A
farmer went each week to the Farmers' Market to sell, among other things, the
cottage cheese and apple butter made on his farm. He carried these in two
large tubs, from which he ladled the cottage cheese or apple butter into
smaller containers the customers brought. One day he got to the market and
discovered he'd forgotten one ladle. He felt he had no choice but to use the
one for both products. Before long he couldn't tell which was which.
That's the way it is when we try to
dispense the good news of Christ using hearts, minds, and tongues too recently
immersed in the coarseness and one-up-manship of the world. Nobody gets any
nourishment. -- Beth
Landers, Waterloo, Ontario. Leadership,
Vol. 5, no. 2.
$5000 HAIRCUT
R.Digest
1/95 p.67 (Joke)
A bald man took a seat in a
beauty shop. "How can I help you?" asked the stylist. "I went
for a hair transplant," the guy explained, "but I couldn't stand the
pain. If you can make my hair look like yours without causing me any
discomfort, I'll pay you $5000.
"No problem," said
the stylist, and she quickly shaved her head.
“Attitude”
"The longer I
live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. It is more important
than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures,
than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more
important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a
company ... a
church
... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the
attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot
change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the
inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and
that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me
and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our
Attitude." - Chuck Swindoll
Romans
8:1 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus, 2 because through
Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and
death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the
sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to
be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the
righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live
according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who
live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the
mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile
to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled
by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by
the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is
alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus
from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
How is your Mind set?
-- Key verse is v. 5.
We have a new law, which is
called the law of the Spirit of life. This
law has set me free from the law of sin and death.
The mind and life of sinful humans verses the mind and life of
spiritual humans.
Mind of sin.
- Is
Death
- Is
Hostile toward God
- Does
not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so
- Cannot
please God
- Does
not have the Spirit of God and does not have Christ.
- Does
not belong to Christ
Mind of the Spirit of God.
- Is
Life and Peace (Your spirit is alive)
- A
Friend of God (in league with Him)
- Submits
to God
- Controlled
by the Spirit
- Has
the Spirit of God
- Belongs
to Christ
- Alive
because of Righteousness
Let this be your invitation
to be like Christ in your Mind? Mind
does matter. How is your mind? Is it like Christ? Is
your mind joined together with other believers? Let us manage our mind by giving ourselves to Christ and to
others.
Phil
2:1 (NIV) If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any
comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness
and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the
same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than
yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also
to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of
Christ Jesus:
MIND -- Let the mind of the Master be the master of your mind. Source
Unknown.
Both the hummingbird and
the vulture fly over our nation's
deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for.
They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead
animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The
vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with
what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life.
They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is
looking for. We all do. By Steve Goodier, Quote
Magazine, in Reader's Digest, May, 1990.
Once
walking through the twisted little streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong, I came
upon a tattoo studio. In the window were displayed samples of the tattoos
available. On the chest or arms you could have tattooed an anchor or flag or
mermaid or whatever. But what struck me with force were three words that could
be tattooed on one's flesh, Born to lose.
I entered the shop in astonishment
and, pointing to those words, asked the Chinese tattoo artist, "Does
anyone really have that terrible phrase, Born to lose, tattooed on his
body?"
He replied, "Yes,
sometimes."
"But," I said, "I
just can't believe that anyone in his right mind would do that."
The Chinese man simply tapped his
forehead and said in broken English, "Before tattoo on body, tattoo on
mind." . -- Norman Vincent Peale in Power of the Plus Factor, in
Christianity Today.
A chaplain was speaking to
a soldier on a cot in a hospital.
"You have lost an arm in the great cause," he said. "No,"
said the soldier with a smile. "I didn't lose it--I gave it." In
that same way, Jesus did not lose His life. He gave it purposefully.
Source
Unknown.
There is a story of two Buddhist monks walking in a drenching
thunderstorm. They came to a stream, and it was swollen out of its banks. A
beautiful young Japanese woman in a kimono stood there wanting to get to the
other side but was afraid of the currents. In characteristic Buddhist
compassion, one of the monks said, "Can I help you?"
The woman said, "I need
to cross this stream."
The monk picked her up, put her on
his shoulder, carried her through the water, and put her down on the other
side. He and his companion went on to the monastery.
That night his companion said to
him, "I have a bone to pick with you. As Buddhist monks, we have taken
vows not to look on a woman, much less touch her body. Back there by the river
you did both."
The first monk said, "My
brother, I put that woman down on the other side of the river. You're still
carrying her in your mind." --
John Claypool, "The Future and Forgetting," Preaching Today, Tape
No. 109