The only time anybody ever accepted responsibility for their lives and future is NOW.

Responsibility isn’t planned; no one ever scheduled responsibility or added it to their to-do list.

Nor is it calculated. You don’t sequence responsibility with a series of other steps.

Responsibility doesn’t look backwards. [click to continue…]

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Can You Tell Me, What is Pride?

by Andy Wood on August 4, 2018

in 100 Words, Photos

Can you tell me, What is Pride?

A setup for falling if your only view’s the mirror…

Theater of division if you focus on race or ethnicity.

Create “we” out of “I” however, and when “we” charge the world together,

Heart-borne pride becomes the wonder we share

In serving something bigger, uniting us together.

Now pride happy-dances with humility and

Glories in ways we resemble and differ.

Furthermore, when new generations

Own and advance your legacy…

Xenophiles, teachers, Kingdom builders, preachers…

Everlasting pride is the gratitude you feel that

Somehow God would give you an earthbound witness to His glory.

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It is the nature of a roaring fire to eventually consume the fuel and exhaust the energy produced by the process.

So the fire recedes.

The heat subsides.

And unless the fire is rekindled, it eventually dies.

To rekindle is to throw smaller, simpler fuel – the easy-to-ignite stuff – onto an already existing fire. It is to blow new air onto the embers. [click to continue…]

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If you’ve been knocked down, get up.

If you’re too tired to take another step, but you’re not “there” yet, press on.

If your heart’s been broken, your trust betrayed, find an anchor for your soul and dig in. [click to continue…]

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God has ways of doing things.

His ways are different that our way of doing things.

There’s a way that makes sense to us, but the results are disastrous.

But God has different ways.

And He asks us to walk in all of them. [click to continue…]

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I just want to be the guy who says yes.

I want to say yes to the character and call of God. I want to so live my life that His faithfulness shines like the morning sun. I want other people to have confidence in Him because of what they see in me.

I want to say yes to a better tomorrow. I want to charge into the future with expectancy and imagination. I want to tip my hat to the things that make us afraid, then kick the hell out of fears that paralyze us. I want to embrace a freer, more joyful horizon for myself and my world, then take as many people as I can in that direction. [click to continue…]

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“The Lord has made everything for its own purpose…” (Proverbs 16:4).

That includes you and me.

More than just a living “who” or “what,” we’re all rooted in the rich, fertile soil of “why.” [click to continue…]

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and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. (Deuteronomy 1:31)

You thought you were walking.

You thought you were slogging on, one trudging step at a time.

You thought the miles were your miles, your blisters and callouses also.

You thought it was your unpleasant surprises.

Your frightful experiences.

Your daily grind.

But you may have missed another viewpoint… one rooted in a higher story. [click to continue…]

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As the joy of expectancy greets the heart’s nostalgia for days and lives gone by this Christmas, I pray that you would experience a fresh encounter with a God powerful enough to whisper His truth in a still, small voice.

I pray that He would manifest His presence in ways that bring new clarity of vision and enflamed imagination for the exploits you and I can do.

I pray that the joy of your salvation would fill you to overflowing as you are conformed daily into the image of Christ and learn to patiently wait on Him. [click to continue…]

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(The 12 Pathways to Christmas, Part 11 – The Way of Connection)

(This is a reprint from a previous post and a chapter in my book The Twelve Pathways to Christmas. See below for how you can purchase the book and help support missions.)

“I have connecting gate information here!”

Amber Amari knew something about making connections.  And no place connected more people and destinations than Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

“Dallas/Ft Worth? A33.  Richmond?  Gate B10.”

Amber had the printout for Delta Flight 2943, inbound from Newark, as she stood at Gate A5.  But she hardly had to refer to it.  She had a remarkable gift for remembering the complex array of gates, times, and final destinations of her assigned passenger manifests.

“Oklahoma City is B14…  You’re welcome, sir – Merry Christmas to you, too.”

Everyone else on 2943 was a connection-in-waiting.  But today Amber had a special assignment.  The last passenger to deplane – six-year-old Bradi Russo – would be her companion for the day.

“Charlotte?  B8.”

Amber was something of a specialist in making connections.  And nowhere did the 27-year-old Red Coat’s gifts shine more than in unique, delicate situations.

Bradi Russo was a unique situation.

And as the tentative little girl took the hand of the flight attendant and walked toward the gate, it was good to know, Amber Amari understood the concept of delicate. [click to continue…]

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