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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/
What is that sound I hear?
I hope it is the sound of a sound
mind and a sound body. I hope neither
one of yours is sickly and that you are not helping either one to get even more
so.
Admittedly,
perfect health in either area is an impossibility but it is also true that much
that is healthy or unhealthy in these two areas lies in our own lapse... of effort,
decision and self discipline or little discipline or no discipline at all.
Sin is a
poison. Would you agree with that? If we can't agree on that I am going to have
a hard time keeping you around for the rest of these thoughts.
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s
will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2
There it is. If we are to have a sound mind, a mind that
does not walk and wallow in the gutter we have to reprogram our feeding from
the worldly trough. It is easier to conform. That's a fact. But the easy way is most usually not the
best way.
"offer
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true
and proper worship’ Romans 12:1"
Yes. may our body
language be one of devotion on Sunday morning and otherwise.
May our joy show on our face when we sing hymns and when
we pray. And may we not
defile our bodies by treating them with disrespect. By filling them with that which can
only bring them harm or filling them too fully so that we invite diseases that
would otherwise not come to call.
May we exercise them with
doing rather than allow them to grow listless and weak from no doing.
And thereby we will then be
perfect in mind and body? Not always...not always at all...not ever
really. But we still must make the most of
this wonderful life God has given us...with as sound a body as we have and can
achieve...and as sound as a mind as with diligence we pursue.
All of us have the opportunity
to improve? I will not
answer the question. I will only briefly tell some
stories and remind that none of the below began their sentences with
"What if?"
He had a sound body, a brilliant mind, a cultural background, a
huge amount of money, a wonderful education -- but he had to achieve while
carrying the burden of prejudice on his back.
He was deaf as a post this man who did
more than hundreds whose hearing was perfect.
His name? Thomas Edison.
He did not stride mightily across the
landscape. He stumbled and limped but he
wrote, oh how he wrote, this Lord
Byron with a club foot.
He could write for only a few minutes at
a time before he collapsed with exhaustion.
He would pause, recover and continue to write. And I have read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and quite possibly so have you.
They were not pretty people who when they
walked into a room people stopped to admire their handsomeness. But they proved that a hunchback (Alexander Pope) and a man with one eye (Admiral Nelson) could achieve
despite rather than because.
He twitched and lay spastic on the floor
and more than once, this epileptic, this ruler by the name of Julius Caesar.
If he lost his glasses he might as well
have been lost himself because if this happened his eyesight was so bad he
could not then find his laboratory. His name was Louis Pasteur.
She was deaf, dumb and blind but graduated
with honors from a college where others with all of their facilities failed. Helen Keller.
The list that numbered 413 was a list
that extolled the greatness of those whose names graced that list. And what was the purpose of the list. It was to find how or why they had been so successful.
What Victor and Mildred Goertze. found in 1962 and published in
their book "Cradles of Eminence" was that 392 of them had overcome
overwhelming obstacles in order to become who they were.
A sound mind does not just happen. Nor does it become more so without the
discipline that life always requires.
A sound body does not just happen. Nor does it become more so without the discipline that life always requires.
And it is absolutely true...if you and I do not give our
all we will never come to close to what God meant for us to be.
Liu Chi Kung, who placed second to Van Cliburn in the 1948
Tchaikovsky competition, was imprisoned a year later during the Cultural
Revolution in China.
During the entire
seven years and that dank dark prison, he was denied the use of a piano. Soon
after his release, however, he was back on tour. Critics wrote in astonishment
that his musicianship was better than ever. "How did you do this?" a critic asked. "You had no chance to practice for seven
years."
"I did practice," Liu replied, "every day. I
rehearsed every piece I have ever played, note by note, in my mind."
It is amazing what the human spirit can achieve when the God
created individual applies the discipline that always lies within. For yes...and hallelujah...miracles for each
of us become common place.
Look at it this way. What do you call
what takes place if discipline is not applied to improving a mind and body.
Johnny Fulton was run over by a car at the age of three. He
suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured skull, and compound fractures
in his legs.
It did not look as if he would survive.
But he would not give
up. In fact, he later ran the half- mile in less than two minutes.
Walt Davis was totally paralyzed by polio when he
was nine years old, but he did not give up. He became the Olympic high jump
champion in 1952.
Shelly Mann was paralyzed by polio when she was
five years old, but she would not give up. She eventually claimed eight
different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at the 1956
Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1938, Karoly Takacs, a member of Hungary's
world-champion pistol shooting team and sergeant in the army, lost his right
hand when a grenade he was holding exploded. But Takacs did not give.
up. He learned to shoot left-handed and won gold medals in the 1948 and 1952
Olympics.
Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy ball player that the boys in
his neighborhood would not let him play on their team. But he was
committed. He did not give up. Eventually, his name was entered into baseball's
Hall of Fame.
Woodrow
Wilson could not read until he was ten years old. But he was a
committed person. He became the twenty-eighth President of the United States.
And then there was Abraham Lincoln. At the age of seven, he had to go to work to
help support his family. His father a poor uneducated farmer.
At nine, his
mother died from a milk cow disease.
At twenty-two,
he lost his job as a store clerk.
At twenty-three,
he went into debt and became a partner in a small store.
At twenty-six,
his partner died leaving him a huge debt.
By the age of thirty-five, he had been
defeated twice when running for a seat in Congress.
At the age of
thirty-seven, he won the election. At thirty-nine, he lost his reelection bid.
At forty- one,
his four-year-old son died. At forty-two, he was rejected for a land officer
role.
At forty-five,
he ran for the Senate and lost. At forty-seven, he was defeated for the
nomination for Vice President.
At forty-nine,
he ran for Senate again and lost again.
At the age of
fifty-one, he was elected President of the United States.
During his second term of office, he was assassinated. But
his name lives on among the greats in U.S. history--
And who would
have predicted Abraham Lincoln would achieve such soundness in mind, body and
such an indomitable spirit.
Sound of mind.
Sound of body. Who would want to
be otherwise?
“The will to win is not nearly as important
as the will to prepare to win.” This quote echoed off the back of mind and
seemed more than appropriate as an underline of what we are talking about.
Sound of
mind. Sound of body. Who would want to be otherwise?
And that's the point...the breaking point..."THE WILL TO PREPARE TO WIN."
To pray that extra prayer. To read and
memorize that extra scripture. To do
that extra good and godly deed. To energize the big three.
How do you
worship? The
Bible spells out the following by how often they are mentioned.
4 references to bowing the head
6 to standing with reverence
9 to lifting the eyes to God
12 to kneeling in adoration
14 to hands lifted up
28 to people lying prostrate before God
6 to standing with reverence
9 to lifting the eyes to God
12 to kneeling in adoration
14 to hands lifted up
28 to people lying prostrate before God
And your response
is?
Mind, body and spirit.
We have the
ability to think on the past, present and future and the influence of these
three portions of time is tremendous.
I have an arm that was paralyzed and it
works amazingly well but still has some residual effect from a hang gliding
accident 30 years ago. The effect of the
past.
I have a memory that still works
well. For years in the pulpit I
memorized my sermons and preached without notes. I do not recommend or not recommend
this. But I did it and it sharpened a
memory. It certainly, this habit from
past, did not hurt it.
And these
as other things in my past have made me who I am today.
My
past is filled with folly and wisdom and everything in between.
At this moment I
am working on these thoughts when I could be reading a novel that has captured
my attention. And the present is each moment becoming the past...but
each present moment I continue. There is
so little time in each present moment to make a decision that looking back we
are glad we made or not glad at all.
My future. It is a student waiting to take my test...my
ongoing test.
And all the
time I am influenced by "mood" and a "sense of duty" and a
"sense of God."
When I was growing up my mother treated
Spring Cleaning as a ritual definitely never to be denied. I always thought it was overkill because both
mother and daddy kept the house clean enough that one could eat off the floor.\
But mother
did it anyway. Went for broke. Went for super sanitation. Went for dust control that would make any
normal person unable to keep up.
And react as you
will to this story...when she was through....she had accomplished her
goal. Our house was most likely cleaner
than any house in the city of Norfolk.
And I guess
what I am saying is...who can argue with cleanliness? Who would want the exact opposite.
And when it comes to cleaning or spiritual
Spring Cleaning which would better serve that wonderful unusual no one else
quite like you better? And what if the whole
Christian World really did go at a practicing cleansing spirit lead cleansing?
What if we
all practiced the "love thy neighbor" half as much as we
should...would that most likely be twice as much as we presently do.
Mind, body and spirit. What a power house we as Christians and our
Christian churches could become.
Oh...that spring
cleaning again. It adds up to how much cleaning we want to do. An ordinary or sub ordinary or super spring
cleaning. What we are willing to settle
for and what our neighbors are willing to settle for and those church members.
It all adds
up...or subtracts.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
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 Georgia
It was Sherman
"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
,
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)
+++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++
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.”
++++++++++++++++++
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.
+++++++++++++++++++
Anxiety
out of proportion makes us become like a centipede trying to put his best foot
forward.
++++++++++++++++++
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.”
++++++++++++++++++
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.”
++++++++++++++++++++
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++
Some of the sermon titles
posted recently
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
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/
++++++++++++++++++++++
BELOW
ARE MORE QUOTES FROM NEIL'S RECENTLY POSTED SERMONS
++++++++++++++++++
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
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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