HOW TO SUCCEED

HOW TO SUCCEED

First, if your idea of success is either fame or

fortune, you are totally deceived and on the 

road to self destruction.

This morning while reviewing the news on the 

internet I read of a man who gave millions to 

one thing or another.  He was only in his fifties,

but he jumped to his death from some building.

I guess that is the happy dance.

The other morning while reading my Bible and

in a mood of prayer, because I want to finish out 

what ever life I have left hand in hand with God,

and looking for answers to my remaining days

I was reading in Luke.  In chapter five where Christ

is calling his disciples I noted several things.

It is recommended that you read for yourself

this section of Scripture if you have a Bible,

that is, Luke chapter five verse 1 to 16.

However I noted for my self the following.

1.  The disciples had worked hard all night and 

caught nothing.  Now I can relate to that.  Doing

things the way I think they should be done and

accomplishing nothing.

2.  When they did the same thing the way Jesus

told them to do it, they were swamped with

success.

3. They left everything and followed Jesus.  How

often we try to drag "stuff" along in living for 

God.  It does not work well.

4. Even Jesus himself often would go away alone

to pray to the Father.  Now if Jesus needed to 

pray often, how do you think we are going to

make it without a lot of prayer.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you

who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I

will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let

me teach you, because I am humble and gentle

at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I

give you is light.'"

(Matthew 11:28 - 30 NLT). 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Then Jesus said, 'come to me, all of you

who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I

will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let

me teach you, because I am humble and gentle

at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I

give you is light.'"  

(Matthew 11:28 - 30 NLT)

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Then Jesus said to the disciples, 'Have faith in God.

I tell you the truth, you can say to this Mountain, 'May

you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will

happen.  But you must really believe it will happen

and have no doubt in your heart.  I tell you, you can

pray for anything, and if you believe that you've

received it, it will be yours.  But when you are praying,

first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against,

so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins,

too.'"

(Mark11:22- 25  NLT)

BURN OUT

Burn out caused by high resistance.

We could do the same that is why we 

need to get away from all the noise and

confusion of the world some times.

Even Jesus, the very Son of God, while living
here on earth as a man needed to "Get away
from it all." some times.  Look at Jesus example.

"But Jesus Himself would often slip
away to the wilderness and pray."
(Like 5:16 NASB)





And to his disciples he instructed;

"And He said to them,
'Come away by yourselves to a secluded
play and rest awhile.  (For there were many
people coming and going, and they did not


even have time to eat.)  They went away in
the boat to a secluded place by themselves."
(Mark 6:31,32  NASB)



I don't know about you.  But if I don't spend
some time alone with God every day, my day
gets messed up real bad.



You will not find the time.  You will have
to make the time.  But it is well worth
the effort.  TRY IT.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Jesus gave his life for our sins,

just as God our Father planned,

in order to rescue us from this

evil world in which we live."

(Galatians 1:4 NLT)

CAUTION

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CAUTION,

DANGER AHEAD

We have been being warned for several thousand

years of what is coming on this old world.  

The Holy Bible many years ago told us what people

would be like in our day and age.  And, just as it 

says, the people of this world are just like it said

they would be.

The Holy Bible told us many, many years ago that

in these end times there would be a one world

government.  And, if you pay any attention to the

news, you know that is being pushed for right now.

The Holy Bible told us that in these last days

this old planet earth would have the catastrophes

we are seeing today such as earth quakes, tsunamis,

famines etc.

ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?

The Bible also tells us that it is going to get 

much, much worse.

Anybody that has read the Bible knows that we

have to have a close PERSONAL relationship

to Jesus Christ - or we are not going to make it.

Closer to my point.

Those of us who do know God personally, He 

has told us that we have to "hang on" in these

last days.  He uses different terms such as;

endure, be victorious, over come etc.

One of the last times I read through what we

call the "New Testament" I watched for these

warnings.  Would you know that I found at least

fifteen such warnings to us who call ourselves

Christians.

My friend, this old world has a very rough

time coming.  We are exhorted by God Himself

to hang on to Jesus Christ for all we are worth.

Meet me in the sky when Jesus calls us all home.

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!

For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water

will flow from his heart'" (When he said 'living water,"

he was speaking of the Spirit who would be given to

everyone believing in him.  But the Spirit had not

yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered

into his glory.)"

(John 7:38,39 NLT)

TODAY'S QUOTE

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"Jesus lived His life in complete dependence upon

God, as we all ought to live our lives.  But such

dependence does not destroy human personality.

Man is never so fully and so truly personal as when

he is living in complete dependence upon God.  This

is how personality comes into its own.  This is

humanity at its most personal."  

- Donald F. Baillie 

TODAY'S QUOTE

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"Faith is two empty hands held open

to receive all of the Lord Jesus."

-Alan Redpath

JESUS DID IT AGAIN

That is some body's shoulder.  I did not want to 

make you sick, so I did not show you mine.

You see, I am an old, old, old man.  About the age

of your great grandfather or older.  That means that

a lot like a car with two or three hundred thousand 

miles on it, I'm falling apart.

Last night I went to bed feeling good, real good.

Had a good day.  No pain, hunger or anxieties and

had even soaked in the tub a while.  What could 

go wrong?

Some time during the night I woke up noticing a

lot of pain in one shoulder, unless I held my arm 

just right.  If I moved it at all there was intense

pain.

I do not know what went wrong.  It had not been

injured or strained during the day.  Possibly rolling

around during the night I dislocated something.  I

do not know, but it sure did hurt.

You can image the joy of "trying" to get dressed 

this morning with one hand.  While trying to get

my shirt on it was impossible to get that one arm

back far enough to go in the sleeve with out it

"killing" me.

While attempting to get that arm into it's sleeve

and the pain so severe I "begged" Jesus to help 

me.  And just about that quick I felt something

snapped, or popped and things when back to 

working again.  Even the soreness was pretty

much gone by the time I had my first cup of 

coffee.

THANK YOU JESUS.

JESUS THE MECHANIC

The lawn mower above had been abandoned for a long time.

It allegedly had major engine problems so it's owner gave it

to Fort Rock Family Camp.  I volunteer some for the camp so

I had them bring it to my shop making it easier for me to work

on.

After getting it started it had a bad problem all right, but not

too difficult to repair.  I started and run the engine several times 

while checking it out.  Then I tore into it only having to take the 

top off the engine for the repair.

  After I had the engine reassembled it was time to test it out.  

But all that would happen was the starter would spin and not

 engage - and I had not even touched the starter.

Working with engine starters is not a new thing to me.  I was

a professional auto technician for over twenty five years.  Which

means I started working on starters back when we had to take them

apart and fix them ourselves.  And being retired, they still keep 

coming into my life.

So I took the starter off to see what was wrong.  When the starter

was off of the engine it would work fine.  Put it back on the engine

and it would only "spin out".  I did this three times and could not 

do anything  to make it work.  I wasted almost a full after noon

trying to make it work, all to no avail.  By then I was in a very

"UnChristian" attitude and quit for the day.

This afternoon I went back down to the shop to work at it again.

But before even touching it I had a serious prayer meeting with

Jesus.  I reached over, turned the key and it "banged" right off.

It has been working every time since.

PRAISE GOD AND THANK YOU JESUS.

The image below is of the starter.

POSSESSIONS

MEASURING SUCCESS

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I had just completed a project that did not work out the

way I wanted.  It seemed that all the time and effort

put into it was wasted.  I just told God that I had done

it for him, so it was up to him to use it however he wanted.

Shortly God brought something to my mind.  He does not

look at success like we do.  He then brought "the widow

and her "two mites" to my mind .   In Luke chapter 21 we 

are told how a poor widow put her "two cents" into the

offering at the temple.  And many rich people put in large

sums.  But Christ said she put in the most.

Why was her's the most?

The rich people put in what was surplus to them.  It may

have been large sums, but they could do without it.  But 

the poor widow put in everything she had.

God looks at what our gift or our effort costs us.  How

hard was it to give or do it?  It is the degree of sacrifice

on our part that he rewards.

If we have been living for God, when the time of our

rewarding comes -it is possible that some poor little

old feeble person might receive a far greater reward

than some of us who think we are doing something.

UNDER ATTACK

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Under attack -AGAIN.

It started the other night.  There is something I dislike

and it was really getting to me.  Most of the time I can 

tolerate it, but that time it was almost more than I could

handle.

Then yesterday something kept me on edge all day.

I did not finish the day well.

Today it was continuing.  I just was not myself.

Then God woke me up to the fact - I am under 

the attack of the devil - AGAIN.

WELL, PRAISE GOD.

It is good to know what is going on.

What an encouragement.  Yes, encouragement.

The devil don't like the way my life is going.

Even Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil.

You know about his being tempted by the devil

in the wilderness for 40 days.  Then, when it was

over:

"When the devil had finished every temptation,

he left Him until an opportune time."

(Luke 4:13 NASB)  

Do you see that?  The devil left him until an

opportune time.  Just like you and me, Jesus

Christ was tempted time after time while he 

was here on earth - except, He did not fail.

God tells us through old brother James:

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you

encounter various trials, knowing that the

testing of your faith produces endurance."

(James 1:2,3 NASB)   

Is it any wonder that time after time through

the Bible we see "To him who overcomes,..."

or he that "conquers". 

 Jesus, take my hand and

lets get going.

A FRIGHTENING EXPERENCE

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"Then people went out to see what had happened,

and they came to Jesus, and found the man  from

whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of

Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were

afraid." (Luke 8:35 RSV)

WOW!

Would that ever be frightening.

If Jesus went to Hollywood and started casting

out demons.  Can you imagine people actually

putting their clothes on and having a right mind?

That would scare the rest of them to death.

Would it scare you being around a sane

person?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

                           CHRISTMAS

YES, CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT GIFTS.

GOD'S GIFT TO US,

 JESUS.

REMEMBER,

JESUS IS THE REASON

FOR THE SEASON.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

JESUS IS MY;

Jesus,

"You are my shield,

my strength,

my portion,

my shelter,

my strong tower

and

my deliverer."

************************

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TRUE PROSPERITY?

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.

Today many of our "religious leaders" exhort us to 

follow Christ.  To do what Christ would do.  To give

as Christ would have us to give.  [Especially give.]

And if we will give, we will get.

We all could quote;

"Give, and it will be given to you.

A good measure, pressed down, shaken together

and running over.  For with the measure you use,

it will be measured to you."

(Luke 6:38 NIV)

WOW!

Lord, where can I give???

Any Christian knows that we are to follow Christ's example.

Even the Apostle Paul said,

"Follow my example, as I follow the 

example of Christ."

(1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV)

O.K.

Let's see Christ's example and Paul's example.

"Then a teacher of the law came to him and said,

'Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.'

Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of

the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no

place to lay his head."

(Matthew 7:19,20 NIV)

OOOOPS1

Christ was homeless.

Let's try again with the great apostle.

"To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty,

we are in rags, we are brutally treated,

we are homeless."

(1 Corinthians 4:11 NIV)

OH NO!

Paul was homeless too.

Do we have to be homeless to be a Christian?

Of course not.  But it is beginning to look like

we have some misplaced values.

TODAY'S PROMISE

Jesus said,

"If you remain in me and my words

remain in you, then you will ask for

anything you wish, and you shall

have it."
(John 15:7 GNT)   

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"The promises of the Lord can be trusted;

they are as genuine as silver refined

seven times in the furnace."

(Psalms 12:6 GNT)

1. Meditate on God's Promises.

2. Plead the Promises at the throne of Grace.

3. Act in Faith that God Will Perform His Promises.

(William Gurnall)