Live Your Dream

I am happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ's power can live in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Robert D. Ballard is a man accustomed to looking for things other people have "lost." To date he has led or participated in nearly one hundred deep-sea expeditions. Among the "lost" things he has found are the R.M.S. Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck, and eleven warship that were part of a fleet lost at Guadalcanal.

Did Ballard find these ships on his first try? No. As he once said in a commencement address, "My first voyage to find the Titanic ended in failure. "My first expedition to find Bismarck failed as well. The test you must pass is not whether you fall down or not, but whether you can get back up."

Ballard also noted, "Every major adventure I have been on over the years has tested me severely with violent storms and lost equipment.... The hardest test of all... look to see how determined you are to live your dream, how strong is your heart."

If you truly believe that God has called you to teach, never let go of your dream. Always walk toward the next horizon. Consider failure only as an opportunity to regroup and strengthen yourself.

The Desire to Change

No choice will determine the success of your attitude change more than desiring to change. When all else fails, desire alone can keep you heading in the right direction. The geratest motivation fo all is when we realize we can change.

Life is changing process. With all of its transitions come new opportunities for growth. What is a limiting factor yesterday may not be one today. Accept the following statement for your life: " The days ahead are filled with changes which are my challenges. I will response to these opportunities with the confidence that my life will be better because of them. With God all things are possible."

No one but you can determine what you will think and how you will act. That is good! Now, take control and begin the exciting journey of attitude improvement.

IT'S UP TO YOU

         If you think you're a winner you'll win,
        If you dare to step out you'll succeed.
        Believe in your heart, have a purpose to start.
        Aim to help fellow man in need.

        Thoughts of faith must replace every doubt
        Use words of courage and you cannot fail.
        If you stumble and fall, rise and stand ren feet tall,
        You determine the course that you sail.

        You've been given the power to see
        What it takes to be a real man.
        Let your thinking be pure, it will make you secure.
        If you want to, you know that you can.
    
       
        

No more Mr. Nice Guy

Where did the idea originate that Christianity is all about being “nice”? It is an irrational progression from Jesus, whose very arrival on Earth threatened to overturn everything: the Roman Empire, the Jewish religious powers, and most significantly, the lives of every human on earth.

Essayist Annie Dillard noted the dissonance between “American Christianity” and that of its Founder, describing contemporary Christians as “cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute.” She said. “Does anybody have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just about comforting the afflicted; it is also about afflicting the comfortable. Being Christian is not just about being nice.

(Commentary:) Jesus was a revolutionary, who didn’t come to bring “niceness” and peace (Matthew 10:34–36), but rebirth and revolution—and He made available the full power of God so that His disciples could do the same!

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.” [Matthew 10:34-36]