98 Sermon Illustrations on Overcome

”Ten Commandments to make yourself miserable.”

1) I must be liked by everybody for everything I do.

2) I cannot be happy unless everything is exactly the way I want it to be.

3) All the unhappiness I suffer is always caused by outside events or other people. I am just a victim.

4) It is wiser for me to avoid life’s difficulties than to face them and deal with them.

5) I must succeed in all situations or I am a failure in life.

6) Because a negative experience happened to me once, I shall forever be defeated by it.

7) I must have certain and complete control over all people and events in my life, or chaos will result.

8) I must put my happiness and comfort at the top of my priority list in order to live a fulfilled life.

9) I must compare and contrast myself with other people in order to know if I’m successful or not.

10) I must have certainty of success before I ever attempt anything.

A thankful heart comes easy for many Americans. Even those whose circumstances provide reasons for sorrow and hurt can find something for which to express gratitude.

In her book, “A Thankful Heart,” Carole Lewis offers her testimony of how God can cultivate thanksgiving every day of the year, bringing hope and healing that lasts into eternity.

“Often, the holidays are very depressing times for families as we’re tempted to key in on their dysfunction, critical spirits and anger problems. Every family’s got them,” said Lewis, national director of First Place, a Christian weight-loss program that grew out of First Baptist Church in Houston.

“Sometimes it seems like there are more bad moments than good in life,” she writes in her book. “The problem is that if we don’t stop and take a clear look at our perceptions of these situations, pretty soon we find that we have bitter, negative experiences all day long. Soon enough, having negative experiences all day long turns into having negative experiences every day, every year, every decade.”

From dealing with traffic to feeling overwhelmed with work to suffering from illness and disease, Lewis writes, “It is easy for even the ordinary irritations of life to build into occasions for continual grumbling and dissatisfaction.” Over time, “We wake up and discover that these experiences have transformed us. It isn’t the situations that are negative now -- it’s us. We’ve become bitter, negative people,” she observes, adding, “And we hate who we’ve become.”

Negative attitudes eventually spill over to one’s health and well-being as the mind and body communicate with each other, she writes. “I’ve found it to be a simple truth -- when I do not practice developing a thankful heart, the person this hurts the most is me.

“Gripe about your job for a week and see how long you stay employed. Or snap at your husband every night when he comes home and see what sort of marriage it produces. It’s in our best interest to not fall into the trap of focusing on what’s wrong with life. Becoming a thankful person is a benefit to our lives that we absolutely cannot overlook.”

If anyone could give a reason not to be thankful, it’s Carole Lewis. She experienced financial devastation that led to bankruptcy, felt derailed in her own weight struggle due to health problems and continues to walk alongside her husband in his battle with stage four prostate cancer. But it was on Thanksgiving Day four years ago that Lewis faced the greatest challenge to a thankful heart.

Her daughter, Shari, son-in-law Jeff and their three daughters had celebrated the holiday with the Lewis family before traveling to dinner with Jeff’s family. As Shari stood behind their SUV, a drunk driver swerved from behind, ricocheted off a light pole and sent Lewis’ 39-year-old daughter into a field. A few hours later she died in a Houston hospital.

Several years later Lewis was asked by her publisher to write a book on grief. “I didn’t have that in me. Undeniably, Shari’s death has been the hardest thing our family has ever gone through,” she said in an interview. “Though the days following her death were full of pain for all of us, I can also say with thankfulness that they are not a blur.” Lewis’ own prayer journal relates 22 things for which she gave thanks in those days after the tragedy. Some are to be expected -- the Christian friends who gathered at the hospital. Others are surprising -- a granddaughter witnessing about Jesus to the young drunk driver. And some are amazing -- Jeff’s mom and brother accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord one hour after Shari’s death.

“I never dreamed that thankfulness might be one of the things God would use to heal the huge void left in my heart,” Lewis wrote after pondering why she never experienced some of the stages of grief that are presumed to be a healthy response to such difficult times. Though she was shocked by her daughter’s death and ultimately learned to accept it, Lewis said she anticipated the stages of denial, anger and bargaining, but never experienced them.

“Could thankfulness in the midst of a circumstance as shattering as the death of my child propel me from shock to acceptance without my having to experience the other three stages?” she asked in the book. “I know that people grieve in different ways and that everyone is different, but I have come to believe that being thankful in the midst of a tragic circumstance is the key to moving toward healing.”

Through her own journals, Lewis has been able to see how God answered prayer during the death of a sister and sister-in-law, her own surgeries and her husband’s cancer, calling these her spiritual markers. “I used to wonder how you could ever know the Lord’s will,” she reflected, “but I cannot get out of His will if I’m walking with Him every day.”

Saved at the age of 12, Lewis admits in the book, “I had pretty much run my life my way since that time and until it was totally shipwrecked.” When poor money management, the loss of a business and ultimate bankruptcy turned her world upside down, God got her attention so dramatically that she finds herself grateful for the experience.

“Was I thankful at the time for the financial straits our family was in? Of course not!” she writes. Yet, when she thinks of all the ways God has prospered her family since, she is more amazed than anyone. “I am forever grateful for our money woes, because they were the vehicle that drove me to God,” she recounts. Eventually, they recovered their credit rating, paid off debt, began to tithe and even saved for retirement.

“I believe our God is able to work absolute wonders on our behalf if we can learn to thank and praise Him in the middle of any stressful situation of life,” Lewis writes. “When we’re not thankful, we tend to focus on what’s wrong. When we focus on the muck and grime of stressful situations, we begin to grumble and complain -- and that makes the situation appear worse than it actually is.”

Even as holiday gatherings bring to mind difficult relationships with family and friends, Lewis suggests learning to thank God for those people. “Instead of our running from the difficult people in our life, God desires to change us first as we learn how to thank Him for our difficult person.” In her own experience, Lewis has found God either heals the other person or moves them on to some other place.

“Chances are, you didn’t receive something you needed from certain family members, and you’ve wasted a lot of time trying to receive that particular something from those people,” she writes, adding that they “may not have a clue about your need.” She suggests reversing the pattern: “We can get what we’ve missed, not by grasping or clutching from those people, but by giving to them.”

With parents, a Christian can give the respect, courtesy and gentleness that was needed but never received, she writes. With spouses, admiration, encouragement and unconditional love should be offered. Parents can begin giving children the love, attention, boundaries and devotion they may never have received during their own growing-up years. “I’m talking about the type of lavish giving that expects nothing in return,” she states.

From 1 John 4:20, Lewis is reminded that if anyone says he loves God but hates his brother, he is a liar. “Our love for God can be best seen in our love for people. If we don’t love others, we don’t love God. Those are strong words.”

Even in casual contact with other people, Lewis advocates speaking blessings on them. “When someone cuts in front of us in traffic, we can ask God to bless him or her instead of railing against the person’s lack of courtesy.” We never know what other people are going through. By asking God to bless them, we are extending the same grace to them that God has extended to us.”

Through the loss of her own daughter, Lewis is even more convinced that “family is the most precious commodity we have.” Even when a person may not have caused an offense or separation, she encourages Christians to be “the sacrificial lamb” in such relationships. “Begin thinking about and watching for things in your family that you can be thankful for. Try not to key in on their dysfunctions,” she advised. “If you’ve got family members you’re not speaking to, call or write them now. If we’ve prayed about it, God’s going to go before us and He can heal our families. He wants to do that.”

“As we begin practicing thankfulness today, God will begin an amazing transformation in our hearts,” she writes, reflecting on 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Lewis said her family has watched every year to see what God is going to do on Thanksgiving Day that is especially for them. “When you lose a loved one on or near a holiday, it doesn’t matter that it’s always on a different day. It’s always the holiday,” she said. While it is never easy, she does feel it’s getting easier. “God just got us through it and he’s done that every year.” For Lewis, thanksgiving is a heartfelt response.

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[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]

Greatest preacher 1,600 years ago - Chrysostom. “Golden mouthed.” Very popular with people, and a brilliant scholar.

Chrysostom was bold when it came to condemning sin and he was called before the Emperor, whom he had offended. He threatened Chrysostom with exile unless he apologized. Chrysostom replied, “You cannot exile me because this world is my father's house.”

“I will kill you,” said the Emperor. “No, you cannot, because my life is hid with Christ in God.”

“I will take away your treasures.” “No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”

The Emperor was furious at this point. “I will drive you away from man and you shall have no friend left.” “No, you cannot, for I have a friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me... “I defy you; for there is nothing that you can do to hurt me!”

__________

From Henry Hart Milman, “History of Christianity,” (New York: Crowell, 1881), 4:144

The leaders of the Orthodox Church showed more courage in dealing with the vigorous assault on religion than did the leaders of AUCECB [Evangelical churches in Russia]. What showed particular courage was Aleksy's public pronouncement in February 1960 at a Conference of the Soviet Public for Disarmament. After listing all the wonderful things the Church had given to Russia, the patriarch stated:

"Yet, despite all this, Christ's Church, whose very aim is human well-being, is suffering insults and attacks from humans.... Jesus Christ himself predicted indestructibility of the Church when he said: The gates of hell will not overcome the Church."

The great irony is that it was Metropolitan Nikolai, the sycophant to the Kremlin on foreign policy, who had written the patriarch's speech. Also a factor in his falling out with the Soviet overlords was a collection of his unpublished sermons which responded strongly to atheist attacks on religion. Such is the mystery of life that within the same breast can beat both the heart of a coward and a man of courage.

A real-life story of how one successful man hit bottom and found Jesus Christ.

The author of many scholarly articles, Glenn Loury first made his mark as an economic theorist. He has been a consultant to state and federal government agencies and private business organizations. He has taught at Harvard, Northwestern, and the University of Michigan before coming to Boston University, where he is university professor and professor of economics.

He is most famous on the topic of racial inequality. His essays and commentaries appear regularly in leading national publications. He is usually labelled a conservative, and for an African American that can bring a lot of attention - good and bad.

While his professional life was soaring, his personal life was disintegrating. He was on drugs -- alcohol, marijuana, and finally cocaine. The cocaine progressed to freebasing. In his soul he knew it was destroying him, even as he became more famous and wealthy.

He was a professor at Harvard at 33 years old, a full tenured professor. He was a distinguished research economist, and had a really strong track record. Then he had branched off into public policy, and I had instantly hit stardom. But he was on a really unstable, rocky track.

Soon he was arrested for the possession of a controlled substance. It became very widely known, and he was humiliated, but he still had all kinds of excuses. He went to a drug treatment program that the court mandated after the arrest charge, but he kept using drugs. His wife was still with him, for reasons he can't fathom. She loved him, and she stuck it out.

Eventually she persuaded him to go in for more treatment, but he backslid after a few weeks. He went into another program that cost $500 a day but his insurance ran out. In desperation he turned to a half-way house. It was run by an ex-Boston cop who had spent five years in prison for corruption, and who had been an alcoholic. But he had become an evangelical Christian and had devoted his life to helping men recover from addiction.

The ex-cop ran a weekly voluntary Bible study in the house, and there were about 25 men in there. Some of these men had been sleeping in cardboard boxes in the subway, some of them had just gotten out of prison, some were heroin or intravenous cocaine users, some were winos; and there was this college professor from Harvard.

Glenn Loury sat in that house for six months. It was during that time that he became a Christian, that he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He doesn't know what happened. He thinks it's grace. It just seems miraculous to him. It was miraculous that the desire to do cocaine went away. It was miraculous that his wife stayed by him and that the marriage came back to life again. It didn't have to happen, but it did.

#1853

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[see final version at end]

In June of 1955, Winston Churchill, who was then near the end of his life, was asked to give a commencement address at a British university. At this time he was physically infirm; he had to be helped to the podium. Then he held on the podium for what seemed an interminable amount of time.

He stood with his head down but then finally raised that great leonine head of his, and the voice that years before had called Britain back from the brink of destruction sounded publicly for the last time in history:

“Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.”

With that, Churchill turned and went back to his seat.

I’m told there was silence, and then, as if one person, the whole audience rose to applaud him, because he was a man whose life and words were together. Again and again throughout Churchill’s political career, he had known setbacks. Three times, his career apparently over, he was sent off to oblivion, and yet somehow he had a sense that there was still something left after the worst.

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Version in “Chicken Soup of the Day” (internet version, 10/5/98):

Sir Winston Churchill took three years getting through eighth grade because he had trouble learning English. It seems ironic that years later Oxford University asked him to address its commencement exercises. He arrived with his usual props. A cigar, a cane and a top hat accompanied Churchill wherever he went. As Churchill approached the podium, the crowd rose in appreciative applause. With unmatched dignity, he settled the crowd and stood confident before his admirers. Removing the cigar and carefully placing the top hat on the podium, Churchill gazed at his waiting audience. Authority rang in Churchill’s voice as he shouted, “Never give up!” Several seconds passed before he rose to his toes and repeated: “Never give up!” His words thundered in their ears. There was a deafening silence as Churchill reached for his hat and cigar, steadied himself with his cane and left the platform. His commencement address was finished.

By Speaker’s Sourcebook II, from Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul,Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Aubery & Nancy Mitchell, R.N.

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Version from Rev. Brett Blair, March 18, 2001 (derived from www.HomileticsOnline.com):

From the many true and fictional stories about the life of Winston Churchill comes the report of a singular commencement address. After enduring a lengthy introduction, Churchill is reported to have risen from his seat, strode to the podium and stared fixedly at his audience of new graduates. “Never give up!” he pronounced solemnly. Churchill then turned, walked back to his chair and sat down. As the stunned students momentarily sat in silence, Churchill, with perfect timing, once again rose from his chair, returned to the podium and again announced, “Never give up!” Now, terrified they might respond improperly, the audience never uttered a squeak as their speaker once again returned to his seat. Sure enough, Churchill returned to the podium again, and again and yet again — five times — each time delivering his single-minded message, “Never give up!” At last, feeling he had exhausted his audience and driven home his point, Churchill himself did give up and returned to the podium no more. But you can be sure that every graduate in that audience never forgot that speech and never forgot that he or she was to “never give up!”

Has the church forgotten that it has received the same message from the divine? God has promised never to give up on us. All of the Scriptures, Old and New Testaments together, are a record of how God never, never, never, never, never gives up.

• Adam and Eve disobeyed the very First Rule. But God never gave up.

• Abraham wandered, and Sarah laughed. But God never gave up.

• Moses hid and shook with fear. But God never gave up.

• Saul went insane. But God never gave up.

• David plotted against Uriah. But God never gave up.

• Ahaz sold out to Assyria. But God never gave up.

• Israel fell into pieces. But God never gave up.

• The Jewish people became exiles. But God never gave up.

• John the Baptist was beheaded. But God never gave up.

• Peter denied he even knew him. But God never gave up.

• The disciples all ran away. But God never gave up.

From www.HomileticsOnline.com.

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Still another version, and the definitive one by Rev. David Langerfeld:

This speech/illustration has been misquoted many, many times. (I have used it many times myself just the way you shared it — for sermons, speeches, devotionals, etc.) However, it’s just not true.

The actual speech is several paragraphs in length and contains these words… “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

You can read the actual speech at the Winston Churchill Center home page: www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=423

How to do the right thing, and face the sin in your life:

1. Ask God to reveal to you how He feels about the sin in your life.

2. Confess your sin to Him and turn away from it.

3. Using a concordance or study Bible, do a word study on the sin and its opposite.

4. Try to find an “accountability partner.”

5. Realize that although sin continues to challenge us, Christ has overcome the world.

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Millions of families are torn up by alcohol.

Shani Gray grew up a rough area of Miami. Many of her friends turned to gangs and drugs, but her parents encouraged her to do well in school. For Shani, it's ironic that while her dad was encouraging her to stay on track and resist the temptations around her, he was sinking further into those same temptations.

"He's like the pink flamingos," Shani says. "They start out as white birds, but the stuff they eat turns them pink. Their outside changes because of what's going on inside. That's what happened to my dad. He tried hard to resist all that stuff, but he was in the middle of it. It got to him."

On the day of her graduation, in which she was the top student, she looked out across the audience to see her dad. But he wasn't there. He was off drunk somewhere.

Soon after he abandoned his family. The hardest part of his leaving is the message it gave to Shani. "I looked up to him," she says. "He worked so hard for us and I loved him so much. But he made a choice that said, 'My lifestyle is more important to me than you are.' He was my motivation to keep at it when I wanted to give up on college. Then he gave up on us."

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Whole article:

XTRA ORDINARY PEOPLE: Shani Gray

Where's God When Your Dreams Fall Apart?

By Carla Barnhill

Shani Gray had planned for this moment for a long time.

As she sat on the stage at her high-school graduation, waiting to give her valedictory speech, she felt that all the sacrifices she'd made to excel had been worthwhile.

Even the turmoil of the last few months -- her alcoholic father had left home, and she was fighting a losing battle for scholarship money -- seemed far away as Shani's fellow graduates settled into their seats.

The principal announced Shani's name. As she stepped up to the podium to deliver her speech, Shani looked into the audience for the man who'd promised he'd be there.

But her father was nowhere in sight.

The moment is still fresh in Shani's mind as she sits in the dorm lounge at Taylor University-Fort Wayne, where she is finishing her freshman year.

Sure, she was angry at her dad, and angry that she'd been passed over for some large scholarships. But she was also angry at God.

"I felt like nothing was going the way I'd planned it," she says. "I thought I would always be rewarded for the things I did. But there I was. My dad had left our family. It was looking like I wouldn't be able to afford college. And I felt cheated."

It was, she says now, a humbling experience.

Shani Gray is not a person who needs much humbling. Even though everyone at Taylor -- from the lady in the mailroom to the vice-president of the college -- knows her by name, she doesn't recognize just how special she is.

How special? Just ask the professor who gave her an A in a tough, upper-level theology class. Or her high-school basketball coach who looked to her as the moral center of his team. Or her 6th-grade Sunday school teacher who asked Shani to help teach the class, since she knew the Bible so well.

Or ask just about anyone in Shani's neighborhood back in Miami. They'll tell you it takes someone very special to make it out of a place where many high-school students never even dream of college.

"In my neighborhood, you'd see kids on bikes, kids playing basketball, decent houses," says Shani. "But if you knew where to look, you'd find the drug dealers and gang members. It wasn't as dangerous as some parts of town, but at night, you'd definitely want to be behind your locked door and security system."

That atmosphere carried over to Shani's school, Carol City High. There, the violence of the streets made itself known in battles over dates and sports teams. Shani remembers a day when someone from a rival school's marching band showed up with a gun at Shani's band practice, wanting to shoot the trumpet players for winning a competition.

Violence was part of Shani's everyday life. So was the pressure to fit in at school. And fitting in meant dissing academics.

"There was always pressure to be average," says Shani. "Most kids felt like there was no point in working hard for grades, because teachers, parents, and society told them they weren't going anywhere. They'd see drug dealers making more money than any college professor could make. Most parents couldn't afford college, so unless you were a great athlete, you didn't have much chance of an education beyond high school. They figured, why bother?"

But Shani believed God had given her brains for a reason. She knew God could use her in the world and that a college education would prepare her for a whatever lay ahead. She also knew the only way she could afford college was through academic scholarships. So she determined she would do whatever it took to be the best in her class.

"I was raised by a whole bunch of people," she says. "My mom and dad, aunts and uncles, neighbors and friends from church. They all made sure I stayed out of trouble. They told me I could excel if I worked at it.

"I remember my dad telling me about his brother, who was very smart. His brother let his talents go to his head and thought he was too good to work for anything. So he ended up on the streets. Dad told me, 'The only way to get anywhere in life is to keep working hard for what you want, no matter what other people tell you.'"

A FAITH OF HER OWN

Shani's extended family provided her with something else that helped her stand apart from the crowd: a strong faith in God.

"I became a Christian when I was 8. But my faith was really just my mom's faith. I believed what she believed. It wasn't until I heard a former gang member talk about how God had changed his life that I thought about my faith. This guy had such a hard life, yet he was full of love for God. My life wasn't perfect either. But even though my dad was an alcoholic, he was there and I knew he and my mom loved me. We always had food on the table, and clothes to wear. Compared to most of my friends, I had it pretty good. What reason did I have for not living 100 percent for Christ? None. That's when my faith became my own."

For Shani, faith means standing for what she believes, no matter what the people around her think.

"Back in Miami, there was constant pressure to do drugs, drink, and have sex. But I believe my actions speak for my faith as much as, if not more than, my words. I mean, to the people in my school, I was Jesus. They were always watching me to see what being a Christian meant. Plus, I had things I wanted to accomplish, and that stuff just gets in the way, so I stayed away from it."

But staying away from the "stuff" didn't mean staying away from non-Christians. "If you don't know any non-Christians," notes Shani, "how can you lead them to Christ?"

"I really tried to be approachable to my non-Christian friends. I didn't judge them, but I was clear about my beliefs. I had a good friend who was struggling with her sexuality. I let her know I didn't agree with the choices she was making, but also that I was there for her if she needed to talk. She did, and I was able to tell her about God and the love he has for her. It's taken awhile, but she's stepped back from the life she was living and is trying to figure out what kind of person God wants her to be."

She continued to excel in the classroom, and by the middle of her senior year, it looked as though her plan was right on course. She had been accepted at Taylor University-Fort Wayne to study criminal justice, she would graduate as class valedictorian, and she would leave Miami knowing she had a bright future.

Then her dad, the man who promised her that her hard work would pay off, moved out.

PINK FLAMINGOS

Shani has only talked to her father a few times in the year since he left. He's been in rehabilitation for drug and alcohol use.

For Shani, it's ironic that while her dad was encouraging her to stay on track and resist the temptations around her, he was sinking further into those same temptations.

"He's like the pink flamingos," Shani says. "They start out as white birds, but the stuff they eat turns them pink. Their outside changes because of what's going on inside. That's what happened to my dad. He tried hard to resist all that stuff, but he was in the middle of it. It got to him."

But the hardest part of his leaving is the message it gave to Shani. "I looked up to him," she says. "He worked so hard for us and I loved him so much. But he made a choice that said, 'My lifestyle is more important to me than you are.' He was my motivation to keep at it when I wanted to give up on college. Then he gave up on us."

THE LAST STRAW (ALMOST)

But graduation was right around the corner and Shani didn't have time to think about her pain. Instead, she focused on her schoolwork and her future in Fort Wayne. Then came another blow.

With Shani at the top of her class, she was certain she'd be rewarded with enough scholarship money for college. But to her surprise and great disappointment, the big awards went to other students. As a result, Shani faced graduation with one scholarship -- worth only $500.

Her college plans were crumbling fast.

Nothing had turned out the way Shani had intended. No dad, no money, no future. As the summer wore on, Shani buried her pain in her frantic schedule. She worked extra shifts at her job, trying to earn as much money as she could in a final effort to get to Taylor. Shani and her mother continued to pray that it would all work out, somehow.

Slowly, the money she needed, and more, came trickling in from small private scholarships, as well as from people who knew the Grays needed help. Shani would make it to Taylor after all.

A PLAN TO TRUST

As she walks toward Taylor's gym to shoot baskets, Shani now knows God had some unexpected surprises in store for her last spring.

"Last June," she says, "I was as angry at God as I've ever been. But I was mad because it looked like my life wasn't going in the direction I had planned. I'd been saying that I trusted God, but I wanted things to go my way, not his. And after all that, God put me right where I'd wanted to be all along. My dad's still gone, but I'm learning to deal with the hurt he caused us. I'm finally letting go of the anger I'd felt since last spring. And I'm a stronger person because of what I've been through. I know now that good things don't just fall in your lap because you follow the rules. God's been with me the whole time, blessing me in ways I never would have thought. Now, I am trusting God with my future and I know it will be alright."

And that's a plan she can trust for the rest of her life.

Copyright (c) 1996 Christianity Today, Inc./CAMPUS LIFE Magazine

May/June 1996, Vol. 54, No. 10, Page 30

clmay96mrj6CA0306419

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TRIUMPH OVER EVERYTHING

The award-winning Australian film, which swept before it the Australian Film Awards, and now is making such a critical impact in USA, "SHINE" is a "must see" film. It features Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Noah Taylor, Googie Withers, Sir John Gielgud in the story of a brilliant Perth pianist who has spent much of his life in a psychiatric hospital. David Helfgott, was a young boy apparently pushed to the edge by an incredibly strong father who had survived the Nazis as a Jew living in Poland. David Helfgott was a child prodigy whose interpretative genius promised a brilliant concert career. He won scholarships to an American Music school and the Royal School of Music, London. His father refused him permission to go, but David rejected his father and went to London. The father-son relationship ended. At the point of brilliant international success as a concert pianist, David suffered a devastating mental and emotional breakdown that threw him into years of mental blackness. He went from psychiatric hospital and closed wards to obscurity and years of absence from music. But through some amazing co-incidences and some people who cared for him, this hyper-active, babbling, incoherent street person finds hope, love that leads to marriage, a return to music and a concert career that has him playing at the moment throughout USA while his CD's are in the top ten sales in Australia. David Helfgott, with help from his friends, has triumphed over everything. It is one of the most amazing stories of triumph over tragedy and loss. It is an Australian story, and it is still being worked out successfully right at this moment.

The Acts of The Apostles has set the theme: You can triumph over anything! It is the story of a little church, a small band, imprisoned, brutalised, attacked by the Roman army, persecuted in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria and in the cities of Caesarea, Philippi and Corinth. Yet it ends in the centre of the Empire with citizens acknowledging Christ as Lord. It is triumph over tragedy, a little that became much, the weak that became strong. We now come to the final scenes. If you have felt insignificant, if you think that you have been dealt hard blows, if you feel handicapped and disabled, if you think that you are limited by your circumstances and prevented from reaching your objective in life, then read this passage carefully. For here PAUL DEMONSTRATES FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES that can assist you in triumphing over anything!

1. PURSUE YOUR GOAL.

In the Acts of the Apostles there is always a goal, an objective. It has been before Paul since he began to follow the Lord. We see its fulfillment in 28:14. "And so we came to Rome." Paul wanted to reach Rome and proclaim the gospel in the heart of the Empire. From there the good news would continue to spread. In the beginning, the church had been told, 1:8 "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The Acts of the Apostles recorded the spread of the faith. By the last chapter the message had run west to Greece, east to Persia, south towards India, north to Turkey, over to Macedonia, to Italy, Rome, and then to Europe. Such was the spread of the gospel in the thirty years of this book. Paul, in the last chapter, is on the final stage of his journey. After staying on the island of Malta, on March 6, 58 A.D., 28:11 "after three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods "Castor and Pollux," two favourite gods of sailors. They reached the Bay of Naples. Rome was only 140 miles away. 12 "We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. 13 From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. 14 There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome." They set off by road under the Roman guard who had been with them ever since Caesarea. 15-16 The Christians of Rome heard Paul was coming and went to meet him. It was a welcome surprise for Paul and Luke when they reached the Via Appia Forum, forty miles from Rome, to be greeted by some Christians. Another group was waiting ten miles further on, at the Three Inns, near the Gate of Rome itself. Paul's heart was lifted in thankfulness by this meeting with friends. The fulfillment of his dream to go to Rome was achieved. His goal was reached, and he found Christians already there! There had been Jews from Rome in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and converted, they had taken the gospel back with them. Others had been converted by the preaching of Priscilla and Aquila. Paul himself had written his greatest letter to the church at Rome three years earlier. Now Paul had arrived in person. Although still a prisoner he was permitted to live with guards to watch over him. He still had two years to wait before his trial, but he was in Rome. He had reached his goal. This is the mark of a successful person. Success in any area depends upon your goal. We often have people come to Wesley Mission whose life is in a mess and who have no goal. Their lives are meaningless. They have no point, no purpose, no direction. One of the first things we do, whatever the need, is to help them discover new goals, new directions, new things they can do. What is your goal? To know and to move towards it is to take the first step to overcoming obstacles in your path.

2. USE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

Paul used his circumstances to reach his goal. Once I led the Australian Olympian Betty Cuthbert to the Lord. Betty was a heroine to us at the Melbourne and Rome Olympics and again in Tokyo when she won more medals. But the race she is now running against multiple sclerosis brings from us a wave of admiration. She is using her changed circumstances to win another race and witnessing to her faith. Some plan that some day, somewhere, when the sun is shining, they will write a poem or compose a song. The best of poetry and music are not made like that. They come out of suffering. John Milton was blind. Beethoven was deaf. Walter Scott was lame. Robert Louis Stevenson had tuberculosis. Joni Erickson Tada is a quadriplegic. David Helfgott was certified as insane. But they all used their circumstances to achieve their goals. Don't let your handicap or limitation or circumstance stop you from achieving what God wants you to accomplish. Paul was a travelling preacher moving from country to country planting churches. Now he was in prison in Rome. Some said: "That is the end of his work!" Wrong! He would do his greatest work from there! Notice what happened! He was under house arrest with a soldier guarding him by a chain. The guard was on duty for eight hours. Then another guard changed duty with him. After eight hours, another change of guard.

Paul could not go to a congregation to preach, but he had a congregation which came to him! A congregation of one that couldn't get away! If Paul was confined, so was the guard with the possibility of an eight hour sermon! When Paul slept, some guards were thankful! But others had found new life in those days spent with Paul. Paul wrote to the Philippian Church from that cell, Phil 1:12-14 "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly." Some guards became Christian as the message spread through the palace guard. Before long there was a church meeting in the Emperor's palace! The last verse of his letter to Philippi reads, 4:22 "All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household." Paul's goal was to take the gospel to Rome. God allowed him to come in chains, and one guard after another became Christian. These were the guards who protected Caesar himself and in two years there was enough of them to become a church close to the Emperor! Paul was successful and triumphed over everything because he had a goal and used his circumstances, whatever they were, to achieve it. What are your circumstances? Some of you have been battling for years against some enemy, maybe drugs or alcohol. Some may be disabled physically, some have been scarred by war, physically, mentally, emotionally. Some here are unemployed, some lonely, some in advanced age. Others listening are in hospital. Others listening right now are in prison. But there is nowhere that God cannot see you, hear you and use you, if you use your circumstances. God can use you and you can triumph over anything!

3. SHARE YOUR FAITH.

Paul shared his faith. 17-21 So Paul called the local Jewish leaders to come to let them know why he was in Rome and why the Jerusalem Jews had arrested him and handed him over to the Romans. The Romans wanted to release him. The Jews objected to this and the only course left for Paul was to appeal to the Emperor. He was in chains for the sake of the hope that was held by all Israelites. The Jews in Rome said that they had not heard about these things. 22 But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect." 23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets." The response was the same as elsewhere: some believed, and some did not. God is not responsible for the way people agree or disagree with the gospel, but we are responsible for sharing what we believe.

4. MAXIMIZE YOUR POSSIBILITIES.

There are always possibilities. We must find them, use them, and then maximize them. Even in prison Paul made the most of the opportunities presented to him. Previously when he preached to Jews, they often ended his witness by throwing stones at him. One of the few times he preached the gospel without getting beaten up, was in Rome when he was chained to a guard! The very person who was there to make sure that he did not run away was also there to protect him. That is a good thing about the law. It is there to protect us. So Paul preached boldly the Gospel. Paul could not go to the synagogues or to the few churches in Rome. But what happened? People came to him. They listened and some believed.

Paul wrote letters to Philemon and Timothy, the Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians. Much of the rest of the New Testament is taken up with the letters he wrote from Rome's prison. If Paul had been free to visit those churches, we would never have had been the riches of those letters. Paul had discovered a great secret. Your limitations do not matter, or your handicap or disability. You can do all things through Christ.Paul said Phil 4:12-13 "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Do not whine! Discover Paul's secret and triumph over any situation. No matter what life has dealt with you, you can still win with Christ! Nothing is of greater importance than discovering a new life and a new future with Jesus as your Lord!

#4059

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Sermon in 1 Peter series. Submitting to those with power. 1 Pet 2:18ff

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IF YOUR BOSS IS A JERK

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I. Being owned by someone.

II. Bearing up under bad conditions. 2:18

A. Submit to good, and evil, masters. Colossians 3:21--4:2

B. What is commendable to God.

C. Called to be extraordinary.

III. Our example has been set by Jesus. 2:21

A. Example = do what Jesus would do.

B. Peter draws five allusions to Isaiah 53.

IV. Jesus was treated unjustly - for us. 2:24

A. Ultimately, the gospel itself is not fair.

B. Jesus looks for us, and after us. 2:25

V. You don't have to be jerked around.

A. Are you in a tense situation? Feel powerless?

B. Keep the proper perspective.

C. Are you in a position of power over others?

#4128

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Several years ago I found myself a long way from home in a small prison cell. As a prisoner of war, I was tortured, humiliated, starved and left to languish in squalor for six years.

It's important that you get a vivid mental picture of this scene. Try your best to smell the stench in the bucket I called my toilet and taste the salt in the corners of my mouth from my sweat, my tears and my blood. Feel the baking tropical heat in a tin-roofed prison cell - not that you'll ever be a POW. If I am effective in these few moments we spend together, you'll see that the same kind of challenges you face as a teenager, a student, a leader, or a parent, are the same basic challenges I faced in a prison cell: feelings of fear, loneliness, failure and a breakdown of communication. More importantly, your response to those challenges will be the same response I had to have in the prison camp just to survive.

What qualities do you have within you that would allow you to survive in a prison camp? Please pause here, think about this question, and write in the margin of this page at least five different qualities necessary for survival. (If you've written faith, commitment or dedication, you've already broken the code.)

As I worked my way through the first several months and then years of imprisonment, I found I already had a foundation of survival tools learned in life from my parents, preachers, youth leaders, and teachers. And the life-saving techniques I used in that prison camp had more to do with my value system, integrity and religious faith than anything I had learned from a textbook.

Sound like your life? The adversities you face in your life can be just as debilitating to you as six years in a Communist prison camp could have been to me. Now here's the test: The next time you have a huge problem facing you, turn back to this page and read not my writing but your writing in the margin. You'll find that the same factors you've written here, which would serve you well in a prison camp, will serve you even better in the challenge of everyday life.

____________

By Charlie Plumb, from A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Barry Spilchuk

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"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn."

-- John Wesley

"Enthusiasm is the all-essential jet propeller. Without it the highest heights are rarely reached. It is the driving force which elevates men to become miracle workers. White heat enthusiasm can melt the hardest problems."

-- Percy Whiting

"Our enthusiasm and excitement, our intuition and insight, our creativity and imagination, and our motivation and inspiration originate in and are controlled by the super-conscious. This wealth of talent is at our fingertips and we have to find ways of drawing on it."

-- Colin Turner

"Set the germ of enthusiasm afloat in your being; carry it in your attitude and manner - before you realise it, it spreads like contagion and influences every fibre of your life; it means increase in joy, and pleasure, it means virile life; it means spontaneous bedrock results - the vital things that pay dividends."

-- Henry Chester

"When a person applies enthusiasm to his job, the job will itself become alive with exciting new possibilities."

-- Norman Vincent Peale

"Enthusiasm is the yeast that raises the dough.

-- Paul J. Meyer

"Enthusiasm generates powers. It generates boldness, courage; kindles confidence, overcomes doubts. It creates endless energy, the source of all accomplishment."

-- Henry Ford

"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

-- Samuel Ullman

"Enthusiasts are fighters. They have fortitude. They have staying abilities. Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress! With it there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis...."

-- Henry Ford

"Enthusiasm is the most convincing orator; it is like the infallible law of nature. The simplest man, fired with enthusiasm, is more persuasive than the most eloquent man without it."

-- Franklin Field

"In the end, the size of a person's accomplishment can best be measured by the size of their heart."

-- (unknown)

"They can because they think they can."

-- Virgil, in "The Aeneid"

"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it."

-- Alexandre Dumas

"Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly."

-- St. Francis De Sales

"The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else."

-- Roy L. Smith

"Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm; it moves stones, it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it."

-- Edward G.E. Bulwer Lytton (1803 - 1873), writer, Bits & Pieces (B&P)

Easter 2000 Romans 8:31-39

MORE THAN CONQUERORS

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I. Easter as a day of triumph.

A. Flowers, new clothes, packed churches.

B. Do hard times discount the power and promises of God?

II. God's love gives us all things. 8:31-32

A. Simple truth: God is for us.

B. He gave us his Son. Gen 22:16

C. We need many things.

III. God's love comes to our defense. 8:33-34

A. Language from the court room.

B. Put your troubles in perspective.

IV. God's love overcomes all. 8:35-37

A. Each noun refers to dangers to faith from physical adversities.

B. Victory takes place through suffering, not apart from it.

V. God's love gives us the victory. 8:38-39

A. Threats to faith are heightened to the cosmic and supernatural.

B. As dangers heighten, so does Paul's confidence in God's love.

C. We are "super victors" in Jesus.

The 18 Most Common Self-Defeating Behaviors in Business

1. PROCRASTINATING: If you're always late on completing things, people stop relying on you; soon they start resenting you.

2. GETTING INVOLVED WITH THE WRONG PEOPLE: Yes, there are bad people in the world. If you keep giving them the benefit of the doubt, you'll be the one who has to clean up the mess.

3. SAYING YES WHEN YOU WANT TO SAY NO: It will result in burnout, loss of credibility, and loss of respect from others and yourself.

4. ASSUMING OTHERS DON'T WANT ANYTHING IN RETURN: It is human nature to almost always want something in return, even when people say they don't. Thinking ahead about what that might be can save you problems when others try to collect.

5. PLAYING IT SAFE: The world is in a rapid state of change. Doing the same old thing over and over and expecting it to be good enough may turn out not to be so safe after all.

6. ALWAYS HAVING TO BE RIGHT: Know-it-alls who don't know what they're talking about are jerks, whereas know-it-alls who do know what they're talking about are merely asses. Always having to be right can create so much resentment that you'd better always be right, because you're building a constituency of people who can't wait to see you fall on your face.

7. FOCUSING ON WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING WRONG: This is a demotivating habit. Focusing on what the other person is not doing makes it difficult for you to keep trying hard.

8. NOT LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES: Successful people don't make fewer mistakes than unsuccessful people, but they repeat fewer mistakes.

9. TALKING WHEN NOBODY'S LISTENING: This leads you to think that what you have said is going to be done, when in fact it's not. To make matters worse, you have to repeat the entire process. And this time you're going to be angry.

10. TAKING THINGS TOO PERSONALLY: When people take criticism too personally, instead of seeing that it is about fixing a problem, the problem becomes larger and takes longer to fix.

11. HAVING UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: When you confuse what is reasonable with what is realistic (it's reasonable to want to re-engineer your business; it's not realistic to do it all at once), you set yourself up to fail.

12. TRYING TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYBODY: You can't take care of everybody and do a decent job. In attempting to take care of everyone, nobody, including yourself, will be satisfied.

13. REFUSING TO "PLAY GAMES": Politics, schmoozing, and small talk are all necessary in order to succeed.

14. BEING ENVIOUS OF OTHERS: Teamwork is ruined when team members envy each other to the extent that they root against each other.

15. QUITTING TOO SOON: You have more control over trying or quitting than over success or failure. If you always quit, you'll never succeed; if you always try, you'll eventually succeed.

16. LETTING FEAR RUN YOUR LIFE: You were bad at science and math. The Internet is coming whether you like it or not. If you let fear run your life, it just might run you out of your job.

17. NOT MOVING ON AFTER A LOSS: When you spend more time NOT cutting your losses than you do moving ahead, you can't move ahead.

18. NOT ASKING FOR WHAT YOU NEED: What's important to you is not necessarily important to others. If you don't ask for what you need - whether it's something to help you do your job, or a promotion - you're leaving it to other people's imaginations. If you think your well being is a high priority to them, you have a good imagination.

_____________________

From Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior by Mark Goulston, M.D. and Philip Goldberg; Perigee/Berkley Books. Dr. Mark Goulston is the LifeSkills expert at http://www.lifescape.com and UCLA psychiatrist. His email address is dr.mark@lifescape.com.

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“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you” (Matt. 6:33).

As a rehab doctor in a veteran’s hospital, my husband treats soldiers who have recently returned from the war in Iraq as well as veterans from past wars.

Not surprisingly, many of these men and women have been through some terrible traumas and have not only physical injuries to deal with but emotional scars, as well. What is surprising to him is how differently people respond to their wounds. Some soldiers are stoicalZ about their pain and keep their nightmares to themselves. Some wear their wounds on their sleeves and continue to live in angry bitterness. Some give up and turn to drugs or alcohol to dull the memories. And some incredibly grow stronger. It is this last group that interests me most.

Why do some people experience the same trauma, loss and suffering as others, but they never give up? In fact, they actually grow from their experiences and go on to do amazing things -- even to help others who are suffering.

It would be grossly presumptuous on my part to say that I understand where these men and women are coming from. My traumas are puny in comparison with what they have endured. Yet, they have been big enough to cause me pain -- divorce, leaving friends behind, deaths of loved ones, miscarriage, and so on. Life is hard for us all at times. Some crumble under the weight of it, and others grow stronger. Therefore, my question remains -- what makes the difference? Why, even as a child, did I feel that each event, even the painful ones, provided a lesson to be learned and to be used? Is it simply a matter of personal fortitude? That would be presumptuous. No, I can be as big a weenie as the next guy. Is it wholly due to personality traits? No, I see both survivors and victims in all personality types. Is it found in other characteristics: gender, race, age, education wealth? Again, the obvious response is no.

The answer to my question seems to lie in believing that there is a greater purpose to life than personal welfare and physical well-being. Not a delusion of grandeur, but a spiritual perception that there is something more -- that this world is not our final destination and what happens in it is in some way a training ground for what will follow. It is the heartfelt belief that God has a plan for each one of us and for the world as a whole. Nothing happens only by chance. Nothing is beyond His redemptive reach or outside of His control. He sees, He knows, and He will not let us suffer in vain.

I believe that we always have a choice: to give in and live as a victim to the pain and suffering of life on this planet or to choose to live in His victory and strength. Even as I write these words, I confess that I am not often up to such a positive choice. Without His reaching down to lift me, I could not even choose to seek Him. But He does reach down! The knowledge of that truth fills my heart with joy. Yes, “each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). But “consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18), and rejoice.

Let the knowledge of that glory change you now and forever -- for your benefit, for the benefit of those around you, and for the glory of His name. It makes all the difference in the world and in the world to come.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16730]

Somerset Maugham, the English writer, once wrote a story about a janitor at St Peter's Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tocacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand dollars. One day the man's banker said, "You've done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?"

The man smiled and ultimately replied, "I would be a janitor!"

The life of Fanny Crosby –- our sweet singer in the night -- shows us how faith, courage, and cheerfulness can win over terrible handicaps. Her sight was completely destroyed when she was only six weeks old because someone placed a wrong poultice on her eyes. Fanny, then, never saw the beauties of the world about her. This affliction, however, only served to open a new world about her in which she saw Christ as her ever-present Helper and Friend.

Refusing to be pitied, she lived a most happy and useful life, making other lives better by her sweet songs. Believing that this was the work to which God had ordained her and for which He had providentially permitted the loss of her natural vision, she entered upon her lifework with such wholehearted zeal that she produced and published more than 8,000 gospel hymns and songs. She became America’s best-loved gospel-song writer.

Throughout her songs runs a note of certainty and assurance which stems from faith in God and His Word. Often the lines came to her as fast as they could be dictated. The words for “Blessed Assurance” were written as a result of a visit that Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp paid to her. Mrs. Knapp wrote the tune, took it to her friend, and after playing it asked, “Fanny, what does that tune say to you?”

Fanny thought for a few moments and then replied: “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”

Another hymn was on its way to bless humanity. This one, Ira Sankey declared, was one of the most popular and useful of gospel hymns in the great Moody-Sankey revivals. In her declining years “Aunt Fanny” loved to recite these words:

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Saviour all the day long.

Though sightless, Fanny Crosby had, nevertheless, experienced the “beatific vision” and was able to translate her faith and assurance into lines that have enriched the world.

________

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Copyright (c) June 1984, Pacific Press

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #21059]

A reporter once asked Tom Landry, successful coach of the Dallas Cowboys, “What makes a champion?” His answer was power packed. He said, “A champion is simply someone who didn't give up when he wanted to.” He went on to explain: “Success is not accidental. We learn how to achieve.”

Tom Landry further explained the power of positive action by saying, “I'd like to list four short steps that I think it takes to be a champion in the field of sports. First, there is faith. It's believing that you can win. Second, I think you must have training to be a champion. The Cowboys work out four times a week. They lift millions of tons of iron every season. We run many miles to win. Third, to be a champion, you have to have a goal. All winning teams set high goals. The fourth thing that makes for championship is, you must possess the will to reach the goal you set for yourself. This is probably the most important quality of all champions.”

____________

Don Polston, {Living Without Losing}, (Irvine, CA: Harvest House Publishing, 1975), 161.

It's sheer madness. How on earth are we going to accomplish this feat. Mountains are big; let's climb this one...

1. IS IT REALLY A MOUNTAIN? OR IS IT THAT YOU SEE A MOUNTAIN?

The task before you could be a 2500 meter climb, a 10,000 meter race, to organize the Olympic Games, buy a carton of milk at the corner shop or to keep to your schedule to please an important client. The task before you is indeed a mountain if that is what you see!

Take a good look at what lies ahead of you. Let's say you have a relatively short amount of time to organize a meeting for your regional director. If the first thing that pops into your head is that you probably won't achieve it in time, therein lies the problem. Without this pre-conception your job is a simple undertaking. But when you have convinced yourself it's not possible, you have just created Mt Fuji when only a moment earlier it was mere baseball mound.

Give yourself some credit. You didn't get to where you are now by selling yourself short! Bring the baseball mound back.

2. GO AROUND THE MOUNTAIN

It is important to do some research first. There are always many possible answers to the one single problem. We all know it is easier to work our way around the hill than to tackle the peak itself. Is the goal to climb to the peak or simply to get to the other side?

If your destination is just to get to the other side then adjust your plan accordingly. Conserve your energy for those things that are indeed closer to your heart.

3. DO YOU REALLY NEED TO CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN?

This is very important here. Be overly honest with yourself. Why are you going to climb this mountain? Is it because deep down you really want to accomplish this feat or is it to please somebody else? This is probably the most important issue here. If you climb for the wrong reasons the chances are, at worst, you will fail; and at best, you will have a feeling of un-fulfillment from within.

Don't do everything simply to please someone else. It will severely deflate you. You are the most important person in the world. Treat yourself with the respect you deserve. If you don't, others may infinitely be pressing your buttons.

If you've wanted to get to the peak of this hill then for heavens sake go there and achieve it. The feeling will be exhilarating. If you're indifferent, then find your niche. You will have to seek it out as it is highly unlikely that it will find you.

4. DON'T DO IT ALONE!!

A group of individuals with the same common goal have a habit of drawing incredible power and strength from one another. Plan your trip carefully with experienced mountaineers. A team with the same target has a much greater chance of success than a lone ranger with summit fever.

In relation to your professional life it is important that you seek out as much knowledge and professional advice as possible from the wealth of information available from others. Tap into as many different success formulae as you can. Educate yourself in your field, absolutely! Become an expert. Even if you are already an expert in your field there are always mountains (pardon the pun) of new material regularly released that will assist you no end in your endeavor.

5. YOU'VE ALREADY REACHED THE MOUNTAIN PEAK IN YOUR MIND!!

This is an important training exercise. As you envision in your mind that the goal, i.e., in this case reaching the summit has already been achieved you will sub-consciously adjust your surroundings to make getting there substantially easier.

Visions of success will increase your confidence and therefore your chances of success.

Put a goal sheet on your wall, beside your desk, inside your cap, in your wallet, purse ... anywhere but make them visible to you.

6. START CLIMBING FROM THE BEST ACCESS POINT

Experience has shown that the journey will be easier when you start from as close as possible to your goal. Prepare thoroughly. This point is a follow on from the last. In a nutshell be a PT (prepare thoroughly) for everything you do.

When thoroughly prepared you will have created answers to problems that have at this time not developed into problems, but will be easily recognizable and solvable if and when they transpire.

7. OKAY, YOU'VE DECIDED TO CLIMB, BUT CLIMBING IS FUN!

You've decided to climb the hill. There is only one lifetime and therefore no time for regrets. Enjoy your climb. If you don't you shouldn't really be there in the first place.

Enjoy what you do, always!

8. PLAN FOR EVERY CONTINGENCY

It's always good to be prepared for anything that can potentially happen. Plan ahead and cover all your options. It may seem pedantic but every parachuter, every motor car racer, virtually every professional will plan for all situations. It's not much point realizing what you need when you need it. Generally speaking, it's too late at this point.

9. TRAVEL LIGHTLY

This is straightforward. What you take with you will need to carry. There's not much chance of an industrial hair drier coming in handy.

In a business sense, make sure your home life stays there. If you are developing something on the home front, for heavens sake make sure it stays there. If you bring your home concerns to work, your output will indeed be impeded. This will weigh you down and have the same effect a laden backpack would.

Give your mind a break. Don't fill your backpack with non-necessities ...

10. ENJOY THE VIEW

You will pass through incredible heights during your journey. Make them memorable; this is a marvelous feat you are accomplishing. Realize it for what it is and you'll enjoy it and gain an incredible amount of strength from your accomplishment.

Who knows, you may then start to plan your next rewarding achievement.

In his Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis created a magical land called Narnia where the animals talked - and which he used to illustrate allegorically some important Biblical truths. The Christ-figure in the Chronicles is a majestic lion named Aslan. And, there's a little girl named Lucy, who's one of the children who discovers Narnia. Now, in the Narnia book, Prince Caspian, Lewis relates a reunion between Lucy and Aslan, whom she has not seen for some time. And, it's a tender reunion. What follows is a short, but very insightful, conversation. Lewis says that Lucy "gazed up into that large, wise face. 'Welcome, child,' he said. 'Aslan,' said Lucy, 'you're bigger.' 'That is because you are older, little one,' answered he. 'Oh, not because you are?' 'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Survivors' Faith."

"Every year you grow, you will find me bigger." That is a beautiful description of a Jesus-follower's enlarging relationship with Jesus Christ - and our enlarging view of how big our Lord really is. And the experiences that grow us the most inevitably are the experiences that hurt the most. It was only after all of Job's almost infinite suffering that he could say to God, "My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You." (Job 42:5)

And every experience of your life - including what you're facing right now - is designed by your Lord to enlarge your view of Him and to deepen your relationship with Him. Now, Job never appeared on the reality TV series, Survivor, but he sure won his survivor challenges big-time. And he models for us the secret of survivors' faith - the kind that makes it through the most trying, most painful, most unexplainable crucibles of your life.

That secret is in our word for today from the Word of God in Job 23, beginning in verse 8. He says, "If I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him." Job is in the depths of his personal valley, and he just can't see any visible sign of God. Listen, we have all been there - the pain is so real and God seems so silent.

But here comes survivors' faith. "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commandments of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread."

Alright, here's the secret: survivors' faith is based not on what God does, but on Who He is. That's how spiritual grownups live. You come to the place where you do not let your faith rise and fall with the circumstances - your faith is anchored in what you know God is always like. No matter what the circumstances. And that's what you trust! And, that's what keeps you going when there's not much else around you to go on.

As you cling to your Lord through the deepest of valleys, through the darkest of times, you discover, more than you ever knew before, what a mighty, majestic God you belong to. And He'll seem bigger to you every step of the way. Oh, it isn't that He's grown - it's that you have - by trusting in who your God is, not in what you God does.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

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It is a fact of Christian experience that life is a series of troughs and peaks. In his efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, God relies on the troughs more than the peaks. And some of his special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.

-Peter Marshall

Our car got a boo-boo last winter. During two weeks I called "The Ice Age" in our area, a car slid into our vehicle in a parking lot. So the right side looked pretty ugly. Interestingly enough, that damage didn't affect the performance of our car at all. Like so many older cars we've had over the years, the outside was banged up but the engine was running fine.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Banged Up, But Running Well."

It's possible for you and me to run that way, too - hit hard and dented on the outside, but still running strong on the inside. A hit to the chassis doesn't have to mean a hit to the engine, and that's what keeps you going.

This "banged up but running well" phenomenon is explained in our word for today from the Word of God. In 2 Corinthians 4, beginning in verse 16, Paul says, "We do not lose heart." Now, that's pretty significant in light of the fact that earlier in the chapter he tells us about their being "hard pressed on every side ... perplexed ... persecuted ... struck down." But in spite of all those hits, they are not "crushed" or "in despair" or "abandoned" or "destroyed."If you've taken some hits lately, you might be interested in how Paul keeps his engine running so smoothly.

2 Corinthians 4:16 - "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." Just because you're battered on the outside doesn't mean you have to be battered on the inside. Just because you're running down on the outside doesn't mean you have to run down on the inside. Just because you're body is sick doesn't mean your spirit has to be sick. You can lose your job, your health, your loved one, your things - but you don't have to lose heart! That's a choice you make.

Paul has come to know his Lord as the Renewer - the One who refuels and refreshes his spirit each new day. Remember, God has promised that those who are weary and weak but wait on Him will "renew their strength" and "soar on wings like eagles." (Isaiah 40:31) How does it happen? First, you get God's perspective. That perspective recognizes the difference between what about this situation is "temporary" and what about this situation is "eternal." We can say of any earth-burden - what Karen and I used to say when our kids were going through the roller coaster junior high years - "TTSP" - "This too shall pass." That perspective makes the burdens bearable. They're heavy ... they hurt ... but they're only for a little while.

Secondly, you have to focus on God's payoff. Paul refuses to get mired in the present troubles - they're temporary. He focuses instead on the "eternal glory" that is going to be his for being victorious through these troubles. He tells us to "fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen ... what is eternal." At that point, your troubles suddenly seem relatively "light and momentary," as Paul says.

A car can be hit hard and all banged up, but that doesn't have to affect its performance. It's the condition of the engine that counts. You can be hit hard and all banged up, but it doesn't have to affect your performance. It's the condition of your spirit that counts. And God stands ready to jump start your spirit each new day - if you'll focus on your Lord and not on your load.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-- Dylan Thomas, written on the death of his father

"Here is the secret of inspiration. Tell yourself that thousands and tens of thousands of people, not very intelligent and certainly not more intelligent than the rest of us, have mastered problems as difficult as those that now baffle you."

-- William Feather (1889 - 1981), writer, cited in BITS & PIECES (B&P)

"To different minds, the same world is a hell and a heaven."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, QFTM 2/15/03

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever..."

-- Isak Dinesen, author, QFTM 4/26/03

"It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling

exception, is composed of others."

-- John Andrew Holmes, Wit & Wisdom 12/13/03

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"Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity." -- Lou Holtz

Success in life depends upon being strong people with clear goals and indomitable spirits. Unfortunately most of us aren't born that way. We grow that way. And that growth can either come from us entering willfully into situations that will cause us to grow, [...] or from the way we react when circumstances come upon us without our consent. The latter is what we call adversity.

Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid adversity, and I guess that is just as well. We shouldn't pursue adversity, but when she arrives, we should welcome her as a foe who, though our interaction with her, will make us into better people. Every contact we have with adversity gives us again the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and to forge our character into one that will achieve much later on.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts on adversity...

ADVERSITY BRINGS OUT OUR RESOURCES. Horace said, "Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it." When everything is going well, we coast. There isn't a lot of stress, and we don't have to draw too much on the resources that reside within us. But when adversity comes we begin to draw upon each and every resource that we have in order to conquer the circumstances at hand. Adversity then, keeps us sharp. It keeps us using our personal muscle, if you will. That is a good thing because we grow through the use of our resources.

ADVERSITY BRINGS US TOGETHER WITH OTHERS. Sure a team can have their problems with each other, but when they step on the court, when they experience the adversity of facing another obstacle, they pull together. One for all and all for one, as they say. The next time you experience adversity of some kind, keep your eyes open for how it can bring you together with your family, your co-workers or your team. Then when you are through it, you will find a bond that was created that wasn't there before.

ADVERSITY MAKES US BETTER PEOPLE WITH STRONGER CHARACTERS. Never underestimate the power of adversity to shape us inwardly. How will courage, discipline and perseverance ever flourish if we are never tested? After adversity, we come out stronger people and able then to use our character and influence in an even greater way to lead those around us and to improve their lives as well as our own.

ADVERSITY MAKES LIFE INTERESTING. John Amatt said, "Without adversity, without change, life is boring." How true. Have you noticed that while we are in the middle of adversity we only long to get out of it, but we then spend a lifetime recounting it to anyone who will listen? This is because it spices life up a little. Imagine how boring life would be if everything always went well, when there was never a mountain to be climbed.

Question - If you are in the middle of some adversity right now, what resources are you drawing on? Who are you drawing closer to and working with? What part of your character is being tested, and built up? What can you do to view this adversity as one who will be better for it on the other side?

Remember the words of Napoleon Hill - "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." Believe it, it is true!

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Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer

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