Categories
Daily Post

The Prize

Today I will say goodbye to my grandmother, Wilma Dotson, a curator of hugs, the maker of the greatest potato salad in the world, and the best quilter in Ritchie County. I think I have written about her example of simplicity of my life before. Last night we received friends at the local funeral home. It was really amazing to listen to old friends and family recount tales of her friendliness or how she was always positive or of the example of a follower of the Christ she was to so maybe people she impacted. The stories ranged from her teens years right up to the last days of her ninety-second year.

When I think about her I think about this Proverb

Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life. Proverb 16:31

I will never taste that potato salad again, nor received one of those hugs or hear her laugh, but I am forever shaped by her legacy, and her example. And for that I am quite happy!

I hope I can learn from her, even as she is gone, so that one day my head is hoary, gained by a righteous life- just like her.

Categories
Daily Post

Soaked with the Spirit

I am sort of at a loss of words or deep thoughts this morning. I do have one thing that keeps cycling around through my brain this week. Last week I stumbled on the blog called The Handwritten, where the author posts simple hand written thoughts each day. It’s a pretty neat site, with a very concise message delivered each day. You should check it out.

Anyway the first time I went to the site, the post simply said
‘Drip Jesus’
‘. That thought is pretty straight to the point and very thought provoking. Imagine if you were completely full of the spirit of the creator so much that it dripped from you as you went about your day!!

And the this verse was below from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NIV):

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hm, what else to say, except that may we drip Jesus today!

Categories
Daily Post

Influence and Others

Last weekend I saw this quote from Andy Stanley, which I just loved. I actually shared it with several people last week and even posted it on my office wall. To me it optimizes how followers of the Christ should live- also looking out for the best in others and always trying to make others better.

How can you leverage your power and influence to make others successful?

Now if I could just live that way!

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13 NIV)

Categories
Daily Post

Can You Hear Me Now

This past weekend my friend Jill was talking about greed and it’s impact in her life.  She told a story about how in the week before she was driving down the road in her new vehicle, which she stated many times that she looooved.  She was driving down the roadway in said vehicle when a vehicle in the other lane came over into her lane.  She swerved and just missed smashing into the concrete wall.

Fortunately for her, she was able to maneuver her vehicle in a way that there was no collision.  However, she stated, related to greed, that she wonder how she would have been if she had wrecked the car, which she loved.  She was concerned that maybe she was holding on to tight to stuff.

hmm,

Well as many of you know, I live on the phone.  Not that I love to talk, I am just on the phone a whole lot.  I also love my iPhone!  Recently I saw a site where people post pictures of the  essential stuff in their lives.  For me, its my car keys, my very small money clip/credit card holder, my sunglasses,  my iPhone and my Bluetooth headset.  With those elements, I can go just about any where and be fine.  (sometimes I might want a gallon of sweat tea, and of course at night a toothbrush!)

Anyway, earlier this week, the receiver on my iPhone died.  That’s the speaker that you listen with.  The headphones work, the speakers work, but the receiver just does not.  That makes a phone hard to use!  So, no biggie right, just use the Bluetooth headset.  Well, it seems that in the last week I have lost my most favorite Bluetooth headset.

argh….

Since then, I have been so anxious.  I have spent hours trying to fix my phone.  I have spent hours searching my cars, the rooms in the house, my bags, my wife’s bags, dresser drawers, wherever I could look to find that headset.

As a matter of fact I laid in bed Wednesday night, frantically trying to remember where I could have let that headset and lamenting the current state of my favorite piece of technology.

And that’s when I remembered Jill.  Could it be that I was getting a message about how much I was “holding on” to these devices.  Could if be that I was placing them in front of things that are more important and boom – now they are being taken from me?

I dunno.  But I can say that this helped me remember that they are just things.  Things the are to be helpers, not rulers.

The book of Colossians compares greed to idolatry.

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Colossians 3:5New International Version (NIV)

And I can tell you as much as I use my iPhone and even with the amount of utility it brings to my life, I still really don’t want to think that I worship it!  But maybe I have been?  What I do know that Jill and my iPhone’s issue have given me a great reminder this week about where my treasure is and where is should be!

    19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 New International Version (NIV)

What are you holding on to?

Categories
Daily Post

It’s A New Day

For the last few weeks as I have rolled down Rossville Boulevard on the way to my place of employment I have seen this sign at this church.

I don’t know much about this particular establishment besides its location, however, I just love the verbage on this sign.  Today I finally had the time and the foreknowledge to pull into their parking lot and snap this photo to share with you!

Remember, It’s a New Day!  Make the most of it!

 

 

 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  2 Corinthians 4:16  New Living Translation (NLT)