Zig Ziglar motivational quotes

Success  •A goal properly set is halfway reached. • Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes. • Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. • If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. • Don’t let the mistakes and disappointments of the past control and direct your future. • Little men with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds. • Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands. • If you want to reach a goal, you must “see the reaching” in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal. • If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if

Truth

Helpless to help

Text: John 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

Like any verse, there is a lot to say about this one. But in these brief moments, I want to focus on the disciple, whom I believe to be John, standing with Mary, watching the cruelty inflicted on her Son and his beloved friend and Master unable to do anything about it.

1. Some here have experienced horrible tragedy. Some are still suffering post trauma. Others are still enduring an on-going crisis. This will help personalize the suffering that occurred 2,000 years ago.
2. Today, I would like us all to consider cruel, cruel, deep pain. I would like you to imagine the day of your most horrific moment in life as we turn our attention to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Let’s make this personal, because it was not just Christ who

Pastoral image humor

Catchy Phrases

Don’t give up. Moses was once a basket case!

Try Jesus, if you don’t like Him, the devil will take you back.

If you don’t like the way you were born, try being born again.

Free coffee and everlasting life. Yes membership has its privileges.

Atheism in the gap of ignorance

Order and complexity from an accidental explosion?

If God and the spiritual was physically observable, then He and it would be subject to the physical laws which contradict their existence. Unlike the ‘God of the gap’ argument, which says that we do not know, therefore God…, we are deriving a conclusion for origins from a supernatural God because of what we do know, namely, that the physical laws indicate that energy cannot create itself or reduce its entropy in a closed system. To propose that it did in spite of the evidence to the contrary is unscientific and foolish bias. In fact, this argument for atheism becomes the “Atheism of the gap” argument, which says, we don’t know how it happened, but it happened by natural, physical means in spite of empirically derived laws to the contrary. It is an irrational and unscientific conclusion.

There is nothing unscientific about searching for new laws and insights into the physical world, however, based on what we know today, the logical and rational conclusion is that there must be a God.

In summary, evidence for God includes the physical laws, which lead us to the conclusion of God’s existence because of what it tells us cannot happen. Couple this with the evidence of irreducible complexity in design of the universe based on what we do know about creating extreme complexity and design, and with the personal experiences and knowledge that believers have of knowing God’s presence, and we have reason to believe in God.

The counter point here is that many who believe in God are faking it or that there is disagreement about which God exists. So, how can anyone know that there is a God if people can believe in things or say they believe in things that do not exist? The answer is that the error of some does not exclude the truth of others. Knowledge of God as a personal experience is real regardless of being able to prove it to others. For example, I cannot prove to you that I ate oatmeal for breakfast last week. There is no evidence. However, I know it to be true. The truth of my experience is not dependent on my ability to prove it to others. My statement of what I claim to be true may not be evidence, but it is a reason for others to consider the physical evidence for God’s existence.

Tebow spikes atheists hypocrisy

Are Tebow’s public prayers hypocrisy? His critics think so, but the Bible does not. Matthew 6:5 warns of praying FOR public attention not for praying IN public. Hypocrites pretend to pray to God but are really praying for personal attention from others. They have their reward when they get their public attention.

Atheists criticizing football sensation Tim Tebow are hypocrites when they claim to know his motive in spite of the evidence of his genuine faith. The hypocrisy in atheists prevents them from seeing the sincerity of faith in others, and their arrogance convinces them of their presumption. To their shame, sincerity makes the least person more esteemed than the most vocal hypocrite.

Atheists compound their hypocrisy when quoting verses from the very book they ridicule. The atheist is the despicable kind of hypocrite who criticizes the very thing they use to criticize others.

Pity the poor atheist preoccupied with living for the denial of that which could give them something real to live for.

Why did God create man if He already knew many would reject Him and go to hell?

Offer for all, prevention for none.

Refusal to create Adam and all those who would subsequently follow after him would be denying the experience of eternal bliss to all those who would accept God. So then, rather than deny all the opportunity, God chose to give all the opportunity for eternal blessings. It is the greater and fairer choice to deny none than to deny all. Preventing the creation of those who reject God would have prevented the creation of those who would accept Him. Many of us who profess God have ancestors who mocked and scoff at God’s existence and promises. But without them, we would not be here. And rather than allow the scoffers to prevent those of us from being blessed, God allowed them the same opportunity for eternal bliss.

Live and die or die and live

You will die under law

Romans 7:1 warns. “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?”

Paul asks this question because it is not good to be alive in and under the law. The paradox here is that to live under the law is to die spiritually—forever. Why is this so?

Paul sums the point in First Corinthians 15:56 saying, “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” It is the law that makes it possible to judge sin. And because we are all sinners, under the law, we are all condemned.

In Romans 7:9, Paul explains his experience with law, sin and death saying: “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment [law] came, sin revived, and I died.” This is Paul’s testimony of coming to the age of accountability. Prior to the law was his early developmental years as a child when he was not morally aware of the law. In this stage of life, he was not under law. But after reaching the age of accountability and becoming aware of the law, he was accountable for his sins, and died. Obviously, this was not a physical death. He is referring to spiritual death defined in First John 5:12, which says, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Sin separates us from God, and spiritual death is separation from God whether you are alive or dead physically (John 3:18).

To live under the law means to be accountable to do the commandments of the law in order to remain in God’s favor. But there are four problems that reveal why no one can experience eternal life under the law.

First, eternal life is a free gift. Romans 6:23 says, “… but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Eternal life cannot be purchased, bargained for, or earned. It is not a reward. It is a gift from God, purchased by God, and given by God freely and graciously. This is why Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Second, there is no end to the keeping the commandments of the law. Keeping the law would not be merely a gaining of approval and reward, but it would require maintenance to remain true to the law throughout eternity. One slip up, at any point, and you lose your approval and reward. So ask yourself honestly, what one thing have you been able to do perfectly without slacking off. Now remember that there are many commandments in the law. Have you kept them all? Do you even know them all? Not knowing all the points of law is a sin in itself.

Third, eternal life is eternal. This means

Five Kernels of Corn

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Brownscombe

The Pilgrims left Leydon, Holland when they heard about and prayed about the opportunity to go to America. But, the Pilgrims were not Dutch. They were English. Why were they in Holland? They were separating themselves from the spiritual corruption in the Church of England. The Bishops would not tolerate such rebellion, so under persecution, the “separatists” fled to Holland.*

The hard conditions of life in Leydon made the idea of settling in a new land appealing, but not without much prayer. They were seeking a life of total commitment to God. Thus, when they came to the shores of America they consecrated it and themselves with prayer.

Not surprisingly, settling the new land was hard. However, they had freedom to pursue worship of God in purity. Nearly half of them died the first year. The second year started with a promising outlook until new comers came from England without supplies of food or clothing. The new colony took on the burden of more mouths to feed, but the daily ration was down to five kernels of corn. Can you imagine living on five kernels of corn? Miraculously, they all lived through the winter’s icy chill. Not a single person died.

The following summer, they planted extra acreage of corn, but a drought set in. The Indians said it was the worst they had ever seen. The Pilgrim’s began a community prayer and fast. Nine hours later, clouds appeared, and for the next fourteen days, there was a soft, soaking rain. The result was a bumper crop. The second thanksgiving that year was a feast. There was an abundance of food. But, before they feasted, they all received a plate with just five kernels of corn on it. William Bradford wrote, “We have noted these things so that you might see their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so much hardship.”

This year my family’s feast will begin with the five kernels corn and a prayer of thanks to God for His grace, His blessings, and our spiritual founding and heritage.

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*Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Pub. Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids Michigan, 1977.

Picture from Pilgrim Hal Museum, http://www.pilgrimhall.org/f_thanks.htm