79a – Your Secret Weapon
Think a minute…Years ago a woman was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor an American civilian can receive. This was all the more amazing since she was not even an American! Mrs. Josefina Guerrero was from the Philippines, where she became known simply as Joey.
Joey was a young, pretty lady with an outgoing personality. She was well-known in her home city of Manila, and her husband was a successful medical student. Everything seemed to be going her way. Then World War II started.
Joey and her friends offered to help the U.S. prisoners of war by bringing them food, clothing, medicine, and important messages. Later Joey even volunteered to serve as a spy. In fact, she became one of the most effective spies the Americans ever had. On her first mission she explored and drew maps of enemy camps. Her only weapons were paper and pencil which she used to record everything she saw behind enemy lines.
One of Joey’s nearly impossible missions took her on foot through 56 miles of enemy territory, including minefields and enemy camps. It was this kind of bravery and skill on her many missions that earned her great respect from the American soldiers who gave her the affectionate nickname Joey.
What is most amazing is that during those three years of her highly successful career as a spy in enemy territory, Joey was never caught! But there was a special reason she was able to achieve such a remarkable record as a wartime spy who saved hundreds, even thousands, of American lives. Joey had a weakness and disability that she used as her secret weapon to help win the war: she had leprosy. Consequently, she was never searched or interrogated by the enemy.
You may have what you think is a weakness or disability. But God can help you find the way to use it for your success by helping others around you. Won’t you ask Him to take full charge of your life? Only He can truly lead you into the successful and satisfying life He has planned for you. Just think a minute…
79b – Benefits of Bonding
Think a minute…Scientific studies have shown that much of our world’s anger and violence comes from people who do not have close, caring relationships. It’s a simple fact of life: “Everybody needs somebody.” Close, true friendships make our life successful and satisfying in many ways.
First, friends make you stronger and more able to handle stress in your life. Friends encourage and support you so you know you’re not alone in your disappointments and difficult times. People who are hurting need more than just sympathy—they need a friend. “When we succeed, our friends know. When we fail, we know our true friends.” It’s so true: “A real friend walks in when everybody else walks out.” There are few things sadder and lonelier than going through a painful time or tragedy and not having a friend you can totally trust, talk to, and depend on for help.
A second benefit of bonding with others is that it guides us in our moral character and doing the right thing in life. When we bond with people, we want to treat them right. “You cannot legislate morality.” Laws can only limit or restrain us from doing bad and unlawful things to others; but laws cannot change our heart and make us good inside. Only love in our heart can make us genuinely kind, forgiving, self-controlled, and honest. You want to do the right thing for people you love and care about. You do not need a law to stop you from robbing them, since that is the last thing in the world you want to do to people you love.
Something else that bonding with others gives us is meaning to our success. “One of the most miserable persons on earth is the one who has money and no friends.” The world is full of wealthy, lonely people who live in big, beautiful houses that have no real love inside. But when you have people you truly care about, then your success means you’re providing for the people you love. You’re also helping the many lives that your job or business serves. Your professional goal is not just to make money, but to enjoy using it to help improve other people’s lives. This is far more valuable than just the money itself.
Won’t you ask the One who loves you more than anyone to become your closest friend? If you wholeheartedly ask Jesus to come into your life today, He can start filling your heart with His real love so you’re able to bond more closely with those people you need and who need you. Just think a minute…
79c – Man of the House
Think a minute…Chris Spielman was a professional football player in the U.S. for 10 years. He was famous for his aggressive playing and tough tackling. But just before the 1998 professional football season, his wife discovered she had cancer. Chris chose to sit out an entire year of his professional career so he could give full-time care to his sick wife. In fact, he helped her win her fight against cancer.
A year later at the beginning of the 1999 football season, when he was returning to his career, Chris Spielman injured his neck so badly that he was forced to stop playing professional football permanently, for the rest of his life.
Think of the sacrifice this husband made to take care of his wife. He never played professional football again. Yet Spielman told news reporters that he gladly chose to stop playing so he could care for his sick wife. He loves her and their children much more than his high-paying career as a professional athlete. This is what he said to reporters: “I told my wife Stephanie that I want to be the one who takes her to the doctor for medicine and treatments. I want to be the one who holds her hand. I want to be the one who takes care of our kids when she is not able to.”
It takes a truly strong man to let go of his own desires and dreams, so he can take care of the needs of his wife and children first. But that may be what it takes to be the “man of the house” that our wife and kids really need. Our challenge is that we do not naturally have that kind of inner strength and character to truly love and put our wife and children first. Yet that is what a real leader does: he serves the ones he is leading, even if at times it costs him his own personal needs, desires and ambitions.
This is why God showed us the perfect example of a real man and leader. God the Son humiliated Himself by becoming a human being to suffer and sacrifice Himself for us whom He deeply loves. Jesus wants to give you His same power and strength of character so you can become a real man and servant-leader of your family. A husband and father who will do whatever it costs to give the true love and leadership your wife and children need. That’s the only way you can provide for them the secure, happy life they long for. Won’t you ask Jesus to start changing your heart and character as the true “man of the house”? Just think a minute…
79d – Luck or Love?
Think a minute…This is an amazing true story of love and luck, or what appeared to be luck. Terri wanted to buy her husband David something special for Christmas. She started shopping early and in September found exactly what she was looking for. However, it cost more than she could afford on her husband’s salary as a policeman. Yet fortunately, the gracious shopkeeper let her take it home that same day with the agreement that she would pay him whenever she could. So, Terri gave her husband an early Christmas present.
About two weeks later, Terri’s husband David was working the night shift when a call on his police radio reported a drugstore robbery. Officer Dave arrived just in time to see the robber’s car speeding away. He quickly turned on the loud police siren on his car and chased after the thief. It was not long before the criminal pulled over and Dave was walking up to the robber’s car to arrest him. Suddenly the thief threw open his door and shot Officer Dave in the stomach with a .45 caliber gun!
When Dave’s wife Terri heard the news that her policeman husband had been shot, she was so grateful! You see, Christmas came early that year for David with the gift of life his wife could not wait to give him: his own bulletproof vest.
Did you realize that your life has likely been saved a number of times that you didn’t even know about? You were not saved by luck, but by love. God loves you so much that He keeps giving you more time to spiritually come home and get right with Him. He keeps patiently waiting for you to truly love Him and start living His way every day, so you can be ready for your life to end. Remember: “No one gets out of life alive.” Everyone who lives dies.
Why risk one more day? With all your heart ask Jesus to forgive you for living your own wrong way, and to take full charge of your daily way of living. With the Creator and Lord of life Himself in control, you will never need luck. You will finally have the complete security and peace that you’re living every day ready to die—including today. Just think a minute…
79e – Your Biggest Bank Account
Think a minute…Imagine every morning that somebody put $86,400 in your bank account. Then every night, whatever you did not use that day was taken out of your account and burned. I’m quite certain you would spend every cent of your $86,400 every single day—so none of it would be thrown away and destroyed!
Believe it or not, you already have a bank account exactly like that one. But yours is filled with something far more valuable than money. It’s filled with time. When you run out of time, you run out of life. You either use it or lose it. Every morning your time bank gives you 86,400 seconds. Then every night, the time that you did not use that day is lost forever. “Lost time is never found.” That is why we must learn to spend our time on the right, best things. Remember: “If you kill time it’s suicide, because time is what your life is made of.”
This is why we must stop getting ripped off by the trivial, temporary things we spend so much of our time on. We pay a lot and only get a little. So, what are the smartest, best deals worth your time and life?
The smartest, and safest, investment of your time is to spend it with the Person who gives you every second of your life. God created you so He could share His awesome life with you. He even came to show you what He is like, and the successful, satisfying way of living He designed you to enjoy. The more time you spend with Jesus, the better you will know how to live well and wisely. In fact, He guarantees that if you spend your 86,400 seconds each day on living for Him, when you run out of time, you’ll be a rich person in His eternal economy.
The other smart investment of our time is people. At the end of your life, you will never be sorry for the time you spent with your wife or husband, your children, your brothers and sisters, parents, and good friends. Furthermore, you will never regret the time you spent helping others around you—including your neighbors, fellow workers, and strangers. Giving your time to people only makes you richer, since the return on your investment lasts and keeps growing.
Thankfully, as long as we are still breathing, it’s never too late to change. Won’t you get started today? Sincerely ask Jesus to forgive you. Then ask Him to help you start wisely using the time you still have left by living His way every day. His way is the only way you can have the complete security of His everlasting life the moment you run out of time. Just think a minute…