Be My Valentine
There are many moving Valentine stories. This is one of the best.
Little Chad was a quiet, shy child. One day he told his mother he wanted to make a Valentine for every boy and girl in his class. Her heart sank. To herself she said, “Oh, I wish he wouldn’t do this.” She had seen how the other children ignored and mistreated him. Walking home from school Chad was always a few steps behind “the gang.” They laughed, talked, and hung on each other, but ignored Chad. He was never included.
His mother decided to go along with him. As he requested she bought the paper, glue, and crayons. For three whole weeks Chad worked every night until he completed the 35 Valentines.
On the big day Chad was excited as he left home with his 35 hand-made Valentines.
His mom knew what to expect so in order to be prepared to cheer him up when he came home she baked him his favorite cookies. This would help ease the pain of his disappointment.
That afternoon she waited with the warm cookies and cold milk. Hearing the children coming from schools she looked out the window. Sure enough, same scene. The group laughing, talking, and hanging on each other with Chad a few steps behind.
As he walked in the house his hands were empty. She choked back the tears.
“Mommy has some warm cookies and cold milk for you Chad,” she said.
He hardly heard a word as he marched by with his face aglow, and all he could say was “Not a one … not a single one.”
And then he added, “I didn’t forget a one, not a single one!”
This is the kind of self-sacrificing love in Christ’s name that can reach hardened hearts and win them to Christ.
Jesus didn’t overlook one of us. The “whosoever” in John 3:16 confirms this.
Agostino d’ Antonio, a sculptor from Florence, Italy, worked diligently on a piece of cairina marble. In frustration over his failure to do anything constructive with it, he discarded it. Other sculptors tried in vain to work with its obstinate composition. Michelangelo saw the massive discarded marble and had it brought to his studio. Painstakingly he began to work on it. Slowly his skilled hands began to release the hidden beauty in it. Eventually his efforts resulted in the classical work of “David” being freed.
The secret of the success was not the stone, but Michelangelo. Look at your life! Is it incomplete, perhaps you even have a feeling of being discarded. You are a potential masterpiece. In the hands of Christ He produces nothing but His best from your worst. In love, commit yourself to Him.
God Is Calling With a Message for You 10/26/03
James 4: 7-10
JESUS CHRIST, the resurrected Lord of new life, said to the church in Philadelphia, in ancient Greece, that which is applicable to our church today: “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it…” (Revelation 3:8).
Together, we the redeemed of the Lord who constitute the membership of this fellowship are called “the church”. What is applicable to the church is related to the individual.
First, a word about us. Then a word about you. For how you respond affects all of us, the church.
The Lord is swinging wide the door of opportunity for us to take bold dramatic steps of ministry and service. In His wisdom He is choosing to challenge our faith. In His love He is granting us an opportunity to think big and act bold. No person can shut the door. We can with cowering and timid spirit fail to go through it. Our negative nature can cause us to question and quibble. We alone can cause what the Lord has in mind to fail. We are often our own worst enemies.
God is setting before this church an open door of opportunity. Months ago this church prayed and sought God’s will in selecting a Pastor Search Team. Thus, this process was begun in prayer. It should be concluded that the Lord composed this team in answer to the prayers of all who sought His will.
For months they have prayed, researched, traveled, and interviewed many people seeking God’s will. This church assigned them the task of finding the person they believe to be His minister for this hour. In light of their prayerful search it is reasonable to conclude they have found the will of the Father in this process. For a ?? person team to reach unanimity is a miracle in itself. They now in one accord with great enthusiasm are ready to recommend the person they are convinced is God’s man to lead this beloved church.
If you believe in prayer you have to trust the process and product.
Opportunity will be provided for persons to meet him and his wife and hear him.
The church on September 17 by unanimous vote gave the Pastor Search Team the authority to set the date and time for a special conference to hear and vote on their recommendation. That decision has been entrusted to them and they have exercised there responsibility to the church by setting the date and time.
I want to appeal to every member to focus on what we are doing and not become divided by how we do it. It is being done by the responsible group in the way they are responsible for doing it. Opinions might well differ on how it should be done. Let’s support those responsible for the decision and their decision.
If we are going to be ready to consider moving as a body through the open door we need to be ready spiritually.
James 4: 7-10 lists some steps of preparation we each need to take. Therefore, now comes the practical personal part of this new year’s challenge.
To be ready to go through the open door of opportunity there must be:
I. COMMITMENT (Verse 7)
A. First, positively. You must “Submit yourselves therefore to God.”
This calls for a conscious willful action on your behalf. It requires you making a choice. Some persons arrogantly refuse to submit themselves. Each of us must respond to the self asked question: “Whom shall I serve, God or myself? Shall I make it my chief concern to do the will of my Heavenly Father, or shall I demand and assert my own way?”
It is said that when Aaron Burr, one of the most controversial personalities in early American life, reached the age of 21, he squarely faced the issue of whom to serve. Resolutely he decided to turn his back on the God of his fathers. As a disgraced murderer, tried for treason and executed his body was laid to rest at the foot of the grave of his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was one of the most revered clergy/statesman of his era. The graves of the two illustrate the difference between one who seeks first the kingdom of God and who chooses slavery to self.
B. Second, negatively. “Resist the devil…”
The devil and his allies, the world and the flesh, have designed and do desire your spiritual destruction.
Resist the devil: Through prayer, Bible study, Regular public worship, Association with friends who are committed Christians
II. CLEANSING (Verse 8)
A. “Cleanse your hands” = outward actions
B. “Purify your hearts” = inward attitudes.
Medical science had not progressed in that day. A common concept was that blood carried in it ideas. They became conscious thoughts when the blood flowed through the brain. It was known that the heart pumped the blood. Therefore, it was thought that the heart was the point of origin of all creative thoughts. Hence, an appeal to cleanse the heart was a directive to change the thought pattern. Don’t let your mind dwell on evil ideas. Purify your thoughts by driving out the wrong concepts and ideas with Bible oriented ideas.
A critical negative spirit needs to be purified. If you are going to think the Christ thoughts the mind must be purified of negativism.
A study shows that for every one negative input eleven positive inputs are necessary to counteract it.
There is a new book entitled “The Theory of Twenty-One.” The author shows as a result of research that out of every 21 people, 20 think negatively about everything. Only one is a positive person.
In another book by a different author entitled “Hide-N-Seek”, persons are urged to inventory their 16 closest relatives. Be objective who among them was negative and who are positive. Most persons will conclude they were reared in a negative environment.
Pray to be the “one” among 21.
III. CONTRIBUTION “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep…” (v. 9)
These are 3 evidences of repentance. Don’t waste your pain. Let it be used of the Lord to draw you to Him.
Kuhino Diamond
IV. COVENANT “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord”(Vs 10)
The word “covenant” means an agreement or testimony. Actually, our Bible is divided into a new and old testament, literally, new and old covenants. A covenant is an agreement. Therefore, agree with the Lord that you are going to “humble yourself.”
It can result in a new beginning. “The Land of Beginning Again” by Louise Fletcher Tarkington:
So I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all out mistakes and all our heartaches,
And all our poor selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old cost at the door
And never put on again.
A renewed covenant will result in guidance.
King George VI of England during World War II made the following words vital in his new year’s address: “I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year – ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.'”
The Lord will guide persons who made a covenant with Him.
Again I say this calls for a willful personal commitment from you. You are called on to make a choice.
George Beverly Shea, a name well known in Christian music, had to make such a decision as a young man. He was offered a significant secular recording contract and a major media job. During the time he was wrestling with this decision the Lord used his Godly mother to help make the decision. She copies 2 verses of Scripture and placed them on the piano. Shea came in and found them and sat for a time meditating on them. Slowly his fingers began to wander across the keyboard as ever so gradually his commitment as expressed in his newly emerging song beloved by millions. He wrote and sang:
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-scared hand.
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
Beverly Shea made a covenant with God. He decided to follow Jesus and that decision has influenced every other decision he has made.
Make your decision today. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow” (Proverbs 27).
God has set before us an open door in ’01. No person can shut it. You can refuse to go through it, however. Likewise, you can choose to go through it.
The Root of the Fruit
“As a man thinks so he is.” (Proverbs 23: 7)
We translate into reality our attitude of mind. What you think, you become.
Attitudes, like pipelines, can get clogged and need cleaning out. Ephesians 4: 30 – 32 notes some of the most common clogs preventing the free flow of an attitude pleasing to the Lord and profitable for the person. Let’s survey them and if at all applicable ask our Lord’s help to remove them.
“Bitterness” refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner person. It develops when a person does something we don’t like and we harbor ill will toward them. This root of bitterness may grow for years before sprouting. However, if the root is allowed to remain it will inevitably sprout. There is a horticultural law which states: “The shoot is proportional to the root.” If you see a little bitterness expressed by a person there is a little bitterness in life. If you see a lot of bitterness expressed, there is a big root of bitterness in life.
The text notes the next sequential step. Bitterness leads to “wrath.” Wrath is an outward explosion of inward feelings.
Anger results from wrath. Anger is an emotional arousal caused by something that displeases us. Most major cities and increasingly smaller towns, have experienced an epidemic of murders. Many of these involve family members or friends. They are called “crimes of passion.”
Horace, the Latin lyric poet, was right when he wrote: “Anger is momentary insanity.”
A person trying to defend a bad temper said, “I explode and then it is all over with.”
“Yes,” replied a friend, “just like a shotgun — but look at the damage that’s left behind.”
Solomon wisely wrote: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.” (Prov. 15: 1)
Carol Travis in “Anger – The Misunderstood Emotion” observes: “The psychological rationale for venting anger does not stand up under scrutiny. The weight of the evidence indicates precisely the opposite. Expressing anger makes you angrier, solidifies an angry attitude, and establishes a hostile habit.
If you keep quiet about momentary irritations and distract yourself with pleasant activities until your fury simmers down, chances are you will feel better, and feel better faster, than if you let yourself go in a shouting match. A ‘ventilationist’ society pays no attention to the social glue of kindness and empathy — and is in danger of disintegrating from within.”
In Ephesians 4: 31 anger is shown to lead to “clamor.” That is a good Bible word for brawling. It means “a tumult of controversy.” It means all pandemonium breaks out. What causes it? Anger. What causes anger? Wrath. What causes wrath? Bitterness. There, exposed, is the root.
No person can ever have the attitude approved by Christ with any stage of that progression alive in his or her life.
Ephesians 4: 32 is the verse that follows and offers a solution: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
What Is Your Attitude?
On April 3, 1977 two 747 jets collided on the runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. 575 people died. Why?
It was a busy and foggy morning. The main airport was closed and this smaller one had to be used. Instead of moving into position on a taxiway, planes had to use the main runway. The Dutch pilot, for some unknown reason, started his take off without clearance from the control tower. The other plane was on the runway and the collision resulted in hundreds of deaths.
One basic lesson taught pilots is that in an air traffic control zone, you do not do what seems right to you, you do what the control tower tells you. The reason is obvious. The tower knows things you don’t. They have better information and everyone’s welfare in mind. To act independently causes disaster.
That is not only true in aviation, but in life. A thick moral fog has moved over our society. Old reliable landmarks are no longer visible. Spiritual visibility is nil. Everyone seems to want to fly by the seat of their pants. Such moral and ethical relativism is degrading and dehumanizing. As a society we are terribly confused morally and spiritually. The basis for judging right and wrong has been obscured.
Those who demand the right to do their own thing need to remember: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.” (II Peter 2:19)
Many are in bondage to immorality.
Three absolutes are needed for guidance.
1. Our God is a holy God, who has absolute standards of right and wrong.
2. God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
3. God has revealed His truths in Scripture. Scripture is absolutely and unconditionally reliable.
Those who order their lives by it are perfectly equipped to operate successfully in the fog.
Those factors should cause us to approach life with enthusiasm.
The derivation of the word “enthusiasm” comes from two Greek words. The prefix “en” means “within.” The Greek word “theos” means “God.” Enthusiasm means “the God within.” When Christ is the God within your enthusiasm it is in direct proportion to the extent of control He is allowed over your life. Enthusiasm is faith that has been set on fire.
Everyone has enthusiasm at some time. Some for only 30 minutes in a lifetime. Others for a lifetime. The latter group consists of those who achieve and succeed.
Steadfast Servants – Part Three
Galatians 5: 22, 23
Jesus is said to have come to serve and not be served.
Regardless of the office we hold, how prominent we are in society, how lofty our position in the business world, we are to be servants of God.
To check your self-concept as a servant, note how you respond the next time someone treats you like a servant. If your attitude is, perhaps unspoken but felt, “Who do you think I am your servant,” you have reason for growth.
It eases the burden if we consider ourselves the servants of Jesus, engaged in serving others in His name. That we are charged to be: “Let a man so consider us, as servants of God….” (I Corinthians 4: 1)
The term translated “servants” was well known in the era of the writing. It was used to describe the people who rowed large ships. Those who remember the movie “Ben Hur” can never forget the rank of rowers in the ship. There were two deck levels of rowers. The term translated “servants” was the term used for those on the lower level. They were called the “under-rowers.” We are the under-rowers of our Lord. He is our captain, we His servants, His under-rowers.
A servant lives to serve. Are you living to serve the Lord? Don’t allow yourself to stagnate or become arrested in your spiritual growth.
In 1924 George Leigh Mallory and some other Englishmen set out to climb the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest. At the altitude of 25,000 feet they established a base camp. From there they started their assault on the summit. They failed and to this day they lie buried on that Himalayan peak under tons of ice.
The others returned to London to tell their story. One who did stood before a large picture of Mount Everest as he addressed a large audience. Concluding his speech he turned to the picture and addressed it as though it had personality. “Everest,” he said, “we tried to conquer you once, but you overpowered us. We tried a second time but you were too much for us.” Then he said with great resolve: “But I want you to know we are going to conquer you, because you can’t grow any bigger and we can.”
It is with this same resolve we face life. Our problems remain as large as ever, but we can grow and conquer them.
A leader in an imminent office can find great fulfillment by assuming the role of a servant/leader. A leader is who he is. He leads as a servant.
An individual in the lowest role of all can find great fulfillment by realizing that therein he is serving the Lord. Thus, both can find purpose and fulfillment. “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men….” (Colossians 3: 23)
Awaiting the obedient servant/steward of our Lord is the fulfillment of His promise: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2: 10)