maildad

a short Seattle video

2007-02-05T08:15:00.000-06:00

My grandaughter Hailey has long hair now ! It has been too long since I have seen her .

brennan manning seminar

2006-05-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

Was invited by Gary to go see Brennan Manning at Ashland college.
His 'ragamuffin gospel' book is a stirring story of God's love for us when we are at our 'worst' . Brennan's bio on his website chronicles some relapses, God's love breaks through to him each time.
Mel Gibson has been to rehab too, and look how God uses him. Our strength is not in our religiosity , but in His great , unconditional, Abba affection and security.
Brennan encouraged us not to be caught up stuck on 'past sins' . The father's longing is ever to love on us, in our present state , just as we are, and us to Him .

Swanton Oh park

2006-04-12T21:09:00.000-05:00

My son had a high school baseball game today ( Tuesday) at the beautiful park and Rotary field in Swanton.
There were a couple of dozen young people on and around the nearby basketball court. Seeing a chance to get in a good workout , I jumped in line as the young people were shooting baskets to choose teams. They welcomed me in. The game was full court and fun. I took about 30 minutes to do this. My son told me later it was ok.
Todays' young people are immersed in a course society .
The basketball court was full of 'f-bomb' vulgarities Two short boys told me they are in the 8th grade. They shared a cigarette between games. I gently admonished them. There is a better way.
I was the only adult on the court, a couple of boys were out of high school, they said. Young people want someone to genuinely care about them , even in a small way like a ball game. My church teaches us to do that , we call it sharing God's love in a practical way . See http://www.vineyardtoledo.org/ .
Talk of drugs and gang 'belonging' was on that court. When I asked these precious young people if they had a dad that cared about them, most said yes. A couple said no. They were clearly open to attention from a stranger like me . Dads , uncles , granddads , neighbors, there is no greater privelage than to invest in these children. It is not the job of the local law enforcement to do this.
These children are thirsty sponges, emotionally, spiritually . A couple were open to going to church on Easter Sunday Will someone take them there?
This is duplicated all over NW Ohio and America today- children unconnected with a close adult.
I may be back there next spring, if there is an away ball game in Swanton. And I'll look to see if my basketball friends are still there.

left behind !!!

2005-10-21T11:40:00.000-05:00

left behind movie ' !! It previews this weekend in area churches , rather than theaters.
I don't agree with the 'rapture' theory of this movie. But it gets people thinking about God , and the times we live in, and it is well done.

mensfraternity

2005-09-28T18:03:00.000-05:00

Oh, not another mens' group ! That was my initial thought about this new group.
But going today at 6 am , it was challenging, informative, encouraging. Thank you Grace churc h and Dan Shaffer.
As men, it is too easy to go it alone. We are lone wolves. And there are traps and temptations everywhere along the journey of life. We need real encouragement.
mens fraternity is nationwide, and real !
www.mensfraternity.com

Ernest Berry for Toledo city council

2005-07-14T22:33:00.000-05:00

He's 21, a recent U.T. grad , blind , a life-long East-Sider, running for Toledo City Council, with a vision to get college grads to stay in Toledo !
Meet Ernest Berry. ( and his guide dog Calypso)

See his itinerary at www.ernestberry.com

I'm on his campaign team, and having a blast. He needs campaign donations, you can do that at his website !! He is buying 500 yard signs next.
Donate to the cause ! Toledo needs a sharp young person like Ern ~!

maildad

2005-05-30T13:09:00.000-05:00

maildad

Memorial day, formerly decoration day...
Seth led the Sons of the Legion group in the parade. He carried the stars and stripes from the Legion hq to the cemetary. Then a great speech by a former HS principal name Stockwell. The flag symbolizes so much. It is freedom that is spread around the world by our guys. They are willing to risk all to do this . Freedom is so precious. We will lose it if we stay lukewarm about it.
Frostbrn , Seth and I need to get to Dayton Veterans' cemetary some day. There is my dad interred, WWll vet , I've never been down there yet.

2005-05-25T18:55:00.000-05:00

My longtime friend and Native American Ron Szilagye is very interested in this important event.

RESOLUTION OF APOLOGY TO THE NATIVE PEOPLES
CIRCLE OF PRAYER ALERT May 24, 2005 www.NativeRes.org

WITNESS LIST POSTED FOR 10:00 AM WEDNESDAY, MAY 25TH SENATE HEARING
IN ROOM 485 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING – LIVE BROADCAST AVAILABLE!

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee,
posted the following witness late today. PLEASE PRAY for the following who will testify:

Lead Witness:
THE HONORABLE SAM BROWNBACK, United States Senate, Washington, DC
Panel I:
THE HONORABLE TEX HALL, President, National Congress of American Indian , Washington, D.C.THE HONORABLE EDWARD K. THOMAS, President, Central Council Tlingit & Haida Tribes of Alaska, Juneau, AlaskaDR. NEGIEL BIGPOND, SR., President, Two Rivers Native American Training Center, Mounds, Oklahoma
A LIVE BROADCAST OF THIS INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE HEARING IS AVAILABLE

You can link from the central site NativeRes.org, or directly from the U.S. Senate Web site at indian.senate.gov/

PRAY that the Lord’s hand and grace be upon the hearings, all members of the Committee, the appointed witnesses, members of the media and heads of organizations who will be attending, and that the testimony presented will gain the Resolution quick passage to the full Senate.

INTERCEDE that all remaining members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee support the Resolution. Republicans: Pete Domenici (NM), Craig Thomas (WY), Gordon Smith (OR), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Michael Crapo (ID), Richard Burr (NC), Tom Coburn (OK). Democrats: Kent Conrad (ND), Tim Johnson (SD), Maria Cantwell (WA).

The Resolution of Apology, S. J. Res. 15, is titled and described as: “A Joint Resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States.” The full text can be read at NativeRes.org

VISIT THE CENTRAL WEB SITE at www.NativeRes.org, see whether your Senators and Representative have cosponsored, and either thank them or urge them to support this historic and strategic Resolution of Apology to the Native Peoples – S.J. Res 15 and H.J. Res. 3.

Resolution of Apology Coalition 209 Pennsylvania Avenue SE Washington, DC 20003
E-mail: info@nativeres.org Tel: 202 388-1200 Web: NativeRes.org
If you would prefer not to receive further messages from this sender,please click on the following Internet link and confirm your request:Click here for www link -or-Click here for e-mailYou will receive one additional e-mail message confirming your removal.

2005-05-22T22:14:00.000-05:00

To the editor:
Our Otsego superintendent sent out a letter saying he is $ 425,000 short on funds to pay the staff. The bids for the building project have come in high . The board is cutting out many extras from the project.
But they need to get to the heart to the matter. An fixed -seat auditorium that costs 3 million dollars to build is far too expensive for the school district at this time. Yes, this proposed auditorium is a beautiful building. But why not consider a multi-purpose facility? It would be classrooms by day, getting much needed classroom space. Move the chairs around, it is an auditorium at night. Many churches and schools are going to this multi-purpose model. It is much less expensive to put up a building like this. The new Nazarene church facility on Gorrell rd. is one of these. It holds hundreds of people for a morning service. In the afternoon , the chairs can be set up for a special event. In the evening , the chairs can be set up for music or a youth drama. Well over a million dollars could be saved here .
The weight room is a worthy project . But getting the crowded Haskins elementary a classroom addition should be done before a weight room is considered. It will not be easy, but this is a project for the sports dads to sacrifically take on.
The beautiful music building will be the first to be torn down . This building is used for music and choral instruction every day. It could be used in this way for many more years. These older , well kept buildings last for many generations. Look at the elementary school on Ridge st. as an example. My sister- in- law lives in England where these historic buildings are used for hundreds of years. The students there like to go to them. I have asked the board how much it will cost for the tearing down of the music and vo-ag buildings, and the parking lot . I think it is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. How many greatly needed buses would these savings buy if these buildings were saved ?
The primary mission of the school is education and instruction. Look at the school districts all around us. Voters are not in the mood for taxpayer funded extras in this tough economy.
The easiest change to make at this stage of the project is to make the auditorium multi-purpose. The board can petition the contractor for this change. The school board members are elected representatives. Their names and email addresses/contact information should be posted on the school website ,www.otsegoknights.org, to allow citizens to contact them with comments on this or any issue.
The school district is in a deficit going into this building project. The board should consider modifying the building plan, especially the auditorium. If this building is built as currently planned , many may consider it a symbol of excessive spending rather than wise stewardship. And the board needs to have a frugal face on as it is obvious it will be going to the voters soon for more money.

2005-04-28T18:33:00.000-05:00

Frostbrn and co. left our house today. It was too short a visit for me. It was hard for me to go.
I also had a feeling it was a transition of sorts, thought I don't know of what. I will really miss seeing this family in person, but we'll see if we move to a mutual proximity in the future....

2005-04-10T21:56:00.000-05:00

hope Frostbrn gets to visit some counsins in S. Wash state some time--
They sent me this story .....

----- Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 7:17 AM
Subject: FW: Balance

Subject: Balance
Once upon a time, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, theArchangel, found him resting on the seventh day.He inquired of God. "Where have you been?" God sighed adeep sigh of satisfaction, and proudly pointed downwardthrough the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?""It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going callit Earth, and it's going to be a great place of balance.""Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. "For example,Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, whileSouthern Europe is going to be poor. Over there I've placed a continentof white people, and over there is a continent of black people.""Balance in all things," God continued pointing to different countries."This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold andcovered in ice."The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to aland mass and said, "What's that one?""Ah,"said God "That's Washington State, the most gloriousplace on earth. There are beautiful streams, hills, and forests. Thepeople from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest,intelligent and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling theworld. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, andthey will be known throughout the world as diplomats, and carriers ofpeace."Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but thenproclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there wouldbe balance."God smiled, "There is another Washington. Wait til you seethe idiots I put there!"

2005-03-27T22:25:00.000-06:00

Too bad Terry Schiavo couldn't be a bug or fish- she would be saved by a judge!

My heart is deeply grieved at the moral state of the people of our country. We watch with hard hearts at the deliberate starving of a vulnerable human being. Terri is not on life-support so that the pulling of a plug would result in her immediate or immanent death. We are taking away her food and water in order to kill her. Any healthy human being will die if such necessities are removed, including you and I. This is not a suicide or a mercy killing requested by the victim. Terri is being murdered by our system in one of the most cruel and barbaric manners. And what is her crime? She is still alive and her husband (a "husband" only in legal name since he has fathered a new family) wants her dead. And we are told that this is a private family matter and we should keep out of his business.

We do not tolerate such killings in this society for even our worst criminals. If I were to starve to death an injured animal, I would be charged with animal cruelty and face penalties and perhaps even jail time. Yet we see no problem with starving to death human beings like Terri. We justify our acts by relabeling these people as inanimate objects ( vegetables). This is a chilling precedent! Historically, before genocides and mass murders are committed, the targeted victims are negatively renamed as sub or non humans. In Rwanda the Hutus called the Tutsi victims "cockroaches". Others have been called "parasites", "vermin", etc. The Nazis were required to call the bodies of their victims "dolls" or "puppets" as they threw them into mass graves. We need to think about what we are approving in this country...

We are told that Terri doesn't feel any pain being starved to death. Are we going to believe that too?! I had a close friend who damaged her head in a car accident. After being in a coma for months, she gradually opened her eyes and it was apparent that she had suffered permanent brain damage. Her limbs were drawn up, a trake in her throat prevented sounds, and she was fed through a tube because of the trake. For the next 9 years, everyone thought she did not know what was going on . But then a friend began visiting her on a regular basis and discovered that she seemed to understand some of what was said to her. After experimentation, it was learned that she understood a lot more than anyone had expected, including the caregivers at Lake Park and her doctors. She still had a little control of one crooked finger of one drawn up hand and could point to a paper with numbers and letters on it, spelling out sentences and responding to answers by pointing to yes or no. It took a long time to convince the professionals of her abilities because she would often refuse to cooperate with them. Finally, everyone was convinced. But she had spent many years in humiliation as caregivers treated her like a "vegetable". Eventually she developed other health problems and died 12 years after her accident ( a year ago last November). But even in her pain, she died as a courageous human being. We are very complex creatures and it is presumptuous for us to label someone a vegetable when we can not know what is truly being experienced within that person. Terri Shiavo deserves better!

Thank you for giving me an outlet to express my frustrations over this situation.

Sincerely,

Christy

2005-03-04T21:39:00.000-06:00

http://www.toledofreepress.com/

Could it happen in the one newspaper town of Toledo ?
A new paper is going to try to break the monopoly once again.
This one , a weekly , has a splashy full col0r , full story format

check out the Toledo free press

2005-03-04T21:36:00.000-06:00

Parents: suck it up and put up the bucks!

The Lake school board has yet another option to consider in their search for school funding.
Each parent pays a 'student fee' for various school activities, books, labs, sports that their child is involved in.
If a call is made to the State school board of education in Columbus, you find out that this fee can be increased significantly by the local school.
Why should these student fees be increased? Because getting a child to school, extra-cirruculars, sports, are fundamentally the parents' responsibility . They are a privelage. And public school parents should pay more than the rest of the community.
Private school parents do this year after year. They pay public school taxes for our children plus find a way to pay tuition for their own children.
Ask the school board to come up with a list of these extras. and the cost to fund them.
Raising these fees is a sacrificial, even painful idea for parents to consider. Some might even call it a tuition fee. But asking the entire community to pay more taxes should be for basic education. When a tax is passed by the voters, it is mandated upon every tax payer. If a community feels it is funding the basics, it will be more inclined to pass a tax levy.
This idea is not the total solution for a school district in financial trouble. But it is a part. Parents should not always look to Columbus or to their neighbors, but first to themselves and their family for help.

2005-02-26T22:08:00.000-06:00

Kevin Lehman is funny and uses a weekly cartoon/email to make his point.
He takes the edge off the difficult work of relationship.

Relationship Red Flags--- #1 ImmaturityThe divorce rate for 21- and 22-year-olds is twice as high as it is for 24- and 25-year-olds. The fact is, kids younger than their mid-20's really don't know who they are yet, even though we call them "adults." Consequently, they really cannot know who to look for in a mate, or what they have to offer in a marital relationship. In my 30 years of clinical practice I've found that people who don't know themselves very well don't make particularly good choices in relationships.
. Dr. Kevin Leman, Bestselling author on Relationship

2005-02-24T03:56:00.000-06:00

Went to sleep early last night, so am up at 4 a.m this morning for awhile..
So it takes awhile to pull in my 50 daily emails, how do I narrow that down?
And in one of them is this legislative alert for Frostbrn in Wa. state
Terry Schiavo has been given a 2 day reprieve from her death sentence.
We don't treat death row inmates like this, yet she will be cruelly starved to death over many days. She has not had therapy in years, her husband forbids even her teeth to be cleaned. Her curtains are drawn, she is not allowed to be taken outside. Her 'husband' has 2 kids with a new woman, yet he refuses to divorce Terry. What does he stand to gain? Insurance money, or Terry talking about past abuse if she gets speech therapy. More than one therapist wants to give her speech therapy, one renowned therapist says Terri could be speaking in a matter of weeks. Yet her 'husband' denies this therapy.

Unlike Procter & Gamble, you see, politicians are legally free to mislead consumers, that is, voters, about what their products, that is, legislation, will do. An example is a bill pending in the Washington state legislature, Senate Bill 5594. It "purports to outlaw the cloning of human beings." Good. Since most Americans find human cloning repulsive, this sounds wonderful.
But, as Wesley Smith recently wrote in National Review, the bill doesn't outlaw cloning at all. Instead it takes advantage of the public's confusion about cloning to sell the moral equivalent of snake oil. To understand why this is the case, we need to understand cloning. It's a process known as "somatic cell nuclear transfer," or SCNT.
In SCNT, a "biotechnologist removes the nucleus from a mature human egg." He replaces that nucleus with "nucleus of a body cell from [a] DNA donor.…A little shot of electricity comes next, and if all goes well, a new human cloned embryo comes into being."
While all of this is much easier said than done, the important part is that "there is no more cloning to be done since a new human organism now exists."
The Washington bill, like similar legislation in New Jersey, does nothing to prevent SCNT. All it would do is prohibit implanting the cloned embryo "with the purpose of producing a human being." But since a human being has already been produced, when they use the words producing a human being, what the sponsors mean is bringing the cloned embryo to birth. Anything short of that is permissible under this bill.
You could clone human embryos and harvest stem cells, or you could grow fetuses for medical experiments, or let embryos gestate for nine months, abort them, and harvest the organs. Smith gives these moral horrors a fitting name: "fetal farming." People in the state of Washington have been misled into thinking that the bill would prevent the advent of a "Brave New World." Instead, as Smith says, it ushers it in.
This kind of deception makes Smith's Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World a must-read. The technical complexities of biotechnology make it easy to mislead the public. But euphemisms like "therapeutic cloning" are only effective when people don't know the truth.

2005-02-21T20:08:00.000-06:00

2005-02-17T05:59:00.000-06:00

2005-02-16T12:31:00.000-06:00

2005-02-13T20:58:00.000-06:00

Today was a nice day at home . Except for going out in the rain to get firewood, though that warm heat is nice.
Received a nice email from rv girl. Hope she and baby can come next weekend.
And in the research dept. , www.crossings.net
has nice articles and links about , yes, home funerals ! It is a growing , old fashioned movement.
And here all this time , I was thinking of pre-planning and giving big bucks to a funeral director . Forget that, it is natural to do this at HOME, embalming is a highly unnatural process and not required or necessary, you are allowed to build your own casket, or you can buy one online for $500! You can designate your own funeral 'director'. The impersonal, funeral homes want 2000$ up front , forget them. Guess these kind of thoughts come because I'm crossing the big 50 mark this year.
Frostbrn, keep this one for the archives .

2005-02-12T21:19:00.000-06:00

Sometimes things are seeming to fall apart , as much as we want to deny it.
This happened to a man of old, with the wierd name of Job. ( He must have had a lifetime govt. job.) Job is beset by loss on everyside. He withsood this onslaught of collapse because he had experience a theophany-an insight into the reality of God ! We trust not because God has offered proof, but because God has shown His face. In 'Ruthless Trust", by Brendan Manning, "perserverance in the lifelong quest for greater intamacy with Jesus, no matter how often we stumble and fall, is not only the antidote for hopelessness and despair: it is the sure path to divine certitude that overcomes all doubts, anxieties , and worries.
This is our quest in the midst of uncertain days.

2005-02-09T08:56:00.000-06:00

2005-02-08T06:09:00.000-06:00

2005-02-07T05:02:00.000-06:00

An American icon last night - the Superbowl! Jsparrow didn't want to watch it , so for the second half I went over to the neighbors' . Mike F. , and family. Sarah made homemade pizza!
I told her she's the marrying kind. It's important to invest some time in nieghbors.
How can Philly be so bad on clock managment? A one yard pass with less than a minute to go? THe receiver should have batted that ball down to stop the clock.
Sportshero was over at Kellogg rd friends.

2005-02-06T00:21:00.000-06:00

I just spent an hour trying to update my profile ( and add a pic, it didn't work), and Frostbrn says he did all his neat pics in a half hour?! I am computerly slow for sure.
Frostbrn has a creative site, he is a thinker. I have the power of future vision with my 25 year advance on him. He is about people , he invokes passion and communication.
Today was the real start of the great meltdown of winter snow here. The sun was out all day, a great day to be walking in the quiet, in maildad land .
Spending time with Him, the omniscient Creator, today , daily , is still the great equalizer,
stressbuster, inside-out renewer.

2005-02-04T21:49:00.000-06:00

Punched out at 4 pm sharp for a direct shot to freshman bball .
Arrived in the 1st qtr, it was a hot game. The frosh are gaining confidence each game,
they lost this one narrowly to rival Elmwood.
Seth says my backseat coaching help from the stands was the lockerroom talk- down with Mr Childers' coaching comments! So I ask him how Mr Moser can have his coaching comments0- the answer- well , he is a coach ! So now I have to figure to keep my comments in check, at least much more than this game

2005-02-04T21:44:00.000-06:00

the phone rang early this morning . Seth was already in the shower as I got up to listen to the message as I let it go to the phone machine. As I knew it had to be, it was my supvr at work inviting me to work my day off. As I contemplated that thought, the window beheld another beautiful wintry morning emerging . The branches and trees had an icy covering that grew brighter as the sun emerged. Cuffy has been getting fat, mom says she needs a walk daily. Before 10 we were out collecting firewood , then off on a wintry march. The ditch is a hidden gem of wildlife. It is sidetrack of the Maumee river. Today deep snow covers its banks and is piled on its sides from the township snowplow. Every so often at the bottom where ice meets snow is a round muskrat hole with small tracks leading to it. Cuffy and I walked a long way down the ditch today on the ice, in some spots the sun was opening rivlets of running water. Cuffy is ever adventurous, popping her big nose into a hole- no prey in that one! It is a great place for reflection, God's bigness, very quiet except for the humming of electrical insulators as we pass the wooden sentries. The piled snow is so deep that the occassional passing car will not see us. I should have taken my digital camera down there

2004-08-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

God's love is with us
No matter the circumstance, He is on our side. He stays with us , not against.
For we have commended our heart to Him. Therefore we have good hearts, changed then by Him. He connects with that heart, and receives this new heart gladly into His presence.

2004-06-14T10:38:00.000-05:00

This is the late bill bright,
scripture is like a virus , it gets into our system, but in a good way..

Discover the Treasure: Memorizing Scripture
Bill Bright

Whenever many adults hear the word memorize, they groan, "I could never do that." Yet all of us memorize many things in our daily lives: telephone numbers, account numbers, addresses, television commercial jingles, sayings by famous people. You have much more capacity to memorize than you realize.

We should memorize Scripture, if for no other reason than the Lord commanded us to learn His Word (see Proverbs 7:1-3). When you have stored Bible promises in your heart and mind, you will soon notice other changes in your life because the Holy Spirit will use the verses to teach you new things and to help you resist temptation (see Psalm 119:11).

As a new believer, I memorized many verses. The verse 1 Corinthians 10:13 alone - "But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.

And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it" - has saved me from disobeying God on hundreds, if not thousands, of occasions. As we memorize God's Word, the verses become part of the inner workings of our mind, and the Holy Spirit uses them to guide us through situations we encounter during our day.

If you develop a systematic method, Scripture memory will just take a few minutes a day. Look for small slots of time that you normally waste, and fill them with memorizing God's Word. For example, instead of reading a magazine in the doctor's office, memorize a verse of Scripture. Use your break at work, or arrange to memorize Scripture with a fellow believer from your workplace, campus, or church. Memorize Scripture as a family. Memorize verses that you find in your quiet time with God or that you hear in a sermon.

Memorizing verses that apply to your daily life will be easier since you will use them as you memorize them.

Reviewing what you have memorized is just as important as the initial memorization stage. Here are some suggestions for organizing your review.

Write your memory verses on index cards, and carry them with you to review whenever you have a few free moments.
Use a pocket-size notebook to write your verses and the dates on which you learned them. Review your list often.
Build a chart of key verses that God has used in your life. Review them as you thank Him for how He has worked in your life.
Keep a list of key verses from your personal or small-group Bible study. Memorize those verses to make your study more meaningful. Review them periodically.
Post index cards with verses in places where you need them most. For example, tape a card with Philippians 4:8 - "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise" - above your television set.
Here is a list of some verses you could use to begin your memorization:

The power of memorizing God's Word: I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You. (Psalm 119:11)

The gospel in a nutshell: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

How to seek God's will: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

How to resist temptation: But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

What to think about: And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

The Great Commandment: So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples. (John 13:34-35)

The Great Commission: Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. Excerpted from the book Discover the Book God Wrote. Copyright 2004 by Bright Media Foundation. www.tyndale.com

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