FROM THE WORD OF GOD

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation ..."

—Luke 2:29-30

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

“You get older and you learn there is one sentence, just four words long, and if you can say it to yourself it offers more comfort than almost any other. It goes like this: At least I tried.”– Ann Brashares

 Things God ask each of us to do?

3. Read the Bible.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.

—Jeremiah 2:28

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like no one is watching."

~ Randall G Leighton

 Things God ask each of us to do?

 2. Put living for Jesus first in your life.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” Matthew 6:33.

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

—Romans 15:13

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

"Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."

~ Groucho Marx

 Things God asks each of us to do?

1. Believe in Jesus. G

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household,” Acts 16:31.

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

—James 2:26

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.

—Isaiah 41:10-11

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. –Abigail Van Buren

THOUGHT FOR YOU

"You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. "

~ Shira Tehrani

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

"[Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross."

—Acts 2:23

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

—Isaiah 2:22

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

'A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities, and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.''

- Harry S. Truman

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the LORD has done great things.

—Joel 2:21

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown

       A CENSURE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST

A CENSURE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

—1 John 4:11-12

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. –Jesus

HOPE

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

—Genesis 2:18

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear.

—Isaiah 2:17-18

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

“Don’t Let Yesterday Take Up Too Much Of Today.” – Will Rogers

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

—Habakkuk 2:14

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

"Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe."

Wayne Dyer -

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

—Galatians 6:9

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

 I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

—Philippians 2:14-15

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. – George Washington Carver

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

—Proverbs 15:4

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”– Og Mandingo

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

"Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD. "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

—Jeremiah 2:12-13

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

The things that make life worth living should always be felt by the heart, and not purely a thought of the mind.  --- Johnny Tan

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

—Proverbs 2:11

THOUGHT FOR YOUR DAY

“I found that every single successful person I’ve ever spoken to had a turning point and the turning point was where they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50 and most never make it at all.”– Brian Tracy

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

—Ephesians 2:10

“Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”– Brian Tracy

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

As it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

—1 Corinthians 2:9

The weaker we feel, the harder we lean on God.  And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow.

Joni Eareckson Tada

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.

—Ephesians 2:8-9

BEING NOT CONFORMED

As believers in the world, we must not be absorbed by it, we must not be chilled by the godless society in which we live. We must never be conformed  to the world and its ways, because we are children of God.   1 John 4: 5-6

WHAT DID KIDS DO BEFORE VIDEO GAMES?

When I was a kid in the back hills of Kentucky.

Finding Fireflies, four-leaf clovers, baby rabbits, watching spiders spinning their webs, was good for a few hours of entertainment.

Catching Craw fish in the creek offered an interesting challenge  the craw fish  for some reason always scuttled backward to hide beneath a rock,when you tried to catch them .

 Looking for foxfire  presented lots of excitement when you could find it.

Now for those of you who may not know what foxfire is, it isn't a search engine on the internet.

Foxfire for us kids was a type of decaying wood that glowed at night giving off a phosphorescent  light you could see long before you got to it.

Growing up knowing all these things, about country life gave us a fascinating world to explore.

To catch a craw-fish you had to have it back up into your hand that was the trick to catching it .

And to use it for fish bait you just used just the tail part to be successful.

Knowing a four-leaf clover meant good luck, us kids would  sit for hours trying to find one, so we'd be lucky.

All the little girls picked plantain leafs from the field,and counted the veins running through the leaf, which supposedly would tell them how many children they were going to have someday.

And the little boys all wanted a pony, of which most families couldn't afford one even if it was available, so they used  broom handles as a make believe.

Making bows and arrows, was something the boys enjoyed doing when they weren't riding their make believe pony.

Finding a peace of wood straight enough to be an arrow, was a bit challenging,  as well as finding a length of string strong enough for the bow.

These were just a few of the non-electrical ways us kids found to amuse our selves in the days before modern day games were invented.

Coleman Schell

PRAISES OF GOD VERSES THE PRAISES OF MEN

Popularity and praises of men, can turn us away from God without us ever being aware of it. Making us like those in Jesus' day. Where the Bible says the people "Loved the praises of men more than the praise of God"  John 12: 43

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

—Psalm 53:2

OUR FATHER'S HOUSE

As much as our earthly homes mean to us today, they are not permanent homes. The house you live in today will one day rang out with emptiness. We have no lasting home here on earth, but our Father's house is a home where we will live for eternity. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.    John 14: 2

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

The word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.

—Psalm 33:4-5

A LONG WINTER NIGHT

When Betty Jones my (Belated) first wife and I got married, we never missed going back home to Kentucky to visit with our families at Christmas time, It was one of the things we really enjoyed doing. 

Neither one of us had ever been away from home long at at time, and we got homesick pretty often.

In 1966 we made our plans as usual to go and visit everyone for Christmas, all the weather  reports we'd gotten in Michigan, said the weather should be good all the way to London Ky.

Little did we know that wasn't going to be the case.

Betty, and our young (Belated)  son Ricky and I  left our home in Warren Mi.  on Fri. Dec. 23 around  4 pm.  

The weather was nice  that day and we were excited to be finally on our way, ( In our newly purchased 1966 Plymouth), and we had all the confidence in the world it was going to be a exciting  journey in our new car.

At Lexington Ky we hit our first Snow fall, and traffic was at a stand still  as far as you could see it was lined up, look like for miles, as the ole saying goes things went South in a hurry. 

Hours later at Mt. Vernon KY. We got off interstate 75 and took US 461 to Somerset and then US 80 to London Ky. 

By that time snow on the roads was about 6 to  8 inches deep.

At least getting off at Mt. Vernon we'd gotten out of the traffic jam, but the secondary roads  hadn't  been plowed and were  really a mess and driving on them was at a snails pace at best. 

Finally thanks to the Good Lord's help we arrived at  Betty's  parents Cecil and Hettie's Jones home around 4 pm on Sat. some 24 hrs later.

Everyone was worried about us by then and with no phone to let them know our where about, so were we.

 My brother-in-law Billy Jones and his wife Carol McFadden and their daughter Debbie had left Michigan a few hours after we did, the roads were so bad neither of us thought we were ever going to make it.

 Such a pretty time it turned out to be after we arrived, with all the snow on the trees and the spirit of Christmas in the air,  we just couldn't help having a wonderful  and remember-able time with  family's and friends. 

The weather cleared up by Monday and the roads were good for us to go back to our home in Michigan and settle down for a bit after all that. 

Coleman Schell

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

—1 Corinthians 13:6-7

NO GOOD THING WILL GOD WITHHOLD FROM HIS PEOPLE

Think of all the blessings we so easily take for granted that come from God; Life itself; Preservation from danger; The good health we enjoy; The ability to see; To hear, to speak, to think, and to imagine, and most of all of these is the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ. What have you done lately to show your gratitude? Psalm 84: 11

Come receive with out price

Salvation is free, but it wasn't cheap, it cost the dear Son of God His very life. The best things in life are free, the air we breath, the stars at night, the wonder of human love, but the greatest gift of all is our salvation. "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.   2 Cor. 9: 15

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.    

—1 Corinthians 13:1-3

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.

—Psalm 94:18-19

TALKING TO THE DEAD

In our little community of  Laurel Co. Ky. life was a bit unusual in today's standard.

We walked to school can you believe that?

The neighbor kids came by when it was school time and we headed out.

Picking up more as we went along.

And as you might imagine our conversation were varied .

Kidding each other about a boy or girl friend was a pretty hot one, or more on the serious or unknown side we might talk about an Indian grave yard we walked by on the way to school.

Seems there was a legend back then about Indian grave yards, being sacred grounds and you weren't suppose to go near them.

Being kids the curiosity of such a thing  was strong.

The legend said that if you were brave enough to visit one of their grave yards you could talk to the Indians buried there.

That created  an even stronger curiosity for us.

So finally our curiosity's got the best of us, and we drew straws to see who would go first .

Pretty  scared  bunch we were, but we just  had to give it a try.

The, legend had it that you were suppose to kneel down once you were in the grave yard and put your ear to the ground near a grave and say."Hey Mr. Indian what are you doing down there?

" and  the Indian would say "Nothing, Nothing at all." after all us kids had our turn, we were  convinced the legend had it right. The Indian's did say "Nothing, Nothing at all." back to us.

Now that  our  curiosity's where satisfied  we returned  to our usual  kidding one  other about  a boy friend or girl friend.

 A subject we were way  more at ease with.

Coleman Schell

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

"Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."

—Psalm 37:5-6

FROM THE WORD OF GOD

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

—Ephesians 4:29

THE REAL THING

You can't stop a baby's cry when it is hungry, by giving

it a pacifier. It will keep on crying until its hunger is satisfied by food. Its the same way with God, He want share a pacifier in our lives with anything or anyone less than Himself. Is anything crowding God out of your heart today?   Psalms 42: 1

BEING DIFFERENT

There was war at Gath in the Bible, where a man of great stature,  had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number(II Samuel 21:20-21)

The name of the man is not given. The Bible  indicates that he was related to Goliath the Gittite, whom David had slain,

In the world we live in today this man could have been easily have been  listed in the believe it or not category.

People such as this man, who have  abnormal issues, can still be used of God.

Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Psalm 1:1-6

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; …

Are you allowing some blemish on your body or your life to hinder you from doing what God has called you to do, many people do.

All God needs is a willing heart to serve and do His work.