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Did you hear about the farmer who grew discontent with his farm so he decided to sell it?

A few days later his real estate agent phoned wanting approval for an advertisement she intended to place in the local newspaper. She read it to the farmer. It described a lovely farm in an ideal location – quiet and peaceful, contoured with rolling hills, nourished by a fresh lake and blessed with well-bred livestock.

The farmer said, “Read that to me again.” After hearing it a second time he said, “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not selling. I’ve been looking for a place like that all my life.”

Paul would have applauded that farmer. He learned the same lesson: “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.”

Before you change your job title, examine your perspective toward life. Success is not defined by position or pay scale. Proverbs 15:16 says that it is ”...better to have little, with fear for the Lord, than to have great treasure turmoil.”

It’s better to be married to a happy person with a thin wallet than to a miserable person with a thick one!

Pursue the virtue of contentment. 1 Timothy 6:6 tells us that “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” When choosing or changing your job or your ministry, be careful. Consult God! Never consult your greed!

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 8.30. Live for God, on purpose, in every situation in your life.

Halfway

Do you have any projects that you were excited about when you started, but when you were about halfway done, you either lost interest, got distracted, of just gave up on seeing them through to completion? I know I have! Take a look around you, and you’re sure to find half-completed works in many places.

Starting a project and quitting before it’s finished isn’t a good thing. But, it’s far worse if you abandon your faith in the middle of walking with the Lord. In Luke 9:62, Jesus says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul tells of just such a person, named Demas, who “loved this world,” and “has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.”

The enemy of our soul would like nothing better than to see each of us loose heart, and quit in our work for the Lord. What can we do to keep from quitting “halfway” in the middle of our walk in the Lord? I believe we can find some positive answers in the example of Nehemiah and the people of God, as they rebuilt the wall. They were halfway done, and were ready to give up. But, through Nehemiah’s encouragement and direction, they didn’t give up, and moved forward!

Be sure to join us this Sunday, as we find five key ingredients to help keep us moving forward in our work for the Lord!

Are You Searching for Contentment?

“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.” – Jeremiah 2:13 NIV

It’s easy to be content when things in life are going your way. But how often does that happen? The Bible says, ’not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content’ (Philippians 4:11), because if you put your life on hold waiting for what you want to happen, you may be waiting a long time! Epicurus said, ’don’t spoil what you have, by desiring what you don’t have. Remember that what you now have was once among the things you hoped for.’

Three things constantly feed our discontentment:

1. Greed. When you dwell on what you don’t have, you’re not enjoying what God’s already given you. Be satisfied! Setting goals is good, but stop focusing so hard on the end result and learn to rejoice in the Lord while you’re on your way.

2. Fear. It wants you to run from something that’s not chasing you. It’s the enemy’s way of: (a) robbing you of peace and stability; (b) tormenting you with the ‘what ifs’; © keeping you from trusting God. The Psalmist said, “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:4).

3. Seeking satisfaction in the wrong places. God said, “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13 NIV).

It’s said that we spend our first 50 years searching for security, and the rest of our lives looking for significance. But we don’t have to. One hymn writer wrote, ’now none but Christ can satisfy; no other name for me. There’s love, life, and lasting joy, Lord Jesus found in Thee!’

from The Word for Today, July 22, 2008; www.thewordfortoday.com.au

The 23rd Psalm
(with Confessions from a Computer User)

by Ellis Bush

“The Lord Is my Shepherd, I Shall Not Want.”

But Lord, I do want. I want a MacBook Air with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 64 GB solid-state drive. I want a better job with more pay and a nicer boss. I want a spouse that understands me, kids that listen to me and a friend that I can talk to. Lord, I do want....

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul.”

Well, that sounds nice, but who has time to lie around in a field somewhere. Surely there are other ways to restore my soul. Perhaps I could download this restoreth stuff from the internet. At 24,000 BPS, You could restore me in no time.

“He leads me in the paths of righteousness, For His name’s sake.”

Now I think I understand. I can be Restored by editing my Config.sys to set up my path to look into the righteousness subdirectory. Then I can execute the download...

“Yea, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”

Hold on right there. Seems like Your map is a little off. How can the paths of righteousness, lead me into the valley of death? The restoring part sounded pretty good but this shadow of death stuff isn’t exactly what I had bargained for...

“I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”

But I do fear evil. I fear my health might fail, I might lose my job. If I keep working the hours I’ve been lately, I might lose my wife. I guess You’re right, with fears like these, I must already be in the valley of the shadow. Perhaps some of the comfort I need could be found by those still waters after all. God, You know how stubborn I am. If it’s necessary, use that rod and staff, to point me in the right direction.

“In the presence of mine enemies, Thou preparest a table before me. Thou hast anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows.”

Wow, overflows? Really? When You restore, You must really do it right. And even in the presence of my enemies, boy that will make them jealous... Oh, sorry, I guess they need some of this comfort too. Perhaps that’s where some of my overflow needs to flow to. (And by the way, my hair is already a little too oily, so go easy on that part if You would.)

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.”

Lord, I do want. And I do fear. And I don’t like mine enemies. And I’m scared of the valley of death. But my prayer is that You would replace all these with the knowledge that Your goodness, and Your mercy, and Your grace, are with me forever. And starting even now, I can live in Your presence forever. Thanks, and Amen.

as seen in the July 25, 2008 issue of “Daily Wisdom” at http://www.dailywisdom.com

Cleaning Up Your Act

by Rubel Shelly

When I was in junior high, a lady offered me some tropical fish. When I told my mother of the offer, she was willing. But we needed an aquarium.

It was actually my mother’s idea to be creative at that point. She recalled an old-fashioned gas pump that was rusting in an open field. Most of you aren’t old enough to remember, but gasoline pumps used to have big glass containers at the top. A manual lever pumped gas from the underground tank into a glass cylinder. Then you put the hose into your car’s gas tank, and gravity did the rest.

Sure enough, the glass in the abandoned gas pump was unbroken. We asked for and received permission to retrieve it. And the two of us set about to create the perfect environment for our soon-to-arrive tropical fish.

Only when we got it home did we realize how nasty the tank was. But we scrubbed and cleaned. Then we put in colored gravel, some plants, and an aerator. I claimed the fish and put them in their new environment. A nasty glass tank had become the ideal new home for seven beautiful and delicate creatures.

The next morning, two were belly-up. By the end of the day, two or three more had died. And by the following morning, not one was still alive. We knew we had done something wrong but had no idea what. So I went back to the lady who had given them to us and told her with embarrassment what had happened.

As I was explaining all our fuss and bother with creating just the right aquarium environment, she interrupted and said she knew what the trouble was. We had washed the tank with detergent, and that is an absolute no-no when dealing with such delicate creatures. Our uninformed efforts at trying to create something beautiful had killed what we were trying to receive and showcase.

Sometimes we do a very similar thing in families, work environments, or churches. In our zeal to clean up our lives or those of others, we use caustic cleansers – harsh criticism, nagging, condemnation, outbursts of temper. We think we are doing right and defending decency. But our harsh treatment of an immature child or fragile personality is more than some souls can bear.

Churches are notorious for being so caustic with a neophyte’s problem with drugs or a family’s breakup that the tender and still-in-formation people involved die to faith from the treatment they receive. Then people on the outside who see all the dead bodies floating to the surface (reasonably!) decide they want nothing to do with church. They don’t want to subject themselves to the same caustic process they have seen kill others.

All our acts need to be cleaned up. But accountability with patience and gentle encouragement are far better cleansers than judgment and scolding.

Rubel Shelly is a Preaching Minister at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ. This article is from the July 21, 2008 issue of “The FAX of Life,” his weekly message, found at http://www.rubelshelly.com.

Too Much Change

Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.

As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company already gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.”

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.”

The driver with a smile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town? I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.”

When my friend stepped off the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, and held on, and said, “O God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.”

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read, so make sure your life makes the right impact on others.

Waste Time (Don’t)

by Dan Johnson

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” – James 4:13, 14

I’ve heard that 9 billion human hours of solitaire were played in 2003. For perspective, the Empire State Building took 7 million human hours to build. The Panama Canal took 20 million human hours. Even though many people are extremely busy, they are -we are-often busy doing the wrong things; busy on the outside, bored on the inside.

If you’re like me, you understand wasting time. I’ve spent an hour or more looking for my keys... many times. I’ve spent hours on the Internet with no discernable endgame in mind. I waste time even though I know it’s limited. We don’t know how much of it we have. It makes sense to speak of “spending time,” since we can’t get it back. We live our lives against the backdrop of a ticking clock. We know the truth of the expression: “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” We’re even told that time is money.

The concept of time itself is really a function of memory. We divide time into periods that we call past, present and future, but when we think of the present, it is already part of the past. The only present that exists is now. But now is already “then” as soon as I think about it. Time is a succession of thoughts, based on memory. According to Wikipedia, it’s a basic component of the measuring system used to sequence events ... the durations of events and the intervals between them...

According to Scripture, we can redeem the time. We can get more of it by using what we’ve got wisely. We can’t put off for tomorrow what we must do today. Tomorrow is an illusion. It won’t be what we imagined. The only moment we can grasp is the one that just happened.

Today, instead of thinking about time wasted, think of it this way: Time is the interval between where you are and where you want to be. If you invest time in spiritual growth, you get character. Focus on worthwhile pursuits and you’ll get competence. Look around at the eternally significant people and opportunities you have in your lives. Instead of asking why you wasted time on this or that, think about what you could have tomorrow if instead of “spending” time today you choose to “invest” it.

as seen in “Today’s HomeWord,” a daily devotional with Jim Burns. Visit them online at www.homeword.com

The Last Impression

The new bride went crying to her mother. “Momma, I can’t get my husband to do anything. I want him to fix up the house, and he keeps putting it off.”

“Honey,” her mother replied, “after being married to your father for twenty-six years, I’ve found the only way to get him to do anything is to tell him he’s too old.”

Hope you have a great weekend! My wife has a number of household chores for me to do, and I’m not getting any younger! It’s also going to be a great day for worship this Sunday here at WFA, so if you are near North Delaware, we would love to join with us in praising the Lord and learning from His Word!