YOU CHOOSE

Saturday, June 24, 2006

We all determine our entire life by the choices and decisions we make or fail to make. If there is anything you are unhappy about, it is up to you to take the necessary steps to change things more to your liking.

You are responsible for everything you do and for the results of what you do. You are responsible for the consequences of your actions and your behaviors.

You are where you are and what you are today because you have decided to be there.

You are free to make your own decisions. You are the boss. You are in charge.

CHOOSE!

THE BIG APPLE

Friday, June 23, 2006

From a very early age I have had an interest in New York City. I have traveled to distant places but I have not been to this great city. I still want to go and hopefully someday I will.

And yet, every day there is something that comes out of this city that “drives me up a wall.”

Today it is the New York Times!

This paper needs to be shut down. This is the only way to stop them.

Can it be done? Well, of course not. Or at least—it won’t be done. We just don’t do things like that in America. “Truth must prevail. The people have to know.”

I contend there are things we do not have to know—indeed should not know!

We don’t have to tell everything we know.

The New York Times was asked not to reveal some of the things our government is doing in an effort to find and stop terrorist. Did they cooperate? OUR COURSE NOT! They said, “It’s of interest to the people.”

BULL!

BE FLEXIBLE

Thursday, June 22, 2006

It has always been difficult for me to be flexible. I don’t know why, but I do know that I have a real problem with this. However, I have observed that flexible people are happier. They seem to be calm and confident.

I have resolved to remain flexible and open, no matter what happens. I keep reminding myself there is always a better way to accomplish any task or to achieve any goal. I just need to stay alert and aware of what it might be and then to discover it and to take action in that new direction as quickly as possible.

The important thing is to have goals and to reach them even if they are reached in unexpected and surprising ways.

Be flexible!

JESUS

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

There’s an old song with the words, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know...” For close to fifty years I went to the pulpit on Sundays and talked about Jesus. Benjamin Franklin understood Jesus as a wise man worthy of imitation. Thomas Jefferson regarded him as a moral teacher. George W. Bush named Jesus as his favorite philosopher.

I’m reading, Jesus In America, Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession by Richard Fox. Fox says, “This book is for believers and non-believers alike. It is not a book about whether one should believe in Jesus, but about how Americans have believed in and portrayed him.”

And yet, with all the talk about Jesus and the belief in him, we are now being told you can’t talk about him in certain places. A young girl was giving a speech to her graduation class and she was told she couldn’t talk about God or Jesus. She did it anyhow and the students cheered. But those in charge of graduation turned her mike off when she started talking about God.

What a shame. I never thought I would live to see this happen. But it is happening, right here in America. What a shame!

BOOKS

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

“The kind of food our minds devour will determine the kind of person we become.”
--John R.W. Stott, Your Mind Matters

“Books shape us, dynamically molding our minds and souls. You are never the same person when you finish a book—even one that is read purely for escape or entertainment. A conviction may take root or deepen, the imagination may be sparked, a new perspective may dawn. A.W. Tozer has aptly stated that “the things you read will fashion you by slowly conditioning your mind.”
--Scott Larson, Indelible Ink

THEY CALL HIM BOSS

Monday, June 19, 2006

A man entered a pet shop, wanting to buy a parrot. The shop owner pointed out three identical parrots on a perch and said, "The parrot to the left costs 500 dollars."
"Why does that parrot cost so much?" the man wondered.
The owner replied, "Well, it knows how to use a computer."
The man asked about the next parrot on the perch.
"That one costs 1,000 dollars because it can do everything the other parrot can do, plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system."
Naturally, the startled customer asked about the third parrot.
"That one costs 2,000 dollars."
"And what does that one do?" the man asked.
The owner replied, "To be honest, I've never seen him do a thing, but the other two call him boss!"