My grandsons, ages 10 and 12, stood on the rock outcropping with me, looking down at the dark water below. I related to them how I swam here as a kid. I encouraged them, “Go ahead and jump in, boys.”

The response was a loud, “No!” They didn’t trust my words.

At sixty-one I had to make the plunge first to convince them it was OK. After that, they followed happily.

It got me to thinking, it wasn’t my words but my actions that would lead them into an uncertain future. How many have gone on before and paved the way for us?

1 Corinthians 11:1 

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

James 5:10 

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

1 Timothy 5:8 

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Give it some thought and make a way for others.

Gary

Joyce Kilmer was born on December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was killed while fighting in World War I. He is the author of the following poem.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

This man of war appreciated God’s design and man’s deficiency. Do we have the same sensitivity for life on the planet?

Genesis 6:12

God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

Give it some thought.

Gary

If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.

                                                                           – Author unknown

Proverbs 24:3-4 

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Isaiah 32:18 

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

Home deserves our time and energy if we are to have a life.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Patient to friend: “I saw the doctor today about my loss of memory.” Friend: “What did he do?”

Patient: “He made me pay him in advance.”

Doctors would never become professional unless they had a high IQ and active discernment. Christians also have to use the gray matter that is God-given.

Hebrews 5:14

 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

1 Kings 3:9

So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

Give it some thought and you will be ahead of the curve.

Gary

Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.

                                                               – Unknown author

This is how the friendship of Jonathan and David was described in the Old Testament.

1 Samuel 18:1, 4

As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. 

If you have people more committed to you than they are to themselves, that’s real friendship and you are blessed. Friendship contains no envy, jealousy or greed.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Our neighbor’s cat was run over by a car, and the mother quickly disposed of the remains before her four-year-old son Billy found out about it. After a few days, though, Billy finally asked about the cat.

“Billy, the cat died,” his mother explained. “But it’s all right. He’s up in heaven with God.”

The boy asked, “What in the world would God want with a dead cat?”

                  -Contributed by Ross Sams, Jr., Reader’s Digest, May 1996, p. 102

God is certainly not looking for a dead cat. Only one who has trusted in His righteousness, not his or her own, is welcomed to the place Christ has prepared.

Romans 3:26

 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Matthew 22:32

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

What will be your condition when the lights go out?

Give it some thought.

Gary

He rode easy in the saddle. He was tall and lean, and at first you’d a-thought nothing but a streak of mean could make a man look so down-right strong, but one look in his eyes and you knowed you was wrong. He was a mountain of a man, and I want you to know, he could preach hot hell or freezin’ snow. He carried a Bible in a canvas sack and folks just called him, The Reverend Mr. Black. He was poor as a beggar, but he rode like a king. Sometimes in the evening, I’d hear him sing: I gotta walk that lonesome valley. I got to walk it by myself. Oh, nobody else can walk it for me; I got to walk it by myself.

                                                                        -The Kingston Trio in 1963.

This song was about a preacher who gave all for the sake of the gospel. It’s only a made-up song, but one worth emulating. Go to youtube.com and give it a listen.

We all walk through this valley of life, and it can get lonely. No doubt, that’s because God has placed in us a longing for our eternal home.

Psalm 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Give it some thought.

Gary