Sunday, December 23, 2012

IT COULD NOT BE MORE CLEAR

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

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              Click on http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com to read selected Sermons from over 50 years of Rev. Wyrick's ministry. (STARTING NOV 1 "HOW MUCH DOES A PRAYER WEIGH)  Below...other recent Sermon Titles


       To view Rev. Wyrick in 4 of his highly acclaimed One Man Dramas  ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN CHARLES WESLEY, MARTIN LUTHER (NBC Special) click on the link below

                   http://www.speakerneil.com/

        Below the thoughts below read a quote from Rev. Wyrick's applauded 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ARAHAM LINCOLN

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       When that babe was born in Bethlehem it shouted to the ages that the eternal was sending a message to the mortal; I love you more than you could ever have imagined and here is the living proof.

       John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

       There it is...it could not be more clear.

       The gift of God's love at the foot of the tree of life....all wrapped and wonderful  and the card reading "From God with love."

       The little girl was telling her older friend how she going to buy a pair of slippers for her father's birthday.

       "Where will you get the money?" her friend asked.

       "Why daddy will give it to me," came back the reply.

       And so it is with you and me.  Everything we have is a gift from God...from the gift of birth to the gift of salvation and everything in between.

       Or as that hymn you have so often most likely sung puts it

       “We give Thee but Thine own,
Whatever the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee
   

       "How much do you love me?" your little child or grandchild asks...and you spread your arms wide and say "This much and more."

       And this is what God does....spreads wide His arms and says the same...and more.

       Thomas Carlyle married his secretary, but after the wedding he continued to treat her as an employee rather than a wife.

       He rarely noticed her and usually only called on her when he has a task for her to do.

       He was busy and usually absorbed in his own life. He loved her very much, but many things went unsaid and time passed..until....

       One day, his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

       She was confined to bed for a long long while until one day she died quietly in her sleep.

       After the funeral, Carlyle went back to their house which was now dark and empty.

       Grieving deeply, he wandered around the house thinking about the loss of the woman he loved.

       He sat by her bed. He had not sat there very often during her long illness.

       Then  he noticed her diary.

       While she was alive, he never would have read it, but now that she was gone he felt free to pick it up and thumb through it pages.

       One entry caught his eye: "Yesterday he spent an hour with me. And it was like being in heaven. I love him so much."

       He turned a few more pages and read, "I listened all day to hear his steps in the hallway. And now it's late. I guess he won't come to see me."

       Carlyle read a few more entries and then threw the book on the floor and ran out into the rain back to the cemetery.

       He fell on his wife's grave in the mud, sobbing, "If only I had known...if only I had known."

       But you do know...He has told you and shown you and there is no doubt of the love our heavenly Father has for you and me.

       And oh what a shame we put to shambles the love we should give back in return.  

       The greatest love story ever told...we make analogies about an earthly father and an earthly son...but we are truly wordless when we try to compare or explain how much eternal love awaits us...on a regular timeless basis.

       I do so covet this wonderful gift of love from my Almighty God...therefore I often, in a sense, sing along with Ethel Walters (though obviously nowhere near as well as did she) the song she sung so often...

       "I sing because I'm happy.

"I sing because I'm free.

"For His eye is on the sparrow

"And I know He watches me."

       Hollywood and Hallmark speak and write about love...but God in the sacrifice of His son epitomizes it.

       John Calvin wrote a warning “God means for us to enjoy continually the love he has for us, and so he warns us to be careful not to deprive ourselves of it.”

       And it is so easy to shortchange ourselves with too much business apart from practicing the business of God. the prayers unprayed, the good deeds undone. the songs of praise unsung...and they add up as plusses or subtract as minuses...

       "Abide in his love"...it is a proactive praise...loved by God...love to God.

       The effort to love God as we should...not the perfection of the practice...that is what counts.

                    Ah, when God's love for us meets our love for Him there is light..there is joy...there is wonder.

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TO GO TO COLUMNS WRITTEN ON go60.us  BY NEIL...CLICK ON THE URL BELOW

                                                http://go60.us/

          THEN CLICK ON "VOICE" AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE...THEN CLICK ON "MEET OUR WRITERS."

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Below is a quote from Rev. Wyrick's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

      It is little wonder that once the war was over, wretched memories fed anger loud and long.  Neither side could be proud of some things that happened during the war or at their many prison camps.  The meanness in some men had multiplied.  They felt their uniforms allowed it.

Andersonville, or Camp Sumter as it was officially known, in southwest Georgia is remembered as one of the worst. 

By the end of the war, it had held 50,000 prisoners on a piece of land no larger than twenty-six acres. 

Some men had called pits in the ground their home.  During its short fourteen-month existence, 13,000 soldiers who had survived in battle died in captivity under the most terrible conditions. 

When the war was over the superintendent was hanged.

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      WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BOOK

       "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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      Neil also writes for go60.us to check out his writings...

            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)

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      Some of the sermon titles posted recently on Wyrick's Writings


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BELOW ARE MORE QUOTES FROM NEIL'S RECENTLY POSTED SERMONS on Wyrick's Writings

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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!

 

      

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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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