I’m on vacation this week so am a little lazy getting this blog posted. Anita and I are spending some extra time with our granddaughter, Raegan. Also, I’m trying to get some winterization things done around the house, clean up the clutter in my study, and get most of our Christmas shopping done. Tonight Anita and I are going out to eat, and then will see the new movie Red.
I’ll still be preaching this weekend as we close out our Desert Discoveries series with the capstone theme Bitter Herbs.
Another project I’m working on this week is to track down the family of one of my early ancestors. This guy was born in 1800 in Hager’s Town, Maryland. I have tracked this ancestor from Maryland to Pennsylvania, to Ohio, and finally to Daviess County, Indiana, where he died. But I haven’t been able to identify his parents. I have a hunch the father was John Ramsey, but that is a common name and there are many John Ramseys. I cannot conclusively prove which one is correct, or even that John was the correct Ramsey. So far, I haven’t yet figured it out. I don’t want to waste time researching the wrong family.
Its like that in our faith, as well. You can’t prove God, but you can trust. But, if we go searching in the wrong direction, we just wander further away from Him, where it gets darker and darker. Let’s search in the right place: the Bible.
Tags: goal, seeker
Servants of God need to learn to focus upon Him. We must daily seek God’s face. A man came upon three boys playing in the snow. He came up to them and asked, “Would you like to try a race and the winner wins a dollar?”
The boys said, “Yes,” and the man told them the race would be different. He said, “I will go to the other side of the field, and when I give you the signal, you start to run. The one whose footsteps are straightest in the snow will be the winner.”
So the race started, and the first boy watched his feet to make sure he was running as straight as possible. The second lad did the same. He watched his feet. The third boy, however, did something different. He ran with his eyes steadfastly fixed on the man at the other side of the field, and he won! Because he had kept his eyes on the goal ahead of him, his footsteps were straight in the snow, and he won the dollar.
Let’s concentrate on God and keep our eyes fixed on Him. He’s the only one who knows where we’re going.
Tags: focus, goal, priorities, race, snow
The success of the Coca-Cola Corporation is due in large part to the vision of its leaders. Robert Woodruff, president of Coca-Cola from 1923 to 1955, boldly said during World War II: “We will see that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents wherever he is and whatever it costs.”
After World War II ended, he said that in his lifetime he wanted everyone in the world to have tasted Coca-Cola. Quite a vision!
When Jesus challenged his disciples to “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations”, He was setting and grand goal for the church. How’re we doing?
Tags: coca-cola, goal, vision, World War II
It was a fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island. She intended to swim the channel from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming was not new to her; she had been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The water was numbing cold that day. The fog was so think she could hardly see the boats in her party. Several times sharks had to be driven away with rifle fire. She swam more than 15 hours before she asked to be taken out of the water. Her trainer tried to encourage her to swim on since they were so close to land, but when Florence looked, all she saw was fog. So she quit…only one-half mile from her goal
Later she said, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land I might have made it.” It wasn’t the cold or fear or exhaustion that caused Florence Chadwick to fail. It was losing sight of the goal.
Maybe that’s why Paul said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
Tags: close, failure, goal, swim, vision