Let Your Light Shine

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. - Matthew 5:16

As pointed out in the post “Integrate Faith with Lifestyle”, the Bible is filled with words of counsel and knowledge but you have to apply this by first listening to these words of knowledge and then let them inside so they become a part of your heart and soul.

To turn on the light switch to let your light shine today, here’s a song called Speak life by Toby Mac that inspires hope, encouragement, concern, and love for your neighbor.

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One Body to Make the Ministry Work

So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. - Romans 12:5

In the post “Communication for the Lord’s Work”, brought out is the idea of each member of the church being connected and the importance of having those behind the scenes making a ministry work.

There is no better time to put this idea to work with the latest technology that allows us to study God’s Word and share thoughts. We can worship from any place or anytime with songs like this one: How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin.

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Victory in Life

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. - 1 John 5:4

Brought out in the post Overcome Evil with Good, were some main ideas expressed and emphasized within Romans 12:9-21. Imagine a society that obeyed these ideas. There would be much less crime, greater health, and much more productivity in the economy.

The game plan to obeying these ideas is to overcome evil with good by being faithful in prayer, being joyful in hope, and devoted to one another in brotherly love. If wronged, understand that God will take care of the injustice.

The key then is to focus on being on God’s side. My pastor Steve Ramsdell brought out in a sermon one time that our plans do not always work out but God’s plan for us always brings victory in life.

So this day with God, let Him in your life and allow for His power to bring hope to your future. Many of us hate losing. We may watch our favorite sports team and at some point they lose. We can be down for several days but with God, we never lose. There is always victory.

Just as brought out in the song My Victory by Crowder, we gain victory through Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was hell’s defeat. A cross meant to kill became the secret weapon to victory.

Index of devotionals

Ideas for Gaining Daily Victories

I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13

The lesson as laid out in the post “The ONE Who Won” was that the Lord fights for you. With Him, you can do so much more. He prepares a path for you by driving out obstacles in your way so love the Lord your God and step ahead.  

Sometimes the greatest competition we face is within our own mind. We may have a major deadline at work or a major payment due. Our mind may keep telling us, “It’s too difficult … I can’t do this” but because of God we can have confidence to tell our mind, “Yes I can”.

One idea is to memorize scripture like the one at the top of this post when faced with pressure situations in life. Another idea may be to listen to music for inspiration. God has fought over the years for His people and He fights for you today.

The greatest historical victory ever was His Son Jesus Christ who died for all. Grace wins all the time to allow you to rise up to victory on a daily basis. Take a few minutes to be inspired by this song Grace Wins by Matthew West  because the victory is for all who belong to Christ Jesus.

Index of devotionals

Partnership in the Faith

In the post Believe and Have No Need, I wrote about the believers becoming of one in heart and mind. It was not about the individual but about something bigger. It was about working together to spread the Good News of the Lord Jesus.

We can do the same today but at an even greater rate because of the Internet. Thoughts and ideas can be shared with believers across the globe. There are inspiring videos, quotes, thoughts, and ideas that are easily shared daily.

Let us purposefully look for God today in nature, music, sports, movies, at the golf course, work, the shopping center, and in His people. Document what you see. Collect facts, quotes, and personal thoughts from your experiences. Let us work together to highlight the building blocks of faith that lay a path for us to step ahead and spread the Good News.

Let us be thankful that Christ has given us a helper in the Holy Spirit that we can lean on together as our partner in the faith. Enjoy today’s video Lean On Me – Bill Withers

I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. - Philemon 1:16

Index of devotionals

Ideas for Building Up Physical and Spiritual Health

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about the importance of physical and spiritual health. In this final post on this subject, I’d like to put forth some ideas. Each day is a new day and our today can be better than yesterday. This day with God, we can get off on the right track, have the right frame of mind, feel better, be happy, and do amazing things. There are many dietary rules in the Bible that test our obedience. These rules can apply today for the food we take in for our souls including what we read, watch, or think about.

One idea is to go on short vacations by surfing the net for pictures that help connect to a Bible verse, find something that makes us laugh, or find facts about our Creator’s amazing world. This activity has two goals in mind. First, it relaxes our body and mind. Second, it equips us for sharing thoughts and ideas with others.

A prescription for stress is working out with God’s Word, praying, and listening to the Spirit. These activities build muscles of faith which stay strong and build forever. Unlike muscles of the physical body, building up muscles for the soul provides an everlasting gain.

One idea I’ve tried is to mix scripture and exercise into a routine that I call believersize. What you do is find a scripture to memorize and search the internet for pictures that crystallizes a principle from that scripture. You then can put these together into an application like PowerPoint. As you ride your stationary bike or walk on the treadmill, you can view the slides. This is a way to take in God’s Word and exercise at the same time.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” The goal is to take care of God’s temple through a system of scripture memory and exercise. You can have all the latest and greatest exercise equipment but if you never take it out of the box, it’s useless. You have to find something that inspires and there’s nothing like God’s Word to get you started. With believersize, you begin to notice things seem easier. That’s because the intangibles of a winner are being built from the inside and all that internal good stuff just oozes out.

For an inspirational start to your day, join me at This Day with God Devotional.

You Can Keep The “F” and I’ll Keep My Dream

In anything we do, there should be a purpose. I once heard a story about a grammar lesson in eighth grade. The teacher said, "Paul, give me a sentence with a direct object." Paul replied, "Everyone thinks you are the best teacher in the school." "Thank you, Paul," responded the teacher, "but what is the object?" "To get the best mark possible," said Paul”.

When we have a purpose, it reduces frustration and keeps us on a steady course. Our motivation is increased by making our life meaningful and giving us a hopeful future. We are able to concentrate on a target and teamwork is easier because there is cooperation to proceed in the same direction.

A baseball coach once made the statement that hitting is about 90% mental. I remember a story my high school baseball coach told our team the day before a tournament. He gave a talk to the team about a golfer that was sick. He would lay in his bed dreaming about playing golf. In his dreams he would always see himself hitting the perfect shot. This went on for several weeks as he played rounds of golf in his head. When he got over his sickness several weeks later, he was able to go out to the golf course and shoot his best round of golf ever.

Most athletes see in their mind the accomplishment of their dream. Have you ever seen a track athlete focus on the finish line as they warm up for the 100 meter sprint or a high jumper as they focus on clearing the bar? Just like a track and field athlete trying to win a race or jump far and high, we can see ourselves winning in our marriages, our professions, or our businesses. In the movie “Field of Dreams” there is a voice “If you build it, they will come”. The voice inspires the building of a baseball field.

From the book “Chicken Soup for the Soul” By Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, revealed to us is the importance of having a dream and sticking to it. The story is about a group on a retreat at a horse ranch in Southern California. To start the activities, the owner of the ranch tells a story of a boy in high school who had to write a school paper. This boy’s family was always moving because his father was a horse trainer and they would move from ranch to ranch; wherever there was work. Since it was the boy’s senior year, the paper assigned by the teacher to all his students was on the topic, “What do you want to be when you grow up”. Many students were going their separate ways either off to college, to the military, or straight into a career so the teacher was wondering what their dreams were.

The boy began at once to write a seven page paper. Within the paper, he told of a dream of owning a 200-acre ranch where he would train horses. He was so excited about writing the paper that he took the extra time to draw sketches of the ranch, the buildings, and stables. He then drew detailed floor plans for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on the dream ranch.

He handed in the paper with confidence but two days later the teacher gave back the paper with a big fat “F”. The teacher explained to the boy that this was an unrealistic dream because he had come from an itinerant family who had no resources. The teacher explained that a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land and pay for the original breeding stock. The teacher told him to rewrite the paper with a more realistic dream and resubmit the paper.

The boy thought about it for a week before finally going to the teacher with these words, “You can keep the “F” and I’ll keep my dream.”

The owner and speaker then paused for a few seconds, looked at the assembled group, and said, “I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4,000 square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch”. He said, “I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.” He added, “The best part of the story is that two summers ago that teacher who gave me the “F” brought 30 kids just like you to this ranch.” When the teacher left to go home, he said, “look Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kid’s dreams. Fortunately you had enough guts not to give up on yours.”

What is a dream of yours? Let me know of past, present, or future dreams you have had. Do you have any dreams or ideas that would make your neighborhood, community, state or nation a better place?

What if small groups led by leaders within neighborhoods started gathering together to share ideas. There may be some concerned about family issues that could team up together. With both parents working in most families in today’s world, it is hard to find time for things like grocery shopping and helping with the kid’s homework. Could these neighborhoods unite with the purpose of sharing ideas and developing resources that could help? How about the culture fight families have to take on? Many entertainment goliaths with profit as the number one priority feed our kids minds with negative thoughts. Could neighborhood groups brainstorm to take on these Giants in entertainment and be our David in a culture of Goliaths? They could work together to filter out what’s bad but highlight the good.

One area that neighborhood groups could start talking about is the tremendous increase in cost of living. Food prices are on the rise, gas prices keep going up, and property taxes going up even while market value of homes go down. Will neighborhoods make a stand? The stories above tell me that dreams can come true. Never let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what. Here is a video to inspire your day: Truly Inspiring - It'll Make You Smile -Kristina Rocco.



Thanks for reading this blog. I'd like to invite you to take a look at my other blogs at the links below:
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Step Ahead

Turning Problems Into Opportunities

We’ve finally reached the end of the NFL football season with this weekend’s Super Bowl. There will be tons of food eaten and tons of money spent this weekend as people attend Super Bowl watching parties or go to their favorite neighborhood sports bar. Companies will also spend millions on commercials to get their products noticed.  

Today, I’d like to tell a story about a person who invented a new snack product that all of us enjoy. The year was 1853. The location was Saratoga Springs resort in upstate New York; a favorite place of the wealthy. A Native American cook named George Crum at one of the restaurants was working hard but couldn’t please everyone.  A patron ordered a plate of French-fried potatoes but didn’t like how thick and soft they were so he sent them back and ask for George to make them to his liking.

Are you ever thrown into situations like George? Maybe at work, you follow procedure and do everything the way it should be done but there is one person you just can’t please no matter what you do. Maybe at home; you go out of your way to fix a meal just for your kids but one picky eater always finds something to complain about.

What are some ideas on how we should respond? How should we respond to tough days? How should we respond to people that you just can’t please? If you are like me, you get ticked off. Sometimes I wish I could hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete on my day. Customer service gurus will say something like look on the favorable side of happenings or possibilities like to be cheerful and hopeful. Don't worry, be happy and be content with whatever the circumstances. They will say something like think about it: bad days can help you think up new ways to create better days for someone else.  Remain optimistic. If someone is complaining, don’t take it personal. Go ahead and try to meet their demand. 

The customer service gurus have some good ideas but like the cook named George in today’s story, most people are going to be ticked off. On this night in 1853, George Crum sliced a new batch of potatoes. He sliced them as thin as possible, fried them until they were hard and crunchy, and topped them off with a heaping of salt. George was thinking the patron would complain even more and then ask for the fluffy soft fries again but amazingly the patron loved them and a new snack was born.

The industry that George Crum launched in 1853 continues to grow and prosper today. Potato chips have become America’s favorite snack and the U.S. potato chip industry employees over 50,000 people. 

George showed us how a problem can become an opportunity. After launching the potato chips industry, he opened his own restaurant catering to wealthy clients including William Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Henry Hilton.

And now you know today’s lesson. The next time you crunch into a potato chip and enjoy the delicious taste of one of the world’s most famous snacks, remember George Crum and how he handled a difficult customer with a touch of humor and by just trying to please them the best he knew how. 

Thanks for reading this blog. I'd like to invite you to take a look at my other blogs at the links below:

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Organize to Fight High Prices

Think of all the inventions that have been made because of having bad days. Bad days make people think up new ways to create better days for someone else. According to amusingfacts.com, it was after dropping and breaking a bottle of milk which spilled on his floor one morning that John Van Wormer invented paper milk cartons.

Last week, I tossed out some ideas on neighbors working together to cut living expenses. Some questions were presented like what if neighborhoods worked together using coupons or buying groceries in bulk? Why can’t neighborhoods run like a business? A business saves money by purchasing items in bulk and organizing to cut cost. Think of the savings on a family’s grocery bill.

The price of food seems to be going up dramatically which is causing a lot of stress and bad days for families. Think of the items like paper plates, paper towels, drinks, diapers, etc. that can be bought in bulk with no expiration date. The main problem is storage. What if neighbors organized so that these items were bought in bulk and then distributed to the neighbors that wanted to participate in this idea? Think of the money savings on the grocery bill.

If enough neighbors worked together and were united as members of a group called “Neighbors United”, could they make a deal with a grocery store chain so its members could get discounts on purchases from their stores? If none of the grocery companies would listen, they could study the possibility or even use as a bargaining tool the development of a website so members of “Neighbors United” could sell grocery products themselves.

If “Neighbors United” could make a deal with a grocery store chain, it would provide a way for its members to save on their groceries and at the same time boost membership growth. If none of the grocery chains were willing to listen, the comprehensive online grocery store idea would take some work but in the end hopefully help to achieve an economic climate that would save families on their monthly grocery bill. The public would get a better price on their food and families would have more money in their own pockets. The “Neighbors United” organization would benefit with growth in membership and gain some power to fight against high prices because of the following reasons:

·       Enhanced public perception of “Neighbors United”

o   Neighborhoods would see benefits of “Neighbors United” membership

o   Members would have a tool that would help provide the best price and quality on their food

·       All neighborhoods would be working together on a joint project to make “Neighbors United” stronger and able to bargain for good prices

If you are willing to fight for lower grocery prices, click to +1 this post. We’ll see how much support is out there to work together at getting it organized and going. 

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