RUST ON MY SOUL (3rd part in Serialization)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series.

INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

Evening

Neither Nancy nor I can escape our childhood. They are days that are our roots and sometimes our dilemma. Nancy knew opulence in her growing up. If opulence is too strong a word, her almost complete lack of any kind of privation, in the first part of her life, is without a doubt an apt description.

“When I didn’t get my way, I threw a tantrum,” she said. I laughed when I first heard it. I don’t laugh anymore. Gratified then in every particular, she expects no less today.

Her father worked hard, played hard and died swiftly. Like a nightmare they went from affluence to anything but, finding themselves with debts amounting to far more than insurance would cover.

“I’m not cold-blooded, Tom, “she said. “But I will not be impoverished again. Ever.” It is why my insurance bill would choke a dinosaur.

“Don’t ask me if I’m proud of what you do for a living and how you sometimes succeed. But if it pays good money and you don’t stand still in a puddle of indecision, I’ll ask no more.” That’s how she feels.

I remember the first time I met her. There was softness then. Dark hair, dark eyes, an alabaster complexion and a gentle complexion and a gentle firmness.

“Are you laughing at my hat?” It was an easy smile, confident.

“I’ve never seen one like it.” It was flaming red, and large.

Claudius, my friend and college roommate (he introduced us), said “Now that you’ve met I’ve some studying to do.” Only I would have a roommate and matchmaker named Claudius.

How well I remember those beginning days as we grew slowly toward each other. She was ambitious and so was I. It seemed a good combination. She could be kind, if not always, at least often enough.

And as we began to shape our dreams our love soared, wingtips cloud-high and climbing toward the sun. There were angel sounds, we flew so high. And then, one day we didn’t fly so well. At first it was no more than a tremble in the air. Small errors in judgment and response. Tiny mistakes that wavered our pattern of flight.

An airplane crashes for no one reason alone. A dozen little miscalculations add up and suddenly it doesn’t fly so well anymore. I think that’s what has happened to our marriage. No one cause deserves the blame.

Evening

My boss had an idea this morning. A bad idea. A terrible idea. It was guaranteed to fail. I played it safe and murmured, “That’s a great idea D.L.!” Today wasn’t the first time I played it safe.

Why? Because success at any cost makes sense. He pays the bills and buys agreement along with all the other things he piles up along the way.

The rungs of the ladder to success are slippery. Mice don’t make it to the top, but neither do arrogant lions. Somehow I’ve got to always know when to speak up and when to shut up.

My boss was born in Hungary and raised in poverty. He cut his teeth on self-discipline and early etched the philosophy on his personality, “Nice guys don’t finish last, they don’t even finish.” For years it was, “Hey, Goulash,” and then when he was a success, “Mr. Goulash” behind his back. Sometimes I forget what his real Hungarian name is.

I’ve met his wife once. A fleeting wisp of a woman with a beat-down smile that sputtered when she offered it to me.

D.L’s perpetual scowl intimidates. His two hundred-plus bulk and hulking walk announces his coming as he constantly interrupts and intervenes in all our projects. But he is a genius. (Yes, he makes a mistake ere now and then but not many) His carping comes from an intuitive insight that is right more often than wrong.

I don’t really like the man. But if I had to like most of the people I associate with I’d cut my business in half. He asks much and rations compliments. But he pays well.

Shakespeare once described the conscience of some men as being as “wide as hell.” I wish I hadn’t remembered that.

TO BE CONTINUED
(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)

Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

Neil Wyrick newest book
“LETTERS TO 21st CENTURY AMERICA FROM CHARLES WESLEY, Hymn Writer Supreme
is coming out in 2010 by CSS Publishers

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

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.

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

A LITTLE CREATIVITY GOES A LONG WAYS

REMEMBER a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will be added until the entire novel has appeared. (Published by Bridge Press, 1985) (Distributed Internationally)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

Obviously you can’t be with your spouse or children all during the day but a little creativity will let them know you think they are special. A note in a lunch box or coat pocket.

“I love you…”

“You looked so pretty when you left this morning.”

“I’ll be praying your brain works well when you take that test today (or try to make that sale) (or face your new classroom full of students this year) or…etc., etc.

It doesn’t take much to bring as smile to the face of a family member (and your own while you are writing and doing it)

"Be ye kind one to another" (Ephesians 4:32)

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just

Go to the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

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.

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

BLESSED

REMEMBER EACH TUESDAY a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will be added until the entire novel has appeared. (Published by Bridge Press, 1985) (Distributed Internationally) 

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

Essentially what does the Beatitudes
(Matthew 5:1-10) say?

Blessed are they who are well adjusted…unburdened by excessive negativity…able to focus on sunshine rather than shadows…brightness rather than darkness…beauty rather than ugliness… love rather than hate… patience rather than anger. Negativity does not just steal time, it warps it. Of course, no one is always happy, but some are a great deal more unhappy and unhappier for longer periods of time, than they have to be.

I am sometimes asked if I have ever been depressed.

Well, I’ve had some times in my life when what I was carrying around certainly didn’t make me jump with joy.

Times, when though I had a compassionate heavenly Father, a loving earthly wife, wonderful children, a job that fulfilled me, great recreational pursuits and good health; I still needed to practice spiritual math.

To count my blessings real good. And keep on counting them until I had fought through my depression, or a down day, a bad hair day, whatever you want to call it. Actually, I call it a gift from the devil’s workshop.

I also try daily to apply what I was unconsciously learning in my youth – that each new challenge that produces a new skill gives me a sense of accomplishment and less opportunity for boredom.

Success of any kind does that and makes it hard for depression to settle in. All the things you can do to avoid boredom, do them. Boredom, the very thought is depressing. No worse than that…it is frightening.

Go home today and pull out one or more of your baby pictures. Look at that innocent, wide-eyed face, the you in your beginning who was so excited about everything you saw and were experiencing. And then really consider, “Has the world become less interesting or have I become less interested?”

Pray often each day, “Lord, give me back the eyes of a child.

Send me in search of that which will save me from being a cynic. Don’t let me take all the fun out of a magic show, or go to a circus and find I can no longer laugh when all those little people keep pouring out of that little car.

Let me still be enthralled when the lion tamer puts his head in the lion’s mouth.

Or filled with wonderment by the moon that keeps steadily moving across the sky.

Give me back who I was before I left Middle School and picked up being blasé in High School.

Let me feel free to sing in the shower, even if the shower is from heaven and I am walking down the street without a raincoat or umbrella.

Let me find joy that once I found from just wiggling my toes in the mud. Let me…”

I remember when I was a little boy and I found out that trees weren’t just for looking at, but also for climbing. For the rest of my boyhood, I spent more time up in the air than on the ground. And I was so excited. You just can’t be depressed when you are being Tarzan swinging through the trees.

Then, while I was still very young, I learned that those strange marks on pieces of paper were letters, and that if I learned to interpret them I could do what Mom and Dad called reading. And when I read, I could be a cowboy or a king, or go to strange and wonderful places, and I filled my mind with imaginative thoughts and it was exciting.

Who can feel bad, child or adult, when a good book is massaging their brain?

If I asked, I don’t know what you would tell me still gets you excited.

But there is so much happening in this old world to grab your attention: art and music, baseball, an upcoming sports event, the list is endless.

Oh, the list of all the things God offers us to get excited about is endless.

But if your answer is nothing, that you find nothing that really excites you, then go looking, please…because if you don’t, depression has already come looking for you.

And you have left a lethargic resting place for it to abide.
 

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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 click on the following 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

RUST ON MY SOUL (2nd in series of Novel)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distribued Internationally) (A new Series that began on this Tues April 13th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)

INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those just joining series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

Early morning (New Material)

A diary? Teenage girls write them in the throes of passion or as depositories for adolescent secrets. But not Tom Kettering, age forty-nine. I’m neither the right age nor the proper sex. I am in the right mood, however.

All trussed up with anxiety and mathematically behind the emotional eight ball.

Why?

Because I’ve got more questions than answers.

Whether I like the terms “mid-life crisis” or not, it’s a fair name for a miserable experience.

I will not write daily. I’ve neither the time nor the patience for it. But long or short, twice a day or not at all, I must put down how I feel and where I am and where I have been and why.

“There is a teacher inside you, Tom Kettering. Give him reign.” For as long as I could remember this was a constant and underlined musing from my inner me. For nine months it was a fulfilling reality but toward the end of our first year of marriage Nancy began to harp, “For a while I can live like this, but not a lifetime.”

Come September I had joined the marketplace. Neither of us enjoyed price tags as priority reading matter but we were hooked on acquiring things. Nancy more?…me less?..I’m not really sure anymore.

Though it was wrenching to worship the almighty dollar we adapted easier than I thought we would. Nancy was ahead of me but I was catching up. And yes, my skills easily translated into dollars and more dollars and well now…we can hardly be called poor these days.

If I cannot teach and it is obvious I will never be a teacher. I will write in spare moments.”

After all, “ Tom the teacher” was a youthful, optimistic promise that lost out to reality. “Business” is a stern mistress, a gobbler of energy and time. So I retreated, compromised, gave up the scholar, buried the philosopher, went pell-mell and full scale into making money.

And I’m good at it.

But the chasm, the wound from what I wanted to be and do and have not, is dark and deep and it hurts. I have never really forgotten the man I once dreamed I’d be.

This diary may be an outlet in more ways than one.

Noon

I attended Jim’s funeral this morning. Some of the neighbors did, some didn’t. I only went because Nancy said I had to. I didn’t really care. He’s dead and it makes no difference to him whether I was there are not.

My lack of caring bothers me. But I’m only practicing what I’ve inwardly preached for a long time. The safest way to live is not to care too much. Caring makes you vulnerable. Rust on my soul? Corrosion might be a better description.

Evening

I am not prepared to grow old, but being ready has nothing to do with the passing of the years. Inevitably they build up and out toward the stretches of eternity. A lifetime is so brief a candle, all brightness and flickering and shadows.

There is a pattern for viewing, it’s called looking back. There is a pattern for doing; it’s called looking forward. I am trying to meld these twins, trying to make some sense of marble games and fights and a little blonde girl who captured all our little-boy hearts.

And wind that came swirling in from the sea bringing grey clouds tired with their baggage of rain. And school years adding until graduation and all the lives splitting off shouting, “Eat my dirt,” because the shouting masked the fears of little boys and little girls who were not little anymore.

Some of us prolonged the playing for four more years, but when I twirled a tassel for the last time and stepped out of the final graduation line, a new generation of experience met my dreams. New rules, new customs, all part of an adult culture I’d only looked out at and toward before.

Our dreams didn’t all explode and suddenly disappear. Rather, they were absorbed by that reality again, bit by bit by bit until they just weren’t anymore. Some were paid more for the losing of their dreams than others.

Some were paid hardly at all. A few won their dreams but nonetheless remained foolishly unaware and nowhere as thankful as they should have been.

I’ve never been one to let my tomorrows drift lazily on an open sea. I need to put them in order, to make them sail as a unit toward some port. I don’t like it when too many surprises take over, making me realize that I should have made more careful plans. Well, there was a time in my teenage years when this wasn’t so.

“Planning destroys the spontaneity,” I’d argue to dad. Not that he’d ever argue back. It wasn’t his style. But I could see a worrying in his eyes.

“One day you’ll have to plan, Tom, you know that.” That’s all he’d ever say and the subject would shrivel up and go away.

I don’t really remember exactly when I crossed the line. I drifted toward college. I eased toward a major. But sometime during my senior year, with the real world just over the horizon and Nancy and I beginning to talk of homes and kids, just plain fear made me buckle down.

I’m in another kind of senior year now. At least there’s more of my life behind than ahead. I don’t really believe I’m being morbid, but the grey hairs, the bifocals, the stiff knee all say final exams could be any time and I’m afraid not to be prepared.

TO BE CONTINUED
(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)

Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

Another of Neil Wyrick's books
“LETTERS TO 21st CENTURY AMERICA FROM CHARLES WESLEY, Hymn Writer Supreme by CSS Publishers.

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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 click on the following 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

IF YOU BELIEVE CHRISTIANITY IS A SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT THEN MOVE

REMEMBER EACH TUESDAY a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will be added until the entire novel has appeared. (Published by Bridge Press, 1985) (Distributed Internationally) 

 

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)

(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

In June 1929, on what would 17 years later be my college campus, a man named Gresham Machen spoke the following words, “It is a serious step in these days, even from the worldly point of view, to become a Christian…The man (or woman) who today enters upon the Christian life is enlisting in a warfare against the whole current of the age.” He went on to suggest that unfortunately the effect most Christians have on anti-Christian forces is equivalent to a chip that floats with the stream rather than a dam built to fight against it.

He also made a rather startling suggestion, to not so much study the scriptures as to just read them. And by so doing allow “the stupendous figure of Jesus” to convince you that the pathway to progress leads to the feet of this Master Teacher and Son of God.

It is 80 years later and still too often Christian trumpets do not blare. Indeed, too often, they hardly toot. We suffer from what some have called “a reduced and inconsistent Christianity.” (Anonymous)

In C. S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, the big devil advises the little devil on earth what to do and tells him, “Let Christians believe anything they want. Just make sure they don’t do anything about it.” And it was good advice to the little devil, wasn’t it? For if too many take the attitude after all a man must live, must he not? what happens to the moral and spiritual backbone of this country?

If this site or the One A Day 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 click on the following 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

O YOU BELIEVE IN DEVILS?

REMEMBER EACH TUESDAY a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will take place until the entire novel has appeared. (Distributed and published by Bridge Press, 1985)(Distributed Internationally) 

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL
 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

I don’t know whether you believe in the devil and demons.

If you don’t, then you are guilty of selective scripturing because the New Testament refers to these inhabitants of hell one hundred and thirty-five times.

Pure and simple, if there is a Source of love and kindness, which is Christ our Lord, then there has to be the opposite, a source of hate and meanness.

Good does not come out of a vacuum and neither does evil. It is a logic of the universe that cannot be disputed.

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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 click on the following 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

RUST ON MY SOUL (1st In Series)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL 

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distribued Internationally) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)
 

PREFACE

Some years ago on a television program, the hero asked the heroine, “Who are you?” What’s your name?” She replied, “Who am I? What’s my name? Which do you want? They’re entirely different.”

In this diary the writer has been too busy to confront this timeless question with the great answer. The words “Be still and know that I am God” have had no place in the daily rush of his life.

But when the inner workings of his soul have a word with him, a journey begins within, and “passing through he valley of weeping, (he) make(s) it a place of springs.” (Psalm 84, The Amplified Bible”

INTRODUCTION

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
Evening

I heard the shot. It shattered the Sunday morning quiet. Ian was a big man. Sitting behind his corporate desk his power and physical bulk betrayed no sign of weakness. But one time last fall, down on his knees in his garden, his humanity briefly showed. For just a moment there was agony in his eyes as he said to me, “Tom, my garden used to be the one place I could find some peace, but I really just don’t give a damn about anything anymore.” Why didn’t I hear the warning bell?

The name on my office door says Thomas Kettering but who is he? Perhaps my neighbor asked the same question of himself, and not finding an answer, chose suicide as a solution.

Nancy is over visiting with his wife now to help. There are no children. His wife must bear this time of emptiness fearfully and alone. But what can one say?

Your husband failed as a human being…he made it to the top of the ladder but he couldn’t stand the altitude…your husband has been dead the last several years anyway. “No! You mumble platitudes, politely leave if the minister comes by, and damn God for it all…with a terrible ache in your soul.

I’m afraid. Afraid of today and what it has brought. Scared to death of tomorrow.

Morning

I didn’t really know him. I knew Jim’s face well enough; a prominent jaw, pale blue eyes beneath a shaggy brow. I knew Jim's dog better than I knew Jim– now who will romp with him in their front yard? Side by side we lived, yet a million miles apart.

The muted roar of the expressway one quarter of mile away says life. The projects and appointments in my schedule book say life. Even my pain and problems, and sometimes joy, say life. But for Jim there is now silence.

He left this life with a wail cut short. That’s what suicide is; an inner scream that finds no listeners. And then one day, the piercing, turbulent volume of regret becomes too much.

“Goodbye, Jim, whoever you were. I never took the time to find out. I really didn’t care.”

Late night

Remembering is like turning the blanket of your mind inside out. It is then that you find all your yesterdays that have sifted through. They are evergreens in the forests of your thoughts. They are paths that should be rewalked from time to time.

It is good and bad, therapeutic and hurtful, this journey I suggest. But it is a voyage from which I must not veer. The time for forgetting is past. I can no longer afford the luxury. As I pull up one cluster of memories I know others will tangle along for the ride.

Some people just bite at a thought and swallow it whole. I can’t do that. When it comes to thinking, I’m a slow eater. I have to chew a long. It helps my mind to digest.

Will I be able to handle this searching of deposits on my soul? I don’t know. I do know that if I go around many more circles I’ll wear a hole in my brain. I’m beginning to feel like a man with a ton of problems and only a pound of fortitude.

TO BE CONTINUED
(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)
Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

Neil Wyrick newest book
“LETTERS TO 21st CENTURY AMERICA FROM CHARLES WESLEY, Hymn Writer Supreme
is coming out in 2010 by CSS Publishers

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING 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 click on the following 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world

WHERE THERE IS LIFE...THERE...HOPE NEVER DIES

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)

(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL  

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

He was a run of the mill traitor to his soul. When courage met his convictions… courage was rebuffed and his convictions were muted and melted and became useless and unavailable to his need.

But God forgave him and the message from the cross did not change. And God forgave him again and again and wept and waited and one day…

…he began to change.

Began to grow and his prayers had muscle in them and his conscience stirred and his convictions found life again and all the angels in heaven began to sing…and they are singing still for this child of God who was a prodigal far from home…but who now has returned.

Is this someone you know? Is this you?

Luke 15:11-32
11 And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; 12 and the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. 15 So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, `How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants."' 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; 23 and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; 24 for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry. 25 "Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. 27 And he said to him, `Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, `Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' 31 And he said to him, `Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend.

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

THE ART OF SUCCESSFUL FAILING

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)

(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)

(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
 

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God has given us time, the adventure called life and oh how we waste it or work with it...how important these two decisions are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Spend all your time planning but never doing.
2. Try do three things all at once.
3. Don’t keep after a job until it is finished.
4. Don’t make a priority list.
5. Or…waste your time making one and then conveniently misplacing it.
6. Waste the time of day that you are at your best.
7. Don’t make deadlines.
8. Never do first what you don’t want to do but know you should do or have done.
9. Read these suggestions and promptly immediately forget them.

Just remember…you’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

“Go to the ant, you lazybones, study her ways and learn wisdom” (Prov 6:6).

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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 click on the following URL
http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of these 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

MAKE IT PERSONAL (How to Make New Church Members Feel More Welcome)

These thoughts are added to each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday)

(Scroll down to read previous thoughts)

(Use in your personal or church newsletters)

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO “LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THEYSELF” PRESENTS ITSELF EACH AND EVERY TIME A NEW MEMBER JOINS A CHURCH. TO GIVE SPIRITUAL AND EMOTIONAL MUSCLES TO THIS COMMANDMENT TRY THE FOLLOWING.

ON THE SUNDAY MORNING NEW MEMBERS ARE TO JOIN HAVE THEIR PICTURES TAKEN AHEAD OF TIME AND PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN ALONG WITH INFORMATION AS TO WHERE THEY ARE FROM, THEIR HOBBIES, THE NAMES OF THEIR CHILDREN, ETC.

THIS ALLOWS THE CONGREGATION TO BE ABLE WHEN THEY GREET THEM AFTER CHURCH TO BE ABLE TO SAY, “I WAS RAISED NOT FIFTY MILES FROM WHERE YOU GREW UP…OR…I ALSO PLAY TENNIS, GOLF…OR…ETC.

IF YOU CAN’T OR DON’T WISH TO PRINT THE NEW MEMBERS PICTURES IN THE BULLETIN…AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE PROJECTED ON A COMPUTER SCREEN AT THE BACK OF THE CHURCH OR PREJECTED ON A LARGER SCREEN…OR HAVE COPIES READY EACH MEMBER AND OFFICER CAN HOLD IN HAND.

FOR YOUR OFFICERS ON THE SUNDAY MORNING BEFORE THE NEW MEMBERS JOIN DISCUSS WHAT EACH KNOWS ABOUT THESE NEW MEMBERS. THEN WHEN THEY ARE GREETING THE NEW MEMBERS THEY CAN BE CHURCH LEADERSHIP WITH A HEART…AND THAT IS ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD AND THE MEMBERS FEEL IT.

AND YOU AND THE OFFICERS NOW NOT JUST PRAY FOR THEM IN THAT SPECIAL MEETING BEFORE CHURCH BUT BE SPECIFIC IN YOUR PRAYERS.

THE SECRET TO LOVING IS SHOWING A NEW MEMBER YOU CARE ENOUGH TO KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THEM.

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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 click on the following URL

 http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com/

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of these 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

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

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

At the back of many churches is a clock. It reminds us we are mortal. Behind the preacher is a cross. It reminds us that we are also immortal. We are both because of Easter.

One thing is for sure, if one knew only the beginning of the Easter story, a very bad beginning, and not the magnificent ending, it certainly wouldn’t foster a religion. But Jesus, come to call on the road to Emmaus, to Mary, in the Upper Room, and then the Ascension – now victory reigned.

Easter is not the only time God’s children muse about what happens when life’s candle flickers and then goes out. But, yes, it is the time most do consider a little more deeply the questions - Where did I come from and where do I go? What kind of mountaintop experience awaits me after I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death?

Inevitably everyone upon this earth must die. One day, the insurance salesperson sells no more policies, the banker figures no more percentages, the preacher writes and delivers a last sermon. And then the great question comes face to face with the great answer.

One does not have to be tired of life to talk about death. Men accept that flowers wither and fade yet they plant gardens. There is dawn and there is dusk. A great symphony has a final crescendo. I’d like to live to be a hundred, if I can keep my health, but I sure am curious about what it’s going to be like if I fail to reach 101.

Do you believe in Easter? If you do, you are less afraid to live and not afraid to die. Believing in Easter earns you a box seat in heaven and a steady standing place on earth. A stablized, rather than a shaky, soul. It’s knowing that when you say, “Hello, God” He hears you and will answer back.

It is being able to say “Jesus” with as much ease as you name a friend. What it is…is a relationship. And when you have that with your heavenly Father…you are blessed beyond compare.

Psalm 31:5
Into your hands I commit my spirit,
redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.

And, yes, if this site or the One A Day 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 CLICK ON 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

CLICK ON THE TO RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.