Monday, October 15, 2012

MUST WE GO ON HATING FOREVER?

These One A Days are added to daily.  There are over 1100 stories and commentaries on this blog

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       There are over 1100 stories and commentaries on this blog that began Nov 24, 2009. It is added to daily.

click on the following URL http://www.speakerneil.com/and watch Neil in his award winning one man damas.(B. Franklin, Luther, Lincoln.Wesley

       Click on http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com to read selected Sermons from over 50 years of Rev. Wyrick's ministry.

       To view Rev. Wyrick in 4 of his highly acclaimed One Man Dramas click on the below

                      http://www.speakerneil.com/

                   ANOTHER WAY TO SHARE THESE ONE A DAYS WITH FREIENDS...CLICK ON "MORE" AT TOP LEFT OF THIS BLOG PAGE AND  FROM THERE IT SHOULD BE EASY

Like you, I weep when yet another wave of violence breaks out across the world.  I think on the commandments of my Christ and I see anger and hate rule yet another time. 

       I check the statistics  of wars (there have only been 250 years of peace in over 3400 years of documented history. Some people suggest there have only been 26 days of peace). and think on all the destruction and compare how it might be with a world growing and green instead. 

       And I think "Must we go on hating forever?"

       And my answer, "Not in my house or my heart" for here I do (with the help of my living Lord) have some control.  AND SO DO YOU!

       I can fall to my knees and stay there when I grow toward  anger.  Stay there until the anger goes away and I have had to ask forgiveness once again.

       Or harboring thoughts I should not... preach and pray and seek Biblical and philosophical solutions to this malady of the mind.

       I can and I will extend extraordinary effort toward peaceful thoughts into every crevice of my mind and soul...I must not say "What is...is" and give up on the battle.

       If it is easier to hate than love, to grow angry than patient, then I must pray an ever increasing number of prayers and make it my personal battle against such devilish behavior.  And repeat this mantra a dozen times a dozen times and that just a start of what I must do.

       And I would ask you my reader...right now to pause and pray for me that I will each day gain a little against any falling back.

       You may have heard of the prayer, "Dear Lord, give me patience, but please hurry."

       All the virtues in the world are easily lost or certainly trampled upon when we lose our patience.

       Why do we fail in our efforts to love more and hate (oh how we hate that word "hate" and the world filled with those who say they have never really hated when sometimes some unfortunately have) 

       The fatigue of living...that's why we so easily lose control; the natural disasters, our weakness and the weakness of others on a collision course, insults, opposition, etc. 

       It is so difficult for patience to survive.

       One day a man stopped at a flower shop to order some flowers. He wanted them to be sent to his mother, who lived 200 miles away. As he got out of his car he noticed a young girl, sitting on the curb sobbing. He asked her what was wrong and she replied, "I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother, but I only have 75 cents and the rose costs two dollars."

       The man smiled and said, "Come with me into the flower shop, I will buy you a rose."

       He bought the little girl her rose and then arranged for flowers to be wired to his mother.

        As they left the store he asked the girl if she needed a ride. "Yes, please. You can take me to my mother," she replied. She then directed him to a nearby cemetery and placed the rose on her mother’s grave.

       The man then returned to the flower shop, canceled the flower order to his mother and instead bought a bouquet of flowers and drove the two hundred miles to deliver the flowers to his mother in person.

       "Must we go on hating forever?"

       I guess when enough in the world are willing to go not just an extra mile but a super two hundred miles to deliver bouquets of peace...to gather in large numbers crying out "love" rather than "kill."       To plant gardens rather than turn gardens into battlefields.

       Then perhaps we may be on our way to this massive miracle called "love thy neighbor as thyself."

              It is a miracle now isn't it.

       "John, I forgive you." 

       " Mary, I still do not agree with you but I will always defend your right to disagree with me." "Arthur and Jane, I am working toward being able to hold your hand in fellowship...meanwhile I no longer meet you on a regular basis with a clenched fist."

       Have you ever thought...."Why make all this effort to add love to the human equation?  God will forgive me anyway." 

       Let me tell you a story.  It is from the movie PEARL HARBOR.

       Near the beginning of this film, there is a scene where American pilot, Rafe McCauley to go to England to join the British in their battle against Germany.  It offers the possibility of death but this does not deter him.

       On his arrival at the British airfield, Rafe walks slowly by the host of badly damaged Spitfire planes from the battle with the Germans the day before.

       The British commander welcomes him and shows him the plane he will fly.

       Their conversation is interrupted by the commander's assistant who brings him news that two more English planes have just been shot down.

       The commander turns, looks at Rafe, and asks him, "Are all Yanks as anxious as you to get themselves killed, Pilot Officer?" And young Rafe McCauley replies, "I'm not anxious to die, Sir. I am anxious to matter."

       I guess this is what all of this is all about.  Whether you and I and enough of us are willing to go that extra two hundred miles...to be the kind of person who wants "to matter."

       To make a difference in the world rather than finish out our life working at being invisible.

       To live so that one day no one can put on our tomb stone a question mark.

       What have you volunteered for recently?  When did you volunteer... 

       ...a comment that turned a conversation around in the right direction.

        ...or did a good deed that went way and beyond the ordinary...a good deed that took more loving effort than you were willing to give...but you gave it anyway.

       C.S. Lewis remarked, "The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation."

       What do you give of yourself? When?  How often?  Is your life a life that matters?

       Is your excuse if an excuse is required, "No one asked me."  Must you be asked to know that it is right to do a good and loving thing?  Has not Christ asked of you as a Christian to do and be this loving thing?

       Can you say "I helped to spread love today.  I practiced love today.  I practiced patience today."

       There is a special joy in being able to say that and there is an emptiness in not being able to say it.

       Do you feel that emptiness?  Well, yes and no.  Because after all...it is emptiness.
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              QUOTES ON PRACTICING LOVE

He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
for God is love.

~ John 4:8

Let the wife make the husband glad to come home.
Let the husband make the wife sorry to see him leave.

~ Martin Luther

Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men
of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend
doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no
mystery, and they are within reach of all classes ...
[The poorest] Christian can every day find occasion
for practicing love and humility.

~ J. C. Ryle

It is not how much you do, but how much Love you
put into the doing that matters.

~ Mother Teresa

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CHURCH BOOK CLUBS ARE USING REV. WYRICK'S 9TH BOOK "The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln."


It is available on amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and many other book sites.

     A new quote  (posted OCT 11) below from Rev. Wyrick's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (read the rave reviews below the quote)

It was late summer in 1864 when Sherman’s army captured Atlanta.  Ten weeks later, from this jumping off point, 60,000 men began a march through the heart of Georgia to the ocean.   Destruction of everything in between was the goal.         Homes and almost every other standing building were sacked with appalling efficiency until what had once been beautiful was utterly destroyed and forlorn.  Delivered by some men who did so with regret and by others who had lost their last vestige of kindness.

It was Sherman following his own instructions, “…modern wars are not won simply by defeating armies, but by destroying the ability to wage war – wreck railroads, burn fields, eradicate all economic resources – war is not glory – war is hell – and every man, woman and child must learn the lesson quickly.”

       "Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understanding and appreciation of Lincoln while revealing the Divine source of his strength."

       Lt. Colonel C.A. Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

       "The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln is an extremely well written book that investigates what might be termed the spiritual side of President Lincoln. It's both scholarly and very readable. I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of the President and with an altered and enlarged vision of the man:'

       William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer; author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn

       "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

        "When it comes to invoking religion in support of any of their decisions, politicians need to sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Reinhold Niebuhr once called him 'America's greatest theologian.' Why so great? Because he invariably distinguished between human works and the works of the Almighty. As Wyrick says, 'He wore the mantle of humility easily: because he was more impressed with what God was doing in the world than with what he, president of the United States in the midst of an awful crisis, was doing. That is why in his last major speech he distinguished between both human causes in the Civil War and the Almighty's 'own purposes.' Lincoln would have agreed that it is better to leave God-talk out of politics than to decorate human proposals with divinity. This is a book for our American time. Through his careful study of Lincoln's career, Wyrick compels us to remember that piety belongs in politics only when piety transcends politics."

       Dr. Donald W. Shriver

       Emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Author of An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics

        "V. Neil Wyrick's fine work allows the reader to appreciate Abraham Lincoln's Christian commitment and his prophetic role in American history. Should have a wide readership."

       James H. Smylie Professor of Church History (Ret.) Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

       "Neil Wyrick's The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln should be read by anyone attempting to understand the man who was probably the most complex person to ever hold the office of president of the United States. Dr. Wyrick is intent on demonstrating that the spirituality so often expressed in Lincoln's writings and speeches was not merely lip service to a Deity, but rather expressions of a profound faith in a real God. It was this faith that provided the wisdom, compassion, insight and sometimes steel that Lincoln would need in full measure as he led the United States through the Civil War. Dr. Wyrick's clear and unpretentious style of presentation is very much in keeping with the character ofhis subject, and in so doing, Wyrick makes his point very well that Lincoln, his beliefs, and the faith that formed them, are as relevant to a troubled America in 2004 as they were in 1863."

       Daniel Allen Butler, author of "Unsinkable"; The Full Story of the RMS Titanic, The Lusitania and The Age o f Cunard

 

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QUOTE BELOW IS FROM WYRICK'S WRITINGS

          There is no other organization in the world like the church.  It is a breed unto itself.  It is a congregation of sinners, not a country club for saints.  To become a member you have to profess your unworthiness. 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO TAKE YOU THERE


      (These are selected sermons from over 50 years of ministry and as a worldwide evangelist Rev. Wyrick preached them all the United States and all over the world)

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            CLICK ON  www.go60.us   IT WILL TAKE YOU A NEW WEBSITE FOR SENIORS....click on "Voice" on the home page and then on the list of authors click on Neil Wyrick

Recent articles Rev. Wyrick has written for this web site are:  REFLECTIONS


·         Here Comes Summer (July 2012)

·         Spring (May 2012)

·         Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (April 2012)

·         Wayward and Windy (April 2012)

 

Just remember that “the pain of discipline will cost you pennies, whereas the pain of regret will cost you millions.”

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How can we keep our faith from being a weak and fruitless thing?  How can we not be foolish little men and women groveling in the dark shadows of overeager egos. 


          Well, first we must do more than just pray.  We must believe in our own prayers.

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Anxiety out of proportion makes us become like a centipede trying to put his best foot forward.

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        It's an old joke, I went to the doctor and I said, “Doc, when I do this, it hurts.” And the doctor said, “Then don't do that.”

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        How many things have you been anxious about that were things which you knew before you got into them were probably going to create some problems for you?  And if you asked your doctor, or your minister, or common sense and your God, all of them would have said, “Don’t do that.”

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        To buy into the community of accountability we have to realize that like bikers we are divided into two categories.  Those who have fallen and those who will fall for anything. None of us are perfect.

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          Think on it this way, some philosopher of old wrote it and it endures because there is so much truth in it… every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty

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      Some of the sermon titles posted recently


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Before you decide to purchase or not purchase his book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN.... view his Award Winning One Man Dramatization of Lincoln (since he wrote the script for this drama it will give you an insight into what you will find in the book itself)

Available on Amazon.com in printed form and on Amazon Kindle Books. and at many other sites

TO VIEW THE LINCOLN One Man DRAMA and 3 other dramas; Ben Franklin, Martin Luther & Charles Wesley

click on the following URL

http://www.speakerneil.com/

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BELOW ARE MORE QUOTES FROM NEIL'S RECENTLY POSTED SERMONS

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A QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS POSTED ON MY OTHER BLOG WYRICK'S WRITINGS ON SUNDAY APRIL 15. ENTITILED

 

       Two stores faced each other across a very busy street.  Their owners were in constant competition with each other.  One day, the owner of one store put out a sign that read – If you want it, we have it!

Almost immediately the other owner put out a sign –If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!

 

A QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS POSTED ON MY OTHER BLOG WYRICK'S WRITINGS ON THURSDAY APRIL 13TH. ENTITILED

WHO ARE YOU?

NO…WHOSE ARE YOU?

       Who are you?  Whose are you?

You influence and are influenced according to the answer you give.     

Are you are the flavor of the month because you are determined to be like everyone else no matter what?  If so, consider being more independent in our thinking and actions...because God wants you to grow up.

It may be easier being someone's shadow but wouldn't you really rather be a sun. 

 

       QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS  POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITINGS THURSDAY  APRIL 5 FROM THOUGHT ENTITLED "Who Are You?  Whose Are You?"

       This is an old quote, and a romantic one as well but, nevertheless, can anyone say of you, “I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.

            QUOTE FROM THOUGHT PIECE POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITINGS TUESDAY APRIL 3 FROM THOUGHT ENTITLED

" WHEN A NATION STRAYS TOO FAR FROM BEING MORAL IT IS WELL ON IT'S WAY TO BECOMING A MESS

        James 4:17

To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

        Someone once said: “A belief is what you hold, a conviction is what holds you!”

        So what holds you, constructs you, leads you with a push when needed?

       Quotes POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING THURSDAY MARCH 29th THOUGHTS ENTITLED WHO ARE YOU?

NO…WHOSE ARE YOU?

        In a Peanuts cartoon strip Peppermint Patty is shown talking to Charlie Brown.

“Guess what, Chuck? It’s the first day of school and I got sent to the principal’s office.

And it’s your fault!”

Charlie Brown responds, “My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?”

To which she declares, “You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me.”

In the comics, it’s funny… but in real life it’s much more complicated.

       Would you like to read the entire thought piece?  Then... TO TAKE YOU TO THE WYRICK'S WRITING'S SITE

                                        click on the following


          Yes, God loves you the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.

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      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


       To Order and Read Neil's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN

       GO TO amazon.com

       QUOTES ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRING INFORMATIVE book

       STILL RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS 8 YEARS AFTER IT'S PUBLICATION.

      
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