Gleanings from Gretchen’s Gatherings
I was regretting the past and fearing the future… Suddenly the Lord was speaking: “My name is I AM.” He paused. I waited. He continued, “When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WAS.
“When you live in the future with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WILL BE.
“When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM. ”
–Helen Mallicoat
“What’s behind us and what’s ahead of us mean little when you stop to think what’s within.”
“Christ’s pardon brings the soul to Heaven; Christ’s presence brings Heaven to the soul.”
“We need to remember that when we go into the world we always bring some of that world back to live with us. What a sad thing to go into a home which is professedly Christian and find the world installed there. The home, regulated by the principles of the world, is full of art, fashion, philosophy, and conversation of the world. A home where Christ is merely an incident and the world is an abiding fact.”
-Robert T. Ketcham, I Shall Not Want
“Lord, teach us to be generous. Teach us to serve You as You deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that we are doing Your will.” -Ignatius of Loyola
“A positive attitude won’t let you do anything. But it will let you do everything better than a negative attitude will.”
-Zig Ziglar
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last.
Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.” -Zig Ziglar
“Sadly, the gospel in America has been narrowed down to making a decision for Jesus…but Jesus never walked up to anybody and said, ‘make a decision about Me,’ but rather He said, ‘Follow Me.’ There is a difference…and the call of Christ is clear. He wants to be first in our life. For most professing Christians in America, that is not the case. Self, job, career, personal interests, sports, and many other things are first…but not Christ. Jesus must be first and we all need to check ourselves to make sure that this is true in us. I am convinced nothing is more important than Jesus Christ.”
-Dave Christiano
from the November ChristianFilms.com Newsletter, Quoted by Permission
Courage to Face Up to Ethical Challenges
We are not born with character. It is developed by the experiences and decisions that guide our lives. Each individual creates, develops, and nurtures his or her own character. Being a man or woman of character is no easy task. It requires tough decisions, many of which put you at odds with the more commonly accepted social morés of the times.
Making the right ethical choices must become a habit. Decisions cannot be situational, based on other’s actions or dependent upon whom is watching. Cowardliness in character, manifested by a lack of integrity, or honor, will sooner or later manifest itself as cowardliness in other forms. People who have the courage to face up to the ethical challenges in their daily lives, to remain faithful to sacred oaths, have a reservoir of strength from which to draw upon in times of great stress—in the heat of battle.
-Gen. C.C. Krulak, USMC, Commandant, USA Today, August 11, 1998
We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, & Wonderful New Millennium!
News reports come every day concerning economic and political calamities about to befall us all, not to mention famines, tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes, things which may at any moment strike us or people we love. There are always plenty of good reasons to be afraid—unless you know that things are under control. A Christian has this “inside information.” Things are, in fact, under control. God is our Refuge, our Strength, our Mighty Fortress. Nothing will get by the moat of His protection without His permission. To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, it is not only useless, it is disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the Lord Himself.
Will power, of course, will not always overcome human emotions. But willed obedience to the One Who is in charge, coupled with prayer for His help in vanquishing our natural fears, is something else.
And so I bring you Christmas greetings, asking the Prince of Peace to give you His incomparable gift, the peace the world can never ever give.
-Elisabeth Elliot, in her December ‘99 letter to supporters
“No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourself so. If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present.”
-George MacDonald (1824-1905)
Another Year
I always get mixed feelings
Every year at this time;
They come as I reflect
On the days I’ve left behind.
It seems like just yesterday
That New Year’s Day was here;
But here we are again
Beginning another year.
365 days were given to me
With special opportunities galore;
One by one they have gone
Never to be restored.
Time is a gift from God
Allotted to every person;
It’s mine to use
And do the best I can.
It is not in the past
That I’ll seek to stay;
It is in the future
Which begins with today.
-J.J. Turner, Pulpit Helps, Jan. 1991, p. 7
“It is of no use to pray for the old days; stand square where you are and make the present better than any past has been.” -Oswald Chambers
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