The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. BOUNDARIES “God’s boundaries come out of His love for us. Right and wrong are established to protect us from consequences that will hurt us. For instance, “Do not steal” protects us from losing the trust of others, and “Do not have sex before marriage” protects us from sexually transmitted diseases and being physically bonded to someone other than our spouse for life. In general, we need to see and present authority as a blessing to our teens. Specifically, we need to present the Word of God as the most trustworthy standard. It is reliable, consistent, and complete. We have freedom because He gives us free will, but that’s also a reason He provides boundaries.”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. HOW KNOW GETTING OLD? “You know you’re getting older when: Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work.

The gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals.

Your little black book contains only names ending in M.D.

You get winded playing chess.

Your children begin to look middle-aged.

Your mind makes contracts your body can’t meet.

You know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions.

You look forward to a dull evening at home.

You’re turning out lights for economic rather than romantic reasons.

Your knees buckle and your belt won’t.

The best part of your day is over when the alarm goes off.

Your back goes out more than you do.

A fortune teller offers to read your face.

You’ve got too much room in the house and not enough room in the medicine cabinet.

You sink your teeth in a steak, and they stay there.”

Excerpt From: Hodgin, Michael. “1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking.”

  1. A HEARTBEAT AWAY “Many seem to have the idea that heaven is a long way off. Not really. It is only one heartbeat away. James asked, “What is your life?” Then he answered his own question by indicating that life is really just a vapor. It appears for a little while and then vanishes away (James 4:14). For each of us, one of these days that old heart is going to stop. Then, in the wink of an eye, we will begin eternity . . . somewhere.”

Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”

  1. ABSOLUTIZING “Even though there is a drive to relativize absolutes, men and women cannot live without them. So they eventually take something of relative value and absolutize it. That is, they regard it as the core value that determines their attitude to everything else. From time immemorial the obvious candidates have been the state, power, wealth, and sex.”

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. WHAT U WANT? “If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want.” — Unknown
  2. MARTYRS  “As far as Christianity is concerned, it is easy for some of us to forget that, at the moment, persecution is raging in many parts of the world.

For 27 years, the International Bulletin of Missionary Research has published an annual Status of Global Mission report, which attempts to quantify the world Christian reality, comparing Christianity’s circumstances to those of other faiths, and assaying how Christianity’s various expressions are faring when measured against the recent (and not-so-recent) past. The report is unfailingly interesting, sometimes jarring, and occasionally provocative. The provocation in the 2011 report involves martyrdom. For purposes of research the report defines “martyrs” as “believers in Christ who have lost their lives, prematurely, in situations of witness, as a result of human hostility.” The report estimates that there were, on average, 270 new Christian martyrs every 24 hours over the past decade, such that “the number of martyrs [in the period 2000–2010] was approximately 1 million.”

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. GO FOR IT “Consider how the forward pass became a part of football. It was legalized in 1906 but hardly ever deployed until 1913, seven years later, when a small, obscure Midwestern school, Notre Dame, had to travel east to face mighty Army, a heavily favored powerhouse. With little to lose, the Fighting Irish coach, Jesse Harper, decided to employ this risky, newfangled strategy by using his quarterback, Charlie “Gus” Dorais, and his end, a kid named Knute Rockne. The summer before, Dorais and Rockne had been lifeguards on a Lake Erie beach near Sandusky, Ohio, who passed the time throwing a football back and forth. The Army players were stunned as the Irish threw for 243 yards, which was unheard of at the time. Notre Dame won easily, 35–13. After that, the Irish no longer resided in college football obscurity, Dorais and Rockne became one of the first and best passing tandems of all time, and the forward pass was here to stay. Dorais and Rockne would both go on to become revered Hall of Fame coaches, in large part because they continued deploying their passing tactics at the coaching level.”

Excerpt From: Tobias Moskowitz & L. Jon Wertheim. “Scorecasting.”

  1. OBEY “The blessings of God are never attained by violating the principles of God.”

— Andy Stanley

  1. TRUTH If it is true that “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free,” then is it possible that if you don’t know the truth, it’s absence can place you in bondage? –Unknown
  2. CRY BABY “Our friend Lynda Pearce says she never regrets taking a couple years off to care for her new baby.

“I thought the crying and whining would drive me crazy at first,” she explains, “but my boss eventually calmed down.”

–Michael Hodgin

 

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. KIDS: “I AM MY OWN AUTHORITY” “There are three parenting styles that play into this authority lie: the Friend Parent, the Absent Parent, and the Inconsistent Parent.

Friend Parents are so devoted they almost worship their kids. They want to be their children’s friends! They allow their teens to do what they want, believe they can do no wrong, and have a hard time saying no. These parents either don’t bother teaching standards for right and wrong, or they do try to establish such standards but in confusing ways. These children don’t experience much authority, if any, and this freedom communicates to them, You don’t need authority. You can do what you want.

The children of Absent Parents draw the same conclusion but for different reasons. These parents just aren’t there for their kids. They’re too busy with work or with personal problems, or they can’t be bothered. They force early independence upon their children and cause them to parent themselves. Essentially these teens become their own authority by default.

Inconsistent Parents might treat children like friends one minute, but not the next. They may be heavy-handed one day, but then lighten up as they feel guilty over the way they just responded to their children. Sometimes they may order their kids around and at other times be completely absent. These children have a warped view of authority and may think, If that’s what authority is and does, I don’t need any. In these situations, the children will be confused, drifting, and argumentative.”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. WE WILL KNOW “We will know one another in heaven. In fact, the Bible says we will be known as we are known. When Peter, James, and John stood with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared before them in their glorified forms and were readily recognized (Matthew 17). No one will have to introduce me to Paul or Peter or anyone else— and these heroes of the faith will know you and me. It is one thing for us to know the president of the United States, but it is quite something different for him to know us, to call us by name. In heaven we will know and be known.

Recently a NASA scientist speculated about the possibility of alien life on other planets. I have news for him. There is alien life on our planet. Those of us who are Christians are aliens in this world for “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). We are citizens of another kingdom. We are simply passing through on our way home.”

Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”

  1. COLD STAGE “A husband’s reactions to his wife’s colds during the first seven years of marriage: 1ST YEAR: “Sugar Dumpling, I’m really worried about my baby girl. You’ve got a bad sniffle and there’s no telling about these things with all the strep going around. I’m putting you in the hospital. I know the food’s lousy, but I’ll be bringing your meals in from Rozzini’s. I’ve already got it all arranged with the floor superintendent.” 2D YEAR: “Listen, Darling, I don’t like the sound of that cough and I’ve called the doctor to rush over here. Now you go to bed like a good girl, just for Pappa.” 3D YEAR: “Maybe you’d better lie down, Honey. Nothing like a little rest when you feel lousy. I’ll bring you something. Have we got any canned soup?” 4TH YEAR: “Now look, Dear, be sensible. After you feed the kids, do the dishes and mop the floor, you’d better rest.” 5TH YEAR: “Why don’t you take a couple aspirin?” 6TH YEAR: “If you’d just gargle or something instead of sitting around barking like a seal all evening…” 7TH YEAR: “For Pete’s sake, stop that sneezing. What are you trying to do, give me pneumonia?”

Excerpt From: Hodgin, Michael. “1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking.”

  1. FACEBOOK “Do less Facebook and spend more time with [your] face in a book.” – K. Koch
  2. PROPRIETY “While it may seem outdated or paranoid, and often is inconvenient, I submit that a married person is wise never to ride—or work, travel, dine, etc.—alone with a member of the opposite sex.

My informal manifesto to our first woman executive ran something like this: “We will never meet alone with the door closed. If at the end of a day we are the last two in the office, one of us goes home. No lunches or dinners alone together. No shared rides to the airport, and no sitting together on the flight” (forfeiting valuable pre-meeting time). “When renting cars out of town,” I said, “we’ll rent two—our client will reimburse us for one, and our firm will pay for

the other.”

Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”

  1. ALL THERE IS? “My father used to tell the story of a discussion with a law school

student about his future plans. The conversation went something like this:

“Son, tell me about your plans after law school.”

“I hope to get a job with a good firm and start making some money.”

“That sounds fine. And then what?”

“Well, at some point, and hopefully not too late, I want to get married.”

“I hope you do, son. And then what?”

“I want to get a nice house and start a family.”

“Of course, and then?”

“And then I want to raise my kids in good schools and earn enough money to save for a second home.”

“Right . . . right. What then?”

“Then I hope to be making enough money to slow down and take vacations with my wife and children.”

“And then?”

“Well, I guess I’d like to see my kids get married and start their own families. I’d like to see them become independent and financially secure.”

“Good goals, all. But what then?”

“If I’ve taken care of myself, I can hope to live long enough to raise my grandchildren. I hear that’s even better than having children.”

“I hear that, too. Then what?”

“Well, I hope I’ll be healthy enough to enjoy my later years, maybe travel some with my wife and see the world. I want to make the most of retirement and pass along my money to my children so they can benefit as I have.”

“And then?”

The young man paused. “I guess, eventually . . . I’ll die.”

“Yes, you will. And then what?”

The compelling thing about this story is that it chronicles the standard-issue American Dream. Who doesn’t identify with some or most of the scenic overlooks on this young man’s life path? Maybe you’ve long since graduated from college, married happily, are well into your career,

and just bought a vacation home. Maybe you’re already blessed with grandchildren and an investment portfolio Charles Schwab would like to see. But somewhere on the inexorable line of time, every one of us will face the final “and then what?”

What would your answer be?”

Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”

  1. FAMILLIONAIRE “In the 1980s it was fashionable to put the family aside for the greater good of the family. Accumulate more for their benefit. But this was a myth of the highest order. Families who put financial success ahead of emotional success get shortchanged. A famillionaire is a person who finds his/her fortune in their family by being true to themselves.

Author Joan Peters says that 50 percent of marriages end in divorce when couples do not balance their lives at home with the demands of work.

In the end, the biggest thought about your career has to be what it is and what it is not. It may be your livelihood, but your family is your life. If you’re smart, you’ll never forget the distinction.”

Excerpt From: Reiman, Joey. “Thinking for a Living.”

  1. “NATURE’S LAW” “Americans know, the Declaration of Independence declared not only the colonies’ independence from Britain, but also a dependence on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” These had been defined by historic legal writers, such as Sir William Blackstone, as the laws that God had established for the governance of people, nations, and nature. Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law, the primary law book of the Founding Fathers, defined “the laws of nature” as the will of God for man. Blackstone explained:

“Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. . . . And consequently . . . it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature. . . . It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this. . ..”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. PC THINKING “Jesus sacrificed Himself for us because we did NOT deserve it; not because we deserved it, which is what political correctness would say. When a culture and its populace become more self-obsessed, they will do a lot to keep that train rolling. If there’s

truth beyond us, we have to answer to it. Jesus claimed to be that truth. And people did not want to answer to Him then, and they don’t want to answer to Him today.

Our current generation is being raised to believe that there is no moral plumb line (absolute truth), so we do whatever we “feel” is right based on any number of influences we allow into our lives to mold and shape those beliefs. PC thinking opens the floodgates of the dam because of the belief that there are no boundaries. Problem is, if anything goes, you’ll get drowned in the

aftermath.

That’s what we are experiencing today. We are being drowned in the flood of moral decay, and I’m not talking about sex, drugs, or rock ’n’ roll. I’m talking about the decay that comes as a result of deciding there’s no longer “true” truth. And when that happens, the crumbling begins.”

Excerpt From: Battaglia, Joe. “The Politically Incorrect Jesus.”

  1. WHAT’S IN A NAME? “If you were forced to drink a beaker of dihydrogen oxide, your response would probably be negative. If you asked for a glass of water, you might enjoy

it.”

Excerpt From: Al Ries & Jack Trout. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.”

 

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. QUESTION FOR UR TEEN “Rather than asking, “What are you going to do when you grow up?” and “Where are you going to college?” we could ask today’s multitalented, multipassionate teens a question like, “What problems would you like to help solve?” I’ve had some amazing conversations with youth that began with this question. In their answers we’ll often see connections to high school electives, college majors, and careers, so it can stimulate a great conversation.”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. PLACE OF REST “When we walk down heaven’s golden streets, we will never see a hospital. There will be no more sickness. We will never see a counseling center. There will be no more depression or mental illness. We will never see a funeral home. There will be no more death there. We will never see a policeman in uniform or a police station. There is no crime there. There will be no courthouses on the square. There will be no lawsuits and no one seeking to cheat anyone else out of something that is rightfully theirs. We will never hear the shrill sound of an ambulance siren. There will be no more emergencies. We will never have to lock our homes or look behind us to see who is following us as we walk along. There will be no more fear. We will never see a handicapped parking place or a ramp for a wheelchair. There will be no nursing homes there for we will never grow old. Heaven is a place of rest.”

Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”

  1. HAPPY BDAY “A man entered a stationery store and asked the clerk for a “birthday-anniversary” card. The clerk replied, “We have birthday cards, and we have anniversary cards. Why not take one of each?” He said, “You don’t understand. I need a card that covers both events. You see, we’re celebrating the fifth anniversary of my wife’s thirty-fourth birthday.

Excerpt From: Hodgin, Michael. “1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking.”

  1. REARING CHILDREN “If you neglect to instruct them in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness? No, no, if you will not teach them to pray, he will teach them to curse, swear and lie. If ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring up.

If the season of their youth is neglected, how little probability is there of any good fruit afterwards? Youth is the molding age (Proverbs 22:6). How few are converted in old age? A twig is brought to any form, but grown limbs will not bend.

There is none in the world so likely as you to be instruments of their eternal good. You have peculiar advantages that no one else has; such as the interest you have in their affections; your opportunities to instill the knowledge of Christ into them, being daily with them (Deuteronomy 6:7); your knowledge of their character. If therefore you neglect, who shall help them?

Excerpt From: Flavel, John. “The Mystery of Providence.”

  1. PC AND TRUTH “Political correctness, which foists upon us a common language for postmodern thinking that encourages the notion that all truth is defined by man subjectively, rather than being defined outside of man, who is then subject to that truth. Since we don’t like being anyone’s subjects (that smacks of kings and despots), we rebel to think we are bound by anything. After all, independence is core to America’s national identity.

Political correctness likes the road to truth to be wide, very wide, with many roads to it so that

anyone can build their own road. The obvious end result is the dissolution of absolutes. But Jesus said He was the truth. Absolutely.

Political correctness, when confronted logically, is confusing and intellectually dishonest in its attempt to relegate truth to the wide road. Truth, by definition, must be narrow and not wide. It only allows for one way.”

Excerpt From: Battaglia, Joe. “The Politically Incorrect Jesus.”

  1. SIMPLE OBSERVATION “The world is round,” said Christopher Columbus. “No, it’s not,” said the public, “it’s flat.”

To convince the public otherwise, fifteenth century scientists first had to prove that the world wasn’t flat. One of their more convincing arguments was the fact that sailors at sea were first able to observe the tops of the masts of an approaching ship, then the sails, then the hull. If the world were flat, they would see the whole ship at once.

All the mathematical arguments in the world weren’t as effective as a simple observation the public could verify themselves.”

Excerpt From: Al Ries & Jack Trout. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.”

  1. FLAG DAY Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent nineteenth-century Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer, stated this:

“A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the government, the rinciples, the truths, the history which belongs to the nation that sets it forth.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. CHRISTIAN FOUNDERS “It wasn’t long after the colonists defeated the Red Coats that the state governments that had been controlled by the British had to be established with new state constitutions. It is interesting to read what many of the men who signed the founding documents placed in their original new state constitutions. Delaware provides one example, but other states were similar:

“Every person appointed to public office shall say, “I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do knowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. EVIL FAITH? “I think that a case can be made that faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate. Faith, being belief that isn’t based on evidence, is the principal vice of any religion.” -Richard Dawkins

It would be a mistake to think that this extreme view is typical. Many atheists are far from happy with its militancy, not to mention its repressive, even totalitarian, overtones.

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. WISDOM “To acquire information, much less wisdom, one’s lips cannot be moving. Moreover, as we listen to learn, we learn to listen.”

Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. OUCH! “Some believe the shin was invented for finding furniture in the dark. Others find the little toe much more effective for such activity.” — Michael Hodgin
  2. INDECISION “For many young people who struggle to make decisions, the lies are colliding. Teens want to be happy while they’re the center of the universe. They want to have choice, but choosing one thing means they can’t choose something else. And they can’t know now if they’ll be happy if they’ve never gone to college before, played basketball in high school, or dated Ashley or Jamie. As a result, they make no decision. And no decision is a decision.”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. ACT NOW Preacher to the congregation: “Crying babies and disruptive children, like good intentions, should be carried out immediately. – Michael Hodgin
  2. AGE MATTERS “A while back, Fortune magazine did their cover story on Warren Buffet of Omaha, Nebraska. The magazine tells the amazing tale of one of our country’s most successful billionaires. He has been an enormous success as he has invested in all kinds of companies in the process of building the conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway. He has been referred to as “The Wizard of Omaha.” He looks for strong companies that are well positioned in the market. He seeks to take over these companies. Then he leaves the management of these acquired companies in place, rather than replacing them, as do many other corporate chairmen.

One of the companies he owns is Nebraska Furniture Mart, which was founded by Rose Blumkin. He keeps in touch with the local managers in many different ways, usually informal, such as by phone, or by means of periodic meetings over a meal. The following is Fortune’s description of Buffet’s dealings with the Blumkin family, prior to the family’s splitting into competitive factions. The Blumkin family (or as Buffet refers to them, “the amazing Blumkins”) meet for dinner every few weeks at an Omaha restaurant. The Blumkins attending usually include Louis, 68, and his sons: Ron 39; Irv, 35; and Steve, 33.

The matriarch of the family and chairman of the Furniture Mart is Rose Blumkin, who emigrated from Russia as a young woman, started a tiny furniture store that offered rock-bottom prices. Her motto is “Sell cheap and tell the truth.” She built this furniture store into a business that last year did $140 million in sales. At age 94, she still works seven days a week in the carpet department.

Buffet says in his new annual report that she is clearly gathering speed and “may well reach her full potential in another five or ten years. Therefore, I’ve persuaded the Board to scrap our mandatory retirement-at-100 policy. And it’s about time,” he adds. “With every passing year, this policy has seemed sillier to me.”

Perhaps he jests, true, but Buffet simply does not regard age as having any bearing on how able a manager is. Maybe because he has bought so many strong managements and stuck with them, he has worked over the years with an unusually large number of older executives and treasured their abilities. Buffet says, “Good managers are so scarce I can’t afford the luxury of letting them go just because they’ve added a year to their age.”

Excerpt From: Hodgin, Michael. “1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking.”

  1. HEAVEN “Heaven is real. Throughout time God has implanted within the soul of man a longing for such a place. All primitive people believed in an afterlife. In ages gone by, the ancient cave dwellers depicted such in paintings on the walls of their caves. More than three thousand years ago the Egyptians buried their pharaohs with supplies, eating utensils, weapons, and even servants in their quest for a life that is beyond this one. The American Indians had their “happy hunting grounds” where they believed the departed lived again. God has implanted and instilled within the very being of man a desire for more from life than what we have on earth.” Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”
  2. CELL PHONE “Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cellphone.” –STEVEN SPIELBERG
  3. INFO VS. WISDOM “Teens want information, especially that relevant to their personal interests and the problems they’d like to help solve, but young people may believe they don’t need to go deeper and actually seek wisdom. Information satisfies them. Because many don’t prioritize going deep, they don’t believe they need teachers. As a result, many do not recognize their need for guidance.

Stopping at information, short of seeking wisdom and guidance, short-circuits young people’s progress toward future dreams and their worthy plans for changing the world. Frustration sets in as they discover they’re not totally prepared to be the change agents they want to be. The “information lie” is a subtle one, and young people may not realize that information is not enough.”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. PREPARATION “Luck is the residue of design.” -Branch Rickey
  2. RAISING KIDS “And how many families there are, though not so profane, who yet breed up their children vainly and sensually, and take no care what becomes of their souls, if they can but provide for their bodies (Job 21:11)! If they can but teach them to carry their bodies, no matter if the devil actuate their souls. If they can but leave them lands or monies, they think they have very fully discharged their duties. O, what will the language be with which such parents and children shall greet each other at the judgment-seat, and in hell for ever!”

Excerpt From: Flavel, John. “The Mystery of Providence.”

  1. ANGER “Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll deliver the best speech you’ll ever regret.”

–Unknown

 

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. MERCY AND GRACE “There is a difference between mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. Jesus’ love is always manifested in His grace. Consistently in Scripture we find Him extending this undeserved and unmerited favor upon sinners. Even at the cross we find Him praying for the forgiveness of those who were persecuting and killing Him. The Word, who became flesh, truly was “full of grace.”

Our Lord was also “full of . . . truth.” In fact, He was the embodiment of truth. It is only when His grace leads us to know the truth that we are truly free. Jesus came, not to talk to us about God, but to show us what God was like so that the simplest mind might know the Father as intimately as the most intelligent academic.”

Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”

  1. WHAT IS TAUGHT ONLINE? Have you ever seen teens with their tech tools and wondered if they almost worship their technology? It’s where they turn for answers to their questions and to solve their problems.  As teens become increasingly acclimated to speedy answers via the Internet, will it be harder for them to wait on God for an answer to prayer, if they do pray?

HOWEVER, screens can positively affect faith development, too. Bible apps are convenient, and they allow us to keep the Bible with us. Devotional material read on handheld devices and Facebook posts from ministries, churches, and friends can encourage, humble, and mature young people. Worship music and videos of church services and concerts can be inspiring. Streaming allows teens to watch church services and conferences they might have missed in person.

When it comes to meeting our deep human need for security, we want technology to take its rightful place. Digital tools can’t meet anyone’s need for security, but they can be tools that help teens develop the relationships with God and others that are real and trustworthy and nourishing.”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. TECH PACE Every minute of every day:

 

  • YouTube users upload 48 hours of new video.
  • Email users send 204,166,667 messages.
  • Google receives over 2,000,000 search queries.
  • Facebook users share 684,478 pieces of content.
  • Twitter users send over 100,000 tweets.
  • Apple receives about 47,000 app downloads.
  • Brands and organizations on Facebook receive 34,722 “likes.”
  • Instagram users share 3,600 new photos.
  • 571 new websites are created.
  • WordPress users publish 347 new blog posts.

 

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

744.  “We have more information than ever before – but less wisdom.”

— Henry Kissinger

  1. WAR “Democracy is more vindictive than Cabinets. The wars of peoples will be more terrible than the wars of kings.” These prophetic words were spoken more than a dozen years before the catastrophe occurred in 1914. Churchill was never a warmonger as his enemies claimed. On the contrary: he warned against it just as urgently as he warned against unpreparedness for it—the two were indivisible. But Churchill was sufficient of a realist to grasp that wars will come, and that a victorious one, however dreadful, is preferable to a lost one.”

Excerpt From: Johnson, Paul. “Churchill.”

  1. NOT SURE? [When asked, “How can you believe in a God you cannot fully explain?”] ANS: “We need to grasp that it is not only believers in God who believe in concepts they do not fully understand.

Scientists do as well. It would be just as foolish and arbitrary to dismiss believers in God as having nothing to say, because they cannot ultimately explain the nature of God, as it would be to dismiss physicists because they do not know what energy is. And yet that is exactly what often happens.”

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. PERSONALITY “A well-developed sense of humor reveals a well-balanced personality. Maladjusted people show a far greater tendency to miss the point in a funny remark. They take jokes personally. They take things that are meant to be enjoyable much too seriously. The ability to get a laugh out of everyday situations is a safety valve. It rids us of tensions and worries that could otherwise damage our health.

You think I’m exaggerating the benefits? If so, maybe you’ve forgotten another proverb: “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Prov. 17:22). Isn’t that eloquent? Literally, it says, “A joyful heart causes healing.”

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

  1. INTEGRITY “Integrity is not what we do when it serves us. It is who we are in the dark and how we treat people when it makes no difference to us. If forced to choose, I would hold to integrity over intellect, wealth, talent, popularity, or any brand of success. Integrity can’t be taken from a person; it can only be given away.”

Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”

  1. THE LITTLE THINGS “Emerson said, “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn,” and I always try to remember that every great dream and great achievement is made up of hundreds of little ones, every great relationship is made up of many small hugs, small gestures, and intimate words. God is in the details, and if we don’t get the little things right, we’ll never get the big ones.”

Excerpt From: Reiman, Joey. “Thinking for a Living.”

  1. WHERE’S OUR TRUST? “In God We Trust may still be inscribed on our currency, but it’s no longer on our hearts.” — Joe Battaglia

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. SONS “The Son of God became the Son of Man in order that the sons of men could become the sons of God.” — Unknown
  2. GREED “The Greeks had a curious word they used when referring to greed. The word means “a thirst for having more.” To illustrate, it’s probably fanciful yet fairly descriptive to think of a fellow who is thirsty taking a drink of salt water, which only makes him thirstier. His thirst causes him to drink even more, which ultimately results in making him terribly sick. And if he continues to drink he could die.

That’s the whole point of greed. You’ll want more and more of something that really isn’t good for you. And in the getting of it, you’ll suffer the painful consequences.”

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

  1. AMAZING LOVE “God proved His love toward us. How? It was not by writing His love in flaming letters across the sky nor by belting His strong voice from heaven expressing His love. The Bible says, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus was not some sort of remedial action, a last minute splint for a broken world when everything else had failed. The preparation God had done was staggering. He had raised up a Greek nation that took the Greek language across the known world so the gospel could spread without a language barrier. He raised up a Roman empire that built a road system of fifty thousand miles across the world so the gospel could move from country to country. Yes, it was in the “fullness of time” that Christ came (Galatians 4:4).

Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”

  1. THINK BIG “Don’t listen to that mocking little voice that tells you to be more realistic. Ignore it. You can either accept reality as it is or create it as you wish it to be. This is the essence of dreaming—and thinking big.”

Excerpt From: Hyatt, Michael. “Platform.”

  1. SECURITY AND TECHNOLOGY “Security is our first core need, and it’s defined by the question Who can I trust? We’re healthiest when we meet our need for security in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, in trustworthy people, and in ourselves as we learn to be right and do right even when the burden is heavy. Security is rooted in forgiveness—from God, from others, and especially from ourselves.

It becomes a problem when we begin looking for security in all the wrong places. Some young people try to meet their need for security in their technology and its availability. Many believe technology will never let them down (as human relationships often do!).

When teens don’t have instant access to their technology, their security feels threatened.

Many of today’s teens are secure in things being quick, perfect, and easy. They trust that the access they need will always be readily available.

[For them,] It’s WHAT they trust that matters, not WHO. This is potentially very damaging because technology is not how God designed this need for security to be met.

Trusting people doesn’t come naturally to young people partly because they’re relating through social media and texting. It’s hard to truly know people and develop friendship and discernment skills. They may be attempting to meet this need with the number of “friends” they have. What they don’t understand is that security is not found in quantity (multiple online connections). It’s discovered in QUALITY (real and faithful relationships).”

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. ADDICTION AGE “Children who develop addictions to screens are much more susceptible to developing other addictions someday. Research suggests 90 percent of addictions have roots in the teen years. To further drive home this point, one in four Americans who began using any addictive substance before age eighteen are addicted, compared to one in twenty-five who started using at age twenty-one or older.

Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”

  1. XTIAN DIVORCE RATES NOT SAME “We often hear that divorce rates in the Church mirror divorce rates outside of the Church. One study even suggested that the best predictor of divorce was “the concentration of conservative Protestants living in the county,” but as Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia has demonstrated, this study (and others like it) fails to distinguish between nominal conservative Protestants and committed conservative Protestants. Christians who are active in their faith, evident by religious practices like church attendance, are far less likely to get divorced than those not active in their faith.”

Excerpt From: Sean McDowell & John Stonestreet. “Same-Sex Marriage.”

  1. CHOICES “Choices are the hinges of destiny,” — Unknown
  2. ACHIEVEMENT “No bird soars in a calm.” — Wilbur Wright
  3. DECISIONS “Giving into fear is a poor chisel with which to carve out tomorrow. In life, we first make decisions. Then our decisions make us.”

— R. Bowen Loftin.

 

 

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. WHICH IS BETTER? “Distinguishing between the effects of marijuana and cigarettes on the brain: would you rather get in an airplane where the pilot had just smoked a cigarette or a joint?” — D. Prager
  2. ABSTAIN FROM POT If one abstains from substance abuse up until the age of twenty-one, the chances one will ever have a substance abuse problem are next to zero.”

Excerpt From: William J. Bennett & Robert A White. “Going to Pot.”

  1. DOWNFALLS “If good taste would permit, we might easily mention scores of men, well known to the American people, who climbed to great heights of achievement under the stimulating influence of their wives, only to drop back to destruction AFTER money and power went to their heads, and they put aside the old wife for a new one.”

Excerpt From: Hill, Napoleon. “Think and Grow Rich.”

  1. LOVE IS…“It’s unloving to keep truth from people, especially if that truth has eternal consequences.” — F. Turek
  2. “SMART” PHONE? “There’s more code and sophisticated nanomachinery in just one of your forty trillion cells than in your smartphone and probably every other gadget you own. If the code and nanomachinery in your smartphone requires intelligence, wouldn’t the far superior technology inside of you also require intelligence?”

Excerpt From: Turek, Frank. “Stealing from God.

  1. BACKSLIDING KIDS?

Q: “How do you interpret Proverbs 22:6 (KJV), which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”? Doesn’t that verse mean, as it implies, that the children of wise and dedicated Christian parents will never be lost?”

A: The Proverbs were never intended to be absolute promises from God. Instead, they are “probabilities” of things that are likely to occur. Solomon, who wrote the wonderful book of Proverbs, was the wisest man on the earth at that time. His purpose was to convey his divinely inspired observations on the way human nature and God’s universe work. A given set of circumstances can be expected to produce a set of specific consequences. Unfortunately, several of these observations, including Proverbs 22:6, have been lifted out of that context and made to stand alone as promises from God. If we insist on that interpretation, then we must explain why so many other proverbs do not inevitably prove accurate. For example:

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (10:4). (Have you ever met a diligent—but poor—Christian? I have.)

“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it” (10:22).

“The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short” (10:27). (I have watched some beautiful children die with a Christian testimony on their lips.)

“No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble” (12:21).

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (15:22).

“Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life” (16:31).

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (16:33).

“A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment, but he who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life” (28:16).

We can all think of exceptions to the statements above.

Those who believe that Proverbs 22:6 offers a guarantee of salvation for the next generation have assumed, in essence, that a child can be programmed so thoroughly as to determine his course inevitably. If they bring him up “in the way he should go,” the outcome is certain. But think about that for a moment. Didn’t the Creator handle Adam and Eve with infinite wisdom and love? He made no mistakes in “fathering” them. God in His love gave Adam and Eve a choice between good and evil, and they abused it. Will He now withhold that same freedom from your children? No. Ultimately, they will make their own choices.”

Excerpt From: Dobson, James. “Your Legacy.”

  1. HOW BIG CHANGE HAPPENS “Strange, is it not, how the great changes, such as the American Revolution, and the World War, often have their beginnings in circumstances which seem unimportant? It is interesting, also, to observe that these important changes usually begin in the form of a DEFINITE DECISION in the minds of a relatively small number of people.”

Excerpt From: Hill, Napoleon. “Think and Grow Rich.”

  1. FEARING GOD “He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him” (Psalm 147:10–11). In this passage, fear doesn’t mean shaking in your boots or being scared. This fear is standing in awe of who God is, knowing His power and respecting it to the point of total obedience to Him. God promises us that if we fear Him, He will be pleased with us.

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. NOT SURE? [When asked, “How can you believe in a God you cannot fully explain?”] ANS: “We need to grasp that it is not only believers in God who believe in concepts they do not fully understand. Scientists do as well. It would be just as foolish and arbitrary to dismiss believers in God as having nothing to say, because they cannot ultimately explain the nature of God, as it would be to dismiss physicists because they do not know what energy is. And yet that is exactly what often happens.”

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. PERSONALITY “A well-developed sense of humor reveals a well-balanced personality. Maladjusted people show a far greater tendency to miss the point in a funny remark. They take jokes personally. They take things that are meant to be enjoyable much too seriously. The ability to get a laugh out of everyday situations is a safety valve. It rids us of tensions and worries that could otherwise damage our health.

You think I’m exaggerating the benefits? If so, maybe you’ve forgotten another proverb: “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Prov.  17:22). Isn’t that eloquent? Literally, it says, “A joyful heart causes healing.

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

 

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. LISTEN “As his career at CNN was winding down, Larry King – the king of interviews – told Esquire magazine, “I never learned anything while I was talking.” “Let the wise listen,” King Solomon said, “and add to their learning” (Proverbs 1:5 NIV).

Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”

  1. FREEDOM/REALITY INSEPARABLE “Horace Greeley, one of America’s leading nineteenth-century newspaper editors, reminded his fellow citizens of what many of the Founding Fathers of the previous generation had emphasized: “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”

Similarly, as Joshua prepared the children of Israel to begin their conquest of Canaan, he reminded them that their success depended upon keeping God’s Word in their hearts and

minds and on their lips. He went on to challenge the people of Israel—and the challenge applies to us today, to us as individuals, as families, as a nation—to make an important choice: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). This choice is foundational to the moral and spiritual resolve that will give us success in all we set out to accomplish as individuals and as a

nation.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. TIME TO LIVE “I’ve often told people to check their birth certificate and to imagine the number 700,000 is in the corner of your birth certificate. That’s your net worth — the amount of hours the average person has to live, and how you invest those hours is completely up to you.

One of the most rewarding things in life is getting rid of what you don’t need. Most people

think they need more — but the truth is they really need less. They need to be simpler. They need to get back to what makes them tick. They need to point toward what they really need and really want so they have focus and direction.”

Excerpt From: Reiman, Joey. “Thinking for a Living.”

  1. TAKE ACTION “Musicians say that the hardest part of practicing is taking the instrument out of the case. To begin is to be half done! This is what we need to do with our ideas. And how do you create great ideas? How do you make them really happen? By taking action on them. Action is the great separator. It separates the rich from the poor, the winners from the whiners, and the ideas from the “I did its.” Action gets things done.

Equally important as the passion to take action is the persistence to see it through. The world is full of people with good ideas, but often the difference between those who achieve great success and those who don’t is the persistence to overcome obstacles, resistance, and rejections.”

Excerpt From: Reiman, Joey. “Thinking for a Living.”

  1. BEST ACHIEVEMENT “My most brilliant achievement was the ability to be able to

persuade my wife to marry me.” — SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

  1. “ENTHUSIASM” In Greek, “entheos” meaning, “God in.”
  2. GRAVITY OF THINGS “Everyone knows about gravity. It’s the force that keeps us on planet earth. Otherwise, we’d float away into space. Now, what you may not realize is that the mass of the earth is what creates gravity.

Simple physics. The more mass, the more pull. The more pull and attraction, the harder it is to break free. Our culture encourages us to accumulate things, to have options, to focus on ourselves. The problem is that the more things we accumulate, the more mass we create. And the more mass, the more pull. Soon we cannot pull ourselves away from the things we’ve accumulated because they have such a hold on us. They control us; we do not control them. We attempt to break free, but the pull is too strong.

I have found that the life of limited options is a life of freedom. Free from the gravitational pull of things…free to see more clearly the life that God has given to us and free to produce more joy

because we focus less on ourselves and more on others. We have less to divert our attention away from the things that matter.”

Excerpt From: Battaglia, Joe. “The Politically Incorrect Jesus.”

  1. NO CREDIT “The man who discovered America was poorly rewarded for his efforts. Christopher Columbus made the mistake of looking for gold and keeping his mouth

shut. Amerigo Vespucci didn’t. Amerigo was 5 years behind Christopher. But he

did two things right. First, he positioned the New World as a separate continent, totally distinct from Asia. This caused a revolution in the geography of his day.

Second, he wrote extensively of his discoveries and theories. Especially significant are the five letters of his third voyage. One (Mundus Novus) was translated into 40 different languages over a 25-year period. Before he died, Spain granted him Castilian citizenship and gave him a major state post.

As a result, the Europeans credited Amerigo Vespucci with the discovery of America and named the place after him. Christopher Columbus died in jail.”

Excerpt From: Al Ries & Jack Trout. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.”

  1. CROWD “Never take your cues from the crowd.” — Unknown
  2. DETERMINATION “We need to keep in mind the difference between natural sight and supernatural vision. When we look at life with vision, we perceive events and circumstances

with God’s thoughts. And because His thoughts are higher and more profound than mere horizontal thinking, they have a way of softening the blows of calamity and giving us hope through tragedy and loss. It also enables us to handle times of prosperity and popularity with wisdom.

I often remind myself of those familiar words in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season.” That’s a nice way of saying, “Hang tough! Do it when it comes naturally and when it is hard to come by. Do it when you’re up, do it when you’re down. Do it when you feel like it, do it when you don’t feel like it. Do it when it’s hot, do it when it’s cold. Keep on doing it. Don’t give up.”

That is persistence and determination. Staying at it. Hanging tough with dogged discipline. When you get whipped or when you win, the secret is staying at it.”

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. CANDIDATES “Noah Webster (1758–1843) was known as the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” and author of the famous Webster’s dictionary. He also had opinions about government leaders: In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not

the particular sect [party] of the candidate—look to his character. . . . It is alleged by men of loose principles or defective views of the subject that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rulers should be men “who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK “For as he thinks within himself, so he is” (Prov. 23:7).

The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us

free. Free to be all God meant us to be. Since the mind holds the secrets of soaring, the enemy of our souls has made the human mind the bull’s-eye of his target. His most insidious and strategic moves are made upon the mind. By affecting the way we think, he is able to keep our lives on a mediocre level.

And what is God’s ultimate goal?—To take “every thought captive.” When He invades those lofty areas, His plan is to transform the old thoughts that defeat us into new thoughts that encourage us. He has to repattern our whole way of thinking. And He is engaged in doing that continually because old habits are so hard to break. God’s offer is nothing short of phenomenal! Remember it? It is “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).”

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

  1. SERVICE ECONOMY “During the gold rush, the people who made the most money were the ones selling the shovels.”

Excerpt From: Brunson, Russell. “DotCom Secrets.”

  1. LEADERS ARE DREAMERS “If you don’t dream, your leadership is seriously limited. To make things even more complicated, those who refuse to dream the impossible are always in the majority. Those who choose to live by sight will always outnumber those who live by faith.

So once you’ve decided to live differently, let God be your guide and hang tough—follow your dreams with determination.”

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

  1. 705. CHRISTIANS USE FORCE? “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting.” (John  18:36).

So it was abundantly clear to the Roman governor that Jesus posed no revolutionary threat whatsoever. Pilate would have known that Jesus meant what he said, because he would have been in receipt of the report of the circumstances surrounding his arrest. In particular he would have known that when one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, had taken a wild sweep with a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus had told Peter to put his sword away, and healed the ear.

Anyone who uses force of any kind to impose Christ’s message on people is acting in defiance of Christ’s explicit commands. In other words, they are engaging in anti-Christian activity. Their claim to be followers of Christ is, therefore, proved to be spurious. The existence of counterfeit money does not prove that the real and genuine thing does not exist, even though it may make it harder to find.”

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. FAMILY “This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.”

–G. K. Chesterton

  1. “Sow a thought, reap an act.

Sow an act, reap a habit.

Sow a habit, reap your character.

Sow your character,

reap your destiny.”

–Unknown

  1. BIBLES VS. IPHONES “It is so easy to forget how Scripture got into our hands in the first place. John Wycliffe and William Tyndale laboured hard in dangerous conditions to give us the Bible in English. Betrayed by an Englishman, Tyndale was burnt alive in Belgium. Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer were burnt alive in Oxford. These courageous men were determined to get the Scriptures to the people. Their efforts lit a fire in the hearts of men and women throughout the world, encouraging and inspiring even the humblest of them to study the Bible on their own and listen for the voice of God, rather than bow to some oppressive external ecclesiastic authority. What would they think if they were to see Bibles, now freely available by dint of their sacrificial labours, sitting unread on so many shelves?

We all love to stay in touch. That’s why mobile phones now outnumber Bibles in the hands and pockets of Christians up and down the land (even allowing for the fact that phones have Bibles in them!). But however important it may be to hear from others, surely hearing from God is our priority.”

Excerpt From: John C. Lennox. “Against the Flow.”

  1. CHARITY “[We] tend to give more freely when we have less to hold on to. Among the members of eleven primary Protestant denominations in the U.S. and Canada, people gave smaller percentages of their income in 2000 (2.6 percent on average) than in 1933, during the Great Depression (3.3 percent).”

Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”

  1. GOLDEN RULE OR GOLDEN CALF? “Much like Moses’ experience at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32), people begin to look elsewhere for their significance and security when God’s presence leaves the camp. Without leadership based on God’s moral law, many of us will

clamor for gods fashioned to fit our lifestyles and cravings. We worship the idols we’ve created to give us meaning to life. Ironically, we’ve replaced the Golden Rule for golden calves.

To the person worshiping the golden calf, the only future is today. Just as the Israelites did not want to wait any longer for Moses to come down the mountain with a word from God, neither do we. We’re more interested in making our own gods and then putting words in their mouths to

satisfy what we want to hear.

So, look around you. Are you living out the Golden Rule, or dancing around the golden calf? God may not be politically correct in the public square. But, without Him, that square soon fills up with people dancing around idols of their own creation. King David has something to say about those types of people in the Psalms…that those who create God in their own image, made out of stone and wood, will ultimately be like them (Psalm 115).

Hollow. Hard. Unbending.

Ultimately, we wind up worshiping ourselves. That’s a scary thought.”

Excerpt From: Battaglia, Joe. “The Politically Incorrect Jesus.”

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

  1. BIBLE WISDOM: POLITICS? “A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left.” (ECCL 10:2)
  2. TAKE A CHANCE “If you want the fruit, you have to go out on a limb.”

–Joey Reiman

  1. SLOW DOWN “Woody Allen once said he took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. “It involves Russia,” he quipped. Too many of us read, write, and have relationships at that speed. And at breakneck speed, one is bound to have an accident.”

Excerpt From: Reiman, Joey. “Thinking for a Living.”

  1. COINCIDENCE? For CHRISTIANS, coincidence is just God’s way of staying anonymous. [See Romans 8:38] — Unknown
  2. CITY VS. NATURE “Does it make sense as well that when we surround ourselves with less of God’s creation (clean air, trees, grass, lakes and rivers, and creatures) we remove an aspect of God’s presence from our lives?

I’ve come to believe that this is one of the prime reasons we have such chaos in cities, crime is more prevalent, there is less peace, and liberal thinking is dominant.

If we strip away the things of nature that by design communicate a sense of order, tranquility, and transcendence, then society will gravitate toward the antithesis of those things—disorder, stress, and focus on self, which breeds selfishness. Without a God to embrace, we create our own gods to fill that vacuum in our souls for which we’ve been hardwired.”

Excerpt From: Battaglia, Joe. “The Politically Incorrect Jesus.”

  1. WORDS “The Lord’s Prayer contains 56 words; the Gettysburg Address, 266; the Ten Commandments, 297; the Declaration of Independence, 300; and a recent U.S. government order setting the price of cabbage, 26,911.

At the state level, over 250,000 bills are introduced each year. And 25,000 pass the legislatures to disappear into the labyrinths of the law.”

Excerpt From: Al Ries & Jack Trout. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.”

  1. CANT TAKE IT “Man is born with his hands clenched; he dies with them wide open. Entering life, he desires to grasp everything; leaving the world, all he possessed has slipped away.”

–Jewish Talmud

  1. LAST HOPE “Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001), a Romanian evangelical Christian minister and author who spent a total of fourteen years imprisoned in Romania for his faith, founded the Voice of the Martyrs, an interdenominational organization working with and for persecuted Christians around the world. In 1967, he shared his view of America: “Every freedom-loving man has two fatherlands; his own and America. Today, America is the hope of every enslaved man, because it is the last bastion of freedom in the world. Only America has the power and spiritual resources to stand as a barrier between militant communism and the people of the world. It is the last dike holding back the rampaging floodwaters of militant communism. If it crumples, there is no other dike, no other dam; no other line of defense to fall back upon.

America is the last hope of millions of enslaved peoples. They look to it as their second fatherland. In it lie their hopes and prayers. I have seen fellow-prisoners in communist prisons beaten, tortured, with fifty pounds of chains on their legs—praying for America . . . that the dike will not crumple; that it will remain free.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

  1. SUCCESS “If you are greatly gifted, you may be able to do marvelous things that would cause the public to be swept up in your skills and in your abilities. In the process of your growing, you will find great temptation to make a name for yourself, to make a big splash, to gain attention, to get the glory, to strut around, to increase your fees, to demand your rights, and to expect kid-glove treatment. People are talking about you!

Let me remind you that if you’re in life only for yourself, you’ll have no endurance. On that precarious top of the ladder, you’ll always have to maintain your balance by maneuvering and manipulating, lying, deceiving, and scheming.

But if you’re committed to kingdom-related excellence, when you go through times of testing, you can count on kingdom endurance to get you through.”

Excerpt From: Charles R. Swindoll. “Dear Graduate.”

  1. DISCIPLINE “General Norm Schwarzkopf (of Operation Desert Storm fame) once said: “Shined shoes save lives.”

Norm went on to explain that in the heat of battle, the fog of war, under pressure, the undisciplined die. So it is in business.”

Excerpt From: Brunson, Russell. “DotCom Secrets.”