ARE YOU AS CLOSE TO GOD AS YOU WANT TO BE?

 

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW There are over 800 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

 This morning I want to introduce you to two people…and both of them are you – but the choice of which you are, God has left up to you.

To begin this introduction, I want you to imagine that it is tomorrow morning and YOU #1 has been away from home no more than five minutes when another one of those road hogs with piggish precision almost takes off your front bumper.

Of course, you lay on your horn.  And you honk again, but longer and louder this second time.  At the next traffic light you pull up beside his car and let him know, by all the unacceptable ways you know that you are angry with him.  That at that moment, a hanging or guillotine would be too good for him.

At work, still carrying this hot-under-the-collar mood, you are rude to customers or other office staff, or anyone who comes in contact with you.  The me-first, brutish behavior of the man in that car has ruined your day and you just can’t, or won’t, let go of it.

At the end of the day you slam the front door as you walk into your home and wearing a scowl fit for a King who has been crossed by another kingdom, you take out your lingering anger on your poor unsuspecting spouse.

That was the first you of the two of you.

 Now, let me introduce YOU #2.

Again imagine that it is tomorrow morning and you have been away from home no more than five minutes when another one of those road hogs with piggish precision almost takes off your front bumper.

Momentarily you start to lay on your horn but instead, you lay down a prayer, “Lord, save me from meeting brutish behavior with more of the same.” 

You’ve held your anger in check and you feel good about it.  This is who you are and who you have become. 

So you continue to pray for that individual in the other car: 

“Dear Lord, perhaps he’s just had an argument with his spouse.  Or maybe he’s always like this; rude and thoughtless and wearing a “me-first attitude” as if it were a crown and he were King of the Road.  Whatever is his problem, Lord, I pray for the both of us for life is too short for two angry individuals to act like fools.

And as a strange, wonderful kind of peace descends, you continue: “Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of my Christianity and my ability to sometimes act like that is what and who I am.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

       http://www.speakerneil.com/

       TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

       

 CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

        

V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at MAGNUS PRESS

 

DO YOU HAVE A HISTORY BUFF IN YOUR FAMILY?...Why not give THIS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED  BOOK BY Rev. Wyrick at Christmas time.

        

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM and amazon.com Kindle

 

OTHER BOOKS BY REV. WYRICK

available on Amazon.com

 

Poor Richard's Almanack for the 20th Century

Sixty Plus and Not Holding

Boundaries Unlimited

I Am

The ABC"s of Parenting and Grandparenting

Letters to America

 

http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html 

    

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

          There are over 900 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

        GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW

          To visit this site…click on the URL below

        http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

It was time for the annual Christmas pageant and a little boy was having a terrible time with his lines as the Innkeeper. He knew he was supposed to say, “There is no room in the inn,” but he just couldn’t.  Over and over, each time he reached that place in the script, he would blurt out, “Sure, come on in.”

                Just before they were about to give him a lesser role, he finally came through in rehearsal and said what he was supposed to say. 

 

However, when the night of the actual performance came,  he had a moment of inspiration.  Oh, he said what he had been told to say, “There is no room in the inn…” but then he paused and continued, “but come on in for a drink before you have to go.”

                “Come into our hearts, Lord Jesus, and stay.  Make this Christmas special because there is room in the inn of our souls.  There is always room for You because we always have a need for You.” 

                Merry Christmas to you, one and all.  A happy, holy Christmas.  And may the Lord, of whom it is all about, fill you with His particular and overwhelming joy.

God is love and Christ is the package that proves it.  And what is love?  Well, out of the mouths of babes, and particularly if they are only four years old, come some interesting insights.

                “Love is that first feeling you have before all the bad stuff gets in the way.”

                “Love is my grandpa painting my grandma’s toenails because she has arthritis and can’t bend over to do it herself.”

                “Love is when you go out to eat and somebody gives you most of their French Fries without making you give them any of yours.”

                “Love is what makes you smile even when you are tired and don’t feel like smiling.”

                “Love is when a puppy licks your face even though you have gone all day without paying any attention to him.”

                “Love is when you know your name is safe in some-bodies mouth.”

                “Love is when somebody learns something bad about you and loves you anyway.”

                “Love is what is in the room Christmas morning, if you stop opening your presents for just a moment or two and just listen.”  (anonymous, some rewrite and edited)

Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

       http://www.speakerneil.com/

       TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

        

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

       

 

      V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at MAGNUS PRESS

 

DO YOU HAVE A HISTORY BUFF IN YOUR FAMILY?...Why not give THIS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED  BOOK BY Rev. Wyrick at Christmas time.

       

 AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM and amazon.com Kindle

 

OTHER BOOKS BY REV. WYRICK

available on Amazon.com

 

Poor Richard's Almanack for the 20th Century

Sixty Plus and Not Holding

Boundaries Unlimited

I Am

The ABC"s of Parenting and Grandparenting

Letters to America

 

http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html 

 

WISDOM IS

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

          There are over 900 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

        GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW

          To visit this site…click on the URL below

        http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

            M.D., PhD, DD - we see these titles after a name and we think wisdom…I see these titles and I think knowledge…there is a difference.

Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, but it is no guarantee.  I have known some knowledgeable fools and so have you.

Tell me what a man’s intelligence has produced and I will tell whether I think he is wise or not.

Knowledge can, and does, produce arrogance, misused power, pride and selfishness. 

Public offices, at all levels, are filled with politicians who made promises to the voters to get there, and once in office act only out of allegiance to the promises they made to themselves.

Knowledge can be very self-centered and quite successful, but not necessarily wise.

The politicians in Jesus’ time were not too wise and got themselves in trouble:  Pilate and Herod and the high Priest Caiaphas unwisely choose jealousy to motivate their deeds, and the desire for power, and all the other little children of these less than noble thoughts.

God’s wisdom.  That is what I believe in, and preach about, and daily seek.  And I think that is what you believe in and daily seek.  But we must not just accept these truths…we must seek after them with prayerful might and sacred main.

God’s wisdom that aims us toward humility where we can find harmony.

God’s wisdom that creates in us a desire to think more about helping others than helping ourselves.

God’s wisdom that makes us a more forgiving person.

God’s wisdom that makes us concerned with other people’s preservation before our own self-preservation.

God’s wisdom makes us fight for unity and understanding and kindness

toward our fellowman.

          God’s wisdom shouts at us “Don’t continue to be a fool.”

And again, what is wisdom?  It is sharpening our souls to the point we make right decisions in coordination with Man’s laws and God’s laws.  It is knowing what is right and wrong, and acting like we know what is right and wrong.

Job says, “The fear of God is wisdom.” 

Solomon says, “Only the Lord gives wisdom.”

 Let me tell you a story.

Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity, but brilliant as he was did not know how to drive a car, so he hired a chauffeur.     One day, he was scheduled to lecture at Princeton and as they were on their way, the chauffeur said, “Dr. Einstein, I’ve heard your lecture so many times, I could give it myself.” 

          Einstein promptly surprised him by saying, “Alright, I’ve never lectured here before.  They don’t know me…so let’s do it.  You put on my clothes and I’ll put on your uniform and cap.  When we get there I will introduce you as Dr. Einstein.”

Everything went perfectly.  The chauffeur delivered the speech on relativity flawlessly.  And Dr. Einstein, seated at the back of the lecture hall enjoyed it immensely.

But then something happened they had not planned on.

The moderator of the lecture said, “We have fifteen more minutes, just enough time for some of you to ask Dr. Einstein a question.” 

A professor in the audience promptly asked a very complicated, technical question involving higher mathematical formulas and language that the chauffeur of course did not understand.

But the chauffeur, though not a scholar, was obviously, a very wise man.

“Sir, the solution to that problem is so simple that I am really surprised you would even ask it.  Anyone can answer a question that simple.  To prove it, I’m going to have my chauffeur come up and answer it.”

My own head is filled with knowledge.  I read and study and have been busy at it for a lifetime, but the times when I am faced with problems to which I cannot come up with a answer are more than many, and so I pray, ”Lord, it’s me again.  Give me wisdom.  At least aim me in the right direction and cool my emotions if they are getting in the way.”

Billy Graham once said, “Knowledge is horizontal.  Wisdom is vertical.”

Yes, true wisdom comes down from above.  And when we act with too little wisdom, here comes our heavenly Father again, forgiving us and forgiving us and forgiving us. 

Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

       http://www.speakerneil.com/

      

       TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

       

 CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

        

 

         V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at MAGNUS PRESS

 

 

DO YOU HAVE A HISTORY BUFF IN YOUR FAMILY?...Why not give THIS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED  BOOK BY Rev. Wyrick at Christmas time.

        

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM and amazon.com Kindle

OTHER BOOKS BY REV. WYRICK

available on Amazon.com

 

Poor Richard's Almanack for the 20th Century

Sixty Plus and Not Holding

Boundaries Unlimited

I Am

The ABC"s of Parenting and Grandparenting

Letters to America

 

http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html 

   

CONFLICT MISMANAGEMENT! WHY CAN'T WE GET ALONG? (Continuation)

 

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

          There are over 900 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

        GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW

          To visit this site…click on the URL below

        http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

 

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

          The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath.   The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started sinking, but the friend pulled him out and saved him.

After he had recovered, he wrote on a stone: TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The friend who had slapped and then saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?”

The other friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can blow it away.  But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

Now, I’m going to put before you a few personal questions and I hope you are able and willing to honestly, and of course, silently answer them to yourself.

          Are you a peacemaker or are you a warrior? 

          Do you turn proverbial swords into plows or plows into swords?

          Are you a master at making cutting remarks?

Just remember, “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in pitchers of silver.” (Proverbs. 25:11)

          Do you harbor grudges as if they were long lost friends?

          Do you accuse everyone else of having a bad temper when in reality it is you whose temper is constantly flaring out of control?

Are you a smoldering coal…always on the edge of burning anyone who comes in contact with you?

Yes, it is true that, “Coping with difficult people is always a problem. Especially if the difficult person happens to be yourself.” (John Maxwell)

What is the biggest problem with conflict?  It’s like a magnet.  For many people, once it gets hold of them they can’t let it go.

Such as the husband who said that after 50 years of marriage, he and his wife have had only one fight.  When asked the secret to their success he replied, “Our first and only fight started on our honeymoon and I’m still waiting for it to end!”

“Life is relationships, the rest is in the details.”  (Gary Smalley) 

And when we keep driving nails into a relationship, we are trying to build a good life on a ragged wound… and it just isn’t going to happen.

Want to know how to make any conflict worse?  Use the words “never” and “always.”

You “never” and name the fault.  Or…you “always” and name the fault. 

Abraham Lincoln knew the power of words, his and the other individuals.  “When I’m getting ready to reason with a man,” he said, “I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I’m going to say and two-thirds thinking about him and what he is going to say."

Too many never consider the other persons point of view… in which case guess whose point of view most people hold on to.

          You’ve got a conflict in your life and you really do want to sweep it away?  Well, just remember,  “If the strands in the broom do not reconcile, you cannot very well sweep with it.”

Right now we have an excellent example of what can happen when conflict gets out of hand and no one is willing to listen to anyone.  All we have to do is look north to Washington.

Good, intelligent men and women on both sides who speak from their mouths straight to their own ears without pausing to let any other ideas come filtering through.  Drawing a line in the sand as if they were God himself who was making the decisions.

 And as I watch them, not as a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, I am reminded that conflict is not wrong…just how we handle it.

           Without conflict there would be no New Testament…

No revelation…

But conflict arises from our unmet desires colliding with each other.  And when we feel we cannot be satisfied until we get what we want, our desires turn into demands, and when that happens - there is no chance for reconciliation.

People stop talking to each other and rather talk at each other.  And like a chest cold, the longer a problem exists, the worse it gets.

I am reminded of some more wise words in Proverbs,  He who answers before listening--that is his folly and his shame.” (NIV) Pro. 18:13

Turning a disagreement into open conflict and finally into a feud that might outlast the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s requires an angry dedication to hardheadedness that makes no room for forgiveness, but all the room in the world for arrogance.

And the devil loves these kind of folk, those with loud voices and clinched fists…those who are not happy unless they are mad at someone.  He hates hands extended in prayers for peace and reconciliation and those who plant flowers instead of bombs.

And then there was the ultimate conflict with the ultimate end…the cross on a Golgotha hill.

“Pardon him” was the cry from some.

“Crucify him” was the cry from others.

And Pilate became a symbol of all the times men and women have washed their hands of some hateful conflicting affair.  Took the easy way out…except as history has come to show…it was not the easy nor best way at all.

++++++++++++

SPECIAL SALE...We've managed to purchase new copies of my book "THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN at a very good price...therefore...just send $3 (NO CHARGE FOR POSTAGE OR HANDLING) to:

Pageantry Inc. (The Church Without Walls) 

7430 SW 59th Street 

Miami, Florida 33143 

and we will immediately send you a copy of this book about which has been written...

"Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understaning and appreciation of Lincoln...(Lt. Colonel C.A.Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

"Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information.  (Maynard Pittendreigh, Presbyterian Minister)

"THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN is an extremely well written book...it is both scholarly and very readable.  I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of that President with an altered and enlarged vision of the man. (William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer, author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn.)                                             

GO TO SPEAKER.NEIL TO SEE NEIL'S ONE MAN AWARD WINNING DRAMATIZATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

http://www.speakerneil.com/

IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR (Continuation of Series)

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

          There are over 900 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

        GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW

          To visit this site…click on the URL below

        http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

       

        On a midnight clear…with a message of love so very dear…Even though we weren’t on that hillside so long ago, and didn’t see the star or hear the angels, like the shepherds, we should still be excited.  The message is still the same. “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, for unto you is born a Savior” …

                It was Rome and the legions of Augustus were doing what they did on a fairly regular basis.  They would line up and march by their Ruler crying out as they passed, “Hail, Caesar.” 

          The trumpets would blare, the banners flutter in the wind, the stones tremble beneath their feet. 

          It was all beautifully synchronized and wondrous to behold but Augustus, exalted god/ruler, was bored. 

          Terribly, overwhelming bored.

           He could not count the number of such parades he had to endure.  Ah, the drudgery of being an emperor.

          At the same time, in a rented stable, in an out-of-the-way little town at the far corner of the Roman Empire, a baby was beginning to cry. 

          He was wrapped in swaddling clothes.  His bed was scattered straw and the only heat was that of farm animals moving about in the cold of the night. 

It was not a time when medical care such as we know today was available. 

          It was a time when few babies survived more than a year. 

          But this babe did. 

          Lived and grew up in a place called Nazareth and, for a time, carpentry was His trade. 

          When he had reached only the twelfth year of his being, He gave His parents a hint of what He would one day become, “Know ye not that I must be about my fathers business?” 

With three decades behind him, He began His ministry.  “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” It was a snide remark often made by those who lived in big cities.

 And in those days of long ago, Jesus did not directly answer the question; He did not have to.  His life did a quite good job of that all by itself.  

And His death upon a cross did and His resurrection.  And now it is Christmas and once again all over the world we remember just how important the birth of this Savior really was.

+++++++++++++      

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

        

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

       

 

 V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at MAGNUS PRESS

 

DO YOU HAVE A HISTORY BUFF IN YOUR FAMILY?...Why not give THIS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED  BOOK BY Rev. Wyrick at Christmas time.

        

        AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM and amazon.com Kindle

OTHER BOOKS BY REV. WYRICK

available on Amazon.com

 

Poor Richard's Almanack for the 20th Century

Sixty Plus and Not Holding

Boundaries Unlimited

I Am

The ABC"s of Parenting and Grandparenting

Letters to America

 

http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html