All posts by 5Q

Words

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“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”1

I love words. With words we can move people to laugh, to cry, to love us or to hate us. With words we can inspire some to noble deeds of kindness, or if we are so inclined, we can persuade others to dastardly deeds of violence and evil.

I love one-liners too. They can make powerful statements. I’ve been collecting them for years from various sources. I wish I knew who said each one; some I do, but unfortunately many I don’t. I trust the following will be as enriching to you as they have been and are to me.

“The tragedy in life,” said Albert Schweitzer, “is not that we die, but rather, what dies inside a man while he lives.”

“The unattended garden,” wrote A.W. Tozer, “will soon be overrun with weeds; the heart that fails to cultivate truth and root out error, will shortly be a theological wilderness.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.”

A Chinese proverb says, “The longest journey begins with the first step.” And another, “Dig your well before you’re thirsty.” “If one stays too long in his shell, he’ll wind up nuts.”

“When you have a lot of rough edges, you’re easy to get hold of but hard to embrace.”

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

“To have a healthy sense of self-worth you don’t have to be the best. Just be your best.”

Winston Churchill wisely observed that opposition can be a healthy thing saying: “Kites rise against, not with the wind.”

“If you resent it, don’t do it; if you do it, don’t resent it.”

Ivy Baker Priest said, “The world is round, and the place which may seem like an end may also be only the beginning.”

And finally, “The way we treat people is the way we treat God.”

Suggested prayer: “Thank You God for Your words in Your Word. Like David, help me to hide Your Word in my heart so I won’t sin against You. And grant that my words will be ‘like apples of gold in settings of silver.’ Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 25:11 (RSV).

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Flack Attacks

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“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I have been in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles … and in danger from false brothers.”1

Flack is a normal part of front-line action. Whenever a person invests his or her life in a worthwhile cause and does a good job, especially if he or she doesn’t follow the party line, is not acting in a “politically correct” manner, or swims against the tide of current thought, he or she will inevitably become a target for criticism from those who feel threatened or are in some way jealous. The Apostle Paul’s life is a prime example.

The point is, flack is a part of the price of leadership. If we don’t want flack, all we need to do is to stay a part of the status quo, don’t rock the boat, be politically correct, or stay at home. But safety is not the way of true success. As one poet wrote:

I would rather stumble a thousand times
Attempting to reach a goal,
Than to sit in a crowd
In my weather-proof shroud,

A shriveled and self-satisfied soul.
I would rather be doing and daring
All of my error-filled days,
Than watching and waiting, and dying
Smug in my perfect ways.
I would rather wonder and blunder,
Stumbling blindly ahead,
Than for safety’s sake
Lest I make a mistake
Be sure, be safe, be dead.

– Author Unknown

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a passion to live for and serve You. Help me always to take a stand for all that Your Word, the Bible, teaches. And please give me the courage to not shrink back because of the attacks of those who oppose truth and Your work. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 11:24-26 (NIV).

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Creative Adversity

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“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”1

In 1832, French engineer Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps was traveling on the Mediterranean Sea. One of the other passengers (on the ship he was on) came down with a contagious disease and the ship was quarantined. Lesseps became very frustrated. To help kill time he read the memoirs of Charles le Pere who had considered the feasibility of building a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. In 1869 the Suez Canal was completed. It was constructed following the design by and under the leadership of Lesseps.

It was during that quarantine thirty-seven years earlier that the plan for the Suez Canal was germinated and conceived by Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps. The world has reaped the benefit ever since.

Probably more often than we realize, God uses adversity to help us grow, to motivate us to find creative solutions to life’s problems, or to further his work. For example, the early Christians didn’t fulfill Christ’s commission to move out of Jerusalem with the gospel to the ends of the earth until the Church faced persecution. They were forced to move to the ends of the earth.

This principle has been true in my life too. Just about every major change in my life for the better has been the result of some kind of setback or adversity.

So, every time adversity comes into your life, may I suggest that you embrace it, and ask God what he is saying or seeking you to learn or do through it.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, when facing a setback, or enduring a loss, a disappointment, or a trial, help me to ‘hear’ what You are saying to me through this experience and how You want to use it in my life for Your glory. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Acts 1:8 (NIV)

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The Person God Uses

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“And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”1

“Down the streets of Portsmouth, two hundred years ago, walked a sailor with one arm, one eye, a persistent state of nerves, and unable to tread a ship’s deck without being seasick. Indeed he would probably have been in a home for incurables, were not his name Admiral Lord Nelson. The man’s spirit drove the flesh. The point is, when weighing the characteristics of a leader, remember a stout spirit can drive a weak body a long way.”2

More than two thousand years ago God informed Ezekiel, the prophet, that he was looking for a man to “stand in the gap” to save the land. God, today, is still looking for men and women who will stand in the gap to help bring people to Jesus, for without him perishing souls are lost forever. God uses ordinary people to fulfill his goals on earth—the major qualification is not our strength but having a stout spirit and being available for God to use.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in spite of my inadequacies, I come to You and am available for service. Please make me usable and use me to stand in the gap to help bring the lost to Jesus. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

NOTE: For simple helps so you, too, can “stand in the gap,” please consider joining with ACTS as a People Power for Jesus Partner. There is absolutely no charge to join. See https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power/.

1. Ezekiel 22:30.

2. Lt. General Ira C. Eaker.

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The Search for Significance

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“Then he [Jesus] said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”1

Not all by any means, but most of the motivational books and lectures that I have read and heard pretty much measure success in terms of wealth and material gain. For example, businessmen and women who are considered successful are those who have built an effective business that has become very profitable financially. Most of these “successful” people have been totally committed to and have invested their life in achieving their goal of success.

However, many or at least some of these people after they have reached the pinnacle of success in terms of the world’s measure of success ask themselves, “Is this all there is to life?” and wonder, “What have I achieved with my life that will leave anything of lasting value after I have gone? What, if anything, have I contributed to the betterment of mankind?” In other words, “What have I done of lasting significance?”

The reality is that one can achieve success and receive many accolades and obtain wide recognition, and yet not have achieved anything of lasting significance. On the other hand, if one has invested his or her life in things of lasting value, he or she is the one who has achieved real success and whose life is truly significant—with or without any accolades, recognition, or monetary gain.

In other words I can be “outwardly successful” but not have any significance, but if I have achieved significance I will be truly successful.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to become significant by my life’s priorities, in the way I invest my life, and in the worthwhile goals I achieve—and be genuinely successful by Your standards. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Luke 12:15 (NIV).

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Strength out of Weakness

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“My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”1

In his book, Confidence, Alan Loy McGinnis talks about a famous study entitled “Cradles of Eminence” by Victor and Mildred Goertzel, in which the family backgrounds of 300 highly successful people were studied.

Many of the names of those in the study were well-known to most of us—including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi, and Einstein—all of whom were brilliant in their field of expertise.

The results of this study are both surprising and encouraging for many of us who came from a less than desirable home life. For example: “Three-quarters of the children were troubled either by poverty, by a broken home, or by rejecting, over-possessive or dominating parents.

“Seventy-four of 85 writers of fiction or drama and 16 of the 20 poets came from homes where, as children, they saw tense psychological drama played out by their parents.

“Physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs characterized over one-quarter of the sample.”

These people who had confidence in their abilities and put them to creative use had more weaknesses and handicaps than many who have all of their faculties intact and who had a reasonably good home life background. So, what made the difference? Probably by compensating for their weaknesses they excelled in other areas.

One man reported, “What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.” The speaker who stammered until his death was W. Somerset Maugham, as he looked back on his life at age 86.

“By then he had become a world-renowned author of more than 20 books, 30 plays, and scores of essays and short stories.”

It’s not what we have or don’t have that matters in life but what we do with what we have. All God expects of us is that we don’t allow our past to determine our future, and that with his help we use what we have to the best of our ability.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for the gifts You have given to me, no matter how small or large, help me to develop and use them to my total God-given potential, and to use them for Your glory. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

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Faithfulness

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The Apostle Paul, at life’s end, said, “I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.”1

One of my favorite quotes, which I like to repeat from time to time, is from Theodore Roosevelt who said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”2

Not long before a close friend of mine died of cancer, I asked him what it felt like to be forty-four and in his predicament. Among a number of things he said, “I feel angry because there was so much more I wanted to do with life. I feel bad about being so busy and not spending more time with my family.” And then, after a thoughtful pause he said, “I can’t help but wonder what I have done with my life that has been truly worthwhile.”

His words were sobering and I know that when I get to the end of my journey and stand before the Savior, I want to know that I have invested my life wisely for eternity and have earned the Savior’s welcome words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Whether we live for forty, eighty, or a hundred years, our time here on earth is but a drop in the ocean compared to eternity. And as Amy Carmichael said, “We have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few short hours to fight and win the battles.” So, let’s keep daring greatly for God!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in glad surrender I yield my life totally to You. Help me to live always for You and invest my life wisely in eternity by being a part of what You are doing in the world today. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 2 Timothy 4:7.

2. Theodore Roosevelt.

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On Being a Positive Realist

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“Then he [Jesus] touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you,’ and their sight was restored.”1

I like to think I am a positive realist. For example, if I’ve been hit by a Mac truck all the positive thinking in the world won’t take away the pain. But if I am a positive realist, I will acknowledge the fact that I’ve been hurt real bad, but with God’s help and the best medical help I can find I will do all in my power to overcome what has happened to me.

One’s thinking does make a big difference. If you keep telling yourself and believing you will overcome, chances are you will make great gains much faster than if you keep telling yourself all is lost.

As Baudjuin said, “To be ambitious for wealth, and yet always expecting to be poor; to be always doubting your ability to get what you long for, is like trying to reach east by traveling west. There is no philosophy which will help man to succeed when he is always doubting his ability to do so, and thus attracting failure. No matter how hard you work for success, if your thoughts are saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors, and make success impossible.”

It is still true, “According to your faith it will be done to you.”

Suggested Prayer: “Dear God, please give me the faith to overcome every setback, problem, and challenge that I am facing in my life. With Your help, grant that I will become a better man/woman as a result of having faced and overcome these trials. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Matthew 9:29-30.

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Life is Short … We only Have One Shot at It

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“So teach us [God] to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”1

Last year Joy and I had the opportunity to attend a reunion in Sydney, Australia, of the Open Air Campaigners, an evangelistic organization that I was very much involved in back in the 1950s. At the reunion I met many friends I hadn’t seen in over half-a-century. It was amazing how time had flown, and now that we were all in our senior years of life, one couldn’t help but realize how brief life on earth is.

In realizing that our days are numbered, it is good to remind ourselves that the day is coming when we will all come face to face with God and appear at his judgment seat to give an account of our life. According to God’s Word, the Bible, there are two distinct judgment seats after life on earth is ended.

First, is the Judgment Seat of Christ2 where all who have confessed their sins, received God’s forgiveness and Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will NOT be judged for their sins because Jesus has already paid for their penalty, but will be judged and rewarded on the basis of how they have lived for and served God since the day they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.

The second judgment seat is the Great White Throne Judgment3 seat of God where those who have never confessed their sins to God, nor asked for His forgiveness, nor accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior—God’s Son who died on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins—will stand before God and accept His just judgment for all their sins. Tragically these people will be damned to a lost eternity forever in the place the Bible calls Hell, an unthinkable thought.

So, dear reader, if you have never received God’s forgiveness and Jesus Christ as your Savior, I urge you to do that today. Please don’t put this off for even a moment more. For help read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/christian, and receive God’s full and free pardon for all your sins—today.

And if you have accepted God’s forgiveness and Jesus as your Savior, make absolutely certain, through your service to God, that you are laying up treasures in heaven. How tragically sad it would be to stand before Jesus to give an account of your service for God while here on earth, and you have little or nothing to offer.

As Jesus says to all his followers: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”4

Remember: life is short—we only have one shot at it! “Only one life ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for Your Word that gives explicit instructions both for this life and life beyond the grave. Please open the eyes of my understanding so that I will fully understand Your instructions, and adhere to them so that I will know with absolute certainty that when my life on earth is ended, I will go to be with You in heaven forever, and that when I stand before Jesus to give an account of my life in how I have lived for and served Him, that I won’t be empty handed. So help me God. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 90:12 (NKJV).

2. 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NKJV).

3. Revelation 20:11-15 (NKJV).

4. Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV).

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When Temptation Knocks on the Door

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“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”1

We live in and are all a part of this world that has been broken by sin. Consequently, having a sin nature from birth, nobody escapes temptation. It always starts in the mind, and can be triggered by something we see on TV, hear on the radio, listening to a degrading pop song, seeing a photo, by an unmet need, by idle thinking, or any one of numerous possibilities. Because of our sinful nature, temptation is always lurking around the corner and ready to knock on the door of our mind.

However, as today’s Scripture reminds us, “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” Once we are enticed, we have already taken the bait, and then we start thinking about what we want or would like to do. The more we think about it, the stronger the temptation grows, and if we don’t “nip it in the bud” right away, we are setting ourselves up for a fall.

However, realize that God’s Word also points out that there is always a way of escape. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”2

So what’s the way of escape? As temptation starts in the mind that’s where the battle rages, and that’s where it is won or lost. Speaking personally, the greatest help I have found when temptation is knocking on the door of my mind, is to say and pray over and over in my mind the following: “Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. Jesus Christ is the Messiah who died to pay the penalty for all my sins. Jesus Christ is my Lord, my God, and My Savior.” Satan, the author of all temptation, absolutely hates these proclamations and in no time will leave tempting us as long as we keep repeating these words. He will, however, keep returning in his attempt to cause us to fall, but as long as we keep concentrating on and repeating these eternal truths, the temptation will be dissipated and, thanks to God, we will remain victorious.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for making a way of escape for when I am tempted. Please give me the desire to never give in to temptation remembering that You have provided a way of escape. Help me always to focus my thoughts on the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that He is Lord of my life, until the temptation is dissipated and has left me. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. James 1:13-15 (NKJV).

2. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 (NIV).

P.S. It also always helps to get legitimate needs met in legitimate ways.

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