(41)  “GOD DOESN’T MAKE JUNK” 

I will never forget the letter I received from a lady who had met with me to discuss her concerns about her son. She wrote: “I came to see you about my son but somehow you sensed I needed help. You helped me realise that I was worth loving, and that God actually valued me. I came from our talk feeling that I had insulted God for thinking someone he created was worthless, and I was suddenly convinced God loved me as I am and I wanted to shout it to everyone. It took the rest of the day to calm down. What a lovely …

“As my class……read the gospels and watched movies about Jesus’ life, we noticed a striking pattern. The more unsavoury (undesirable, outcast, disrespectable) the characters, the more at ease they seemed to feel around Jesus. In contrast, Jesus got a chilly response from more respectable types. I remarked to the class how strange this pattern seemed, since the Christian church now attracts respectable types who closely resemble the people most suspicious of Jesus when He was on earth. What has happened to reverse the pattern of Jesus’ day. Why don’t sinners like being around us?”
THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW by Philip Yancey

God’s purpose for each of us is that …

(31)  “YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR LIFE”

There came a time in my life where I came to the sobering conclusion that if I lose my attitude, I will lose my ministry. So seriously did this insight concern me that I gave my wife permission to point out to me any time she noticed that my bad attitude was affecting my life and my ministry. The following are some things that I have learned about attitude:
* It is not what happens to you that can be controlled, it is what you think about what happens to you is the critical issue.
* My attitude is a choice that I make. …