DIVINE OTHERNESS

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

A few years ago someone wrote, “Maybe we’re going through a stage. Maybe we’ve gone through the stages of loving God, and then reason, and then science, and perhaps now we love only ourselves.”

Everyone wants to be taken care of, but not as man want to care.

One day a man over eighty was observed planting a small peach tree. Explaining why to his neighbor he said, “I know I may not be alive when these trees bear fruit, and perhaps the people who eat these peaches will never know who I was. But they will know that someone was thinking of them and cared enough to plant the trees.”

And so the task set before us is crystal clear. As Christians to make Christian communities! To make all around us because of us places where when people come they can feel the practiced love that is a way of life. Where they do not feel readied rebuke. Where people feel loved not for what they are but for who God is.

That is the Christian message, isn’t it? The practice of love in a totally different way for a totally different reason than the world expects us to. That you may be a liar, a cheat, an egomaniac with a chip on your shoulder, even a moral bum and still be an object of Christian concern.

That in too many places, people match hurt for hurt, but in a Christian place those with Christian hearts, if you hurt me, the more I pray for you. And if I hurt you, you pray for me. That is the Christian message now isn’t it.

Unbelievers give love for love, but Christians give love for a reason the pagan can never understand – call it divine otherness.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES

HE COULD HAVE KILLED HIM BUT HE DIDN’T (Dec 28)
JUST AN ORDINARY INSECT (Dec 25)
ARE YOU WRITING HAPPINESS WITH FADING INK? (Dec 23)
HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU

A NATION CALLED GREED

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

It is not by chance that The Preamble to the Constitution of a nation called Greed reads, “To form a more selfish union, establish injustice, insure domestic instability and promote ourselves; we do ordain and establish an avaricious society that will reign forever. The national anthem, that defines this philosophy, does not mince its words.

Played to the drumbeat of recorded ancient cash registers and clanking coins, all members proudly stand and belt out “Materialism, to thee we sing.” Its currency is, of course, the appropriate color - gleaming green with the words “Gimme” and “Get” rather than in “In God we Trust.” The nation called Greed has left no stone unturned.

Walk its piggish streets and you will find extreme distrust and paralyzing fear. In a nation where everyone thinks only of self, how could it be otherwise.

Where does this country exist? Everywhere and anywhere. It has no geographical or religious boundaries; only individual, personal territories. It can as easily be found in the heart of an Arab as in the mind of a Moravian, or the thoughts of an American.

However, not everyone is allowed to be a citizen. If you love too much, believe in the sanctity of giving too much, seek God too much, refuse to accept that greed is one of the seven deadly sins you will be refused citizenship.

But if you are willing to rewrite the words “peace on earth, good will toward men” to read “pieces of eight and don’t make me wait,” then you will become another immigrant from the land of charity readily welcomed in.

In this nation called Greed, it is brother against brother, house against house, labor against management and management against labor. All actions and votes in its representative bodies are governed by selfishness.

It is mandatory that if you are a butcher you weigh your thumb as well as piece of meat. If you are a student you must pledge not to study and learn. You must rather cheat and stay stupid. When it is time to give, just don’t. It is that simple.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

SOME THOUGHTS ON DEPRESSION

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Martin Luther, the great reformer who began the protestant movement, suffered from depression. The renowned preacher, Charles Spurgeon, suffered from depression. As did John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, the artist Van Gogh, and, of course, there was Job in the Bible. The list is long.

“How do you feel?” we ask. And what we want is for that person to affirm they feel wonderful, even if they don’t feel wonderful.

What we really need to do is let them know that while we hope they feel good; that it is allowed if they sometimes feel down in the dumps, or worse. That we really do care how they actually feel, and that if at the moment they cannot rise to dance and sing a tune, it’s okay.

It is not to say that we should become a nation wallowing in self-pity. But neither must we as Christians send the message by our words and actions that only the happy and hearty are acceptable.

Jesus did not say, “Go away ye who labor and are heavy laden. You make me depressed.” Jesus, this Master of love and light, this tender healer of the soul did not say this. Thank God He did not say this.
Travel through the valley of darkness and He is with you. Weep and He will not grow impatiently angry or irritated at you for it.
If you reach a point of collapse, He will kneel down and gently pick you up, leaving that one set of footprints on the sand because He sometimes does not just walk with you, but carries you in His arms. And, if you will let Him, He will, as time passes, show you how to think and when and why.
Still, sometimes we human beings need some medicines to aid in our recovery, just as we need a doctor and an operation to do the same.

We need to be able to take Prozac, or Effexor or Paxil without a sense of guilt, anymore than we have for praying about taking chemo and taking it, or praying about a knee operation and having it.

And why not? Do not most people take insulin for diabetes, or aspirin for a headache, or anesthesia before the doctor applies his knife? Certainly God can cure cancer, but does that mean one should not take chemotherapy? Sometimes a minister or psychiatrist needs to continue to be seen.

And again, why not? Don’t most people continue to see a doctor if a physical hurts persists? Should emotions receive less concern and care? To turn to someone who is down, really down, and say, “Stiff upper lip, ole boy or ole gal.” A stiff upper lip is not only stupid, it is thoughtless and hurtful.

To the depressed person, part of that depression is a racing, tumbling time of broken-hearted thoughts bouncing off the soul. And trying to slow it all down immediately is like trying to stop a speeding car with tissue paper.

Therefore, sometimes the best thing to do, if depression descends on you, is for a little while to try to wipe clean the slate of your worried mind.

To give such thoughts some muted silence. Seek an emotional whiteout. Just let the soft breeze of nothingness blow for a while. And then, read John 14:27 and hear Jesus saying, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Would you like to make someone who is depressed feel better? Then simply tell them you love them and how important they are to you and that you are willing to listen without judging. Definitely resist any temptation to make comments such as “Take a hot bath,” “I thought you were stronger than that,” or “Do you know how you make me feel talking like that.”

When you are beat down and emotionally worn out, even giving yourself a pep talk isn’t worth much. Which is why you just have to keep on keeping on. One psychological step at a time. One Bible digging moment after the other. One more call to the Throne of Grace. Believe in your God and with Him beside you, you can move mountains. You really can.
SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

A CHRISTMAS STORY?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Most likely you have never thought of this visit of Jesus to the home of Mary and Martha as a Christmas story. But it is, you know.

Oh I know that Christmas wasn’t practiced then, but for the sake of a lesson that can be learned just imagine that it was…and that Christmas was no more than a day away, with Martha rushing around getting last minute things done.

All the while getting more and more irritated, and more and more irritating.

“The tree isn’t finished. There are cookies that need to be baked. The house still needs to be cleaned. There are presents that need wrapping. I can’t do everything myself.” I can hear her now. Complaints a mile wide and several hundred paranoia’s deep. The volume level increasing by the minute.

And then, in the midst of all this turmoil, in the midst of all of this lack of Christmas spirit in preparation for Christmas, what does her sister Mary do? She sits down with Jesus. Remember the story has been changed to make a point.

Gift time is close at hand and she gives the best gift of all…the gift of self. Martha is beside herself. And as she readies herself for an even greater explosion, Jesus seeks to quiet her, this Martha with flour on her nose and impatience in her heart.

“Martha, Martha,” He says, “I know there is much to do, but must you fret so much in the doing of it? Wouldn’t it be better if maybe you did a little less and became a little more?”
So to all the Marthas and their male counterparts this Christmas season I say, “Cool it.” If you are still hot and bothered from rushing around this last week and perhaps have arrived at this day before Christmas all weary and ragged; simmer down.

Give those you love the gift of patience. Give them the privilege of the best kind of person you really can be. Don’t ruin this very special evening.

And before you get up tomorrow morning, be sure you have gift-wrapped a forgiving, gentle, understanding heart.

Nor bring to your Christmas living room real or imagined hurts, or jealousies - all green and griping, or any other emotional aberrations that can ruin the day.

Just bring with you a prayer on your lips and a song in your heart. Not pouting or petty, but rather have some manger meaning in the way you act so it will then affect how you feel.

Yes, it is a Martha-world we live in. A busy world all filled with bills and job responsibilities and children with temptations earlier generations never faced.

And therefore, moms and dads and children sometimes get a little hyperactive. And selfish and self-centered. And develop a what’s-in-it-for-me attitude.

But you see, it is one thing to go to the stable and find a jackass. It is quite another to be one.

That is why I think you need to call a meeting with two in attendance - you and the Lord. And at that meeting set up a new agenda for living. A Christmas manifesto, if you will to whatever degree you need it.

And to whatever degree you are able and willing

- try to latch on to a little bit of simplicity again, if ever in your life you’ve had it.

- unclutter your lives of too much doing and having to make room for better being.

- break through nervousness with the peace that passeth understanding. If it wasn’t on your Christmas list it should have been. And Santa can’t give it to you, but Jesus can.

- realize that going down on your knees is an automatic slowdown that can work wonders.
- set Christmas morning as the first day of a new way of life.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

MORE ON "DO YOU SPEAK CHRISTMAS?"

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Those who speak Christmas really do change. Like the old codger who said, “When I learned how to speak Christmas I lost half my vocabulary.”
Speak Christmas and such words—such thoughts stick in your throat.

Those who speak Christmas really do change. They find that one thing they love about the language is that there is no word for hate in it. No word for selfishness.

Why speak Christmas? Because, as Disraeli wrote, “Life is too short not to make it great.”

Have you ever heard snow? The soft, hushed sound of snow on snow? When there was no wind and only a moon easing away some of the darkness. And you stopped and listened because it was another voice of our creative God.

The voice of God speaking Christmas is all around us. We just have to listen.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
FOREVER (Dec 19)
BE THE 4TH WISEMAN (Dec 18)
HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

DO YOU TOLERATE TOLERANCE?

DO YOU TOLERATE TOLERANCE?
These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

I quote, not a theologian but a mystery writer, Dorothy Sayers. She was often a philosopher as well as a teller of tales. She once wrote that Tolerance in the name of nothingness is more than a sin…it is spiritual suicide. And that in the world it is called Tolerance but in hell it is called Despair.

For the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing and remains alive is a sin that is something, a terrible unfeeling give in and give up kind of sin. (rewrite and edit of her thoughts on tolerance)

I have sinned and will continue to sin because I am not perfect but I will never tolerate my sin. To tolerate myself when I am not aiming at the best self I can be is not a gift to God but a sacrilege.

SOME RECENT TITLES ON MYONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS Site. To visit go to Google Search and type in "Neil One A Day"

ALLOW YOUR TOMORROWS TO BE CAPTURED BY A VERY SPECIAL FOREVER (Dec 19)
BE THE 4TH WISEMAN (Dec 18)
HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site.
Type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

BE A REACHABLE?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Do you remember the musical THE MAN OF LA MANCHA? As I quote the words to one of its songs we could probably imagine us having a sing-a-long. We won’t, too far apart for true harmony, but follow these words most all of us have heard many times. No better still, remember them, and let them follow you for awhile.
To dream the impossible dream…
To fight the unbeatable foe…
To bear with unbearable sorrow…
To run where the brave dare not go…
To right the unrightable wrong…
To love, pure and chaste, from afar…
To try, when your arms are to weary
to reach the unreachable star!
This is my quest, to follow that star
no matter how hopeless, no matter how far…
To fight for the right without question or pause…
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause!...
And I know, if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest
that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest…
And the world will be better for this,
that one man, scorned and covered with scars
still strove, with his last ounce of courage…
To reach the unreachable stars.
Ah, but the Star of Bethlehem is reachable. Not by the literal touching of it, but by the experiencing of its message, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. (For) today in this city of David, a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord.”
(Luke 2:10-11)
The shepherds were afraid, but in the midst of their fear was the beginning of joy. What they had just heard had the profundity of eternity to it. When angels sing out about “good tidings of great joy” unless you have a few loose items in your brain, you pay attention.
I have nothing against having Santa around for Christmas. Fact is, we have a Santa that greets me with a great big Santa smile every time I walk out into our family room. It’s just that priority list thing again…for you see, while my Christmas stocking was filled in the name of Santa when I was a little boy my parents were also being very sure my soul was being filled with the knowledge and presence of Christ. Daddy was an Elder. Mother was a Sunday School teacher and I was never allowed to forget that though Santa was making a list and checking it twice, Santa came only once a year while Jesus was with me always. And what was it He said, “I will never forget you nor forsake you.”
It is nice to be on Christmas lists but only if I remember with a shout of thanksgiving that my name is written on the Lamb’s book of Life. When it comes to gifts, the gift of eternal life beats them all.
SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES (DEC 11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IMPORTANCE (Dec 10)
DON’T LOSE YOUR PRAYER WHILE PRAYING (DEC 9)

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

HE HAD AN ATTITUDE? WHAT'S YOURS?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

The prophet Isaiah had an attitude. It is why he wrote, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." ”(Isaiah 40:31)

The prophet Isaiah was a spiritual Babe Ruth. His attitude toward God was stratospheric with a few shooting stars thrown in for good measure.

An old prophet’s attitude worth grabbing hold of to make our prayers something more than midget moments. Giant attitudes ten feet tall.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Dec 11…HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES
Dec 4…GARBAGE IN! GARBAGE OUT
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

WHEN THE LIVIN' AIN'T EASY

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Living isn’t always easy in any generation. Problems aren’t something new that just popped up on the horizon, a 21st century anomaly. Nor are solutions.

Follow Me. That’s Jesus’ solution. Simple. Straight forward. Not deep, confusing theology that leaves you asking, “What?”

Follow Me – to the promise of eternal life when death comes.
Follow Me – to an abundant life that makes your existence without the eternal Me a miserable, shrunken thing.
Follow Me – not so all problems will go away, but because I will be with you always. Come hell or high water, I will not desert you.

Do you ever question where you want your faith to take you? Perhaps you should rather ask of yourself where are you willing to go.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Dec 11…HAVE YOU GONE BLIND OR IS IT THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T OPENED YOUR EYES

Dec 4…GARBAGE IN! GARBAGE OUT
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

TAKE TWO ASPIRIN AND PUNT

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)
A man once said to me, “The world has so many problems that if Moses came down from Mr. Sinai today, the two tablets he’d be carrying would be aspirin.” It was a clever comment, but beyond that, it ignores the fact that life today is no worse than in centuries past.

Different - but no worse.

If you have doubts, ask Job to comment on some of the problems he had to surmount.

Or Paul.

Or Daniel about his tenure in the lions den.

Admittedly expressway traffic is terrible, but have you ever tried to ride on an un-airconditioned, smelly camel? I have, and take my word for it, our mode of travel is certainly faster and more comfortable.

Indeed, try filling Moses shoes and wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
Stress has never had any respect for the calendar and readily keeps knocking at the door of million of lives, no matter what the century.

The stress of keeping a job, being a proper parent, a mate worthy of the title husband or wife, a decent Christian. We always want to do better, be better.

SO Whether it is only a temporary annoyance, such as being honked at when the traffic light just changed because we haven’t moved quickly enough to suit the impatient driver behind us; or dealing with a personal enemy who refuses to be a friend; or sickness comes to call or sorrow or clouds that do not always have silver linings - whatever the need, the Master Physician is never far away.

“Dear Jesus,” we pray, “pick me up and carry me awhile so I can rest a bit.” And if you say it, and really mean it, He does just that.

Wonderfully scary, isn’t it? All that power and peace available, if we but ask for Him to take charge of our lives.

Notice I did not say the pain in your stomach or some problem you have will always go away.

Or that patella persuasion, the act of going to your knees, immediately gives you a superman soul.

No – but it does give you strength to bear what you have been called to bear.

When you become a Christian are all your problems solved, with a guarantee that no new ones will appear?

If you follow Jesus will your paycheck double, your teenager become a shining example of perfection, your car never conk out in the middle of traffic?

No, I cannot promise that any of these things will happen, even if you are totally committed. Not by a long shot. But as a Christian, will you be better able to handle them? Beyond the shadow of a doubt!

By way of example: recently my doctor called and informed me I had a basal cell cancer on my nose that needed to be surgically removed. I said, “Thanks for the good news.”

There was only silence on the other end of the line so I explained, “Doctor, you just said it was a basal cell which does not metastasize and grows very slowly. Therefore, yes, the bad news is I have a cancer. The good news is that when it’s gone, it’s most likely gone for good, and it could have been a lot worse.

When I had my right kidney removed, and several years later recovered from a paralyzed left arm after a hang gliding accident, that took a little more doing, but we, God and I, were up to it.

Am I a spiritual Pollyanna? Probably.

Am I God’s fool? Definitely.

Am I alone when burdens come? Never!

You see, I’ve sat at the foot of the Master Teacher and paid close attention to the lessons He has to share. I have been comforted by the words, “……I have come that they (you) might have life, and that they (you) might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Dec 4…GARBAGE IN! GARBAGE OUT
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU ALLOW SLUGGISH ASPIRATIONS TO CALL?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Did you ever notice than an entire book in the Bible is called THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Not the dreams of the Apostles. Not the sluggish aspirations of the Apostles. But the actions of the Apostles.

How near is your God? As close as you want Him to be.

In the book of Ezekiel I can read, “I was hot and indignant for the hands of the Eternal pressed hard upon me.”

In the book of Revelation I can read, “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”

What have you written in your own private personal history book, that recording of all you have said and done? “I was on fire for the Lord.” “I was lukewarm.” “I was both.”

All of us, unfortunately, have been both.

There is a perfect admonition in the book of John. An antidote for spiritual laziness. It reads, “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

One day, the throne of God will be no more than a few last heartbeats away. One day, God will go over your books and check out how often you pulled Him toward you in prayer and how often you pushed Him away.

A loving, kind, gracious and forgiving God? Ah, yes.

A Lord who cried down from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Ah, yes. Amen and amen.

But still “…until a man finds God and is found by God he begins at no beginning and works to no end. Is lost and after awhile doesn’t even know it.” (H. G. Wells)

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Dec 4…GARBAGE IN! GARBAGE OUT
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

WHERE IS GOD?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Do you believe God is everywhere? If you had to answer me out loud you would definitely reply, “Of course, He’s every-where. That’s a dumb question”

But it isn’t a dumb question because to really believe it, is to act like it. Or try a little harder to act like it. Or at least to emphasize to your psyche a little more that the eyes of God are always open to what you say and do and are.

That He is as fully aware when you are generous as when you are a cheat; when you tell the truth and when you lie; when you sin and when you are sinless.

You see it really is one thing to say God is everywhere and quite another to apply that belief to an everyday pattern of living.

Let’s put it this way. It is one thing to mouth that God can save you, and quite another to accept the fact He thinks you are worth saving.
Think about it. He has gone to a great deal of trouble trying to help us get it right.

Moses and the 10 Commandments. Jesus and His two magnificent additions. And parable after parable after parable to clarify because we can be so pigheaded, proud and sometimes just plain dumb.

Oh, we try. We human beings, soul-hungry, really do try. And we are not unaware.

Remember the first scripture in your life that spoke to you with meaning.

The first time commitment sat on your heart like a living thing.

The first time Christ became more than just a word and instead a living Incarnation.

The first time you renewed... your strength... and rose up like an eagle.

And if none of these things have yet happened to you, persist, don't give up and they surely will.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Dec 4…GARBAGE IN! GARBAGE OUT
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in NEIL SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in WYRICK'S WRITINGS
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

GOD HAD A DREAM

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Once, more eons ago than any of us can imagine, God had a dream – about a big, wide, wonderful universe with a tiny blue planet in the midst of it all. How it would be called earth and covered with all manner of green and growing things, and then he would create life.

And His dream began with the words, In the beginning… and it was to be the opening of the Book of Genesis. But then He got to thinking about it, how six days of constant creation would be down right wearying. So he killed His dream and it never happened.

But it didn’t happen that way - God and a dream dead in the water - did it?

Once upon a time, over 2,000 years ago, God had another dream. “I’m going to send my Son to earth to save mankind. I’m going to have a host of angels light up the sky to announce His birth. Then I’m going to have Jesus, for this shall be His name, preach and teach in a manner different than ever heard before and offer salvation. And then there is going to be a death on a cross, so there can be a resurrection and a promise of immortality-- ”

But then God got to thinking about it and decided He was having delusions of grandeur. So instead of Salvation He thought small and did nothing at all. But it didn’t happen that way - God and a dream dead in the water - did it?

How often do you kill one of your dreams without letting it march toward becoming a deed? Utter the defeatist’s mantra, “It can’t be done! You’re expecting too much!” How much time do you spend paralyzed by paranoia? Are you guilty of refusing to even talk about positive thinking, let alone believe in it? How much do you really believe in God’s power?

Remember Joshua, successor to Moses, survivor of forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Weary and worried, more than willing to forget the whole thing, but God sitting him up straight with the words, Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

THE SCRET POWER OF THE SECOND MILE

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Complaining is as old as Biblical times.

“That’s just not the way it ought to be,” complained John and his brother James, or words to that effect. It was just too much for these Sons of Thunder to see Christ treated with such disrespect by some of those to whom He preached.

The 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians hadn’t been written yet, but if it had been you can be sure that some of the Disciples would have found fault with it.

Especially Peter when he lost his temper. Or others, like Thomas, always complained because He couldn’t be an earthly king.

And Judas, treasurer for the disciples, complaining about how the money was being spent. And I don’t know, but maybe Jesus just sighed a deep sigh and went on doing what had to be done.

Then, of course, there was Moses leading his people to the Promised Land. Free buffet along the way with manna from heaven, a promise of a Promised Land just ahead - who could ask for anything more? They could. And they did. Just kept on complaining.

I’ll admit that 40 years is a long time to wander and that they were maybe justified in saying, “What have you done for me lately,” but then complainers are seldom patient.

Two groups of mothers in different cities were once asked what was the most important thing a child needed to succeed academically. One group most often replied, “Ability.” The other group answered, “Effort.”

To find success, as a child or adult, in the act of living - wherever it is needed - it is important to have both.

To make enough effort that ability will take care of itself.

And to embrace choice rather than chance.

To go to the Lord, who I believe we will all agree is the expert on soul management, and say “Lord, I need some help with my complaining soul.”

The man of faith says, “I see war and its mutilation. It sickens and saddens me, but then I am reminded that creation is more than body.”

The man of faith says, “I see the crude, the cruel and the crass and still I believe in the ultimate decency of man.”

The man of faith says, “I believe that people change and are saved and that wounds are healed and that the impossible takes just a little longer than the improbable.”

Complaining wears one down. It is the ultimate cause of extreme weariness. It certainly is no friend.

Would you be filled with more happiness than sorrow…then remember the old cliché’, “Life is a grindstone. It either grinds a man down or polishes him up. It depends on the stuff he is made of.”

I have some questions for you to ask of yourself. Not your neighbor or friends or even strangers, but of yourself.

1. When you get up in the morning, are you satisfied with the day before you and the attitude you are going to carry around with you?

2. Do you look with any regrets at yesterday?

3. Is the way you have been living and talking and thinking a plus for history or a minus?

4. How is the individual called “You” affecting your family, your business, your church? Negatively or positively?

5. In other words, is the world a better place or a worse place because of you?

Paul Lawrence Dunbar put it this way (a slight rewrite) -
The Lord had a job for me, but I had too much complaining to do;
So I said, “You get somebody else, or wait till I get through.”
I don’t know how, before I was born, the Lord did without my complaining,
I guess He got along,
But gosh, I only complain because others are so very weak, and because I am so very strong.

Yes, as you may have guessed, one day I needed the Lord myself, needed Him right away,
And when He didn’t answer me – no problem - I knew exactly what to say.
I started out complaining… it was what I do the best.
I knew some places I might fail, but here I’d pass the test.

SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Nov 30…DON’T ORDER A FUN HOUSE MIRROR!
Nov 28…A grand sense of otherness
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

THE SECRET OF THE SECOND MILE

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Matt 5:41
Whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two.

Like so much of scripture, it helps to hop aboard a time machine and stand in the midst of the culture of 2000 years ago. Stand in the crowd listening to Jesus make this monumental comment. Understand how and why He really was pushing the envelope.

You see, at that time,

Under Roman law a Roman soldier could compel a Jew to carry his burden for him one mile wherever he told him to walk. It didn’t matter if the Jew had other plans in a different direction or was short of time. It was all quite simple. The Roman said “Do it” and there was no room for negotiation.

And then into this dilemma steps Jesus with His unusual logic and fine-tuned way of living. In so many words He says, “Oh yes, there is room to negotiate. It’s just that I want you to negotiate to more, not less.”

You want utter madness? This, to his listeners, was certainly getting close. It was frustrating enough to have to obey the Romans in the first place, but to offer, of their own free will, to do more?

Incredible!

A Jew might feel like giving the Roman a fist full of knuckles and a belly full of contempt, but bottom line…he reached down, lifted up and began his required 5,280 foot journey. Oh, he could refuse if he wanted free room and board in the local jail, but that didn’t make a lot of sense. So what Jesus was saying to them was either totally crazy or first class advice.

Leave it to the Master. He knew what He was talking about. He knew that every step of that first mile, carrying that ordered burden, produced an ever increasing amount of resentment. It had to. It was a loss of control.

Therefore, Jesus wasn’t saying - don’t get mad, get even; rather He was emphasizing gain back control. Carry the load a second mile because you have volunteered to do so. Now that second mile is your decision. Your exercise of free will. The first mile is a burden – both physically and emotionally, but when you volunteer the second mile it is only a physical burden. Your physical burden by choice – now you are in charge.

Unfortunately, human nature, in any century, is often much more inclined to do less not more. Ready to take more often than to give. People don’t want to be put upon, and laziness comes naturally.

And then smack dab into the middle of these psychological hang ups Jesus drops a bombshell, “Whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two.”

I doubt if many of you have ever run a two mile race. It is not a distance one should run without sufficient training. Yet when I ran track in college, it was my favorite distance and one of the reasons was that my second wind would kick in. One minute, I was running out of steam and then suddenly I felt like I was running with the wind. I believe this is what Jesus was talking about.

Of course, not a second mile measured in feet, but a second spiritual mile in which one receives a Spiritual second wind. You see, as one champion distance runner put it, “You run the first mile with your legs, the second mile with your heart.”

So let’s make a spiritually logical leap and apply this to every day living. Have you ever met someone who upon first meeting you realized the chemistry just wasn’t there?

Your first mile wasn’t too much of a success in setting up a relationship. Fact of the matter, it was a burden. You may even have prayed a short prayer, “Lord, I’m going to need some help with this one.”

But then you stuck with it, reached out with Christian charity that let you look and listen a little more closely. Looking and listening for some good chemistry which you were determined to find.

Something about the person you could like. And you found it. And then you found other goodly things. You went the second mile and you found it, and now you had a new friend.

The world is full of people who try to get by with as little as they possibly can - never extending themselves. The worker who nails no more nails, fixes no more motors, paints no more doors than he has to. The clock-watcher who works only for the gold he can get, rather than for the glory he or she can give.

First-mile-people complaining every foot of the way. Speak to them about a second mile, extra effort and they will look at you as if they think you are from another planet.

The mother who complains about her motherhood and makes it clear to her child that she believes he or she is a burden.

Mother Theresa went the second mile. The first mile was just being a nun, and compared to the second mile that was easy. So what did she do? She walked a second mile of additional sacrifice.

The Founding Fathers of our country sacrificed comfort, wealth and family to lead a young America to the shores of freedom.

Albert Sweitzer could have basked in fame as a renowned European musician. Instead he chose a second mile that led him to darkest Africa as a missionary.
Second miles put muscles on their soul. Second-mile-people put a smile on the face of heaven.

SOME POSTINGS ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
SOME RECENT TITLES
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?
Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

ARE YOU A SPIRITUAL ANOREXIC? ARE YOU READY WITH READINESS?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

If you can buy it in a store, wear it on the street, drive it on the highway, watch it in the family room or eat it till you’ve had your fill, isn’t that enough? Feed the body, medicate it against as many illnesses as possible, exercise its muscles and mind, and what else is there?

Well now, that’s where the rub comes in, whether this business of the eternal soul has something worth considering.

Some shout yes, and claim a bright and shining faith. Some hesitantly admit that when eternity comes to call they need to be better prepared. Few want to confess to having a faith that is tattle-tale grey because there isn’t a great deal of readiness in the title.

Still, the numbers are there of those who shrug their shoulders and say that tomorrow is soon enough to worry about it. I mean, after all “There is still tomorrow to get it all done isn’t there.”

Well, yes and no, depending on how much of tomorrow each of us can count on. And it isn’t just about heaven after death. It is also about improving one’s ability to deal with the vicissitudes here on earth.

Eventually, and sometimes sooner than later, the calendar gets rather heavy on both physical and spiritual shoulders.

And so physical exercise is needed to build the body, mental exercise to build the mind and spiritual exercise to build the soul just happens to make good sense.
The reason many want to wait before they get serious about their faith is the same as the misconceptions we sometimes have in other areas.

We cannot fully appreciate health until we have been really sick. Nor truly appreciate cleanliness until we have experienced filth. Nor understand spiritual malnutrition until one day, hopefully not too late, spiritual anorexia is recognized and something is done about it.

Whether in hamlets, cities or country-sides, few people have an occupation that automatically takes care of all three parts of man. At least one of the three gets pushed to the side.

And few would argue that being out of shape is good, so many don’t argue they just make excuses, or don’t even do that. Some, with complete candor just say, “Get off my back.”

In my first pastorate, one small town church and three country churches, most of my parishioners were farmers. As far as physical exercise went, they got it in bucketfuls.

As for things of the spirit, there is something about daily working with green and growing things that calls great attention to the fact of God. When it came to their mental development, some did…some didn’t.

That was an area of choice. An area of self-discipline. And self-discipline, well, it just got squeezed out between the “I oughta” and “I don’t wanna.” Happens all the time.

I will not ask this day about your mind and body, but what shape is your soul in? Well, if it is a weak and festering thing, pale and tattle-tale grey, one day when you go looking for spiritual strength will it be available.

I have not seen one of them, but I have read about movies put together so different endings can be chosen. It is a computer kind of thing but it is a fascinating idea because it demands a changing of the script.

The characters have to react differently to what is happening in order to change the ending.

If faith and repentance and regeneration, perhaps under different names, come into play, then of course the endings of our REAL lives change.

So, take the script of your own life. If along the way you had reacted differently to certain things, consider how the whole script of your life would have been altered. It is a WHAT IF game we all have played.

What would have happened if you had done this or that? Gone here or there? Met this person or that person rather than ones you did meet? You have chosen certain people as your friends, a certain pattern of life to follow, whether to make God number one or further down the list.

My email messages come through Earthlink which has a delightful program called Spam Blocker. It blocks all kind of email messages I have no interest in and which might create for me and my computer harm. In the real world our faith can be considered our personal Spam Blockers.

We live in a changing culture and it is constantly sending us messages and spiritual and moral viruses, and if we don’t block them they do take hold. And they don’t let go. They certainly don’t do that.

There is an old saying, Where we love, we live. Then it follows that if we love God, really love Him enough to follow His commandments, our lives will reflect it.

POSTED RECENTLY ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Nov 25…GETTING SOMEWHERE AND FINDING OUT YOU DON’T WANT TO STAY
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

DON'T PUT YOUR NEIGHBORS IN THE COOKING POT

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

I like to watch the evening news. When the kids were growing up we seldom saw the evening news because we made a habit of eating together, and talking together and sharing together. Things weren’t quite as hectic in those days (1960’s) with kids going in fifty million directions and so most of the time we managed it. But what we always managed was what I called Thanksgiving Time.

Everyone, each child and we parents too, had to share something good about someone we knew, being specific about what had happened that day. Put ourselves in a state of thanksgiving for the good in people. No one was allowed to say anything bad about anyone. We would not have boiled and fried neighbors, friends or strangers as part of our evening meal.

"Try to find out what would please the Lord; take no part in the barren deeds of darkness, but show them up for what they are." (Eph 5:10,11).

POSTED RECENTLY ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

ARE YOU A SPIRITUAL ANOREXIC?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

When you get hungry and sit down to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner do you praise yourself for such intelligent behavior? Do you expect to get a letter of appreciation from your doctor?

Do you expect people to stop you on the street and congratulate you for not being physically anorexic? Of course not. You eat because you are hungry. It is natural. It is giving into a biological craving. You don’t eat - your body starves.

When you bow your head in prayer do you praise yourself for such intelligent behavior? Do you expect to get a letter of congratulations from your pastor?

Do you expect people to stop you on the street and congratulate you for not being a spiritual anorexic? Of course not. You pray because your soul is hungry. It is natural. It is giving into an ethereal craving. You don’t pray - your soul starves.

Yet people starve their bodies and their souls all the time. Decide that if thin is good, then super thin is better. Decide if dieting is helpful, then eating almost nothing makes super sense.

And whether it is food for the body or food for the spirit one thing is for sure, not eating well guarantees malnutrition. It is why there are bodies that are too skinny and souls that are too skinny, and spiritual and physical health that is bad then becomes worse.

The late Peter Marshall once prayed, “O Lord, forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time, and help us to see that without prayer our work is a waste of time.”

I remember what an old unknown philosopher once wrote, “hunger would never have continued without food, nor breathing without air, nor intellectual life without truth, nor prayer without God.”

Many decades ago, when Scotland was a place of treachery, betrayal, murder and immorality, a man named John Knox fell to his knees on the dock of the port of St. Andrews. Kneeling there, he prayed. And his prayer, so deeply, so fervently felt was a cry of spiritual agony, “God, give me Scotland or I die.”

And on that day the ears of God reverberated with the sincerity and depth of what He heard, and God GAVE Scotland to John Knox. A land and its people He gave him. And Scotland began to change.

Before that prayer, to say Scotland was to speak of a country where evil was too often King. Before that prayer, to be a Scotsman, which many of my ancestors were, was something to be ashamed of.

But after that heavenly petition, after God opened a curtain of opportunity, a Scotsman could be proud. Because after that prayer, Scotland stood for integrity, morality , honesty, and hard work and diligence.

“It was only a prayer,” some would say. But a prayer well prayed cannot only move mountains, it can build them and then move them. “On our knees we are the most powerful force on earth,” said Billy Graham. “A good prayer shapes nations.

"Try to find out what would please the Lord; take no part in the barren deeds of darkness, but show them up for what they are." (Eph 5:10,11).

POSTED RECENTLY ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Nov 22…BEEN THROWING ANY DARTS RECENTLY?
Nov 19…WHAT DOES THE LATEST EDITION OF YOU LOOK LIKE?
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 22…BEEN THROWING ANY DARTS RECENTLY?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

History tells us there really were cities called Sodom and Gomorrah, Ninevah and Babylon, and these places would certainly not have been on a best-places-to-live list. History relates the pillaging of Rome, and later the rape of this new continent by Spanish Conquistadors. Our country’s history is unfortunately filled with a trail of Indian tears, and slavery and civil rights denied.

More recent world history tells us about men named Adolph Hitler and Milosovich, Sadaam Hussein and unfortunately hundreds of others. Maybe at some time all these men asked themselves the question, “Who am I?” or maybe they didn’t. But if they did, they couldn’t quote from the book of Proverbs, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people,” and have it apply to them.

When it comes to identification, none of these people can be called a joy for God to behold. Some people are worthy of the lives God has given them, and some are not. Some are a healing. Some are a hurt. Most are somewhere in between. Who are you? Who am I? It is not an idle question, not an idle question at all.

And all this begs the question, can one improve? The answer, of course, is YES!
Because yes, we don’t have to allow ourselves to be caught up in a “repetition game” making the same dumb, stupid, hard headed mistakes over and over again.

I’ve prayed, pondered and personally proved, at least to myself, that God is a power-pack that can shape our personality in a better direction. Indeed, someone has written a hymn about it, “It is no secret what God can do.”

Yet, people continue to act as if His spiritual-power-pack is a little known revelation: a wisdom to be ignored, or a half-heartedly accepted truth.

Therefore remember His power point words, “Ask and it shall be given you.” And do not just bask in the truth of it, but put legs on the idea and run with it.

Sit in on God’s class of heavenly teachings. Don’t just monitor the course, take the tests. What it will do to improve your collection of weaknesses will make your head swim and your thanksgiving swagger. Prove that being born again is a multi-directional opportunity that can touch mind, body and soul. Because you see:

There is biology by which we can study the living cells.
There is psychology by which we can probe the id and the ego.
There is physiology by which we can study the function of bodily organs.

And then there is theology by which we can study and influence our relationship with God. And if you really study God, you are also studying yourself. Or as one man put it, “As God became more real, I seemed to become more real. As I began to know more about God, I began to understand more about myself.”

POSTED RECENTLY ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

IS TATTLETALE GREY YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Arthur Schopenhauer was a 19th century German philosopher and no matter how you look at it, his bottom line was that God was not a part of his working philosophy. This attitude brought him to the point where he slept every night with a loaded revolver under his pillow and refused to trust a barber enough to allow one to cut his hair.

He was a miserable, selfish, bitter, fearful man right up to and including his dying day. An agnostic who had chosen to live in a theological limbo-land.

Another man one day wrote the following. “In the visible world the Milky Way is a tiny fragment. Within this fragment the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot tiny lumps of impure carbon and water crawl about for a few years, until they dissolve into the elements of which they are compounded.”

And so having written this he continued, “Therefore, what could be more logical than suicide?” And having asked the question, he did it.

H. L. Mencken, one of the most well known atheistic pessimists of all time, wrote, “Life is a business that doesn’t cover expenses. The only honest wish man can have is that of absolute annihilation.”

Such comments flow quite naturally from those who do not believe that “In the beginning God created…” or are not terribly impressed with the fact. Or who again and again cry out, “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”

It does make a difference what one believes, and how much and mightily one believes: the absolute void of absolute doubt, or the powerful presence and strength of absolute faith. Or, the in-between of tattle-tale gray.

“Even the irreligious cannot argue about the power of religion. Why? Because this whole business about the relationship between God and man is not just a social, cultural, political or ideological factor; it is personal. Through and through, it is you and your Creator with only two tags attached. The one reading Created and the other Creator.” (rewrite of ideas in the preface to the book Rediscovering Religion)

The writer Katherine Logan wrote, “If a vision is of God then it is a vision that comes in advance of a task well done.” (rewritten)

Let me put it yet another way, “Vision without a task is a dream; task without a vision is drudgery; vision with a task is the hope of the world.”
What is your vision?
If you are a preacher you see life as a sermon.
If you are a miser you see life as money.
If you are a loafer you see life as one life-long resting time.
If you are a soldier you see life as battle.
If you are a teacher you see life as a school where you both learn and teach.
Ah, life is a great thing for the thinker, but it’s a folly to the fool.
Life is just one long vacation to the man who loves his work,
But it’s a constant dodging of duty to the ever lasting shirk.
To the faithful, earnest person, life’s a story ever new.

Where there is no vision, the people perish…” says the book of Proverbs. (29:18)

POSTED RECENTLY ON ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Nov 17…ARE YOU HAVING INSTALLATION PROBLEMS?
Nov 14…WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BEST TWO WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY?
Nov 13…WHAT SHOULD YOU DO THAT ONE DAY YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT NOW YOU CAN DO?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

GOD GIVES COMMANDMENTS AND WE SOMETIMES TREAT THEM LIKE SUGGESTIONS

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Remember the genius of the assembly line Henry Ford? He forgot to put a reverse gear in his first car, but by his second car around, he’d learned his lesson. Edison once spent $2 million dollars on an invention that never did work out, but as he said, “I got $2 million dollars worth of experience.”

For some people experience is only an exasperation and they learn nothing. Most unhappy people are those who have never learned how to take failure. And if you suggest to them it can be a learning experience they reply, “I don’t want to learn and change. I just want to continue to be what I’ve always been.”

His name was Walter Edwin Peck, a college professor with a brilliant mind. An authority on the poet, Shelley. He was charming and witty. He had the world in a jug and the cork in the other hand. (first line of a Cajun tune, author unknown) But in 1954, The New York Herald-Tribune reported his death on skid row during a snowstorm.

Somewhere along the pathway of living he had zanged when he should have zinged. Somewhere along the way this child of God, with a lifetime of promise in front of him, threw it all away for some moments of impulse.

He failed his wives – all three of them. He failed his children – all three of them. He failed his God – who had given him more than most.

And probably everyone of you is figuratively shaking your head and thinking, How tragic. And because we live on Main Street or Nightingale Avenue or 59th Street, skid row seems a million miles away; a tragic, wasteful, miserable million miles away.

But you see, skid row isn’t that far away for it is a state of mind, and heart and soul. Skid row isn’t just an area in New York City or its counterpart here in Miami-Dade County where I live. Skid row is what is inside of you and if you give it half a chance it will ruin your life.

Most likely Walter Edwin Peck came into this world like you and I, all starry-eyed and innocent. And then he made some decisions and they were wrong decisions. And then some more. And he didn’t learn and he didn’t change and one day he just ran out of time.

Have you ever stopped to think that sometimes when we believe we are being mentally independent, we are really being mentally incompetent? Indeed, we are all sometimes like the lady, who sitting on a jury, argued; “I don’t listen to the evidence. I prefer to make up my own mind.”

God gives a commandment and we treat it like a suggestion. Too often we write down God’s commandments in pencil… while keeping an eraser handy. Or if on a computer, with a finger poised above the delete button.

Do you know who and what a good Christian is? He is a man or woman who is good – for nothing. That’s right. His soul is not for sale to the highest bidder. He will do right if a thousand people are watching or if no one is watching. He requires no praise for his acts of righteousness.

By way of making a point: a young mountain lad was about to go on his first trip away from home on his way to college. As the train’s whistle signaled that it was time for all to board, the father put his arm around the young man’s shoulder and said, “It’s gonna be hard on your ma and me to keep you up there in that school this year. But we’ll do it somehow because we know you won’t fail to do your best by us.”

The young man boarded the train, found a seat by the window and waved goodbye to his parents. As the trip began, his eyes were misty and he thought, “I’d rather die than fail a dad and mom like mine.”
They believed in him. Their trust was like a living thing.

It’s what Christ does, you know. Puts His hand on your shoulder and says, “I love you. I died for you. I know you won’t fail to do your best by me.” And your response? Is it, I’d rather die than fail a Lord like mine.

POSTED TODAY ON MY SITE ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS…

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

FINDERS KEEPERS

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

If you are not happy, it isn’t by choice.
You certainly didn’t wake up one morning and pray for an ongoing collection of the jitters, or fits of depression. A morbid state of mind isn’t a bargain at any price. So then, if unhappiness is not your choice and peace of mind is, how do you find this special gift of contentment?

I’m sure you would agree that there are certain basic universal laws that have never changed. You don’t plant drunkenness and then harvest sobriety. You don’t plant a selfish life and harvest a host of friends. You don’t plant a lazy faith and harvest a bumper crop of God’s power.

But what is it that makes such a large and unwieldy margin between what we believe and our deeds? It can be called sin, or weakness, or stubbornness, or convenient forgetfulness. It can be called by a host of names, but rather than define it, I thought it might be interesting to just look at it. Just put ourselves under a microscope of introspection.

Let’s begin with a few questions.

What makes you unhappy?
You have too many fears? What have you done to find courage?

You have too many enemies? What have you done to make friends?

You feel unloved and forgotten? What do you do to make yourself more lovely and worth remembering? Lovely people are never completely lonely, they have themselves and their memories. Unlovely people are never at peace, they too have themselves and their memories.
If we were to believe the world of commerce, complete happiness is money in the bank, food in the freezer and jokes for our emotions. However, “Happiness is not always having what you want, but wanting what you have.” That’s an old adage, but worth its weight in repeating.

No one ever gets all they want, when they want it. I don’t have everything I want, but neither do I know everything I need. So, the best thing I can do is pray, “Lord, when my wish is not wise, help me to not bow down before the altar of my own stupidity.”

You know, late on some afternoons when the day has been more than the man, I walk out and look up into the face of God.

That’s what I like to call this universe - this infinite extension of galaxies beyond my ability to comprehend. And for just a few moments I stand there, not necessarily praying, not necessarily thinking of the past, present or future. Just trying to be a spiritual sponge. Trying to be ready to soak up whatever God might give. Giving my soul a chance to catch up with my body.

Be still and know that I am God – that is the way the Bible puts it.

Posted on ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS SITE Thursday November 12th NOTHING TO GIVE? REALLY?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

GENESIS...EXODUS

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

The 23rd day of September in the year 1928 was my own personal Genesis, “In the beginning…” I did not know then, nor do I know now, the day of my Exodus.

I remember nothing of that time in the middle of the night that started it all, that first day of the spring of my earthly existence, but I have to have been filled with awe and wonder. How could it be otherwise? All around me were other lives I would be joining; my mother, my father, strangers and above and around me, he who put it all in motion, God.

Early on I was introduced to our Savior, and heavenly forgiveness and the challenge of trying to live a better life to give family and friends more golden memories than heartaches.

One thing is certain. It is a two-sided coin we deal with between our Genesis and Exodus. Whether we shall be governed by our negative doubts, or our positive faith.

Whether we shall curse God for all we do not know or understand, or praise Him for what we do know and understand. Whether we go for spiritual excellence and give it our all, or settle for spiritual bankruptcy.

How near is your God? As close as you want Him to be.

Did you ever notice than an entire book in the Bible is called THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Not the dreams of the Apostles. Not the sluggish aspirations of the Apostles. But the actions of the Apostles.

How near is your God? As close as you want Him to be. As close as your actions call Him out to be.

Posted on ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS SITE today November 10th SOIL AND SEED AND WHO NEEDS WEEDS?

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

A LEFT OVER GOD

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Isaiah 44:13-15
The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cuts down cedars, or perhaps takes a cypress or oak. He lets it grow among the trees of the forest, or plants a pine, and the rain makes it grow. It is a man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread, but he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

If we were to meet, and down the road you forget me, we will have lost the possibility of a new friendships, but it will not be life threatening. If you meet Jesus and down the road forget Him, you will have lost a friendship and a relationship that is life threatening.

The story above that is found in the book of Isaiah is about a tree cutting, but what it really is, is a story about priorities.

First he cuts down the tree because he is cold and wants a fire to warm himself. Then he is hungry and uses more wood to keep the fire brightly burning and cook his food.

Finally, when all the important things have been taken care of he takes the remainder of the wood and begins to shape the image of his God. Then later, as he bows down before the image of his God he has just made from left over wood, he prays “Deliver me from all harm; for thou art my God.” A left over faith for a left over God made from left over wood.

One day, a conversation took place between a cow and a pig. Were you an unusual but very talented linguist, you might well have been able to interpret. At any rate, they were discussing the different kind of treatment each received from the farmer.

The pig was complaining, “Cow, you get the best of whatever food is available. I get only the scraps that are left. The farmer has given you a name, Betsy. When he wants me to come he only shouts out ‘souey, souey’ Why does it happen this way?”

The cow paused a moment and then answered, “Well, I think it is because I give the farmer what he wants while I am alive. As for you, Mr. Pig, he has to wait until you are dead to get anything out of you.”

It is called reacting or responding, and there is a difference. All the difference in the world. Some respond by giving God the first fruits of all their increase. Others simply react, to God and therefore give Him only their leftovers.

The following was posted on my One A Day Your Spiritual Vitamins Site today … ASPIRE TO PRESPIRE FOR A CAUSE WORTH THE PRESPIRATION

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

REMEMBER PHILIP, THOU MUST DIE. REMEMBER PHILIP, THOU MUST LIVE

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

There is a story told about Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, who assigned to a slave a most unusual task. Each morning the slave was required to come to Philip’s room and coldly interrupt whatever the king was doing or thinking, “Remember, Philip, thou must die.”

And perhaps that is part of the task set before us –to remind ourselves of our immortality but also our mortality. For while it is a blow to the ego, it is also a wisdom to the soul. What do we live for? What are we willing to live without?

To look at our engraved stationery, or our name on the mailbox, or office door, or on the little box of tithing envelopes and remind ourselves that this life is short. There is, indeed, something about confronting the here-now with the hereafter that makes one pause to think.

Certain questions then rise to the fore, such as: are we a Christian society with too many pagan habits, or a pagan society some-times practicing Christian ethics? Do we sometimes confuse kindness with Christianity?

And because we no longer engage in duels, or keep slaves, or work children 15 hours a day, does that make us a Christian nation?

It is fine to be committed to being a decent human being. No one can argue against that. It is excellent to be committed to family and great to be committed to a savings account. Prudent financial practice is a sign of maturity.

It is a good thing to be committed to some relaxation and recreation. The weary are no more holy than the rested.

But, out in the night there is a cross, and the Man hanging there cannot really be taken down till every man, every woman and every child comes to take Him down.

For whom and what and where and when do we live. For yes Philip, or Mary, or Sam, or Jane you must die but also you must live. For whom and what and where and when!

Ecclesiastes 12:13
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

The following was posted on my One A Day Your Spiritual Vitamins Site today… THINK ABOUT CHANGE FOR A CHANGE?


Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

ARE YOU AN ANTIQUE WHO NEEDS TO BE RESTORED?

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Have you ever stopped to think that when we accept God’s love we become restored antiques? Yes, in a way, I believe that is exactly what we become.

The book of Ephesians describes this antique restoration so very well, “…once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.” (Ephesians 5:8)

It’s all there, everyday in every way…the love of God. It’s there in the excited cry of a child at close of day. It’s there in the kneeling response of a man or woman in prayer. It’s there every time we reach up and God reaches down.

What is it the marines are always saying, “We’re looking for a few good men.” Well, God is certainly looking for good men and women but also realizing that even good men and women can sometimes be ungodly and not so good, not always worthy of forgiveness but forgiving them anyway.

And do you want to know something? “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less.” (Anonymous)

The following was posted on my One A Day Your Spiritual Vitamins Site today… JUST HOP RIGHT IN

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

SUPPOSE CHRIST HAD BEEN COVETOUS

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

Suppose Christ had been covetous? Had coveted safety above sacrifice. Been more interested in riches than redemption. Suppose on the top of the mountain when tempted by the devil he had turned the stones into bread, coveting men’s appreciation more than their respect.

Covetousness and Christianity are as different as night and day. Covetousness says “Me”. Christianity says “Thee.” Covetousness says “What you have is mine.” Christianity says “What I have is yours.” The cornerstone of Covetousness is “Selfishness.” The cornerstone of Christianity is “Sacrifice.” Christianity may be too big for the little people who try to follow it, but covetousness is definitely too small for one to want to follow.

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO CHOICES

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

There are only two choices when there are too many problems and too much pain.

One is to rebel and the other is to attempt to relate.

Poets and philosophers and theologians and the Apostle Paul have mightily sought to give satisfactory answers to this mighty question.

Paul says “...the thorn in his side...” which is never readily identified “..perfected his weakness.”

Yet another unknown writer wrote,
“My life is but the weaving
Between my God and me.
I only choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
Sometimes he weaveth sorrow.
And I in foolish pride,
Forget he sees the upper.
And I the under side.”

His name was Cardinal Mercier and shells had destroyed his cathedral and all his precious library had gone up in smoke. He stood amidst the ruins and said to someone standing by his side, “Suffering accepted and vanquished...will give you a serenity which may well prove the most exquisite fruit of your life.”

Accept some of the rules of life even if you do not understand. Stand before the throne of grace and simply say, “Thy will be done” and mean it and “the peace that passeth understanding” comes. I do not completely understand how or why, but it comes.

In 1982 when my left arm hung limp and useless from my shoulder, paralyzed and futile, I was not a happy camper. Indeed I could have worn myself weary by berating my foolishness in taking up hang gliding. Instead I prayed, “Lord, make my arm well, or let me learn a lesson from this accident. But most of all, thy will be done.” He chose to heal my arm. But even more he did wonderful things for my psyche.

“I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’re a word said she;
But, oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!”

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

WORN THIN, WORN OUT!

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)
(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)

In a novel, The Way of All Flesh, a young ministerial candidate has a nervous breakdown. He is on a too fast treadmill, caught between a traditionalist view and a more liberal view of looking at things.

Rushing in a crazy-quilt life, back and forth between the two he has worn himself out. Then comes on the scene a wise, old doctor prescribing a cure.

“Go to the zoo and daily study the elephants,” advises the physician. Willing to try anything the young man follows the instructions. Day after day he observes and studies the slow but steady movements of these ponderous pachyderms.

Not far away from the elephants he has also observed the tigers frantically pacing back and forth. Rushing to nowhere. Impatient, and rightly so. Nervous, and without restraint. But nevertheless, rushing to nowhere.

And bit by bit the message fights through and sinks in. He begins to understand that he must slow his pace. Find a new rhythm. Find a proper balance in his life.

We’ve all been more like the tiger and less like the elephant sometimes. And more than once folk have one foot firmly planted on a banana peel while gingerly taking a step toward our faith.

We’ve slipped and we’ve slud, as Dizzy Dean used to say, and looked up at the Christmas star, while sometimes having trouble keeping it in focus - because it’s impossible to always be shouting hallelujahs - because we’re all entitled to some Uh Ohs because we’re human.

Oh, so human, and so in need.

You know, when I was about 11 years old I finally got my first electric train. It had taken four years of Mom and Dad saving for it because it was depression time and little boys didn’t always get what they wanted when they wanted it. Oh, it was a great little train. It ran around in circles going toot-toot-toot like little trains are supposed to do. And then another Christmas I got a football suit. And then very early on… I got a Christ. I have no idea where my train set is or my football suit, but I know where my Christ is.

And Christ gently, quietly, lovingly stands by our Christmas tree and says, “Come, take my gift again…and again…and again, for I offer you My love not only on Christmas Day. I offer it your whole life long.”

Have a friend visit my ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS site. Have them go to Google and where it says “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”
Or type in the URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

And, yes, if this site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”
Or type in the URL http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.