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
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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
- “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
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
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