Tag: examples

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Enliven your speech

One of the groups I work with has this sort of goofy recognition program call “Pizza Slices”, where when one of your coworkers does something worth while or whatever, you send then a mythological pizza slice, by recognizing their work via a nice email.

Well, one of our fellow daily buffeters, and recent contributor, Joel A,  has been on fire with these lately.  Not quantity, but quality.  He has been encouraging others and building them up with his words – his enlivened words.  That’s a great way to impact people.  Even though his pizza slice was not for me, his encouragement of others has even given me some encouragement.  Sort of reminds me of the type of reaction that the gifts from God spurn in us!

15-17So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, The Message)

How will you enliven your speech to impact others today?

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Stir it up

Recently, I have been trying out this online task manager called Remember The Milk. It seem pretty good at helping me keep track of the little things that I am always forgetting.  Yesterday, I was messing around in 2 Peter  and I stumbled into this set of verses:

12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. 13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,

Yes, its right to keep reminding you, The Message might even make the point stronger

12-15Because the stakes are so high, even though you’re up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I’m not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I’ve been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I’m sticking to it as long as I live.

But what is it that would stir you up so much with a reminder?  What message is so important that we should constantly alert ourselves about it? It’s this one found earlier in the chapter

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

and here

10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That’s a great promise of a great reward, and that’s the reason we buffet ourselves daily.  So I thought it good today that I stir you up by reminding you of these truths.  So I think I will need to add an reminder in Remember the Milk that pops up each day to remind me to “Remember the Promise”.  It’s something that should keep us focused on the good things in life.  What will you do with the promise today?

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everyday

everyday.

It has such an overwhelming tone to it.  Sometimes it seems just so hard to find the motivation to get up and get going, to go to work and live the day.  The monotony of it all can feel so extreme.  It’s here that I have found myself over the last few months.  Maybe you are too?  Pained by the everyday, the monotony, the seemingly meaningless nature of the activities of the day.  I find myself disappointed when the day is over, as I know that I have to get up in the morning to do it all again. ARGH.  Its sort of like Toby Mac says in his song Tonight.

We go back, we go forth,
We go back
I’m sick with vertigo
Weary of my ways, my days
My absent flow so
I wanna feel a new day

This has really been heavy on my heart lately and I think, it just should not be that way.  I have been trying to figure out how to combat this, by focusing on the people and the mercies and the little things that are so amazing that are around us everyday.  And I find comfort here in Lamentations:

21This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

22It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3:21-26, King James Version)

So, realizing that his mercies are new every morning, I am trying to change my approach to the mundane, and to see the amazing things the Lord is setting before me.  How about you?  Any ideas?

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Almost Perfect

As you know last week I was blessed to be able to spend a week on the Gulf coast at one of my most favorite places – the beach.  Oh the sun, the warm sand, the soft waves.  No. not at all.  Because of the recent Hurricane Alex, we spent most of the week being drenched by the feeder bands and then the remaining parts of the hurricane after it come upon shore.  It was really disappointed, and quite thought provoking.

One day after spending a little too much time at the house ( even though I really can’t complain, the porches and the porch furniture at this house provided a very relaxing setting for a rainy day) I decided to take a rainy walk on the beach.   As I walked on this lonely rainy beach, and I listened to the roar of the waves and watched the dance between the sand and the water, the beauty of this tainted day become very apparent.  Also, during the trip I found two shells.  Two shells that were almost perfect.  One a Nautilus and the other a nice conch-type shell.  Both just a little bit broken or covered with ‘junk from the sea”, however both are still very beautiful.  It was in these shells that I finally realized something I have always thought – that the beach is so much like our lives.  Everyday its different, and even what seems to be the most disappointing of times there is beauty.

Today, you may be dealing with disappointment in your life or in your work, or in your relationships, or maybe even in the mirror. Look past the imperfections and look for the beauty.  These two shells are the only two I brought back this year and I hope that each time I glance over at them, I will remember that even when life is full of apparent disappointments that many blessing still exist.

24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 (New International Version)

Be Salty!

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Jesus Didn’t Tapout

Over the weekend while I was traveling back home, I saw on a small church sign in the backwoods of the Florida panhandle the words “Jesus Did Not Tapout”.  My initial reaction was like, what does that mean?  Isn’t tapout some MMA fighter stuff?  Sure Jesus fought.  He fought more then we can ever imagine.  So I decided to look this tapout stuff up.

To my surprise, to tap out means to give up.  It’s the sign of surrender in MMA or even in just plain ol’ wrestling.  Of course that makes me wonder why all these rough and tough MMA guys wear TapouT clothing – since it essentially says “Give Up” on the clothing.  As I kept digging to find out what this church sign could be referring to, I found that there is also Never Tapout clothing for MMA followers, and even a Jesus Didn’t Tap website.

So, even though my initial reaction was one of “what are you all talking about”, I agree with that little sign on this church.  It’s not that Jesus would be a big MMA fighter dude.  I don’t think that at all.  Actually, I am not a big fan of the MMA, and not a hater – just neutral.  But that’s not really the message here today.  It seems this message fits the idea of buffeting your spiritually body daily. The idea that Jesus did not give up.  He was presented with trials and temptations bigger then we will ever face, and he did not give in. He did not tap.  That’s the idea.  One of persistence and focus and forging ahead no matter what was in his way.  When Jesus came to this Earth he had a very challenging mission and he fulfilled it.  That’s not to say he didn’t grow weary, or even dread it, but he continued to move, continued to fight and didn’t “tap out”, as they say.

How about you today. Will you tap out, or will you stay focused on your mission?

5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. (Philippians 2:5-8, The Message)