“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation … even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
Category Tail Feathers
Bits and bytes of randomness found along the flyways of cyberdom
Let Freedom Ring
Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X
Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
– Martin Luther King Jr., excerpt from his “I Have A Dream” speech
Tradition tells of a chime that changed the world on July 8, 1776, with the Liberty Bell ringing out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.
Ministry by Jerry Ousley
Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (NKJV)
As a child my mother had several names for each of her kids. For instance, if I was in trouble she’d call, “Jerry Dale!” I knew that one all too well. Whenever she’d include my full middle name I knew I had done something wrong and was prepared for the worst. But if she was calling me in for supper or to have me do a chore she’d only use my first name. I could tell by the way she called my name and the tone of her voice what to expect. We all have a call. Even those who have not yet given their lives to the Lord have gifts inside of them that they were born with placed there by God awaiting the day that they will come to Him and yield themselves. Those gifts are in rough form before salvation but begin to flow with anointing from God as we grow closer to Him.
The quoted scripture tells us that God anointed each of us with the spirit of a ministry gift but it doesn’t mean that we will all fulfill them in the traditionally thought way. Some will. But more of us will minister utilizing our ministry gift but defined by the talent gifts which He has placed within us.
I don’t read anywhere in the Bible where God called us to the ministry of “pew sitters.” Yet by today’s standards we have limited each other to just that. If we can’t stand before a crowd of people and preach or teach about God we somehow think our job is just to occupy the seats. Not so. We all “preach” whether vocally or by demonstration. We all are called to the ministry.
The Monday Memo by Steve May
HOW HARD YOU GET HIT
2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-9As a father, I’ve always considered the most important lesson to teach
my children is the principle of perseverance — staying in the battle as long as it takes to win, getting back up after you get knocked down, trying as many times as necessary.
There’s a scene in the movie Rocky Balboa that’s about this — Rocky is teaching this lesson to his son, Robert. This is the final movie in the Rocky series; he’s now past his prime (for an athlete), in his fifties, a little punchy, and has just decided to attempt a comeback. Robert tries to talk him out of it, saying it isn’t fair to him, that he is trying to build a life for himself, and he’s tired of living in the old man’s shadow. He tells Rocky how this will hold him back. Rocky says to him…
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place. And I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you permanently there if you let it.
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.
Truth Decay
Visits from the tooth fairy brought a toothless grin to my face as a child but as I get older visits from the tooth fairy are not as welcomed as they once where.
A toothless grin was cute on a small boy but as a grown man those missing teeth are a tell-tale sign of the advancement of age. I recall being told as a child to brush my teeth in order to prevent the painful consequences of not doing so. Tooth decay was not something as a child I thought much about. Visits to the dentist seemed a waste of time when I was younger but those trips to the tooth doctor for preventive maintenance helped defer tooth decay for many years to follow.
Well those years have come and gone and visits to the dentist have been less frequent then needed and tooth decay has taken its toil on my once pearly whites. Not much to do at this point but have the broken teeth extracted leaving gaps in the pearly gates. All the whitening strips on the store shelf can not restore that which has fallen away from decay.
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