Beauty

Never lose an oppurtunity of seeing anything that is beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting ~~ a wayside sacrament.
Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower,
and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

OLYMPIANS FOR CHRIST

These Christian athletes have more in common than astounding talent and the thrill of representing the United States in the 2008 Olympic Games. They also share the goal of crediting God for their athletic success.

Olympic Diver Laura Wilkinson:



Olympic Runner Ryan Hall:

Serenity and Wisdom !

God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I can not change,
the courage to change the one I can,
and the wisdom to know it's me.

DAILY RULES

1. Wake Up!! Decide to have a good day. "Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up!! The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up!! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. "He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:34 .

4. Stand Up!!... For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. "Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good..."Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up!!... To the Lord."I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Phillippians 4:136. Reach Up!!... For something higher. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up!!... Your Prayers."Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING."Philippians 4:6Send this to the people you care about.I thought this was mighty special, just like you.

Pass this on and brighten someone's day, and remember: God answers Knee-Mail.

Life by GPS

Milan Ford

My wife and I recently decided to purchase a GPS (global positioning system) device for our new m-i-n-i.......van. Sorry for the long pause there. It's just that as a 32-year old urbanite, it's still rather hard for me to believe I actually own a mini-van. Very humbling to say the least.

I must say I was quite excited about finally having our own GPS; we had been talking about doing a few road trips with the kids for some time now, and the whole

MapQuest thing just wasn't going cut it anymore.

I mean who in the world still finds enjoyment reading and carrying around a folder full of printed directions everywhere they go?

Wow. I just said something pretty good right there...but will have to try revisiting that some other day.

We decided to try it out the other day while coming back from church one day. The following are just a few life lessons we both learned along the way. All courtesy of GPS.

1. When turning on the device, a screen immediately popped up and told us that the driver of the vehicle should never try entering any new coordinates into the device...while driving.

2. When entering in a specific destination, the device gave us the option on whether or not we wanted to travel by avoiding one of the following: Highways. Intersections. And U-Turns.

3. We decided to enter the address of a restaurant we had been to several times before. To our surprise, the device took us a totally different route. A scenic route. But one that was much faster.

4. While traveling, we just couldn't believe this device (controlled by a satellite 12,000 thousands miles in the air), could possibly know more than us about a community we have lived in for years.

We decided to test it out and turn the opposite way it had told us. Immediately after we turned, the device immediately began "recalculating" an alternative route that would take us to the destination we entered.

5. Once we arrived, we pulled aside to enter in a new destination, when suddenly, the device shouted out, "lost signal." We discovered that our GPS will lose its signal whenever it has not been properly charged. Considering we took it right out the box, we had to return home on our own.

Once we arrived back home, we realized something. Our GPS and The Holy Spirit have a lot in common. The lessons we learned unveiled the very way God desires to direct our lives every day.

The Holy Spirit is an incredible guide. One that is ready and willing to show us the path in which we our to follow to reach every predetermined destination God has established for us.

In fact, the only difference we discovered between our GPS and The Holy Spirit (besides the obvious difference in manufacturing companies), is that we decided to call our GPS... Anne.

The device talked to us so much along the way...we figured we might as well give it a name!

Milan Ford is a 12-year leader (and survivor) of college and student ministry within the local church. He serves as Content Editor for Streaming Faith and as the author of "The Pew View" (

www.thepewview.com), a blog for church ministry leaders.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit help us to manifest the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives,
enabling us to be more like Jesus.

He is our Helper.
In Romans 8:26, Paul says that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. Writing to the Philippians he says, "I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance." (Phil 1:19, NIV) Writing to his beloved son in the ministry, Timothy, Paul said, "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." (2 Tim 1:14, NIV).

He is our Counselor and Advocate.
This word brings to mind a defense attorney who is pleading our case before a judge, or one who strengthens and fortifies us. Or one who guides us and advises us. "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (John 14:26 NIV)

He is our Comforter.
When our hearts are heavy and we don't even know how to pray or what to pray for, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit comes along side us.
"If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves." (Romans 8:26-27, The Message)

Wrong For A 1000 Years !

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies. The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son." He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years.
Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot . . . So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him.
He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.
"We missed the R ! "
"We missed the R !"
"We missed the R !"
His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.
The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"
With a choking voice, the old abbot replies,
"The word was... "CELEBRATE !!!"