Today's Journey

                                                                                 

                                                                    

                                                            

Sticking Up for Jesus

 

Sep.27, 2014 

http://getmorestrength.org 

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“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

 

Promises, promises

Today's Jokes

Promises, promises

Misis: “Darling, akala ko ba, mahal mo ako?”

Mister: “Oo nga! Handa akong mamatay alang-alang sayo.”

Misis: “Sus! Puro ka naman satsat, hindi mo naman ginagawa!”

Atty Sonny Pulgar sent this one to Boo Chanco’s Philstar column - e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com.

Today's Journey

Jesus, or Me?

Oct. 21,2012

http://getmorestrength.org

“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Philippians 3:8

One of my all-time favorite memories about our kids was the time my then 7-year-old daughter Libby asked, “Daddy, are we famous?” My immediate response was, “No, Libby, we’re not famous.” She thought about it for a second and indignantly said, “Well, we would be if more people knew about us!”

I could hardly contain the laughter. Poor Libby, only 7, and already wondering and worried about herself—whether people liked us, or whether or not a lot of people knew about us! Poor Libby, already tied up in the world of “me”! And, unfortunately, this preoccupation with herself is something she will never grow out of, because we all struggle with the irresistible gravity of “me” and the tendency to live as though life is indeed all about “me”!

But I need to tell you, if life is going to be all about you, then someday you will be bored to tears. Listen carefully: If you think you are cool enough to entertain yourself with yourself for your entire life, you are wrong. I want to be gentle here, but no one is special enough to enthrall themselves with themselves for the rest of their lives!

I’m in my sixties, and I have to admit that I am already getting tired of me. I am tired of trying to deal with the insecurities that have haunted me for years. Tired of the failures in my life that I think I have finally gotten victory over just to have them pop up again. Tired of the carnal way I feel when people talk about their favorite preacher and it’s not me! Tired of looking in the rearview mirror and wishing I had done things differently. Tired of the awkward way I feel on those rare occasions when people praise me. I am just flat out getting tired of me.

But after sixty years I have to say that I never get tired of Jesus! I never get tired of praising Him and hearing Him praised. I still stand amazed at His unusual grace and mercy that He continues to pour out on me daily. As life goes on, I find Jesus to be more adventuresome, interesting, challenging, fresh, and compelling than ever before. I continue to find Him wonderfully different—anything but boring! No wonder Paul said that he counted even the best things about himself like dung compared to the surpassing value of getting to know Jesus (Philippians 3:7-8)!

When we’re young, we’re bullet proof. We think we’ll live forever. But when you get to be my age, you can see your mortality approaching on the horizon. It’s not difficult to see yourself someday sitting alone in the corner of a room at the nursing home waiting for the lunch bell to ring. And, if life has been all about you, that’s going to be a really bad day because there’s nothing left of you that’s worth getting excited about! But if your life has been all about Jesus, it will be a really good day because Jesus will be just as wonderful as He ever has been. And you might just hear Him whisper in your heart, “You’re almost home!”—which would be far better than hearing the lunch bell ring!

You get to choose: Will your life be about Him, or you? Choose Jesus and enjoy the rest of the journey!

YOUR JOURNEY…

• In what ways does your life seem to be all about you—with your money, your relationships, your dreams and desires?
• Can you identify with Joe when he says that if life is going to be all about you, you’ll be bored to tears?
• If your life were all about Jesus, what specific differences would be evident in your friendships, with your enemies, in the way you manage your money, in your family?

Today's Journey

God’s Instrument

 http://getmorestrength.org

 Jun 14,2012

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth." Psalm 100:1

I’ll never forget my conversation with Erin, who is an accomplished violinist. As we were talking about violins, I asked her whether or not the coveted violins made by Stradivarius were really all that different. As you may know, on the very rare occasion when one becomes available it will sell for amounts of well over a million dollars. 

Because she had heard a Stradivarius played, she affirmed that the difference between a Stradivarius violin and even the best of the others was significant. Which then led me to ask her, “What makes the sounds from the Strads so great?”

Erin explained that Stradivarius lived in a small Italian village in the 1700s. Since he was too poor to buy fine wood for his violins, he pulled his wood from the polluted harbor of his village. Three hundred years ago, the harbors were the equivalent of our town dumps. They were a smelly, dismal stew of trash, human and animal waste, and garbage.

As experts analyze the wood from these famous violins, they discover that microbes in the contaminated water had eaten away the inside of the cells in the wood. The only thing left of the cells was the superstructure. So, when a violinist plays a Stradivarius violin, it’s like an organ with thousands of sound chambers, each reverberating the sound of the bow moving across the strings.

What a great picture of what Jesus has done for us! Valueless and lost in the soul-rotting disease of our own sin, Jesus came and pulled us from the sludge. As the Bible puts it, He loved us while we were sinners. In other words, even though we had been eaten hollow by sin, He reached down from the cross and wiped us clean. And then He crafted us into priceless instruments to resonate the strong and distinct sounds of His love and grace and glory.

No wonder David wrote, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness!” (Psalm 100:1 ESV). And Paul reminds us that with the indwelling Spirit in control, our lives should be filled with “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19). Our lives should resound with gratitude and not grumpiness, thanksgiving and praise regardless of our life circumstances. When Paul and Silas sang in jail, believe me, the jailor had never heard anything like it before! Like the Stradivarius violin, the sound quality of the song that Jesus puts in our restored souls should be noticeably different than the other “violins” around us. The song we sing with our lives should be joyful and glad. And this difference is not just for our benefit, or the benefit of those around us—it’s for the listening pleasure of the Master Creator.

Just as Stradivarius must have smiled at the sound of melodies played on his instruments, God delights in the beautiful songs that His instruments create when our lives are tuned to sing His praise.

YOUR JOURNEY…

• Have you allowed God to rescue you from your sins through a saving faith in Christ? If not, pray and ask Jesus to forgive your sins. Ask Him to come into your heart and give you eternal life.
• Meditate on Psalm 100:1-5 and ask God to show you new ways to worship and serve Him. Read and internalize the advice in Philippians 4:4-7 and Hebrews 13:15. What can you do to ratchet up the song in your heart and on your lips?
• Which sins pull you back to the polluted harbor? Make a list, and spend time in repentance. Find an accountability partner to help you stay on track.
• On an index card, write down three ways in which you want to be more set apart from the world. Keep the card in your Bible and pray about it daily.