IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND
THIS BLOG TO A FRIEND COPY THE FOLLOWING URL
http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
There are over 900
stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to
daily.
+++++++++++++
Charlie Brown, in a
“Peanuts” cartoon, walks past Lucy after a baseball game, head down, totally
dejected. “Another ball game lost!
Good grief!” he moans. “I get tired of losing. Everything I do, I lose!” Lucy
replies, “Look at it this way, Charlie Brown. We learn more from losing than we
do from winning.” Charlie shouts at Lucy, as she flips over backwards, “That
makes me the smartest person in the world.”
He
was a man who had been cruel.
He watched a man named Steven stoned
to death.
He went to the whipping post so
often...that if he had backed into heaven they could have recognized him by his
scars.
He was shipwrecked and lost all he
had.
Life did not coddle and cuddle him
like a little babe.
He did not journey on his missionary
journeys in an air-conditioned motor home.
His words about Christ as Savior
were alternately jeered and cheered.
And
yet he was able to say and keep on saying "All things work together for
good, to them that love the Lord.
He had the spiritual maturity that let him overcome anxieties
that obviously came his way.
I am sure he worried and
more than once as he traveled up and down the Asian coast and on down to Mars
hill, but when he proved to be human he persistently sought heavenly strength
and he did not cave in and give up.
There is an old legend that tells of a Baron who built his
castle on the rough hewn cliffs of the river Rhine.
From crag to rugged to rugged crag and from turret to turret he
strung long wires.
It was his hope that as the winds blew they would create sweet
music to fill the air.
Long and patiently he waited ...the wind blew and still no
music came.
But then one night, however, there arose winds that blew with
the force of a hurricane.
The Rhine rose up in fury,
and whitecaps raced
furiously to crash with a roar against the shore.
The thunder roared like a
lion ready to devour everything in sight..
The baron threw back his
great castle door to look out upon the storm and then he heard it,
there was a music in the
air like the singing of a thousand angels.
His wire had come to life.
And that is what storms in
our life offer. The opportunity to call
out Jesus name over and over again as we come up against some storm of pain or
tragedy.
To realize how much a soul can stretch and grow strong by so
doing.
Otherwise pampered and petted by a kinder fate, we can grow
listless and soddy of soul...
I have learned so much when I have been flat upon my back in pain...for yes...it gave
me the time and inclination to ponder on what is important ...to take time out
to look up in the direction of my God...
and find a new deeper direction
in mythinking...and response to life...
I do not say that pain is the only avenue to God...I am only
saying that it is one of avenues.
Julio
Iglesias, the singer, was originally a professional soccer player in Madrid. Then a car crash ended his career and left
him paralyzed for three years.
A sympathetic
nurse gave Iglesias a guitar to help pass the time in the hospital. Though he
had no prior musical aspirations, Iglesias went on to become a huge success in
the pop-music field. He is still recording today. He still needs occasional
therapy for his never fully recovered back and legs. But he creates on a regular basis rainbows in
the rain.
One painful event changed forever the
fortune of the great Vaudeville performer, Al Jolson. Jolson was starring in a
musical, Honeymoon Express, early on in his career, when he came down with a
serious ingrown toenail on his left foot. It became badly infected.
The pain was so intense that he was on
the verge of dropping out of the show. But one fateful night, while seeking
relief from the excruciating pain, Jolson dropped to one knee halfway through
the performance.
From that position, he poured out his
sentimental ballads with a great show of genuine emotion, fueled by the pain.
It thrilled the house so greatly that he
later worked this now refined technique into his famous “My Mammy” number.
It
became his trademark and helped make him a star on the new movie screen as well
as the stage. As Jolson’s biographer wrote, “We have two choices when we hit
adverse trials. They can break us or we can break them.” Not surprisingly, some of the greatest
achievements of men and women in the past have been accomplished by those
suffering the fires of personal trial.
The book, Pilgrim’s Progress, is
still one of the greatest spiritual classics of the Christian life ever
written. It has blessed and strengthened
million of lives.
It was not written, though, from a peaceful
seaside or by some mountain stream. but from a dirty English jail that had become
home for John Bunyan.
Florence Nightingale did not reorganize
the hospitals of England from a desk surrounded by papers on reform. Rather, motivated and moved by the ill run
hospitals in which she worked...she fought the inane and the incompetent and
the uncaring...and she won.
Louis Pasteur was semi-paralyzed, but
still attacked others’ diseases and health needs..
American historian, Francis Parkman, suffered
so terribly that he could work no more than five minutes at a time. But he added up these small segments of time
and performed miracles of creativity. 20
classic volumes of history, be exact.
Everything bad that has happened to me has not
produced good but enough times it has happened to make constantly pray the
following prayer, "Lord, help me not to be blind to the good in my life
that has happened when that proverbial one door closes so another better door
can open. It is a lesson I do not ever
want to miss."
"Give
thanks for sorrow that teaches you pity; for pain that teaches you courage
Author: Robert Nathan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We welcome you to put some
of these thoughts in your personal newsletter or on your churches newsletter or
your blog.
++++++++++++++++++++++
"Wyrick's
Writings" are selected sermons from those Neil has preached during the
last 55 years.
Below is a quote from Neil's other blog
Wyrick's Writings...
SERMON TITLE...HOW TO
LESSEN ANXIETY
Anxiety out of proportion makes us become like a centipede trying to
put his best foot forward.
Below is a quote from Neil's other blog
Wyrick's Writings...
SERMON TITLE...HOW TO
LESSEN ANXIETY
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 to that.”
Below
is a quote from Neil's other blog Wyrick's Writings...
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 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
Below
is a quote from Neil's other blog Wyrick's Writings...
One writer put it this way: “If we could see
ourselves as God sees us, we would rise up and never be the same again.”
TO GO
TO "WYRICK'S WRITINGS" TO
READ SELECTED SERMONS FROM OVER 50 YEARS OF HIS MINISTRY
CLICK ON THE URL
BELOW
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 ENTITLED
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 ENTITLED
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 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 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 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.
"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
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment