Abraham Lincoln's Depression

* You probably have made some sacrifices to have it. Sacrifices make you appreciate something more.

* You are far less likely to move out or away on a whim.

* You enjoy the pride of ownership and will put far more work into keeping up the home than
if you were only renting.

* Paying the mortgage is perhaps your highest bill priority - a foreclosure on your credit report is a
terrible mark that lasts many years.

* Buying a home is a long process. It requires a lot of thought, planning and soul searching. The wisest home investments are not ones that you quickly jump into.

* If your home becomes damaged, you will want to act quickly to fix the problem so other problems don't occur.

If you rent:

* Renting is much easier than owning. You usually don't have to make many sacrifices at all.

* If you decide you don't like where you are renting you can move out easily.

* If you trash your place and devalue it, it doesn't matter too much. You might lose a little bit of a deposit, but that is nothing compared with equity you might have in a home.

* If you can't pay your rent, you might get kicked out in a couple of months, but at least your credit report isn't too messed up.

* You can jump into a rental situation without much thought or planning.

* If your place becomes damaged or a major appliance quits working, you have little responsibility. You can call up the landlord and have them take care of the problem.

There are quite a few similarities in home ownership and marriage as there is with cohabitation and renting. Go back and reread the lists, replacing "own" with "marriage" and "rent" with "cohabitate".

Citation: Michael Webb, "Own or Rent? Commitment vs Cohabitation", http://www.theromantic.com/JustBetween/cohabitationcolumn.htm

Student Learns Important Lesson

Scripture: Psalms 8; 139:13-16; Matthew 6:26-30; 10:31; 12:12; John 4:7-9,27; Ephesians 2:10.

Citation: Author Unknown, "Most Important Question", http://www.dobhran.com/greetings/GRinspire10.htm

Liberian Women's Inexplicable Perseverance

New York Times editor Helene Cooper grew up in Liberia and has written for many publications of the plight of many Liberian women. In a recent New York Times article, she writes of their struggles and their inexplicable perseverance:

"In Liberia, when their sons were kidnapped and drugged to fight for rebel factions, and when their husbands came home from brothels and infected them with H.I.V., and when government soldiers invaded their houses and raped them in front of their teenage sons, these were the women who picked themselves up and kept going. They kept selling fish, cassava and kola nuts so they could feed their families. They gave birth to the children of their rapists in the forests and carried the children on their backs as they balanced jugs of water on their heads."

Citation: Helene Cooper, "Waiting for Their Moment in the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman", The New York Times, November 16, 2005.

http://www.genocidewatch.org/OpinionWaitingforTheirMomentintheWorstPlaceonEarthtoBeaWomanNov05.htm

and

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60710F63B5A0C758DDDA80994DD404482

Highly regarded scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil sparked a flurry of interst at a recent major conference on emerging technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is trying to slow down his own aging process by taking 250 nutritional supplements daily and expects to reap the benefits of biotechnology very soon. He believes within ten to twenty years science will offer age-defying and possibly even age-reversing techniques. Within thirty years "nanobots", tiny robots smaller than human blood cells, will be placed in our bloodstream to fight the causes of disease, repair DNA errors, and even increase intelligence. By then, humanity may have achieved immortality.

One attendee didn’t find Kurzweil’s prognosis very appealing. Daniel McCurdy, chief executive of consulting company ThinkFire Services USA Ltd., commented, "I'm already periodically bored, and I'm only 48. Why would you want to live forever? I would rather continue the adventure (of life) by dying and going into a different plane instead of having nanobots running around my brain."

Citation: Leslie Walker, Kurzweil's Quest For Eternal Youth Sets Group Abuzz, October 7, 2004. Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11564-2004Oct6.html

FACT 1: As each goose flaps its wings it creates an uplift for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

LESSON 1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

LESSON 2: If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

FACT 3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point formation.

LESSON 3: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities, and unique arrangements of gifts, talents, or resources.

FACT 4: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

LESSON 4: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core values of others is the quality of honking we seek.

FACT 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

LESSON 5: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

The longer I've spent as a CEO, the more I've realized that tomorrow's effective leader will be the head goose.

Citation: Daniel S. Cheever, Jr., "Where Have All the Great Presidents Gone?",

http://gseweb.harvard.edu/news/features/where_cheever10012001.html

In her book Holiness in Hidden Places, Joni Eareckson Tada wonders whether the pets we love will be with us in heaven. She gives an insightful glimpse of heaven:

"If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn't surprise me. It would be just like him. It would be totally in keeping with his generous character … Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy—utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous. … Heaven is going to be a place that will refract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness of joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on his children."

Citation: Randy Alcorn, Do Dogs Go To Heaven? http://www.christianitytoday.com/cpt/2005/002/16.14.html

If our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our charitable expenditure excludes them.

-- C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 3, Social Morality

Just over 25 years ago, Kathi came home from college confused and uncertain. She asked her mother if she should marry a man, Jerry, whom she had known in college for an year and whom she loved and who loved her.

Her mother’s response was: "Honey, since you were young I have prayed for the right husband for you. I prayed that he would be a thoughtful, compassionate man, strong in character and integrity, a leader in his home and provide well for you and your children. I prayed your future husband would know God, be an honest hard worker, love you and be a tender partner. And I prayed you would be best friends. But, Kathi, I never prayed he would have legs."

Jerry and Kathi have been married for 25 years and have five children. Jerry is a schoolteacher and an elder in their church.

Note: Good for valentine’s week. The preacher should purposefully leave the handicap to the very end for more effect.

Citation: Peggy Sue Wells, "Is That All?", Focus On The Family Magazine, January 2005, page 11.

WARNING:
Consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell the same boring story over and over again until your friends want to smash your head in. (This can be altered to "annoy your friends to death")

Http://www.dobhran.com/humor/GRhumor634.htm

In a recent Newsweek article, "How Jesus Became Christ", author Jon Meacham gives credence to central New Testament claims. "That the apostles would have created such words and ideas out of thin air seems unlikely, for their story and their message strained credulity, even then." The apostle Paul reflects in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that the cross is a stumbling block to Jews and rubbish to Gentiles. "A king who died a criminal's death? An individual's resurrection from the dead? A human atoning sacrifice?" The author cites Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.: "This is not something that the PR committee of the disciples would have put out. The very fact of the salvation message's complexity and uniqueness, I think, speaks to the credibility of the Gospels and the entire New Testament."

Many in the first century were skeptical of the Gospel's claims. The historian Josephus wrote: "James the brother of the so-called Christ." In Athens, Stoic and Epicurean philosophers could not bring themselves to believe (Acts 17:18). Ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus' character Apollo says: "Once a man has died, and the dust has soaked up his blood, there is no resurrection." Jon Meacham asks: "But why invent this particular story unless there were some historical basis for it - either in the remembered words of Jesus or in the experience of the followers at the tomb and afterward?"

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright notes that while other ancient religions believed in immortality, the claims and resurrection of Jesus were distinct: "... nowhere within Judaism, let alone paganism, is a sustained claim advanced that resurrection has happened to a particular individual." Meacham comments: "The uniqueness - one could say oddity, or implausibility - of the story of Jesus' resurrection argues that the tradition is more likely historical than theological."