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The Right Thing

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“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

–Benjamin Franklin

Photo: Edwin PP

If you haven’t bitten your tongue lately, then perhaps you’re being too lose with it. If you spend a lot of time around people and like to talk, your “word alert” should be set to high sensitivity.

“It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.” –James 3:5-6 (The Message)

Of course, we all make mistakes and say things we wish we hadn’t said, but we don’t have to keep making the same dumb mistakes over and over. By God’s grace our tongues can be “tamed.”

A few years ago I shared something with a friend that I later deeply regretted. I saw the effect it had on several people as it took on its own life and grew beyond its original form. “Like feathers in the wind, our words all fly away, and when they are gone, sometimes we have to pay, I should have known better.”
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Comments by Rich DuBose. BetterSermons © 2010. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines | View main index

Read more at the source: The Right Thing

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Inspirational quotes and thoughts.

Look to the Heavens

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“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens, and say there is no God.”

–Abraham Lincoln

Nature is a powerful weapon in God’s arsenal of spiritual weapons. Being exposed to God’s creation in all of its glory can soften our jaded senses and transform our thinking. Years ago, when only 17-years old, I went on a camp-out with a friends in central California to a place called Pinnacles National Monument. While there I came to my senses and began my life-long journey with God. This was my moment of truth. And nature certainly played a role in bringing me to the point where I was willing to listen to God.
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Comments by Rich DuBose. BetterSermons © 2010. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines | View main index

Read more at the source: Look to the Heavens

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Inspirational quotes and thoughts.

Emotionally Charged

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“We are not just rationale people who respond emotionally once in a while. We are emotional people who respond rationally once in a while.”

–Clarence Schilt, Oregon pastor

We are more emotional than we are rationale. Some are more analytical than others, but in the end everything that happens to us impacts us on an emotional level. As I think back over my life, the experiences I most vividly remember are those that touched my emotions. The rationale decisions I made years ago don’t stand out in my mind. That doesn’t mean they weren’t significant, but they were on a level that didn’t seem as personal.

About eighteen years ago I reached a place in my pastoral work where I felt the need to be stretched. I needed to be challenged in new ways. Some would call it a mid-life crisis! After twelve turbulent, at times tearful, months of trying to figure out what to do, Linda and I finally decided that I would take a leave of absence and head to graduate school. Out of that emotional time we made some rationale decisions that altered the course of our lives. Looking back now I can say it was an exciting time.

It’s OK to be emotional. We are wired that way. Ask God to help you better understand and celebrate the emotional aspects of your life today.

Thumbnail photo by Bas van der Pluym
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Comments by Rich DuBose. BetterSermons © 2009. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines | View main index

Read more at the source: Emotionally Charged

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Inspirational quotes and thoughts.

A Distorted Gospel

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“Unless the church of the Lord Jesus creates a counter-current to the drift of materialism, self-indulgence, and nationalism, Christians will merely adapt to the secular environment in a tragic distortion of the gospel, in which the words of Jesus are reinterpreted to mean anything, everything, and nothing.”

–Brennan Manning

Actually, this is exactly what has happened to Christianity in the West, and most certainly North America. Our culture is based on consuming things (lots of things). We throw away resources, including food, like there is no tomorrow. We worship at the alter of convenience and show little concern for how we treat the earth and its inhabitants.

Of all people, Christians should be conservative when it comes to the world and its limited supply of resources. As divinely appointed stewards, one day we will have to give an account for our actions and attitudes of wasteful consumption.

May God free us from the idea that our value is determined by how much we own!
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Comments by Rich DuBose. BetterSermons © 2009. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines | View main index

Read more at the source: A Distorted Gospel

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Inspirational quotes and thoughts.

What Money Can’t Buy

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“I hate those people who love to tell you; ‘Money is the root of all that kills.’ They have never had the joy of a welfare Christmas!”

–I Will Buy You A New Life (Everclear)

The reason we need to guard our hearts is because they are where corruption and evil take hold and spoil our lives. Corruption is not an external thing–it’s internal. On one occasion Jesus told His disciples, “From the heart come evil thoughts,murder, adultry, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you.” (Matthew 15: 18-20).

We’re pretty lax when it comes to deciding who, or what gets into our hearts. Too often we allow our senses to be taken captive by sights and sounds that are designed to penetrate our defenses with seeds of corruption. The safest way to resist evil is to invite God’s Spirit to take up residence in our hearts.

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Comments by Rich DuBose. BetterSermons © 2009. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines | View main index

Read more at the source: What Money Can’t Buy

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Inspirational quotes and thoughts.

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