Victory

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Victory

Louis L’Amour wasn’t speaking about spiritual victory, but his words from “The Walking Drum” could certainly apply:

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.”

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The Church and its mission

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Church, Mission

The church exists by mission, just as a fire exists by burning. Where there is no mission there is no church, and where there is neither church nor mission, there is no faith.
–Emil Brunner

The mission of the church is to glorify God by leading men to know Him through faith in Jesus Christ. Our mission is the mission of our Lord … To glorify God is to reveal or manifest His true character, to make Him known as He is.
–Hugo H. Culpepper

Things are not always what they seem

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Appearances

Years ago, “The Chaplain” magazine told how the noted preacher Charles Spurgeon and his wife were called miserly because they sold all the eggs their chickens laid and wouldn’t give any away. Because they always made a profit on their butter, milks and eggs, rumors circulated that they were greedy.

The Spurgeons, however, took the criticism graciously, and only after the death of Mrs. Spurgeon was the truth revealed. The records showed that their entire profits had been used to support two needy, elderly widows whose husbands had spent their lives in serving the Lord. Yet because the Spurgeons did not want to call attention to their giving (Matthew 6:3), they had refused to defend themselves.
–“Our Daily Bread,” October 27, year unknown

Deceit

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Deceit

Christopher Columbus kept two records of the distances traveled on his first voyage to the New World in the Santa Maria. One was true, he thought, but he deliberately faked the other. Ironically, the fake log turned out to be the more accurate of the two.

To alleviate his crew’s fears that they were getting too far from home on an unknown sea, Columbus gave them a reduced mileage estimate. When, for example, he told them on September 11, 1492, that they had covered 16 leagues, he recorded 20 leagues in his secret log. Though he didn’t know it, Columbus’ “true” distance records were overestimated by 9% on the average. His faked distances came out closer to the actual distances traveled.

When the crew found out about his deception, they threatened to mutiny. Before they did, however, land—and a New World—appeared.
–Parade Magazine, March 18, 1984

Cheaper to tell the truth

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Truth

In a recent comic strip, “Shoe” by Gary Brookins & Susie MacNelly, the character who is an attorney is moaning about how “tough it is to be a lawyer these days.” Shoe asks, “How come?”

The attorney explains, “Legal fees have gotten so high, a lot of clients have decided it’s cheaper just to tell the truth.”

Look for Jesus in Disguise

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Mother Teresa, Service

Mother Teresa was once asked, “How do you love the unlovely?” She answered,  “First, we meditate on Jesus, and then we go out and look for Him in disguise.”

In The News: This “Prophet” Will Raise You From The Dead, But There’s A Price

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False Prophet, resurrection

His name is Yakim Manasseh Jordan, and he claims to be able to predict the future, heal the sick, and the 25-year-old he says he can even raise the dead.

But there’s a catch. He is unable to release his “prophetic” words without the promise of a financial gift: “I must know how much money you are asking God to release. So write me back, and email me immediately…I have to give you this prophecy.”

Apparently, people are paying. Jordan’s most current listed addresses include a $2 million luxury condo on Sunny Isles Beach and a $4 million waterfront mansion in North Miami Beach, Florida.

Happiness is…

These definitions of happiness once appeared in “Reader’s Digest” (July 1985):

Happiness is …
… the 15^th day of a 14-day diet.
(Ken Osborne in “National Enquirer”)

… a back-seat driver with a sore throat.
(Wayne Mackey in Oklahoma City  “Times”)

… being able to sleep late and still have a reason to get up in the morning.
(Waunita Boquist)

Mike Huckabee: How To Know When God Is Speaking To Us

How do we know when God is speaking to us and that those “spiritual” promptings are not just gastronomical gurglings from not having eaten breakfast?

1. God never speaks contrary to His Word, the Bible. If what “God says” in a specific situation doesn’t agree with what He already has said in His written revelation, something is wrong.

2. God is not in the habit of changing His mind about the same issue. If He released a statement about a matter 2000 years ago, He holds the same position today.

3. An “impression of the Lord,” if genuine, will usually rest in harmony with that of a host of praying and perceptive Godly counselors.

4. “God’s will” is not always custom tailored to fit man’s desires. This is not to imply that God consistently passes out bitter pills to His children, but beware when what “God told me” is invariably what you wanted to hear.
–Mike Huckabee, in “Life’s Answer,” August 1979, p. 21