A NATION CALLED GREED...A NATION CALLED...

*******************************

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM

OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIeND”

 

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

htp://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

*******************************

There are two Nations below...read about both of them.

There is a force let loose in the world that was made in hell. While God was creating a wonderful place for men to live in, the Devil was fashioning this evil force for men to live by.

It is called Materialism and it is not the owning of things but rather the being owned by things.

This nation does not have the usual kind of geographical limitations. Its boundaries are the souls of men. Each soul it captures enlarges its boundaries. Each heart it hardens increases its strength. Each life it captures destroys that much hope of “peace on earth, good will toward men.
The people of this nation are united by one motto, “Get or be gotten.”

Who are its people?

The national flag is a sight to behold. It is a great white “I” against a fiery red background.

The preamble to its constitution explains:“We the people of this Nation of Greed, in order for form a more selfish union, establish injustice, insure domestic instability, promote ourselves; do ordain and establish the Constitution of this Nation of Greed.”

There is no thanksgiving in such a creed, no joy, no on going otherness.

It does not say prayers at mealtime on arising or readying for the blessed gift of sleep.

In this nation there is nothing but complaint…it is it’s lifeblood

***********************************

But there is another Nation and it does have a creed and it is a joy to recite…and it does have a flag and it is a contentment to see it waving in the wind…

And in this nation of Otherness there is love and it is good…much love and compassion and concern…and it is good.

And yes…it is as you might have imagined a Nation Called Thanksgiving…
**************************************

A new Series on PRAYER has begun

Every week there is a continuation of the Serialization of his Internationally distributed novel RUST ON MY SOUL.

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (33rd in Series)

***********************************
TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

 

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM

OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIeND”

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

htp://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

 

***********************************

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

 ***********************************

 

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.

 

Late afternoon

 

Interviewing people for the vacancy in the warehouse today was depressing. The applicants all had diplomas that implied they have an education; in reality for many it was only an attendance record.

 

What had they learned? Not much, as far as I could tell. My dad had a dog who used to go to the old one-room schoolhouse with him and lay just inside the door through many an hour of tutoring, but they never gave the dog a diploma.

 

One young man took as long to fill out his application as O. Henry probably took to complete one of his short stories. He’d bring the same inefficiency to a bill of lading. If we hired him we’d drive him and ourselves crazy requiring more than he was able to deliver.

 

So I didn’t hire him and he remains another unemployment statistic. I’m sorry he had teacher who couldn’t teach or parents who didn’t motivate him but that doesn’t excuse him for being a student who wouldn’t learn.

 

I don’t highly recommend a school system that graduates ever boy and then ask the business community to employ the illiterate and the ill prepared

 

Afternoon

 

I was flattered. He remembered me and it’s been thirty years. I remember him. He was one of the few preachers who made sense to me. Yet in my college days even that never got me to church too often.

 

I reminisced how he used to call his sermons Trade Routes.

 

“Still do. You can’t get anywhere without a route,” he said.

 

He’s hardly changed. The eyes are a little tired, but still rainy-day grey, almost hidden by heavy lids. His face still shows leanness though age has made it a little less firm.

 

It was a chance meeting. We had bumped shoulders while reaching for the same book in the library. I’d read of his appointment on the church page. I’d even considered giving him a call. Most like I wouldn’t have.

 

“I’ll have to come hear you preach.” It was just a polite phrase and he knew it.
“Hopefully, Tom. Hopefully.”

 

There’s been a hiatus on home building for quite some while, but nowhere near as long as the building repairs needed for my soul.

***********************************

TO BE CONTINUED

 

A new Series on PRAYER has begun 

 

There will be a continuation of the Serialization of his Internationally distributed novel RUST ON MY SOUL.

 

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL 

 

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

************************************

PRAYER, AN AVENUE TO GOD (1st in Series on Prayer)

***********************************
TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM

OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIeND”

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

***********************************

Prayer? It is the one place our independence seeks dependence. Whether we are thanking God or pleading our case before His throne of mercy, we are in essence saying, “Here am I, Lord, take me.”

And if you say to me, “I try to pray, really I do, but I just can’t concentrate on anything for very long, even God,” I would reply, “Don’t try to conquer a mountain until you have learned how to climb a hill.” Work on it a moment, just one moment, before you extend to a minute, and when you have mastered that then try two minutes – you get the picture. To enlarge your capacity for things of the spirit you must learn to decrease the time you spend thinking on things less worthy of your thoughts.

And do not fear to turn your life over to God. . Another way of putting it, “Be as bold in prayer as the first person to ever eat an oyster.” (rewrite of a quote by Shirley Grisholm)

I like to call what I am talking about “The Building of a Prayer Fence” A prayer fence to protect ourselves from our worst selves.

We usually know our own particular weaknesses; the places where we have far less control than we would like. Places where we speak before we think and act before we consider what is wise or prudent. So, visualize a fence, this prayer fence that will keep in your best and keep out your worst. But just how do you build a fence that works?

By holy redundancy. Constant repetition, repeating your needs and the needs of the world ad infinitum. Believing that if something is worth praying for once, it is worth praying for again and again. Jesus makes no bones about this holy truth. He actually tells us to set up the habit of repeated prayers. “Pray without ceasing.”

An early Greek theologian, Clement of Alexandria, put it this way, “Prayer is keeping company with God.” Let me add a word – keeping CONSTANT company with God.

 

Prayer should be spontaneous but that does not mean it is not a good idea to think through the structure of what you have prayed.

***********************************

When you prayed, first did you listen? Some people take the scripture that reads “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth” and rewrite it to read, “Listen Lord, thy servant speaketh.”

(1 Samuel 3:10)

***********************************

Could what you prayed for be considered a Christian prayer? Remember …if you end your prayer with the words “In Jesus name” you certainly want to have prayed a prayer he would approve.

Was it a prayer you really wanted to be answered, something you really wanted to take place, an improvement in your person you were really committed to following through on. A half hearted prayer is a wasted opportunity.

Promise what you will do to help make the prayer come true. You have prayed for help with your business? Have you promised to work longer and harder? You have asked for better health? Are you committed to better a better diet and more exercise?

Pray your prayer and then be patient. You really don’t have to remind God about the prayer you just prayed two minutes ago. He heard you. He will answer your prayer in his own way in his own time. In short, don’t make your prayer an anxiety center.

*************************************

QUOTE FROM RUST ON MY SOUL (A Series)

“I was flattered. He remembered me and it’s been thirty years. I remember him. He was one of the few preachers who made sense to me. Yet in my college days even that never got me to church too often.

I reminisced how he used to call his sermons Trade Routes.
“Still do. You can’t get anywhere without a route,” he said.”

*************************************

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
*************************************

THERE IS A STORY TOLD

********************************
TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM

OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIeND”

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

********************************

There is a story told about Leonardo de Vinci, the great creator of the magnificent painting THE LAST SUPPER.


Just before he began his epic work in the Sistine chapel, he had a violent quarrel with a fellow painter. In a rage he decided to take revenge by making the face of this painter the model for the face of Judas.
He did so and everyone could easily recognize the likeness.

But then it happened.
As he sought to paint the face of Christ he couldn’t.

Try as he might, each stroke was one more stroke of waste and each effort as effort in vain.

Finally, he got the message.
The only way to capture the countenance of Christ was to paint out the face of Judas.
As soon as he did he was able to produce the masterpiece that endures to this day..This is you and I, my friends.

 
You cannot mirror the life of Christ if you hate another human being, for you are his keeper and you have been commanded to love him.
*************************************

A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS
began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings”


and will continue until finished.
Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..
*****************************************

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
*****************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (32ND IN SERIES)

*************************************
TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM

OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIeND”

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

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

Beads of green explode daily; another spring has come, soft and gentle. Sun-washed shadows lay across the yard from a sky so blue and bright it hurts my winter eyes. But inside , my false brightness has turned grey and dingy.


When I was a little boy I did things I didn’t like because I wanted to be one of the gang. When I grew to be a man I didn’t put away these childish things. I may have fooled others, but I’m tired of trying to fool myself.

All my life I’ve been playing shadow to other people’s codes of conduct. I wonder what it would be like to make up my own mind for a change ---In the business world, at the club. What if I pulled the plug and shouted, “Conformity be damned!”

When I stand in the shadow of my own last day what will I have done to make the world better?” I can’t earn my way to heaven, I know that. But I can bring some heaven to earth, if I will. Honesty, trust, kindness are attributes I haven’t had much time for in quite a while.
Afternoon


I sang in church yesterday, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” I don’t even know where the door is.


In the rough spots of living I can’t get it all together. I hear the Word on Sunday, and I suppose I believe it on Sunday, but then comes Monday through Friday and it all gets bent and out of shape.


My grandfather lived on a farm. He met God every morning when he woke at dawn to begin his chores. In a small country church he thanked God for the cold mountain stream that furnished him water to drink, that cooled the milk, that when heated, boiled the potatoes from his field. It was easier for him to treat God as a partner.

I get water from the tap, potatoes from the super market and milk from the Farm Store. My bounty of life makes its way through so many hands it’s easy to forget it was God’s hands that made it all possible.

I wonder if David would have written the Twenty third Psalm if he’d been an executive in the rat race…


I wonder…
***************************************
TO BE CONTINUED

GO BACK AND CATCH UP
****************************************
QUOTES FROM A BLOG entitled THERE IS A STORY TOLD


“There is a story told about Leonardo de Vinci, the great creator of the magnificent painting THE LAST SUPPER.
Just before he began his epic work in the Sistine chapel, he had a violent quarrel with a fellow painter. In a rage he decided to take revenge by making the face of this painter the model for the face of Judas.

 
He did so and everyone could easily recognize the likeness.
But then it happened.”
**************************************
A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS
began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings”

and will continue until finished.
Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..
 

There is a continuation of the Serialization of his Internationally distributed novel RUST ON MY SOUL.
 

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Click on the following URL
 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
**************************************

PAIN AND PROBLEMS (10TH AND FINAL IN SERIES)

********************************

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

 

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM 

 

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

********************************

One day, a scientist discovered a large ant hill in his kitchen garden.

Propelled by his usual curiosity and interest in these tiny creatures, he bent down to examine them more closely. But he found it very difficult. Every time he moved closer, his shadow spread across them and the little ants fled in terror.

“I stepped back,” the scientist wrote in his diary, “and sat down on the grass to think out the situation. I had only good will toward the ants and did not wish to harm a one of them. But how could I make the ants aware of my good will.

My imagination began to play with the problem.

To these tiny ants, I was an all-powerful creature “somewhere up there” whose thoughts they could not guess, whose ways and intentions they could not know.

If only I could communicate. But even that would not be enough. Even then, I would be a gigantic being to the ants, and they would never believe that I understood their problems – the minute organization of the hill, their struggles for good, and their battles with other ants.

 

Only one thing could give them complete confidence. That is, if by some alchemy, I could for a time…become an ant…”

Do you doubt a loving Father? Who was Jesus? Come to give us complete confidence. By divine and compassionate heavenly alchemy become man and dwell among us.

He left a throne room where He was high and lifted up and went to a place where he would eventually suffer and die upon a cross.

He did not just peer down and shout through the pearly gates, “I feel your pain.”

No…He came down to this little oblate spheroid called earth and healed the sick and the poor and the hurting.

He did this because He was part of an eternal plan. He did this so that we could be reminded that He our God does cares and that He truly understands.

He did this that we would know that God loves us.

**************************

"Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." (1 John 3:1)

We have the title…it is a gift and with such a title comes He who gave it to us.

*************************************

A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMSbegan on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings” 

and will continue until finished.

Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*****************************

LIVIN AND GIVIN

*******************************

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND

 

JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM

OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIeND”

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins"

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins

 

*******************************

Most folk have a favorite poem, a favorite story. The following is certainly near the top of my list. I no longer remember who wrote it.

“If you don’t like life, maybe it’s the way you’re livin.
May you should try a little less take and a little more givin’
A little less hate and a little more lovin’
A little more help and not so mujch shovin’
A little more smile and not so much strife,
And soon, you will again be in love with life.”

What is good and gracious godly living?

 

Well, here are some seeds of thought to which I am sure you can add many more.

It is a wife putting her drunken husband to sleep on a clean bed.

It is a father silently clasping the hands of his boy through the bars of a jail cell.

It is Jesus washing the feet of Judas.

It is a mother praying for a murderer of her teenage daughter.

 

It is a child writing letters of compassion to a mother who never knew the meaning of the word.

 

It is love given for hate received, understanding offered for cruelty endured.

 

It is that wonderful enlightened miracle time when some angel dust settles on a human soul.
*******************************************

A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS

began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings”

 

and will continue until finished.

 

Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..

 

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

 

Click on the following URL

 

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

****************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (31ST IN SERIES)

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

************************************

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

My neighbors wife has been dead for several months now. Through it all he has shown an inner strength I can only admire from afar.

He’s not happy and there is a sadness to his walk and talk, but something is different. Has God reached out and taken Sam’s pain in His creative hands and given it back in the form of spiritual maturity?

Is God really relevant to life and death? Could He be relevant to me?

I read in the paper the other day that waiting to accept God until one’s last moments is not only a cowardly act but a disappointing one.

What am I waiting for?

One day, when I have one foot in the grave, will my inner catalyst come alive? Why not now, when I’ve both feet in the midst of living? If I wait till near the end of my mortal melodrama, will my conversion become a bribe?

If I give God my life now it is a challenge. But do I really have the time and inclination? Or are my recent religious learning’s no more than fear in my forties?

Afternoon

I’m smart. I didn’t get where I am by being anything less. I’m well read. I don’t know all the answers but I know more than a lot of people. I’m sometimes arrogant and seldom less than confident in the midst of my peers.

I can converse with better than average skill on sales management, engineering, theology, politics, and a dozen other subjects. So why am I living this Mix-master life? Why do I do so much churning without settling on any one recipe?

I’m climbing the stairs again. I’ve been to the pit. I’ve agonized in the darkness. When Thomas Kettering, Jr. died, I filled the gap of grieving with work.

In my agony I spat in the face of God. I endured the nightmares because there was nothing else to do. I’m still not ready for prayer but I think I’ve given up on curses. Oh, God, will you be there in timeless eternity to hold my hand”

I’ve been handling time so badly.
 

TO BE CONTINUED

********************************

A New Series on PAIN AND PROBLEMS

began on this blog “Wyrick’s Writings”

and will continue until finished.

Then a new Series on PRAYER will begin..

To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*********************************