Post Category → Books

Question & Thought for September 24th, 2016!

Question & Thought for September 24th, 2016!
Good Saturday Morning!
1. Question – Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit fill us like it should?
2. Thought – Some of us are troubled, wondering why the Holy Spirit doesn’t fill us. The problem is that we have plenty coming in but we are not giving out to others. If you will give the blessing you have received, planning your life around greater service and being a blessing to those around you, then you will quickly find that the Holy Spirit is with you. He will bestow blessings to you for service, giving you all He can trust you to give away to others. (Steams in the Desert, daily devotional for September 23rd, yesterday, by L.B. Cowman)
“Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9)
rem – “I’ve never let my schooling interfere with my education.” (Mark Twain)
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for 18 September 2016!

Question & Thought for 18 September 2016!
Good Sunday Morning!
1. Question – What book gives us insights into sex, anger, management, slander, wealth, welfare, business ethics, intoxication, pride, and subtle human fissures as relevant as tomorrow’s blogs?
2. Thought – In the early part of his forty-year reign, Solomon collected wise sayings and pored over them. Presumably when the collection reached critical mass, he winnowed them into a book that appears now in the Bible’s Old Testament under the literal name of Proverbs.
In my estimation, of the Bible’s sixty-six books, Proverbs is the most provocative. More than two dozen centuries before Sigmund Freud and psychological profiling, this compilation of thirty-one chapters outstrips human understanding with insights into sex, anger, management, slander, wealth, welfare, business ethics, intoxication, pride, and subtle human fissures as relevant as tomorrow’s blogs?
Proverb is a Hebrew word meaning “to rule or to govern,” and the only thing better than reading Proverbs is reading it routinely.
To arouse your appetite for Proverbs, you might do well to sample it, which I’m pleased to provide; but before that, a warning: do not be deceived by the simplicity of a proverb.
Proverbs 1:5: “Let the wise listen and add to their learning.” [Ladies and gentlemen, to acquire information, much less wisdom, one’s lips cannot be moving.]
Proverbs 6:19: The Lord hates “a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” [Ever seen a group or an office where one person plants friction between others?]
Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” [How you handle loss says one thing; how you handle success says more.] (The Little Red Book of Wisdom by Mark DeMoss)
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
rem – “I’ve never let my schooling interfere with my education.” (Mark Twain)
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for July 13th, 2016!

Question & Thought for July 13th, 2016!
Good Wednesday Morning!
1. Question – You know the big bad wolf is coming your way – don’t you?
2. Thought – Interestingly, Jesus never said, “Believe my arguments.” He said, “Follow me.” Jesus himself had his own kind of “Pascalian wager” at this point. At the end of his longest recorded talk, he told a story about the construction business, in which houses get built wisely or foolishly. It always reminds me of the story of the three little pigs. Each character builds a house. Each house faces a test. Houses built wisely survive; houses built foolishly crumble.
Here is the challenge of the story: We all are house builders. Our houses are our lives, and we construct them out of the choices we make dad by day. Like it or not. This is not optional. We are launched. We have to put our houses somewhere.
We are all storm facers. We will all face trails and ultimately death. The big bad wolf is coming our way. This is not optional.
We will choose how we construct our lives. We will choose the convictions we build them on. We can build them on rock or straw. We can make them of wood, hay, or brick.
The risk doesn’t go away. We cannot know ahead of time how the house will stand up to the storm. Still, we all have to build a house. (Faith & Doubt by John Ortberg)
“Faith is a footbridge that you don’t know will hold you up over the chasm until you’re forced to walk out onto it.” (Nicholas Wolterstorff)
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for June 6th, 2016

Question & Thought for June 6th, 2016
Good Monday Morning – Anyone for Karl Marx today? (1818-1883)
1. Question – Has there ever been or will there ever be a time of no conflict in any aspect of life?
2. Thought – Marx tirelessly studied the philosophical and economic ideas of his day and then meticulously wove the details of his own beliefs. His bitter atheistic outlook on life centered on the ongoing conflict of society. Marx agreed with the then popular Hegelian thought that society continuously developed two antagonistic groups of people who would conflict. The conflict would become a revolution that would bring these groups together into a new society. That society would eventually split into two groups destined to conflict. Seeing around him the upper classes (or bourgeoisie) and the lower classes (or proletariat), he believed that these groups would come into conflict because of their differences in wealth and living conditions. But he set forth his own opinion that man could change this pattern of history by using the conflict of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat to usher in an enlightened society. Marx’s new harmonious society would strive for the betterment of all people by taking “from each according to his ability” and giving “to each according to his need.” All greed would then be overcome in this setting in which society owns all things in common. Marx called this utopian communism. (Economics for Christian Schools by Alan J. Carper)
“Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.” (Proverbs 23:4)
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.