The Simple Truths of Service

Inspired By Johnny The Bagger
By Ken Blanchard & Barbara Glanz
Found at simpletruths.com




My sister forwarded this to me and I thought it was great!
(It is about a 3 minute clip)

Our principal sent it to all of us for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Click Here To View The Movie!
http://www.simpletruths.com/simpletruths/a.aspx?af=219&mo=stsr

Getting Over It

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(Jn 10:10)

There are two spiritual forces exerting influence in our lives, one the essence of evil, and One the essence of good. We can love and belong to Jesus Christ, and yet still be under destructive influence in some areas of our lives. From this spring board we could dive into many different areas, but today I am thinking of negative things in the past that we can’t seem to get over.

I recently responded to “You can pray for God to bless you, or you can pray for God to mess with you until you’re not a mess any longer.” It took three days before I figured out what was happening to my life. I knew I was a mess, but I quickly became an over achiever in it. I was even an offence to myself.

It all centered on some things and some people in the past that I had not gotten over yet. Being in the mood for a sad country song, I listened to “He Stopped Loving Her Today” sung by George Jones and found at http://www.homestead.com/LOL2/hestopped.html, if you are so inclined. I almost immediately turned into a basket case

If I haven’t lost you yet, and you are still hanging in there, here are the words to the song:

HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY

Lyrics and Music By
Bobby Braddock and Curly Putnam

He said, "I'll love you till I die."

She told him, "You'll forget in time."

As the years went slowly by

She still preyed upon his mind

He kept her picture on the wall

Went half crazy now and then

He still loved her through it all

Hoping she'd come back again

Kept some letters by his bed

Dated 1962

He had underlined in red

Every single "I love you"

I went to see him just today

Oh, but I didn't see no tears

All dressed up to go away

First time I'd seen him smile in years

He stopped loving her today

They placed a wreath upon his door

And soon they'll carry him away

He stopped loving her today

Spoken:

You know, she came to see him one last time,

We all wondered if she would

And it kept running through my mind

This time he's over her for good

This man’s life became defined by that which he couldn’t get over. It played and preyed upon his mind like a stuck record. It influenced how he lived out the rest of his time, as it forever discolored his perspective of life. He never got over it until he died.

In the middle of my weeping and wailing, I came to a decision. I didn’t want to wait until I died to get over some things that were bothering me. I did not want my life to be defined or determined by things I hadn’t gotten over.

Now, I did not know there were some things I hadn‘t really dealt with lurking in me. I thought I had already dealt with, forgiven, and was moving on past them. Come to find out I was just trying to get around them.

I wasn’t telling God anything He didn’t already know, but I told Him they were there, and I couldn’t get over them, didn’t know how to, and didn’t even know if I wanted to. I asked His forgiveness for hanging on to some hurts, forgave the hurters and disappointers that I had been blaming for the way my life has turned out so far, and asked Him to do a work of grace in me. He is.

If we are going to live the life that Jesus came to give us, then we are going to have to get over some things. We can feed upon what we can’t get over or we can feed upon the Word of God, but we can’t do both. The devil feeds us the bitter bread of the past, and uses it to paint our future. God makes bitter water sweet and fills our lives with his presence and purpose.

Now it is your turn. Will you wait ‘til you die to get over the things you may need to get over? Will you view life through the filter of what you cant get over, or the filter of God’s grace? You say you don’t know if there is anything you haven’t gotten over? Have I got a prayer for you!

Butterfly

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor 5:17)

I was getting ready to shower my son Zach the other night. I took my foot and moved his toy caterpillar from the middle of the doorway so nobody would step on it. As I turned around and stepped towards the shower, he said “Butterfly.” Zach, who has Down Syndrome, knows things I didn’t know he knew, and is able to make connections I didn’t know he could make.

He was looking at the toy caterpillar, and making the connection with real life. He had the understanding that a real caterpillar turns into a butterfly. I was amazed and delighted.

Zachariah saw what was coming as opposed to what was. He saw the future reality represented by the toy caterpillar. His assessment of it was based upon its future, not its present. He was looking past present reality to the beauty yet to come. He was able to look with eyes that see what is coming, in spite of what is existing.

I think we could all use eyes that see potential and possibilities, what is coming instead of what is, or has been. We need to look at others with eyes unclouded by their past or present. Our eyes need be opened to see them coming into their future, so that we might do our part in helping them reach their potential in Christ. May we begin see beyond present reality into destiny.

Making God Our Treasure

If you lay gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brook [considering them of little worth], And make the Almighty your gold and [the Lord] your precious silver treasure, Then you will have delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God. (Job 22: 24-26)

It isn’t that God doesn’t want us to have anything of worldly value, so much as He wants us to realize what true value is. Of first importance is our relationship with Him, that is to be our first priority. If we don’t get that right, nothing else will line up the way it should.

We are all familiar with the verse “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” It is found in the midst of don’t worry about what you are going to eat, drink, or wear; don’t be anxious about the how, when, and where of these things causing them to be the focus of our lives instead of Him.Let’s be careful not to get trapped in a life where the provision takes priority over the Provider.

God wants us to realize what he is like. When we begin to know Him, and what he is like, we realize that we can trust Him. He loves us and will take care of us. He cares about the birds and dresses the fields with flowers, and we are of more importance to Him than they are. We must realize that our spiritual life is not only more important than our natural life, it also sets the tone for it.

Fullness of life is found in Jesus Christ, not in possessions or provision. He gives us the capacity to appreciate, enjoy, and share. When we make Him our priority, the focus of our lives, He promises the necessities will be there - and we can count on it.

We need to consider the valuable things of this world to be of little worth compared to God and our relationship with Him which should be our treasure, our focus, our priority.

If we start at any other point we will get it all wrong.

Found Faithful

Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. (1 Cor 4:2)

When the movie “Indian Jones And The Last Crusade” came out, my wife Sandy and I went to see it with some a couple friends. It was an enjoyable movie, but what I was taken by a scene found near the end of it.

As the earthquake began happening that destroyed the cavern where the “holy grail“ was found, and the chasm was opening, the old knight stood on far side of it, looked Indiana in the eyes and gestured farewell. I sat in the theater for what seemed about twenty minutes after the movie weeping into my crumpled up gray sweatshirt, with one of our friends keeping me company.

I was so taken by that knight and his dedication. So much was communicated in that look he exchanged with Harrison Ford and that farewell gesture. I cannot call it a wave, it was an uplifted hand, palm facing outward that said “Farewell, we shall not see each other again. Do not feel bad about that but be at peace. I am being faithful to that which I was called to. When I accepted this call I fully expected to carry it out until death. Do not despair for me, for this is my destiny. I freely give my life for that with which I have been entrusted.”

“ … we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.” (1 Thes 2:4)

Running The Race of Life

There were only two of them in this race at the Special Olympics this past Saturday. One was my son Zachariah. He got a quick jump as the race started, and quickly was about 100 feet ahead. The other child got a slow start and didn’t seem to quite know what was happening at first.

I am thinking “He is gonna get the gold”, when all of a sudden Zach did something I would never have expected. He stopped running, turned around and waited excitedly for the other child to catch up with him. He then let him pass and followed along behind him for the silver.

He could have won the gold medal, but he chose companionship over competition, giving over getting, caring over crushing, enabling over defeating. Oh I know, you look at my son and you think he doesn’t have thoughts like that, his mind doesn’t work like ours. You’re right, his mind doesn’t work like ours, but he demonstrated something we know is better than winning, but are usually unwilling to do.

He cared about the other one running the race with him. He knew what the child was supposed to do, and purposely did his part in making sure it happened. He did not care if somebody else looked better than he did in the process. In the race of life we are all in, it is not about coming in first or second or even third. It is about finishing the race and helping those along side us finish the race also.

I don’t know if anyone else in the stands noticed what happened in that race Saturday morning, but it had the mark of eternity on it. The awards of this life will not carry over into the eternal, but the things that are marked by eternity will.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Cor 9:24-25)

Everyday Life with God

I like the spectacular. I like it when big, significant things are happening, and especially if I am in the middle of them. I can tend to get bored with regular, hum-drum, everyday living.

But God is just as present in the hum-drum as He is in the spectacular. He is just as much a part of our regular everyday life, as He is part of what we would refer to as the spiritually significant times of our lives.

By our prayers, it seems we tend to think God’s reality is best presented in the midst of Elijah-like earthquakes, tornados, and fires, but it is in the quiet whisper of everyday life that God’s reality is more clearly presented.

It is in the loving of those who are hurtful, in the serving of those who can’t help themselves, in the kindness shown to those who are non-caring, in the diligence shown in unpleasant tasks, in the proper attitudes and responses which stand against the norm of a fallen world.

We do the Romans 12 one two - God I give myself to You, but we add a hidden condition. I sacrifice myself to You for something spectacular. We think spectacular it is the grand finally at a fire works show, when in reality it is the cleaning up of the mess that is left over after everyone else has gone home.

So, how ya doing with the sacrifice thing?

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 )