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
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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
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