Category Archives: Today: Make it Count

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April 24, 2014

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Attitudes & Behavior, Love & Works, Today: Make it Count

HOW TO TREAT OTHERS

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. [2 Corinthians 13:11 (ESV)]

Heavenly Father, when you come to take me home, let there be no remorse about opportunities I’ve missed or things I’ve left undone. Guide me so that I leave no apologies unsaid, no forgiveness withheld, no kindness refused, no compassion unoffered, and no fences unmended. May your Holy Spirit help me to live a life of love, harmony and peace.

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 Mandino]

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. [Matthew 7:12 (ESV)]

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April 12, 2014

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Bible Stories, Today: Make it Count, Trusting God

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will cause food to fall like rain from the sky for all of you. Every day the people must go out and gather what they need for that day. I want to see if the people will do what I teach them. … So the people of Israel did this; some people gathered much, and some gathered little. Then they measured it. The person who gathered more did not have too much, nor did the person who gathered less have too little. Each person gathered just as much as he needed. Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it to eat the next day.” But some of the people did not listen to Moses and kept part of it to eat the next morning. It became full of worms and began to stink, so Moses was angry with those people. [Exodus 16:4, 17-20 (NCV)]

Why did God insist that the Israelites couldn’t save any extra manna? Why couldn’t they stockpile some in case the manna didn’t appear the following day? Perhaps it was it because God wanted to teach them to depend only upon Him for each day’s sustenance and to trust that He would provide. God wanted them to understand that, if they consumed his provisions as he commanded, exactly the right amount would be provided when it was needed again.

God blesses us each day, not just with food but also with money, opportunities, talents and time. Do we ever hoard those blessings because we don’t trust God to continue his provision? Be careful; if we don’t use the gifts he gives us today we, like the Israelites, might find those blessings spoiled or gone tomorrow.

Father, help us trust in your daily provision for all of the blessings in our lives.

Give us the food we need for each day. [Matthew 6:11 (NCV)]

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April 7, 2014

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Faith & Hope, Salvation: A New You, Sorrow, Grief & Regrets, Today: Make it Count

He’s Just Around the Corner

2014-4-7Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.” [John 11:25-26 (NLT)]

Dear Lord, console those who mourn and fill them with hope. Wipe their tears and help them find comfort in both their faith and memories. Reassure them that life for the believer does not end at death but will continue forever in your loving presence. Guide the bereaved through their grief and bring them to a place where they again will have laughter and joy in their lives.

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh. [John 6:47-51 (NLT)]

“Death is Nothing at All”
[Henry Scott Holland, Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral]

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.

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March 26, 2014

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Attitudes & Behavior, God's Promises, Love & Works, Temptation & Sin, Today: Make it Count

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. [Galatians 6:7 (NLT)]

This verse from Galatians makes me think of the character Larry David plays in the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Easily aggravated by the pettiest of annoyances, he inappropriately expresses his irritation at the drop of a hat. He can make a molehill into a mountain and will stop at nothing to prove his point. Having no filter and little consideration or compassion for others, he manages to aggravate and alienate nearly everyone around him. Inevitably, the person he has offended is exactly the person from whom he needs something later in the episode. That kind of behavior may make for good comedy but it is not the way to live our lives. What we sow in our actions, we will reap. Just as good deeds can bring a harvest of blessings, bad conduct brings a harvest of weeds. Let’s never get tired of doing what is generous, kind and good.

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. [Galatians 6:8-9 (NLT)]

 

         

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February 27, 2014

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Money & Wealth, Today: Make it Count, Wisdom & Guidance

What Will We Leave?

tombstonesHuman life is as short-lived as grass. It blossoms like a flower in the field. When the wind blows over the flower, it disappears, and there is no longer any sign of it. [Psalm 103:15-16 (GW)]

In reality, all a tombstone marks is a somewhat useless piece of real estate. What will we really leave behind when our days here end? What gift will we bequeath to the living? Lord, help us remember that what really matters won’t be how well we were liked but how much we loved. The number of people we knew won’t be as important as the number of people to whom we offered friendship. The amount of money we had won’t be of consequence, but how much we gave will. The extent of our knowledge will be forgotten, but what we taught will be remembered. What we owned will be of no significance, but how well we shared it will. Our memories will be gone, but others’ memories of us will remain. Guide us, O Lord, in our remaining days.

Epitaph, tombstone inscription in Shrewsbury, England

“For the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
Do all the good you can,
To all the people you can,
In all the ways you can,
As long as ever you can.”

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February 13, 2014

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Attitudes & Behavior, Joy, Today: Make it Count

Our Days Are Numbered

Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. [Psalm 39:4-5 (NIV)]

Within a few days’ time, I met one woman who recently lost her husband to cancer and another who would soon lose her husband to cancer, not because he is ill but because of her terminal illness. Both women were fully aware of the fragility of life and how quickly one’s life can change. Rather than complain about the unfairness, sorrow and pain of their circumstances, both women said they count their blessings daily and thank God for every one of them. People of faith, these women have come to terms with God’s plan and a sense of peace radiated from them both.

Lord, our time here is brief. Guide us so we make the most of every day. Don’t let us squander time and energy on petty complaints, in self-pity, anger or resentment. Show us how to savor each minute and squeeze every moment of joy out of life that is humanly possible. Help us to find your love in all circumstances and enable us to see and appreciate each day’s blessings.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. [Psalm 90:12 (NIV)]

It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had. [Elizabeth Kübler Ross]