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Welcome to THE TIMOTHY REPORT for January 17, 2005
“To assist, encourage, enable and equip”
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THIS WEEK’S GRAPHIC
Is based on Psalm 48:1—“The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised.”
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MAGNA CARTA OF TRUST
I am part of the Church of the Out-of-control. I once was a control junkie; but now am an out-of-control disciple. I've given up my control to God. I trust and obey the Spirit. I've jumped off the fence; I've stepped over the line; I've pulled out all the stops; I'm holding nothing back. There's no turning back, looking around, slowing down, backing away, letting up, or shutting up. It's a life played without goal lines other than "Thy Will be Done . . ."I'm done lap-dogging the topdogs, the wonderdogs, the overdogs, or even the underdogs. I'm done playing according to the rules, whether its Robert's Rules of Order or Miss Manner's Rules of Etiquette or Martha Stewart's Rules of Living or Louis Farrakhan's rules of America's Least Wanted or Merrill Lynch's Money-minding/bottom-lining/Ladder-climbing Rules of America's Most Wanted.I am not here to please the dominant culture or to serve any all-show, no-go bureaucracies. I live to please my Lord and Savior. My spiritual taste buds have graduated from fizz and froth to Fire and Ice. Sometimes I'm called to sharpen the cutting edge, and sometimes to blunt the cutting edge. Don't give me that old-time religion. Don't give me that new-time religion. Give that all-time religion that's as hard as rock and as soft as snow.I've stopped trying to make life work, and started trying to make life sing. I'm finished with secondhand sensations; third-rate dreams; low-risk, high-rise trades; and goose-stepping, flag-waving crusades. I no longer live by and for anything but everything God-breathed, Christ-centered, and Spirit-driven.I can't be bought by any personalities or perks, positions or prizes. I won't give up, though I will give in … to openness of mind, humbleness of heart, and generosity of spirit. When shorthanded and hard-pressed, I will never again hang in there. I will stand in there; I will run in there; I will pray in there; I will sacrifice in there; I will endure in there -- in fact I will do everything in there but hang. My face is upward; my feet are forward; my eyes are focused; my way is cloudy; my knees are worn; my seat, uncreased; my heart, burdened; my spirit, light; my road, narrow; my mission, wide.I won't be seduced by popularity, traduced by criticism, travestied by hypocrisy, or trivialized by mediocrity. I am organized religion's best friend and worst nightmare. I won't back down, slow down, shut down, or let down until I'm preached out, teached out, healed out, or hauled out of God's mission in the world entrusted to members of the Church of the Out-of-Control … to unbind the confined, whether they're the down-trodden or the upscale, the overlooked or the under-represented.My fundamental identity is as a disciple of Jesus -- but even more, as a disciple of Jesus who lives in Christ, who doesn't walk through history simply "in His steps," but seeks to travel more deeply in His Spirit.Until He comes again or calls me home, you can find me filling, not killing, time so that one day He will pick me out of the line-up of the ages as one of His own. And then … it will be worth it all … to hear these words, the most precious words I can ever hear: "Well done, thou good and faithful … Out-of-Control disciple."--Leonard Sweet, in "A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café"
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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A PERFECT PLAN
The love of God a perfect plan
Is planning now for thee;
It holds a future and a hope,
Which yet thou canst not see.
Though for a season, in the dark,
He asks thy perfect trust,
Even that thou in surrender "lay
Thy treasure in the dust."
Yet he is planning all the while,
Unerringly he guides,
The life of him, who holds his will,
More dear than all besides.
Trust were not trust if thou couldest see,
The ending of the way,
Nor couldst thou learn His songs by night,
Were life one radiant day.
Amid the shadows here He works
The plan designed above,
A future and a hope for thee
In his exceeding love.
A future of abiding fruit,
With loving kindness crowned;
A hope which shall thine own transcend,
As heaven the earth around.
Though veiled as yet, one day thine eyes,
Shall see His plan unfold,
And clouds that darkened once the path,
Shall shine with heaven's gold.
Enriched to all eternity
The steadfast soul shall stand,
That, "unoffended," trusted Him
Who all life's pathway planned.
-- Freda Hanbury Allen
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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THE VOICE OF GOD SINGING—OVER ME!
When I think of the voice of God singing I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with the trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mt. St. Helens mingled with a kitten's purr. I hear the power of an East coast hurricane and the barely audible puff of a night snow in the woods. And I hear the unimaginable roar of the sun 865,000 miles thick, one million three hundred thousand times bigger than the earth, and nothing but fire, 1,000,000 degrees centigrade on the cooler surface of the corona. But I hear this unimaginable roar mingled with the tender, warm crackling of the living room logs on a cozy winter's night. And when I hear this singing I stand dumbfounded, staggered, speechless that he is singing over me.
--John Piper
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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DON’T YOU WISH YOU COULD BE LIKE THIS?
Our business associates frequently underestimate my husband, Mike. It's easy to see why. Rangy and fair-skinned with a warm friendly smile, he looks like the former farm boy he is. The other day, Mike was hard at work in our home office, trying to make a sale. Focused on the papers at my desk across the room, I was only half listening as Mike coaxed and charmed a particularly stubborn new prospect.
That's when I heard something that got my total attention. From the rear of the house, there was a commotion. When a loud "meow" pierced the air, I was certain the trouble involved our cat, "BR." Before I could get out from behind my desk, BR was lunging through the office door in hot pursuit of a northern mockingbird.
Speaking softly, I tried to keep the kitty away from the frightened bird. I had no idea how our feathered guest got inside, but I knew it was up to me to get it out.
With the cat contained, the bird continued to dart around the room, dodging ceiling fan blades and overhead lighting fixtures. Downy white feathers drifted down like snow-flakes. It was clear the situation was flying more and more out of control.
I knew Mike couldn't close that sale with a hysterical mockingbird flapping around his head. But he also couldn't very well say, "Excuse me a moment, would you? I've got a mockingbird flying around the office."
Leaping over chairs and skirting desks, I did my best to catch the bird, to no avail. Perceiving me as a greater threat than the cat, the frightened creature furiously beat its wings, snapped its bill and screeched at me. Meanwhile, Mike talked on. Not an errant note in his voice betrayed the chaos around him.
The situation looked dire, but I needn't have worried. Without so much as a "please hold", much less a skipped beat, Mike reached up with his free hand and scooped the mockingbird right out of midair. Still calmly delivering his sales pitch, he handed the bird to me. I carried it to the front door and released it.
When I returned to the office with a dustpan and brush to clean up the mess, there sat Mike with a smile on his face. He had finished the call and was writing up the sale as if nothing strange had happened... except for the stray feather lodged in his hair.
--Source: Birds & Blooms, August / September 2004,
http://www.birdsandblooms.com
NOTE: There may be times when the “mockingbirds” in our lives are flying around our heads—but the work still has to be done. Let us stay our hearts on Christ during times such as these.
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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COURAGE
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.
--Billy Graham
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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HUMOR
You Know You Have A Bad Computer When . . .
10. The lower corner of screen has the words "etch a sketch" on it.
9. When you insert a disk, it spits out a pack of cigarettes.
8. You have to pedal it.
7. The manual contains one sentence: "good luck!"
6. The only chip inside is a Dorito.
5. When you turn it on, the dogs in the neighborhood start howling.
4. You catch a virus from it.
3. Screen frequently freezes and message comes up: "Ain't it break time, Chester?"
2. While running, it emits deafening calliope music.
1. It cyber-snickers at you.
--Source Unknown
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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A WOMAN’S PRAYER
Dear Lord,
I pray for Wisdom, to understand a man, Love, to forgive him, and Patience, for his moods, because, Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll just beat him to death...
--Seen on a sign in a sandwich shop, Jackson, Mississippi
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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WORRY OR WORSHIP?
When God is at the center of your life, you worship. When he’s not, you worry.
--Rick Warren
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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MOLEHILLS OR MOUNTAINS?
We honor God by asking for great things when they are a part of His promise. We dishonor Him and cheat ourselves when we ask for molehills where He has promised mountains.
--Vance Havner
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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RESENTMENT OR PRAISE?
I am to praise God for all things, regardless of where they seem to originate. Doing this is the key to receiving the blessings of God. Praise will wash away my resentments.
--Catherine Marshall
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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ME OR HIM?
I wish I could make it all new again; I can’t. But God can. “He restores my soul,” wrote the shepherd. God doesn’t reform; he restores. He doesn’t camouflage the old; he restores the new. The Master Builder will pull out the original plan and restore it. He will restore the vigor; he will restore the energy. He will restore the hope. He will restore the soul.
--Max Lucado
(The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, January 17, 2005)
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