From My Archives


Have you ever been thinking about a Scripture passage, only to have it read for the service the following Sunday? That happened to me since my last entry.


I was praying because I felt stressed by inability, when Psalm 34 came to mind. Focusing on that changed my whole perspective.

Have you ever come across a set of notes from someone's sermon, only to have that same someone preach the following Sunday?


This happened to me just two days ago.

However, the passage which Bill preached Sunday was not the same as that on which these notes are based.

Context: a meeting held September 8 2004

Challenged, my mind kind of wandered, making connections not precisely in the text from which he was speaking, but close enough to it, I think.

Bill laid out six encouragements from Phil. 3:12-16:
Be realistic
Be steadfast
Be earnest
Be motivated
Be honest
Be perfect


Somewhere in the explication of those points, my mind latched on to some of the shows I have recently come to enjoy, such as Mission: Organization and Clean Sweep.


Now why would shows such as these come to mind? or, to my mind?


The premises of those shows are that the people involved, whether being organized or swept, have lost control of their possessions, and are frustrated by the mass of "stuff" which needs serious dealing with.


I think it was when Bill got to #3: be earnest, and mentioned Paul's statement, "But one thing," and then even more the dual aspects of putting behind [forgetting] and reaching forward, followed in close succession by #4, be motivated--pursuing one goal--that somehow the thought gelled that to accomplish the goal--Christlikeness--all else has to be "clean swept" from life and no more clutter allowed to accumulate as diligence takes the place of diffidence--which long term will pay eternal dividends.