IT'S ABOUT YOU

"Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow." - Unknown

Sacrificing isn't a very palatable act: because you'll have to let go of your comfort and convenience. He knew the enormity of His decision, yet He was willing to come nonetheless so you and I, will have a better tomorrow - one full of His redemptive power and grace.

Long ago, there ruled in Persia a wise and good king. He loved his people. He wanted to know how they lived. He wanted to know about their hardships. Often he dressed in the clothes of a working man or a beggar, and went to the homes of the poor. No one whom he visited thought that he was their ruler. One time he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate. He spoke cheerful, kind words to him. Then he left. Later he visited the poor man again and disclosed his identity by saying, "I am your king!" The king thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor, but he didn't. Instead he said, "You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the course food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you have given your ric

SEASON'S GREETINGS TO YOU FROM WISDOM 4 WINNING - EDWIN BIAYEIBO

THE BIG NEWS

"Christ was content with a stable when he was born so that we could have a mansion when we die." - Unknown

BN

In December 1903, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their flying machine off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine:
"We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas."

Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said,
"How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." He totally missed the big news--man had flown!
There's a great mighty news in the air. The information isn't new, but each time it's announced it brings newness to everyone who hears it. It brings everything new, to anything old and dying. This news thrills the weary soul, the dying body and the hopeless heart, because it is the solution to every problem.

God needed to pass a great message across to us, but He didn't want to get us confused with too many instructions, so he sent His son to give us firsthand instruction - He didn't want you to figure it out on your own, not to miss 'The Big' news. Take your mind off the clutter, Jesus is born! Hallelujah!

IT'S CHRISTMAS IV

"To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year." - E. B. White

In New York's Hayden Planetarium a special Christmas holiday show was enhanced by an added feature. A giant lollipop tree was projected onto the planetarium dome, surrounded by a horizon filled with brilliantly coloured toys which came to life and cavorted to the tune of "Jingle Bells." At the climax a huge figure of Santa Claus faded out in a snow storm, and the star of Bethlehem broke through into a sky that produced exactly the Palestine sky on the night of the nativity. The designer of this show may not realize that he dramatically staged the supreme Christmas message our world needs to understand: The recovery of the lost meaning of Christmas. This is not said in any criticism of Santa Claus; the effect must have delighted the hearts of all the children who saw it, without doing violence to their love of Bethlehem. But for adults it is a tragic loss to substitute "Jingle Bells" for "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," and a lollipop tree for the manger of Bethlehem. The instinct is right to fade out these things in the

IT'S CHRISTMAS III

"To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year." - E. B. White

Despite being mistakenly declared the winner of the 2015 Miss Universe contest, having the crown placed on her heard, and accepting the adulation of the crowd for almost four minutes, Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, had to give it all back. In arguably the most awkward moment in beauty contest history, the host, Steve Harvey, came on stage as Miss Colombia was about to begin her victory walk, to apologize to the audience for mistakenly announcing the wrong winner.

Not very many things in life, are as disappointing as being mistaken for someone, or something else altogether. Something far worse happened to Miss Colombia. She actually seemed to have achieved her dream, only to have it snatched

WHAT WILL YOU BELIEVE II

"It hurts more to have a belief pulled than to have a tooth pulled, and no intellectual Novocain is available." - Elmer Davis

The International Christian Digest records: In 1963...65 percent of Americans said they believed in the absolute truth of all words in the Bible. Within 15 years, by 1978, the proportion of the population holding this belief had declined to 38 percent. The current figure of 32 percent represents a new low in literal belief in the Bible" (PRRC Emerging Trends (January 1992):1). The same thing has happened in England. The proportion of people who believe in a personal God has declined from 36 percent in 1981 to 31 percent today. Those who believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God has fallen from 52 percent in 1981 to 48 percent today.

The content of belief is important: Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, "What do you believe?" "Well, I believe the same as

RELIGIOUS, OR CHRISTIAN?

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." - C. S. Lewis

In his book "I Surrender," Patrick Morley writes that the church's integrity problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behaviour." He goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation, without repentance."

There's little difference in ethical behaviour between the churched and the unchurched. There's as much pilferage and dishonesty among the churched as the unchurched. And I'm afraid that applies pretty much across the board: Religion, per se, is not really life

TIMANTHES

"It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes." - Flannery O'Connor

Try Again

Over 2,000 years ago a young Greek artist named Timanthes studied under a respected tutor. After several years the teacher's efforts seemed to have paid off when Timanthes painted an exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, he became so enraptured with the painting that he spent days gazing at it. One morning when he arrived to admire his work, he was shocked to find it blotted out with paint. Angry, Timanthes ran to his teacher, who admitted he had destroyed the painting. "I did it for your own good. That painting was retarding your progress. Start again and see if you can do better."

Timanthes took his teacher's advice and produced Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which is regarded

JUST GET IN THE WATER

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." - Richard L. Evans

The first electric light was so dim that a candle was needed to see its socket. One of the first steamboats took 32 hours to chug its way from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles. Wilbur and Orville Wright's first airplane flight lasted only 12 seconds. And the first automobiles traveled 2 to 4 miles per hour and broke down often. Carriages would pass them with their passengers shouting, "Get a horse!"
Kim Linehan holds the world record in the Women's 1500-meter freestyle. According to her coach, Paul Bergen, the 18-year-old is the leading amateur woman distance swimmer in the world. Kim does endless exercises and swims 7 to 12 miles a day. The hardest part of her regimen? "Getting in the water," she says.

The best way to start, is to start from the start. I like Nike, they say, "Just Do It." I'm sure we wouldn't have heard Kim Linehan, or she wouldn't be the world's record holder for the

WE ALL EAT IT

"I will take life by the throat." - Beethoven

It is so much easier relating with people's success story, than with their pain. It's easy to assume that, these people live on beds made of roses. How can you imagine, that the wealthiest man - financially - on earth ever gets broke? Even though there's such a possibility in reality. Difficulty is a meal life feeds everyone, at one point or another whether we like it or not.

Beethoven in spite of his greatness and success, was not however, a stranger to difficulties. During his twenties, he began to lose his hearing. His fingers "became thick," he said on one occasion. He couldn't feel the music as he once had. His hearing problem haunted him in the middle years of his life, but he kept it a well-guarded secret. When he reached his fifties, Beethoven was stone deaf. Three years later he made a tragic attempt to conduct an orchestra and failed miserably. Approximately five years later, he died

THE BEST TIME TO START

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now." - Chinese Proverb 

By the age of five, Beethoven was playing the violin under the tutelage of his father - an accomplished musician. By the time he was 13, Beethoven was a concert organist. In his twenties, he was already studying under the very watchful eyes of Haydn and Mozart. In fact, Mozart spoke prophetic words when he declared that Beethoven would give the world something worth listening to by the time his life ended. As Beethoven began to develop his skills, he became a prolific composer. During his lifetime, he wrote nine majestic symphonies and five concertos for piano, not to menti

YOU CAN DO SOMETHING

"Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have." - Jim Rohn

YCDS

The process of 'giving' - whether in cash or in kind - will only serve to open your world in ways you could not even begin to imagine, and you will feel a lot better than before you actually offered that help in the first place. Do you know that, nothing exalts the soul or gives it a sheer sense of buoyancy, and victory so much as being used to change the lives of other people?

An elderly widow, restricted in her activities, was eager to serve Christ. After praying about this, she realized that she could bring blessing to others by playing the piano. The next day she placed this small ad in the Oakland Tribune: "Pianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick and despondent--the service is free." The notice included the number to dial. When people called, she would ask, "What hymn would you like to hear?" Within a few months her playing had brought cheer to several hundred

AVAILABILITY

"I used to ask God if He would come and help me. Then I asked if I could come and help Him. Finally I ended by asking God to do His own work through me." - J. Hudson Taylor

Availability

While waiting in a cemetery to conduct a funeral service, Charles Simeon found one epitaph that arrested him.

"When from the dust of death I rise,
To claim my mansion in the skies,
E'en then shall this be all my plea--"
Jesus hath lived and died for me.""

He was so impressed that he looked for someone in the cemetery with whom he might share this. He saw a young woman, and called her over to read the epitaph. He took her address and visited her the next day. The home was a scene of poverty and squalor. The woman's old mother was dying of asthma, and two little children, very dirty, were trying to warm themselves by a small fire. Simeon prayed with the family, visited them again, and found assistance for them. Later, the young woman told Simeon that she had been in

VERIFY IT!

"Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking." - Steve Jobs 

For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right. He said, "the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth." He was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, he couldn't be wrong. Anyone could've taken two objects - one heavy and one light, and dropped from a height - to verify, it's truthfulness, but no one did till about 2,000 years after Aristotle's death. In 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten- pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same instant. The power of belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right.

Many of us go around today with 'unverified' and faulty information about our lives - even Christians. Some have been told that they can't achieve certain great feats because of their origin. Others have been told, that they do not have what it takes to fill notable