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Do
good to your neighbor and greater good to your enemy...even if you
don't feel like it...it is a healing balm...you will feel the healing
taking place if so you do...or...you can hate or just dislike and want
to hurt...and you can feel that too.
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Turned
off by school. Very sloppy in appearance. Expressionless. Unattractive.
Even his teacher, Miss Thompson, enjoyed bearing down her red pen -- as
she placed Xs beside his many wrong answers.
If only she had studied his records more carefully. They read:
1st grade: Ted shows promise with his work and attitude, but (has) poor home situation.
2nd grade: Ted could do better. Mother seriously ill. Receives little help from home.
3rd grade: Ted is good boy but too serious. He is a slow learner. His mother died this year.
4th grade: Ted is very slow, but well-behaved. His father shows no interest whatsoever.
Christmas
arrived. The children piled elaborately wrapped gifts on their
teacher's desk. Ted brought one too. It was wrapped in brown paper and
held together with Scotch Tape. Miss Thompson opened each gift, as the
children crowded around to watch. Out of Ted's package fell a gaudy
rhinestone bracelet, with half of the stones missing, and a bottle of
cheap perfume. The children began to snicker.
But she silenced them by splashing some of the perfume on her wrist, and letting them smell it. She put the bracelet on too.
At
day's end, after the other children had left, Ted came by the teacher's
desk and said, "Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother. And the
bracelet looks real pretty on you. I'm glad you like my presents." He
left. Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her
and to change her attitude.
The
next day, the children were greeted by a reformed teacher -- one
committed to loving each of them. Especially the slow ones. Especially
Ted. Surprisingly -- or maybe, not surprisingly, Ted began to show great
improvement. He actually caught up with most of the students and even
passed a few.
Time came and went. Miss Thompson heard nothing from Ted for a long time. Then, one day, she received this note:
Dear Miss Thompson:
I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class.
Love, Ted
Four years later, another note arrived:
Dear Miss Thompson:
They
just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be
first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it.
Love, Ted
And four years later:
Dear Miss Thompson:
As
of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to
be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be
exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were
alive. You are the only family I have now; Dad died last year.
Miss
Thompson attended that wedding, and sat where Ted's mother would have
sat. The compassion she had shown that young man entitled her to that
privilege.
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
The
Greek word agape (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian
invention -- a new word for a new thing (apart from about twenty
occurrences in the Greek version of the Old Testament, it is almost
non-existent before the New Testament). Agape draws its meaning directly
from the revelation of God in Christ. It is not a form of natural
affection, however, intense, but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit
(Gal. 5:22). It is a matter of will rather than feeling (for Christians
must love even those they dislike -- Matt. 5:44-48). It is the basic
element in Christ-likeness.
Read
1 Corinthians 13 and note what these verses have to say about the
primacy (vv. 1-3) and permanence (vv. 8-13) of love; note too the
profile of love (vv. 4-7) which they give.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING THOUGHTS ENTITLED "What Do You Want from Jesus?"
Do you want from Jesus all the joy that can be gained from fully accepting the fact that you are truly the child of a King? So that when you die you will not have to ask that someone write on your tombstone, “Born a human being, died a question mark.”
POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING THOUGHTS ENTITLED "Are you a Peacemaker or a Peacebreaker?"
Someone has said thatpeace is merely that brief, glorious, moment in history when everyone stops to reload their weapons.
POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING THOUGHTS ENTITLED ""Arrogance and Humility
When a company takes over another company, there is often a sign placed outside the premises announcing, UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.
Such a sign accurately summarizes what takes place in Christian conversions. When Christ takes over a life, that life is literally under new management.
So consider, is God now managing your pride? Or is your pride still managing you?
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.
"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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