Intentional Faith

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."
Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

Enjoy your poverty!  Michael

Right after Christmas, I went to the post office. After helping me, the pleasant postal clerk uttered what is surely her standard line: “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

I quipped, “Can you help me pay for Christmas?”

Without missing a beat, she replied, “He has already paid for it.”

I was stunned. Pleased, surprised, a tad embarrassed, but most of all, stunned. I murmured something profound in response — like, “He certainly did” — and left.

A simple phrase had put everything in perspective.

Pete Winn

William Boice once wrote: "Dear Lord, I have been re-reading the record of the rich young ruler and his obviously wrong choice. But it has set me thinking. No matter how much wealth he had, he could not ride in a car, have any surgery, turn on a light, buy penicillin, hear a pipe organ, watch TV, wash dishes in running water, type a letter, mow a lawn, fly in an airplane, sleep on an innerspring mattress, or talk on the phone. If he was rich, then what am I?"

Enjoy your wealth.  Michael

The announcement went first to the shepherds. They didn’t ask God if he was sure he knew what he was doing. Had the angel gone to the theologians, they would have first consulted their commentaries. Had he gone to the elite, they would have looked around to see if anyone was watching. Had he gone to the successful, they would have first looked at their calendars. So he went to the shepherds. Men who didn’t have a reputation to protect or an ax to grind or a ladder to climb. Men who didn’t know enough to tell God that angels don’t sing to sheep and that messiahs aren’t found wrapped in rags and sleeping in a feed trough.
A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps. You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King.
There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can’t go in standing up. The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get on your knees. So…. while the theologians were sleeping and the elite were dreaming and the successful were snoring, the meek were kneeling. They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.

High-profile expressions of faith by athletes have become routine in pro sports. A new book by religion writer Tom Krattenmaker explores them and asks whether it’s a good thing. “Some love it, some really resent it. The comedians have a field day with it,” said Krattenmaker, author of Onward Christian Athletes. Krattenmaker says athletes are reaching a sporting public with increasingly pluralistic religious convictions, or no religion at all.

But Tennessee Titans All-Pro center Kevin Mawae said his Christianity is part of who he is, and he can’t separate it from his life as an athlete or anywhere else. “The fact that some people are jaded toward religion or faith shouldn’t stop a player from expressing his faith in public,” Mawae said.

The influence of Christianity in locker rooms can be traced to people such as baseball pioneer Branch Rickey, co-founder of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the establishment of Baseball Chapel for players who got mobbed at local churches on Sundays. Athletes in Action places about half of the NFL’s chaplains. Krattenmaker said evangelical ministries have a near monopoly in pro clubhouses because they seized the chance, then won the teams’ trust by not exploiting their access.

Other faith groups simply haven’t done the work, he said. “The conservative Christians got their upper hand in the sports world the old fashioned way,” Krattenmaker said. “They earned it.”

Oh, for the same in our high school sports.  Michael

It was the day after Christmas at a church in San Francisco. Pastor Mike was looking at the nativity scene outside when he noticed the baby Jesus was missing from the figures. Immediately, Pastor Mike turned towards the church to call the police. But as he was about to do so, he saw little Jimmy with a red wagon, and in the wagon was the figure of the little infant, Jesus. Pastor Mike walked up to Jimmy and said, "Well, Jimmy, where did you get the little infant?" Jimmy replied, "I got him from the church." "And why did you take him?" With a sheepish smile, Jimmy said, "Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to little Lord Jesus. I told him if he would bring me a red wagon for Christmas, I would give him a ride around the block in it."

Where have you and Jesus gone lately?  Michael

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand,  eggnog in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and  screaming "WOO HOO what a  ride!"

You Decide. Michael

Mike Yaconelli writes in The Wittenburg Door: I live in a small, rural community. There are lots of cattle ranches around here, and every once in a while a cow wanders off and gets lost….

Ask a rancher how a cow gets lost, and chances are he will reply, "Well, the cow starts nibbling on a tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks ahead to the next tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on a tuft of green grass right next to a hole in the fence. It then sees another tuft of green grass on the other side of the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft. The next thing you know the cow has nibbled itself into being lost."

What has your attention right now?  Where is it leading you?  Don’t get lost!  Michael

Some years ago Donald Grey Barnhouse was counseling a young woman on the sidewalk in front of a church following an evening service. She said she was a Christian and that she wanted to follow Christ. But she wanted to be famous, too. She wanted to pursue a stage career in New York. "After I have made it in the theater, I’ll follow Christ completely," she said.

Barnhouse took a key out of his pocket and scratched a mark on a postal box standing on the corner. "That is what God will let you do," he said. "God will let you scratch the surface of true success. He will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is, but He will never let you have it, because He will never let one of His children have anything rather than Himself."

Years later he met the girl again, and she confessed that this had indeed been her life story. She had dabbled in the stage. Once her picture had been in a national magazine. But she had never quite made it. She told Barnhouse, "I can’t tell you how many times in my discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching on that postal box with your key. God let me scratch the edges, but He gave me nothing in place of Himself."

What are you looking for?  Look for Him.  Michael

According to a 2008 Gallup poll, 93% of Americans celebrate Christmas. However, in past years, due to political correctness, disinformation and even the threat of lawsuits from the ACLU and its allies, religious expression at Christmastime was becoming increasingly absent from the public square. But today, because of many Christian defense ministries, several of the "anti-Merry Christmas" stores and organizations across the nation have been silenced about their resistance in the wake of such overwhelming public enthusiasm to say "Merry Christmas."

The years of educating Americans with an awareness of their rights by organizations such as Alliance Defense Fund and annual efforts to reclaim Christmas show that:

· 69% of Americans now use the "Merry Christmas" greeting compared to 56% previously.

· 61% of Americans now oppose generic "Happy Holidays" greetings, compared to 44% previously.

· 69% of Americans prefer "Merry Christmas" over "Happy Holidays."