridges the gap between the modest den of the meek and the highest places of government, where laws are made and bills are signed and officials wrestle against impossible odds.
Make no mistake. We are not powerless. We are not too remote and removed to make a difference. And we are not a few. If we would but get over our own quarrels and come together on our knees, seeking forgiveness for ourselves first and our country second, dust would fly. Change would come. And to us first.
God is enlisting people like Abraham today. People He can call friends of God. People who are willing to adopt His interests and put their reputations—even their lives—on the line for what is right.
God is enlisting men and women willing to take courage when they’re mocked, willing to love when they are hated and willing to bless when they are cursed. God is calling individuals who grasp the fact that He is more concerned about a change of heart than a change of circumstance.
Indeed, sometimes He appoints circumstances to remain unchanged until hearts move. The veil is still open to the holy of holies through the wonder of prayer. There is still grace and mercy to be found in our desperate time of need. Let the thunder of a million knees quake the earth for good.
Beth Moore, founder of Living Proof Ministries, is the author of numerous well-known books and Bible studies, including Breaking Free, Believing God and The Patriarchs, which have been read and studied by women around the world.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
What's going to happen in Egypt?
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love." John 15:9
Happy Valentine's Day!
Work Principles from Daniel
Work Principals from Daniel
As written and presented by Mary WhelchelDid you ever think that an Old Testament saint could be a great role-model for you as a Christian in the marketplace today? I can assure you that Daniel is that man. We're looking at workplace principles from the life of Daniel. Consider this:
- Daniel was taken out of his comfort zone completely, away from familiar people and surroundings, into a different culture altogether.
When you go to work each day, you are likely to be leaving your comfort zone and entering a different kind of world. In writing to the church in Pergamum, Jesus said-through the Apostle John -'I know where you live-where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name.' Pergamum was thoroughly pagan, and many Christians were martyred there.
The pagan gods may be a bit different today, but they are there:
- The god of materialism
- The god of success
- The god of sexual pleasure
- The god of any kind of pleasure
- The god of 'it's all about me'
Our challenge is to remain true to the Lord even though we may work in Satan's territory. Daniel-and his three faithful friends-were fully immersed in a pagan culture. They worked hard and succeeded in that society. But they did not accommodate their lifestyles or beliefs to the pagan world around them. Their approach was obedient involvement. They stayed involved in the world, while at the same time remaining obedient to God and his principles.
This attitude is a big contrast to other Jewish exiles in Babylon recorded in Psalm 137:1-4:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?'
Have you ever felt like a foreigner in your working world? Well, that's because you are, if you're a believer. This world is not our home. Peter wrote that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood a holy nation, a people belonging to God. He goes on to remind us that we are aliens and strangers in this world.
But Jesus doesn't want us to 'hang our harps on the poplars.' He wants us to sing songs of Zion, even by the rivers of Babylon! A joyful spirit is one of the most powerful weapons we have, both to fight off the enemy, to sustain us-because the joy of the Lord is our strength-and to testify to the foreigners around us that we do have songs of Zion to sing! We have something to sing about!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
These are more effective than 911
When -
You are sad, phone John 14
You have sinned, phone Psalm 51
You are facing danger, phone Psalm 91
People have failed you, phone Psalm 27
It feels as though God is far from you, phone Psalm 139
Your faith needs stimulation, phone Hebrews 11
You are alone and scared, phone Psalm 23
You are worried, phone Matthew 8:19-34
You are hurt and critical, phone 1 Corinthians 13
You wonder about Christianity, phone 2 Corinthians 5:15-18
You feel like an outcast, phone Romans 8:31-39
You are seeking peace, phone Matthew 11:25-30
It feels as if the world is b igger than God, phone Psalm 90
You need Christ like insurance, phone Romans 8:1-30
You are leaving home for a trip , phone Psalm 121
You are praying for yourself, phone Psalm 87
You require courage for a task, phone Joshua 1
Inflation's and investments are hogging your thoughts, phone Mark 10:17-31
You are depressive, phone Psalm 27
Your bank account is empty, phone Psalm 37
You lose faith in mankind, phone 1 Corinthians 13
It looks like people are unfriendly, phone John 15
You are losing hope, phone Psalm 126
You feel the world is small comp ared to you, phone Psalm 19
You want to carry fruit, phone John 15
Paul's secret for happiness, phone Colossians 3:12-17
With big opportunity/ discovery, phone Isaiah 55
To get along with other people, phone Romans 12
ALTERNATE NUMBERS
For dealing with fear, call Psalm 47
For security, call Psalm 121:3
For assurance, call Mark 8:35
For reassurance, call Psalm 145:18
ALL THESE NUMBERS MAY BE PHONED DIRECTLY.
NO OPERATOR ASSISTANCE IS NECESSARY.
ALL LINES TO HEAVEN ARE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY.
FEED YOUR FAITH, AND DOUBT WILL STARVE TO DEATH