All posts by SandyM

Please Wear A Poppy

Remembrance

“Please wear a poppy,” the lady said,
And held one forth, but I shook my head,
Then I stopped and watched as she offered them there,
And her face was old and lined with care;

But beneath the scars the years had made
There remained a smile that refused to fade.
A boy came whistling down the street,
Bouncing along on care-free feet.

His smile was full of joy and fun,
“Lady,” said he, “may I have one?”
When she’d pinned it on, he turned to say;
“Why do we wear a poppy today?”

The lady smiled in her wistful way
And answered; “This is Remembrance Day.
And the poppy there is a symbol for
The gallant men who died in war.

And because they did, you and I are free –
That’s why we wear a poppy, you see.
I had a boy about your size,
With golden hair and big blue eyes.

He loved to play and jump and shout,
Free as a bird, he would race about.
As the years went by, he learned and grew,
And became a man – as you will, too.

He was fine and strong, with a boyish smile,
But he’d seemed with us such a little while
When war broke out and he went away.
I still remember his face that day.

When he smiled at me and said, ‘Goodbye,
I’ll be back soon, Mum, please don’t cry.’
But the war went on and he had to stay,
And all I could do was wait and pray.

His letters told of the awful fight
(I can see it still in my dreams at night),
With the tanks and guns and cruel barbed wire,
And the mines and bullets, the bombs and fire.

Till at last, at last, the war was won –
And that’s why we wear a poppy, son.”
The small boy turned as if to go,
Then said: “Thanks, lady, I’m glad to know.

I slunk away in a sort of shame,
And if you were me, you’d have done the same:
For our thanks, in giving, if oft delayed,
Though our freedom was bought – and thousands paid!

And so, when we see a poppy worn,
Let us reflect on the burden borne
By those who gave their very all
When asked to answer their country’s call
That we at home in peace might live.
Then wear a poppy! Remember – and Give!

I first found this poem in a church magazine as anonymous, but having searched the web it is attributed to different authors including Don Crawford on the BBC website.

In Flanders Fields

Remembrance, War

John McCrae a Canadian soldier took a break from dressing the injuries of wounded soldiers and wrote a poem which has become known to virtually everyone who wears a poppy in November.
In Flanders Fields In Flanders Fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky the larks still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields.

Rejection massively reduces IQ – NewScientist.com news service

Rejection

15 March 02 Rejection can dramatically reduce a person’s IQ and their ability to reason analytically, while increasing their aggression, according to new research. “It’s been known for a long time that rejected kids tend to be more violent and aggressive,” says Roy Baumeister of the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, who led the work. “But we’ve found that randomly assigning students to rejection experiences can lower their IQ scores and make them aggressive.” Baumeister’s team used two separate procedures to investigate the effects of rejection. In the first, a group of strangers met, got to know each other, and then separated. Each individual was asked to list which two other people they would like to work with on a task. They were then told they had been chosen by none or all of the others. In the second, people taking a personality test were given false feedback, telling them they would end up alone in life or surrounded by friends and family.
Aggression scores increased in the rejected groups. But the IQ scores also immediately dropped by about 25 per cent, and their analytical reasoning scores dropped by 30 per cent.

“These are very big effects – the biggest I’ve got in 25 years of research,” says Baumeister. “This tells us a lot about human nature. People really seem designed to get along with others, and when you’re excluded, this has significant effects.”

Baumeister thinks rejection interferes with a person’s self-control. “To live in society, people have to have an inner mechanism that regulates their behaviour. Rejection defeats the purpose of this, and people become impulsive and self-destructive. You have to use self-control to analyse a problem in an IQ test, for example – and instead, you behave impulsively.”

Baumeister presented his results at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK

Quoted from http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992051

The Song Of The Shepherd

Psalms

“My beloved child, I the Lord: I am your Shepherd. You will never want for anything which I know you need.
I am making you lie down in a green pasture. I have to make you lie down because, left to yourself, you would never lie down in that lush and quiet place which I provide for those I love. But now come and rest beside me.
I have led you to quiet waters: a. beautiful pool of refreshment from which you can drink deeply and safely, knowing that this water that I provide will restore your soul and will not overwhelm you.
My dear one, I am guiding you in the right path. It is one of the paths of my righteousness. It is just the right path for you to walk in. My choice is an expression of my holiness and my love for you. It is the perfect path for you. If there were a better one, I would take you along that one instead. My path for you is the path that is bringing you into fullness of blessing. It is the unique path I have planned for you; none other has ever walked it or ever will. Rest in the sure knowledge that you are on the right path. I will see to it for the sake of my own name. Trust me …… and rest.
Beloved and special child, even though you find yourself walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Deep Darkness, and even Death itself, do not be afraid for I am with you in that dark and threatening place. Do you think that I would lead you into some terrible, deathly gully if it were not essential for your blessing? There is only one reason for a Good Shepherd to take his precious lamb into such a place, and that is in order to take it through into a new and richer pasture.
Do not be anxious or afraid. You are my precious one and I undertake to protect you with my rod from all that would harm you, and to guide you with the tapping of my staff when you feel lost and alone and cannot discern the path. I give my Spirit to comfort and encourage you.
This dark experience is one you are walking through with me alongside you. Your trust in me is growing immeasurably because of it. Going through dark places with me binds us together as nothing else can. You can actually embrace your suffering, dear one, and praise me both in it and for it.
I prepare a table before you even in the presence of your enemies. There are no circumstances that can prevent me from spreading my tabledif provision for you. I am pouring the oil of my Spirit and my healing love upon your head. Stand still and let me do it.
In spite of everything, I will see to it that your cup is constantly overflowing.
Dearest child, there is nothing more certain than this: my goodness, my love and my covenant grace will pursue you and cling to you all the days that remain for you here, and when it is all over, this is my solemn promise: You, my dear one, will dwell with me in my house forever, because I love you,” says the Lord.
Expanded version of Psalm 23, from Chris Hill

Promises

A promise from God is a statement we can depend on with absolute confidence. Here are 12 promises for the Christian to claim.

1. God’s presence—“I will never leave thee” (Heb. 13:5)

2. God’s protection—“I am thy shield” (Gen. 15:1)

3. God’s power—“I will strengthen thee” (Isa. 41:10)

4. God’s provision—“I will help thee” (Isa. 41:10)

5. God’s leading—“And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them” (John 10:4)

6. God’s purposes—“I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil” (Jer. 20:11)

7. God’s rest—“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)

8. God’s cleansing—“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)

9. God’s goodness—“No good thing will He withhold from them that work uprightly” (Psalm 84:11)

10. God’s faithfulness—“The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake” (1 Sam. 12:22)

11. God’s guidance—“The meek will He guide” (Psalm 25:9)

12. God’s wise plan—“All things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28)

Our Daily Bread, January 1, 1985

All The Fs

Prodigal Son

Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the family finances. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends. Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished he fain would have filled his frame with the foraged foods of the fodder fragments left by the filthy farmyard creatures. ‘Fooey’, he said, ‘My father’s flunkies fare far fancier,’ the frazzled fugitive found feverishly, frankly facing facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding he forthwith fled to his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly. ‘Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favour.’
But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching frantically flagged the flunkies. ‘Fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.’ But the fugitive’s fault-finding frater frowned on the fickle forgiveness of the former folderol. His fury flashed.
But fussing was futile, for the far-sighted father figured, such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity? The fugitive is found! “Unfurl the flags, with fanfares flaring! Let fun and frolic freely flow!” “Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken! And forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortitude.”

The Sin Of Pride

Pride

Rap singer Queen Latifah was asked about the sin of pride. “Pride is a sin?” she responded. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
Actress Kirstie Alley added, “I don’t think pride is a sin …. I think some idiot made that up.”
Rapper Ice-T echoed the same idea: “Pride is mandatory. That’s one of the problems of the innercity. Kids don’t have enough pride.”
Moody Monthly, Sept. 1995

Grabbing Attention

Preaching

A senior Pastor was advising his young associate on his preaching, and said “When I see members of the congregation nodding off, or looking at their watches, I try to grab their attention by saying something shocking. For example, I might say in the middle of my sermon, ‘Last night I spent the evening in the arms of a married woman . . .’ When I have their attention I add ‘ . . . it was my wife.'”

Sometime later the younger man was preaching, but he could see members in his congregation fidgeting, some yawning and others looking at their watches, so he announced “Last night I spent the evening in the arms of a married woman . . .’ The congregation were rapt. Jaws hung open. Frosty stares came from some of the older members, all of which unnerved the young man, who added ‘ . . . and for the life of me I cannot remember who she was!!”

TULIP

Preaching

In a recent interview on the website Breakfast With Fred, Steve Brown (speaker for KeyLife, a prof at Reformed Seminary, and a Preaching Magazine senior consulting editor) explained that, “In my classes at the seminary, I teach a TULIP of communication. The TULIP presupposes the authority of Scripture, understanding doctrine, knowing how to exegete a text. The principles are as follows . . .
T = Therapeutic. ” The communicator must, by necessity, speak to problems with solutions. Like a surgeon, the words may heal or hurt to heal . . . but if there is no healing, then there is no real communication.”
U = Unconventional. “The greatest sin for a communicator is the sin of boring the audience . . . Don’t say it the way everybody else has said it. Don’t say the expected. Don’t fit into anybody else’s mold.”
L = Lucid. “I tell students that a good measurement of their communication skills is this question: If your listeners wanted to take notes, could they? . . . The content may be only one point made by a story . . . but that one point should be clear . . . clear enough so that it would be written down and put into practice.
I = Illustrated. “Stories are very, very important in modern communication. Learn where to find them, how to use them and then use the often . . . ”
P = Passionate. “If you don’t care, nobody else will. If you aren’t excited about what you are going to say, nobody else will be excited. So, if your “hot buttons” are not pushed, don’t try to communicate it to anybody else.” (To read the entire interview, click here.)
Quoted from PreachingNow email list

Different Kinds Of Preachers

Preaching

“There are three types of preachers: those to whom you cannot listen; those to whom you can listen; and those to whom you must listen. During the introduction the congregation usually decides the kind of speaker addressing them that morning.”
Biblical Preaching (Baker, 2nd edition, 2002), p. 175

A Provocative Letter

Preaching

The British Weekly published this provocative letter:

Dear Sir:

It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church quite regularly for thirty years, and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my consternation, I discovered I cannot remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time might be more profitably spent on something else.

For weeks a storm of editorial responses ensued … finally ended by this letter:

Dear Sir:

I have been married for thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals — mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet … I have the distinct impression that without them I would have starved to death long ago.

Spurgeon: Preaching is hard work

Preaching

“I have heard of a brother who trusts in the Lord, and does not study; but I have also heard that his people do not trust in him; in fact, I am informed that they wish him to go elsewhere with his inspired discourses, for they say that, when he did study, his talk was poor enough, but now that he gives them that which comes first to his lips, it is altogether unbearable. If any man will preach as he should preach, his work will take more out of him than any other labour under heaven. If you and I attend to our work and calling, even among a few people, it will certainly produce a friction of soul and a wear of heart which will tell upon the strongest. . . .”
Charles Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry