March 23, 2006  THE POWER OF THOUGHT

Here are a couple of interesting quotes I've come across lately.

"Whatever you believe with emotions becomes your reality. You always act in a manner consistent with your innermost beliefs and convictions," says Brian Tracy. Carol Tuttle says the reason you are struggling with a problem is that "you keep focusing on what you don't want. Your mind is in the habit of 'figuring out' what you need to change to [fix your problem]. Your thinking mind is convinced that that is how the problem will be solved; yet, that is what keeps the problem constant and present in your life. The law of attraction has no exclusion. The law is that whatever you focus on, you create more of. Stop your thinking mind from its obsessive habit of looking at your [problem]."

I find this extremely interesting, I guess because I can see the truth of it. How is it that we find it so hard to break bad habits? We become so focused on NOT doing the thing, that we actually become obsessive about NOT doing the thing so that it occupies our thoughts and actually causes us to DO the thing!

Maybe that's why Paul said, "what I want to do, I do not do, and the very thing I don't want to do, I do."

I'll never forget a message I heard preached by Pastor Buddy Harrison one Sunday about 25 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at Faith Christian Fellowship. It really made an impression on me. The main idea was that what you think about is what you do. Every action proceeds from a thought. In other words, you never did (or said) anything that you didn't first think about at some point. This is why our thought life is SO important! Whatever we are thinking about, that we will eventually do! "Nip it in the bud," as Barney Fife would say. Don't even allow yourself to THINK about it if it is not something you want to see happen.

Another quote along this line is that "what you feed grows, and what you starve dies." This is a universally applicable truth.

The best advice is found in Philippians 4:8....

"Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse."

March 12, 2006  PIZZA PARABLE

Found this...it's pretty good. A pizza parable of faith.

http://www.ibethel.org/local/journal/index.php?f=journal.php&id=8

March 7, 2006  CELL CHURCH CONFERENCE

Well, about 16 of us from the church attended Bethany's International Cell Church Conference in Baton Rouge last week. We learned a lot about a lot of things, namely about cells, of course. Focus on winning the lost. (Also awesome praise and worship led by Jonathan Stockstill with guest Martha Munizzi.) Our new buzzword: "Fi-yah!"

Interesting facts: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently 6,502,052,181 people in the world. Every day 153,000 step into eternity. How many of these are facing an awesome God, and how many face eternal flames and torment? It is the job of every Christian (not just ministers) to take the gospel of Christ to a "crying, sighing, dying" humanity (as Pastor John Osteen used to say).

All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. --2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NLT)