Dog Napping!
I happened across the blog of someone who sells Colorado real estate and the title “Dog Napping” caught my attention. It turned out to be a post, with accompanying picture, about a dog that was napping. However, my brain had quickly jumped to the idea of a poor dog stolen by some villainous character such as Cruella de Vil.
It was a reminder of just how easy it is to be misunderstood. That is a lesson that I have been getting pounded with over the last week.
Within the past few days my wife said something which hurt my feelings horribly. She said I misunderstood.
On an online forum I took someone’s remark to be sarcasm at best, and possibly a trap. As it turned out it was someone asking a sincere question.
And, presently I am editing several hundred devotionals. On almost every one of them I find myself struggling with sentences which could be understood in more than one way.
It is not enough to communicate to be understood, we must speak and write to not be misunderstood.
Do you have any “misunderstood” stories? Please use the comment section below to share them.
(Click the image to enlarge it.)
~ D. Barry Weber, on The First Morning
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.
~ Augustine
To seek to extinguish Anger is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: Be angry, but sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger.
~ Francis Bacon
Ignorance is the womb of monsters.
~ Henry Ward Beecher, in Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1867
The test of the life of a saint is not success but faithfulness.
~ Oswald Chambers
Remember the uncertain soldier in our Civil War who, figuring to play it safe, dressed himself in a blue coat and gray pants and tip-toed out unto the field of battle. He got shot from both directions.
~ Paul Harvey
There has never been a statue erected to the memory of someone who let well enough alone.
~ Jules Ellinger
By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The man who removed the mountain began by carrying away small stones.
~Chinese proverb
Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought. Wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.
~ James Allen, in As A Man Thinketh
The trouble with advice is that you can’t tell if it’s good or bad until you’ve taken it.
~ Frank Tyger
Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
~ Karle Wilson Baker
A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.
~ Thomas Carlyle
I could prove God statistically! Take the human body alone. The chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity!
~ George Gallup
In our western society it is unthinkable for a man to walk into a church with his hot on and his shoes off. In the near East it is equally unthinkable for a man to enter a mosque with his shoes on and his hat off.
~ Ted Engstrom, in Seizing The Torch, page 109
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (HT: Heidi)
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Thomas a’ Kempis – Select Quotes
Over the Thanksgiving holiday my sister was speaking with my three year old son who has never met a stranger and is very overt in sharing expressions of love.
“Daniel, you are so very friendly. You would make a great politician. Are you going to grow up to be a politician?”
“No, I’m going to be a pirate when I grow up.”
“Well, darling, those two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.”
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This little boy was waiting on his mother to come out of a store.
As he waited, he was approached by a man who asked, “Son, can you tell me where the Post Office is?”
The little boy replied, “Sure,… Just go straight down the street two blocks and turn to your right.”
The man thanked the boy kindly and said, “I’m the new Preacher in town and I’d like for you to come to church on Sunday. I’ll show you how to get to Heaven.
The little boy replied with a chuckle, “Aawww, come on; you don’t even know the way to the Post Office
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”
In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”
Funny how simple it is for people to trash Christianity, then, wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards
Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
Several months ago I had the privilege of attending a preview screening of The Creek Runs Red which will air tonight, November 20, on your local PBS station. I strongly recommend the film to you.
The Creek Runs Red surveys the environmental catastrophe that resulted once the lead and zinc mines of the Tri-State Mining District stopped operating. The people of Picher and the surrounding area have struggled not only from environmental poisoning but with their very identity. A sociocultural sense of place is not easily set aside.
For many years I lived in Cardin, went to school in Picher, fished the waters that are full of heavy metals, swam in the chat ponds and cave-ins, sucked air full of lead dust from the wind swept chat piles where I rode my motorcycles, trapped game along the banks of Tar Creek, and lived alongside the noble people in the northeast corner of Oklahoma. Therefore, it is not surprising that I would find this documentary to be both fascinating and heartbreaking.
After you have watched the film, come back here and leave a comment letting me know what you thought of it.
CLICK HERE to watch a trailer from the documentary.
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Environmental Issues of the Miami Tribe
Kansas State University Regarding Tar Creek
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam ‘,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”
Some time ago, I started a contest to give away a library, but took several months off from blogging so the collection of books has not grown nearly as large as I had intended. Nevertheless, with the addition of the book below which was donated by SecondWind Resources, the library is now worth $482.29. I have at least six more books to add over the next few weeks. Remember, the drawing for the grand prize is Christmas Eve, so if you have not already entered the contest, do so now. All it takes is a link back to the main contest page from a blog or forum.
The publisher of My Story Your Story His Story
+ + +
My Story Your Story His Story
My Story Your Story His Story
(MY STORY)
It is the author’s belief that God has written amazing stories in and through our lives. These stories should be recorded for generations who follow to read and learn.
(YOUR STORY)
Everyone will leave a legacy. A legacy, according to Webster’s Dictionary is ‘something handed down from one who has gone before’. Some sociologists have contended that a person influences not only their children but four generations of children. What will be your legacy? What is your story that will be repeated for generations yet to come? “Memory Journaling” reaches back to the past for future generations, leaving a lasting legacy of a life lived. God is also the Author of your life and He has given you a story to tell.
(HIS STORY)
Excerpt from the Foreword by Mike Huckabee: “Larry has always had a knack for recognizing the humor in everyday situations. He’s also had a way of recognizing the deeper significance of what might seem like an insignificant event.”
Book: www.memoryjournaling.com
The book is donated by SecondWind Resources – www.SecondWindResources.org
(Value $12.95) Autographed by the author
by Benjamin Hawkins
FORT
WORTH, Texas (SWBTS)- Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary, celebrated Baptist heritage during the
seminary’s Reformation Day chapel service, Oct. 31.
The
Baptist faith, he said, is “part of the fifth wave of the Reformation.”
The first wave of the Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther in 1517,
was only one of the reform movements that spread across Europe in the
16th century. During the same period, the Anabaptists—literally, the
“re-baptizers”— also led a movement known as the “Radical Reformation.”
The Anabaptists called for a return to the practice of baptizing only
born-again believers. They often upheld this conviction in the face of
persecution and death. Because of their perseverance, however, the
conviction that baptism should be given only to believers has spread
throughout Europe and across the world. Today this conviction survives
among Baptists.
“If you
want to be faithful to the Book, and if you want to be faithful to that
part of the Reformation that died on every hand (for teaching
believer’s baptism) … then stop being ashamed of being a New Testament
Christian and a Baptist,” Patterson said. “You are not judging anybody
else’s eternity. Many other folks who are not a part of our movement
are born-again believers. Praise God for that. All we are saying is
that the best way to be faithful to the Lord Jesus is to keep the whole
of the Great Commission.”
Patterson
based his sermon on the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:16-20.
The passage, he said, would likely have been a favorite among
Anabaptists because it upholds their foundational principle of
believer’s baptism. When Jesus called the apostles to “make disciples,”
He was not referring to what, today, is commonly called discipleship.
The modern definition of the term is summed up in the third part of
Jesus’ command: “teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you” (NKJV). According to Patterson, the command to “make
disciples of all nations” was a command to “win them to faith in
Christ.” Jesus then said that those who do come to faith should be
“baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.”
Patterson also
noted that Jesus’ command to “go” would be better translated as “having
gone.” Jesus assumed that his followers would go, and they often did so
as a result of persecution. The apostles, and later the Anabaptists,
often had a bad reputation. Patterson said this partly as a response to
Baptists who refuse to display the name “Baptist” in their church
titles because it carries negative connotations in the minds of
unbelievers.
“If you’re
ashamed to be a Baptist, don’t be one,” Patterson said, reminding his
audience that involvement in the Baptist movement is not seen as
necessary for salvation. “But if you believe what the fifth front of
the Reformation believed, and you believe that a man really does have
to have a born again experience, and then he makes a public confession
of that through the waters of baptism, … then stick that name Baptist
out there … and be thankful to God for the heritage you have.”
Additionally,
Patterson said that the Anabaptists favored the Reformation emphases
summarized in the statements “faith alone” and “Scripture alone.” The
Anabaptists, however, believed that Reformers, such as Luther, Calvin
and Zwingli, had not carried out these emphases completely. To do so
would involve the practice of believer’s baptism. They questioned how
Protestants could speak of faith as the foundation for salvation when
they also baptized infants who were unable to understand and believe
the Gospel. Similarly, they asked how Protestants could claim to follow
Scripture alone when they did not obey Scripture’s command to baptize
believers only.
Archived
Flash Media and MP3 recordings of Patterson’s sermon can be viewed,
listened to or downloaded through the seminary’s Web site,
www.swbts.edu.
About Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern
Seminary celebrates its centennial in 2008. Since its founding, the
seminary has trained and sent out over 40,000 graduates to serve in
local churches and mission fields around the world. In 1908, B.H.
Carroll established the seminary on the campus of Baylor University. It
was moved to its current location on Seminary Hill in Fort Worth in
1910 and was placed under the direction of the Southern Baptist
Convention in 1925. Paige Patterson was elected as the eighth president
of the seminary in 2003.
