YOUR AUTHORITY

"The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself." - Thales

When Christian Hester was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As He moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.

"Excuse me," Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"
"Sorry," the woman replied. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."
"But I'm starved," the governor said.
"Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer."
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.
"Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state."
"Do you know who I am?" the woman asked. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister."

Everyone has a domain,

PUT HIM ON

"I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice." - Anonymous

Augustine narrating an experience says, "I was weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice of children from a neighboring house chanting, "take up and read; take up and read." I could not remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: "Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not is strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."

ASK QUESTIONS

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Carl Jung said, "Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity."

The photographer for a magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him, so he asked his office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made, so he was asked to go to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, "Let's go! Let's go!" The pilot swung the plane into the wind and they soon were in the

YOUR HABITAT III

“I believe there's a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has value and purpose..." - Anonymous 

Your Habitat

It doesn’t matter what you're called to be - a president, an executive, or even a janitor - every calling is high with God. Jesus talked about a master hiring different sets of workers, at varying times of the day for an agreed fee. At the day's end, he paid everyone the same amount. Even though, the workers who were hired first protested the payment, he reminded them of their agreement. The striking thing here is, everyone receiving the same reward: even though they came at different times.

Katie J. Davis said, "People from my first home say I'm brave. They tell me I'm strong. They pat me on the back and say, 'Way to go. Good job.' But the truth is, I am not really very brave; I am not really very strong; and I am not doing anything spectacular. I am simply doing what God

YOUR HABITAT II

"The first time I walked on a stage, I knew that was what I was created to do..." - T.D Jakes 

We have established that, your area of calling is your habitat. No one should walk through life, without purpose, or an understanding of what you're called to do, or the HOW that you should go about. "Christians without goals," one writer said, "are a little like Alice in, Alice in Wonderland. In a conversation between her and the Cheshire Cat, Alice asked, ‘Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the cat. ‘I don't much care where,’ said Alice. ‘Then it doesn't matter which way you go,’ said the cat."

Mark Twain wrote, "A myriad of men are born; they labour and sweat and struggle...they

IT'S NOT LOCKED!

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." - Michael Jordan 

Not Locked

If you have ever searched for something you already had, you'll understand how frustrating it can be. This can happen, when we expect the object of our search to be far. You're in hurry, and you begin the search for your car key, but can't find it, then you realize you'd been holding it all the time. Or, you're searching for your glasses and are unable to find it, until you realize you've had them on, all along.

On one of his European tours, the master magician and locksmith Harry Houdini found himself locked in by his own thinking. After he had been searched and manacled in a Scottish town jail, the old turnkey shut him in a cell and walked away. Houdini quickly freed himself from his shackles and then tackled the cell lock. But despite all his efforts, the lock wouldn't open.

CATASTROPHE II

"Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity." - Michel de Montaigne

It is one thing to be obliviously unaware of something dangerous, and fall victim. It is also another to be ignorant of how dangerous something is, failed to get a warning then get hurt. The height of it all is, to be aware of how dangerous something is, receive adequate warning of impending danger, and yet refuse to listen and then get hurt. That is the height of folly!

Continued:
It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore. Scientists clocked Camille's wind speed at more than 205 miles-per-hour, the strongest on record. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high. News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars,

CATASTROPHE

"Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity." - Michel de Montaigne

In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people were preparing to have a "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille. Were they ignorant of the dangers? Could they have been overconfident? Did they let their egos and pride influence their decision? We'll never know. What we do know is, the wind was howling outside the posh Richelieu Apartments when a Police Chief pulled up sometime after dark. Facing the Beach, the apartments were directly in the line of danger. A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved. The Chief yelled, "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm's getting worse." But as others joined the man, and just laughed at Peralta's order to leave. "This is my land," one of them yelled back.

TIME UP!

"I believe it is peace in our time." - Neville Chamberlain 

Usually, everything that begins on Earth must have an end: I believe it's called a time span. For instance there's a time span between "impregnation" and delivery. There's a time span between life and death. There is also a time span between one event, and the next. Circumstances too - pleasant or unpleasant - have time spans.

At the end of the 19th century two French writers went to visit the well-known French scientist, Peirre Berthelot. Berthelot was a kind of scientific prophet. He forecast some of the weapons of mass destruction which would appear in the next century. He said to the writers, "We have only begun to list the alphabet of destruction." Silence fell over the meeting. Then the elder of the two writers said quietly, "I think before that time comes, God will come like a great

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY

"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project." - Napoleon Hill 

When Nigel and Karen Farrow welcomed their first child, their plan was to move to where they'd grown in South Australia. Upon arriving, they received a call from their doctor: there was a problem. Their ten-week-old daughter had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
“Immediately the world as we knew it was gone, ripped out from under us,” Dr. Farrow said. Within days of the news, Ella’s lungs collapsed and was rushed to intensive care. “It was all getting too hard, very quickly,” he recalls. “We didn’t know if she was going to make it, and if she did, we didn’t know what kind of life she was going to have.”
It's important to note here that, Nigel Farrow, at the time of this interview, is referred to as "Dr. Farrow." That's not who he was when this story began. Nigel was a musician when their daughter was first diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. But he was compelled to do whatever he had to, for his daughter. That’s when he and his wife decided to do the most amazing thing. “My instincts were telling me that it was my role to fix this for Ella,” said Nigel, “So I did what I thought had to be done, and became a scientist.”

He says, “I’m not one to sit back and wait for others to do things.” So nine years and three

PREACH WHAT YOU PRACTICE

"While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive." - Sissela Bok

On p. 91 of Moody's Anecdotes, it reads, "I have noticed that people are satisfied when you preach about the sins of the patriarchs, but they don't like it when you touch upon the sins of today." This is why some people, will threaten to leave or even leave church after they "correct" their pastor for preaching in a certain way that didn't warm their hearts - a subject, that convicts them. Leonardo da Vinci said, "The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."

During the time of slavery, a slave was preaching with great power. His master heard of it, and sent for him, and said: "I understand you are preaching?" "Yes," said the slave. "Well, now," said the master, "I will give you all the time you need, and I want you to prepare a

WE ALL NEED IT!

"To the proud, the applause of the world rings in their ears; to the humble, the applause of heaven warms their hearts." - Ezra Taft Benson

Someone noted, "Recently my wife and I sat charmed at an outdoor performance by young Suzuki violin students. After the concert, an instructor spoke briefly on how children as young as two, three and four years old are taught to play violin. The first thing the children learn, he said, is a proper stance. And the second thing the children learn--even before they pick up the violin--is how to take a bow. "If the children just play the violin and stop, people may forget to show their appreciation," the instructor said. "But when the children bow, the audience invariably applauds. And applause is the best motivator we've found to make children feel good about performing and want to do it

APPEARANCES II

"Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance." - Jean de La Fontaine 

Appearances can be deceptive, and whilst it is true that many people misjudge others, or situations from afar: without a first hand opportunity to really know that person or thing. Yet such conclusions could be really flawed. Things - circumstances, people or situations - AREN'T ALWAYS how they appear at first sight. Most, are just illusions.

When architect Sir Christopher Wren designed the interior of Windsor Town Hall near London in 1689, he built a ceiling supported by pillars. After city fathers had inspected the finished building, they decided the ceiling would not stay up and ordered Wren to put in some more pillars. England's greatest architect didn't think the ceiling needed any more support, so he pulled a fast one. He

APPEARANCES 1

"A mule dressed in a tuxedo is still a mule." - Traditional

God works in mysterious ways, if not why would the King of kings be born in a manger? How can anyone explain the crucifixion of 'The Creator' by 'the created'? It doesn't make any human sense: these are mysteries. Appearances can really be deceptive.

In 1884 a young man died, and after the funeral his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to him. With that in mind they met with Charles Eliot, president of Harvard University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked what he could do. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial, Eliot impatiently said, "Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship." "We were thinking of something more substantial than that... perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this plain pair had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial named Leland Stanford Junior University,