Pancakes and Fruit
“No one should eat pancakes alone.”
This was the thought in my mind as I pondered ways to get to know my neighbors. After all, the Apostle Paul says in Acts 17:26-27, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
If God determined when and where I live, then when the people He’s placed around me start looking for truth, I’d like to think that if I’ve done my part beforehand, they will be more likely to want to hear from me.
That’s why I hosted a “Community Pancake Breakfast” for the people in the apartment building I occupy, and boy did we have a good time!
About ten neighbors came over and hung out in the second floor hallway of our complex, and everyone brought something to share.
The cool thing is simply this: I got to invest a tiny bit in the people around me (I didn’t have to buy the pancake mix as it was a gift to me), but that investment has enormous potential to bring a Gospel payoff in the future.
What about you? Have you done something like this before? If you have, I’d love to hear about it! Please post in the comments section further down the page. If you haven’t, but would like to, I’d be happy to modify THIS FLYER for you to post around your neighborhood. Then, tell me how it went!
Be blessed friends, and may you find more and more creative ways to BE a blessing, too.
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Bangladesh
It has a population larger than Russia, crammed into a territory smaller than Florida, and I knew nothing about it.
Bangladesh is home to over 151 million people, the 8th largest population on the planet, and I didn’t know anything about its people, language, history, religious composition or economic status, its military might, its food, its art and culture or even its location, other than “somewhere in Southeast Asia”.
NOTHING.
A passing glance at a wall-mounted world map first clued me in. Scanning the capitals and borders, place names and colored topography, I saw a little box labeled “World Population” with Bangladesh ranked higher than Russia, and it made me think.
Jesus said that His followers were to “be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NLT) Though most of us can’t GO to the people at “the ends of the earth”, can we at least pray for them? Can we at least think of them?
I can’t know everything about every country, or even know much about most, but I can know enough to pray.
Can you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh
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Great and Noble
The gray dawn of a momentous day loomed on the horizon as thousands of soldiers prepared themselves for war.
On June 6, 1944, United States Commander-in-Chief Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered these words of challenge and encouragement to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Services and the Allied Expeditionary Forces as they steeled themselves for the brutal fight ahead.
Read them with gratefulness for those who sacrificed so much on your behalf, and let them be an inspiration for you and me to rise up and meet the challenges of our age with the same courage and determination as the generations who have gone before.
(Thanks to Jim Patch for sending this.)
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened.
He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good Luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Ike
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On Reading
Do not so quickly rush by what you read that it has no opportunity to take hold of your heart and take root in your mind.
Be still for a moment.
Breathe.
Write.
Think.
Pray.
Be aware of the words you’ve just read, and let them have their way in you, for it is often through this that the Spirit will speak to your soul.
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Tears of Eternity
Why do we cry when we face the reality of eternity?
Whether the passing of a loved one or an entry into new life in Christ, the heart responds with such surges of emotion that they simply cannot be contained.
My grandfather has passed into eternity, and I am not sad, but happy. I will certainly miss him, but probably not too much. I am simply not that type of person, and yet, though I rejoice at his homecoming, when I think about it I am moved to great sobs. Why?
The Bible tells us in Romans 8:26 of times when the person of the Holy Spirit intercedes in pray for us with “with groanings too deep for words”, and I wonder if perhaps the reason for my tears is found here…
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One little change
It’s two weeks in to January, and already I imagine the gyms and fitness centers are starting to thin out from their post-holiday rush.
A few million people have probably “cheated just a little” on that diet they committed to.
Days of reading have been skipped, cigarettes lit “just one more time” and the morning run has been put off one more day… again.
People everywhere committed to big changes in their life, only to have those big changes steadily shrink, and chances are, eventually many will shrink enough that they’ll disappear, leaving things exactly as they were before.
Maybe the big changes are overrated. Maybe what we really need is not a big change that shrinks, but a little change that causes a chain-reaction. Maybe if we made a change that was little -but strategic- we’d find things very different this year…
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