Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you; they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking . . . Your “self” is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this “self” to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, Zondervan.

Romans 10:17

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Proverbs 25:28 

A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Give it some thought and give yourself a good talking to.

Gary

We Americans sure have a taste for French fries. Do you know that the average American eats 25 pounds of French fries every year? McDonald’s alone sells 9,000,000 pounds of fries globally every day. To keep up, its US supplier uses a massive fry-cutting machine that shoots potatoes through at 60 to 70 mph, 24 hours a day.

It’s just too bad we don’t have such a taste for the Word of God:

Psalm 34:8

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

Hebrews 6:5

and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

May you have a taste for truth.

Give it some thought.

Gary

My memories concerning thirty-five years of EMS are many and varied. Here’s one that I would rather delete. Before me was an old man lying there in his barn with his hunting rifle next to his lifeless body. I noticed a block used to split firewood not very far away. It looked like it had withstood a thousand cords or more from an old double bit ax. How many blows did he inflict on that block? My eyes wandered to all the varied farm implements he had probably used over six decades. I thought to myself, his life’s story is contained here in this building. That empty feeling came over me as I closed the door and waited for the state police.

Something’s wrong with this world.

Genesis 2:7 

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 3:22-23 

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

What Adam broke, only God can fix. We need to bundle up all that pain and disappointment and take it to Him. We can’t carry it forever.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Doctors got together to study the effects of alcohol on the way a person walks, and the results were staggering.

Readers Digest

Proverbs 20:1 

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Proverbs 23:29-35 

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things. …

That was my experience anyway.

Give it some thought.

Gary

There’s little difference in ethical behavior between the churched and the unchurched. There’s as much pilferage and dishonesty among the churched as the unchurched. And I’m afraid that applies pretty much across the board: Religion, per se, is not really life-changing. People cite it as important, for instance, in overcoming depression–but it doesn’t have primacy in determining behavior. 

George H. Gallup, “Vital Signs,” Leadership, Fall 1987, p. 17.

That’s a sad commentary on the church, but we can’t deny the facts. Two thousand years ago Christ examined seven churches in what is now the country of Turkey. The condition of most of them was less than stellular. Seems like not much has changed in two millennium.

Revelation 1:4

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne,

Revelation 2:7

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 

How does your church line up? How does our church line up?

Give it some thought.

Gary

I have previously spoken of my neighbor who owned a Mexican Chihuahua. That dog was hardly bigger than a period on the end of a sentence. However, the day that big bull moose came out of the forest, Chico chased him away with the ferocity of a Pitbull. After all, that animal had no business on their property.  With her owner right on her heels, that Chihuahua barked furiously and chased that moose right back into his environment. I would like to have a video of that sight because it would have been worth some money. I can still visualize the three of them running down the driveway.

I like individuals that, in spite of their size, take on insurmountable things because that is their nature.  Jesus offered every believer that kind of ability.

Mark 11:22-24 

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Give it some thought and stop barking up the wrong tree.

Gary

Any man whose garage is his second-home knows the necessity of certain supplies. You must have duct tape, crazy glue and an ample amount of DW-40.  Most, however, don’t have a clue what DW-40 stands for.

Let me enlighten some of you about this fantastic product. It took the inventors 40 attempts to get their water displacing formula to work, but on the 40th attempt, they got it right in a big way. WD-40 Multi Use Product was born. WD-40 stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula.

Don’t give up on an important investigation. The next try could be the charm.

Galatians 6:9 

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  

2 Chronicles 15:7 

But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”

Get yourself a couple of cans of “don’t-give-up,” and get the job done right.

Think about it.

Gary