Memorial Day Poem
As we stand here looking
At the flags upon these graves
Know these flags represent
A few of the true American brave
They fought for their Country
As man has through all of time
Except that these soldiers lying here
Fought for your country and mine
As we all are gathered here
To pay them our respect
Let’s pass this word to others
It’s what they would expect
I’m sure that they would do it
If it were me or you
To show we did not die in vein
But for the red, white and blue.
Let’s pass on to our children
And to those who never knew
What these soldiers died for
It’s the least we can do
Let’s not forget their families
Great pain they had to bear
Losing a son, father or husband
They need to know we still care
No matter which war was fought
On the day that they died
I stand here looking at these flags
Filled with American pride.
So as the bugler plays out Taps
With its sweet and eerie sound
Pray for these soldiers lying here
In this sacred, hallowed ground.
Take home with you a sense of pride
You were here Memorial Day.
Celebrating the way Americans should
On this solemnest of days.
By Michelle Keim.
Memorial Day
Thank you to everyone who serves in the arm forces of this great country.
We never say it enough, but we owe you a tremendous debt for your service to keep us free. Our country isn’t perfect. It’s a long way from it. But we do have much to be thankful for, and I thank God for you!
God bless our men and women in uniform!
The Global Church
4:15 in the morning and I’m up and awake. Anywho…
I found this interesting: What today’s church looks like from Sunday to Sunday…
• This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called “Christian Europe.” Yet in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China…
• This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined.
• This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland.
• This past Sunday more people attended an Assembly of God church in Brasil than the combined attendance of the two largest US Pentecostal denominations, the Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ in the United States.
• This past Sunday the churches with the largest attendance in England and France had mostly black congregations. About half of the churchgoers in London were African or African-Caribbean.
• Today, the largest Christian congregation in Europe is in Kiev, and it is pastored by a Nigerian of Pentecostal background.
• This past week in Great Britain, at least fifteen thousand Christian foreign missionaries were hard at work evangelizing the locals. Most of these missionaries are from Africa and Asia.
From The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith
Problems Get Bigger!
Have you ever noticed how the problems and burdens we face in life have a tendency to build on one another?
A lady was having trouble with a skunk in her cellar, so she called the police station and asked for help. They recommended that she make a trail of bread crumbs from the steps of the basement to the back of her yard, and wait for the skunk to follow it out. The next day she called the police station again, and said, “I did what you told me to do…and now I have two skunks in my basement.”
That’s what happens in life: problems seem to get bigger and bigger; burdens seem to get heavier and heavier. Burdens are problems spun out of control to the point of becoming unmanageable. Many times we deal with them by avoiding them as long as possible, or simply by running from them.
As Charlie Brown once said, “There’s no problem so big that I can’t run away from it.”
However, we don’t have to avoid the burdens of life, and we don’t have to run from them. Through Jesus we can be released from our burdens.
Jesus promised a life different than what most people think the “religious” life is all about. He didn’t preach a burdensome life that ultimately leads to spiritual exhaustion. He preached a life of rest, of peace. A way that is easy. A burden that is light.
This is because he is there to carry our burdens. He bore them so that you wouldn’t have to. Peter wrote, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. (1 Peter 2:24)
You can be released from your burdens. He will take them and set you free. Give them all to Jesus–your shattered dreams, wounded heart, broken toys–and he will turn your sorrow into joy!
Hardly Working?
I had the radio on recently and a couple of DJ’s were complaining about work and having to work…you’ve heard the spiel before I’m sure. Naturally, they concluded their diatribe by playing the old country classic by Johnny Paycheck “Take This Job And Shove It.”
Contrary to popular belief “work” is not a curse. It’s not God’s way of punishing you. Neither is it just about the paycheck. Your job is God’s way of helping you become the person he wants you to be. Elbert Hubbard said, “We work to become, not to acquire.”
It really doesn’t matter how much talent or how much potential you bring to the table. It matters how much effort you’re willing to invest.
So today I’m encouraging you to adopt a different attitude toward your job — rather than “hardly working”, I’m encouraging to try “heartily working.”
Work at your job with all your heart, as working for the Lord!
Re-label Yourself
All the laws of physics say the bumble bee cannot fly. Its body is too big for its wings. Technically it needs a larger wingspan. For years experts in aerodynamics have studied the bumblebee, and their conclusion is: It cannot fly.
They stuck a label on it — Grounded: Has to walk where ever it goes.
The only problem is that the bumblebee could not understand what the experts were saying, therefore the label would not stick. Now, against all the odds of aerodynamics, in spite of what all the experts have said, the bumblebee flies where ever it wants to.
Do you know why the bumblebee can fly? Because God told it to fly. God is not limited to the laws of nature.
If you will remove the wrong labels, you will be amazed at how far your wings can take you.
Some of you might not be flying. It’s not because you weren’t created to, but because somebody put a label on you that you believed. Now it’s become a stronghold in your thinking. It’s limiting what God can do.
I’m asking you to remove the old labels. Re-label yourself and your future with what God says about you.
Reminds me of Paul’s words…
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Sensible Way To Live
E. Stanley Jones said, “If you don’t surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos.” This is true on both a big level and a small level.
On a big level, we all know how the lives of unbelievers are reduced to chaos when they fail to surrender to Jesus.
But on a smaller (and equally tragic) level, it also happens to believers who try to withhold bits and pieces of their lives from the Lordship of Christ.
For example, I know believers who are overall committed to following Christ … except when it comes to managing their checkbook. They’ve never let go of their stinginess, or they’ve never let go of their addiction to shopping, and this resistance leads to the chaos in their lives.
And I know others who who refuse to surrender their tongues to the Lordship of Christ; their habits of speaking harshly to family members and gossiping with their friends leads to chaos again and again.
It’s a pretty good guarantee that the chaos in your life — whether big or small — is caused by an unwillingness to surrender this part of your life to Jesus.
In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren says, “Surrender is not the best way to live. It’s the only way to live. All other approaches lead to frustration, disappointment, and self-destruction.” Rick points out that one translation of the Bible calls the life of surrender “the most sensible way to serve God.” (Romans 12:1 TEV)
It’s true. A life of surrender is the only thing that makes sense. Everything else leads to chaos. Surrendering leads to peace: “If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.” (Philippians 4:7)
Bible Knowledge
I believe it’s safe to say Bible knowledge just might be at an all-time low! Jay Leno likes to prove it every now and then. He frequently does man-on-the-street interviews, and one night he collared some twentysomethings to ask them questions about the Bible.
“Can you name one of the Ten Commandments?” he asked two college aged women. One replied, “Freedom of speech?”
Leno said to the other, “Complete this sentence: Let he who is without sin…” Her response was, “have a good time?”
Leno then turned to a young man and asked, “Who, according to the Bible, was swallowed by a whale?” The confident answer was, “Pinocchio.”
How sad is that!
But I don’t wanna go to church…
When I was a kid I would sometimes try to get out of going to church by feigning a stomachache, hiding my good shoes, or ‘accidentally’ spilling orange juice on my Sunday suit. It never worked. Mom would drag me along anyway: sick, stained and barefoot.
I guess it’s normal for restless little boys to pull stunts in order to avoid the agony of sitting still for an hour!
You may remember last year about a seven year old who took stunt-pulling to a new level to avoid going to church: He took Mom and Dad’s car out for a spin.
When others drivers spotted the little guy behind the wheel, they notified the police, who chased the young driver for more than 10 blocks at a speed of 40+ MPH. Eventually he went back home.
When asked why he did what he did, he offered this excuse: It was too hot to go to church that day, so he decided to take a joyride instead.
C.S. Lewis On Transformation
Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.
And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself.
To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to one state or the other.
—C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity pg. 86-87