You Took My Parking Place at Church!

One day, a man went to visit a church, He got there early, parked his car and got out. Another car pulled up near the driver got out and said, 'I always park there! You took my place!'

The visitor went inside for Sunday School, found an empty seat and sat down. A young lady from the church approached him and stated, 'That's my seat! You took my place!' The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing.

After Sunday School, the visitor went into the sanctuary and sat down. Another member walked up to him and said, 'That's where I always sit! You took my place!' The visitor was even more troubled by this treatment, but still He said nothing.

Later as the congregation was praying for Christ to dwell among them, the visitor stood up, and his appearance began to change.

Horrible scars became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and called out, 'What happened to you?'

The visitor replied, as his hat became a crown of thorns, and a tear fell from his eye, 'I took your place.'
 

Eleven Things You Won't Learn in School

Love him or hate him, Bill Gates sure hits the nail on the head with this! He recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
 

I Know Who I Am

I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)
I am united with the Lord(1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price(1 Cor. 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt.5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ(1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation (Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil.3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God(2 Cor.5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God(Rom.8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor.1 :21-22)
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28)
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
Who you are!?
 

Change of Perspective

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, "If I could only see the world, I will marry you."

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her, "Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?"

The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left her in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: "Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine."

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a few remember what life was like before and he was always by her side in the most painful situations.
 

The Life Changing 90/10 Principle

What is this principle? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90%. How? By your reaction. You cannot control a red light, but you can control your reaction. Don't let people fool you; YOU can control how you react. Let's use an example.

You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just happened. What happens next will be determined how you react. You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize them for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit. After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 (traffic fine) away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You! look forward to coming home, When you arrive home, you find a small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter. Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning. Why did you have a bad day? A) Did the coffee cause it? B) Did your daughter cause it? C) Did the policeman cause it? D) Did you cause it?

The answer is D. You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened.

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "It's ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You and your spouse kiss before you go to work. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good a day you are having. Notice the difference? Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different. Why? Because of how you REACTED. You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% is determined by your reaction.
 

Bethlehem's Babe: Christmas

"And you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, least among the clans of Judah, from you One shall come forth to be the Ruler in Israel for Me - One Whose origin is from old, from ancient times." Micah 5:2

This explicit prophecy of the birth of the future KING OF ISRAEL in the little village of Bethlehem was nearly 700 years before HE finally and remarkably came to earth. Then the ALMIGHTY used the great Emperor Augustus in Rome to make a decree for a census and taxation, compelling Joseph to take his espoused wife Miryam (Mary) to the little town of Bethlehem for her child to be born there.

An actual birth is incredibly clear as the text uses the verbiage "come forth" along with the warning that God would "leave them helpless, until she who is to bear has given birth." [Micah 5:1] The Scripture also tell that "they will strike the Ruler of Israel (this Soon-Coming Judge) on the cheek with a staff" [Micah 5:1 speaking of Messiah Jesus’ rejection and execution.

Furthermore, the prophecy not only foresees Yeshua’s birth in Bethlehem, HIS rejection and denial by HIS own people, and HIS eventual rule as Sovereign KING over Israel, but also that this same Remarkable Person Himself was God Omnipotent! HE had been "from everlasting." HE is eternally proceeding from HIS FATHER. YESHUA did not become God’s Son when HE was born in Bethlehem; HE had been coming forth eternally revealing the FATHER. "No one has seen GOD at any time. The ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO is in the bosom of the FATHER, HE has declared HIM." [John 1:18]

Another truth is obscurely disguised in the affirmation of "goings forth" which in Hebrew is "mowtsa" or "motsa" which is also used for the flowing of water from a fountain or spring, the radiation from the sun, an issue, an export, a source. Thus, the never-ending flowing forth of power from the MAJESTIC CREATOR through the SON is nothing less than the sustaining energy for the whole of HIS creation as HE is "upholding all things by the WORD of HIS power." [Hebrews 1:3] Yes, this is THE BABE of Bethlehem... the GLORIOUS KING of the whole world.
 

A Lesson Not Quickly Forgotten

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.

On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.
Looking around, confused, they asked, "Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?"

She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk."

They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

"No," she said.

" Maybe it's our behavior."

She told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came, and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Cothren said, "Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what they have done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you."

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk.

The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.
Martha said, "You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it."

This a true story!
 

Apple of the Eye

"Display YOUR faithfulness in wondrous deeds, YOU WHO delivers with YOUR RIGHT HAND those who seek refuge from assailants. Guard me like the apple of YOUR eye; hide me in the shadow of YOUR wings." Psalms 17:7-8 "I will instruct you and show you which way to go; let ME offer counsel; I will guide you with MY eye." Psalms 32:8

The Apple of the Eye is the phrase used to speak of something as being highly valuable to the owner. The Hebrew word "'iyshown" means "the little man or pupil of the eye;" and "'ayin" is the word for the "eye" meaning "favour, regard or thought." Therefore, to be kept as the Apple of the Eye would be to say, "keep me as the center of YOUR favour, affection, choice, or preference; and in YOUR care and constant consideration."

The GOD MOST HIGH'S portion is HIS people, Jacob HIS OWN inheritance, and Israel and Jerusalem as being the apple of HIS eye: "HE (ALMIGHTY GOD) found him (Israel) in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; HE encircled him, HE instructed him, HE kept him (Israel) as the apple of HIS eye. Like an eagle rouses his nestlings, gliding down to his young, so did HE (ALMIGHTY GOD) spread HIS wings and take him (Israel), bearing him along on HIS pinions; the LORD alone did guide him, no alien god at HIS side." Deuteronomy 32:10-12

"Jerusalem shall be inhabited a city without walls, so many shall be the men and cattle it contains. And I MYSELF - declares the LORD - will be a WALL OF FIRE all around her, and I will be 'THE GLORY' in her midst. For thus said the LORD OF HOSTS - HE WHOSE PRESENCE sent ME - concerning the nations that have taken you to spoil: "Whoever touches you touches the APPLE of MY eye." Zechariah 2:4-5, 8

"Shout for joy, Fair Zion! For lo, I come; and I will dwell in your midst - declares the LORD. In that day many nations shall be joined to the LORD and become MY people, and I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that I was sent to you by the LORD OF HOSTS. The LORD will allot Judah his portion in the Holy Land, and will choose Jerusalem once more. Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD! For HE is roused from HIS holy habitation!" Zechariah 2:10

To be kept as the Apple of the Eye of GOD ETERNAL, requires our essential trust in HIM and HIS HOLY WORD. We must keep HIS WORD as the apple of our eye. "MY son, keep MY WORDS, and treasure MY commands within you. Keep MY commands and live, and MY Law as the APPLE of your eye." Proverbs 7:1-2