The Right Philosophy

People who know how are on the front lines and in the trenches, selling the product, teaching the students, fixing the cars, typing the letters, swinging the bats, getting the job done. They will always be the largest in number among the work force.

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Saying Grace

Most of us did not learn to pray in church. Nor were we taught at school . . . nor even beside our bed at night. If the truth were known, we’ve done more praying around the kitchen table than anywhere else on earth. From our earliest years we’ve been programmed: If you don’t pray, you don’t eat. It started with Pablum and it continues through porterhouse. A meal is incomplete without it.

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God Incomprehensible

Lost in the silent solitude of recent days, I have been impressed anew with the vast handiwork of our incomprehensible God. The psalmist was correct: The heavens do indeed tell of the glory of God . . . their expanse does indeed declare the work of His hands (Ps. 19:1).

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A Holy Life

As Christians we live a life that is different—morally excellent, ethically beautiful. It’s called a holy life. And God honors that. Because it’s like He is. And according to Ephesians 5:1, we are to mimic God, living as He lives.

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Capabilities

Have you ever noticed how uniquely adapted each animal is to its environment and its way of life? On land, a duck waddles along ungainly on its webbed feet. In the water, it glides along smooth as glass. The rabbit runs with ease and great bursts of speed, but I’ve never seen one swimming laps. The squirrel climbs anything in sight but cannot fly (unless you count great airborne leaps from limb to limb), while the eagle soars to mountaintops.

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Calling Sin, Sin

There was once a cricket on the loose in my former church. WhA bomb exploded in our nation some years ago. In mid-America, of all places. The fuse was lit first in the mind of Karl Menninger, but its effect was not felt until his pen detonated the blasting cap. Suddenly—without prior warning—BOOM! His book “Whatever Became of Sin” stunned and shocked his colleagues.en things were quiet and still, his wings sang at top volume . . . like at weddings. And funerals. And during long prayers. And very early on Sunday morning before the place started jumpin’ with cars and microphones and organ preludes.

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Cricket Places

There was once a cricket on the loose in my former church. When things were quiet and still, his wings sang at top volume . . . like at weddings. And funerals. And during long prayers. And very early on Sunday morning before the place started jumpin’ with cars and microphones and organ preludes.

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Praying to Your Friend

Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century Roman Catholic Frenchman, said this about prayer: Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pain, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may . . .

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Thanks for the Memories

While jogging early this morning, I found myself humming the tune Bob Hope immortalized during several wars. I can still remember his tailor-made lyrics, fitted to each occasion. He sang them to lonely soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines from steamy jungles to frozen reservoirs . . . from the decks of aircraft carriers to makeshift platforms on windswept sand dunes. As guys and gals in uniform laughed and cried, screamed and sipped Coke, they always anticipated Hope’s finale as he took the mike and crooned, “And thanks for the memories . . . .”

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Peer Pressure

Once a spider built a beautiful web in an old house. He kept it clean and shiny so that flies would patronize it. The minute he got a “customer” he would clean up after him so the other flies would not get suspicious. Then one day this fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spiderweb. Old man spider called out, “Come in and sit.” But the fairly intelligent fly said, “No sir, I don’t see other flies in your house, and I am not going in alone!”

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