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A Message from our Sponsor
Well, I want you to know: I’m a Christian,
as are many of the professionals in the firm.
Our mission is simply to offer your company the
best business-to-business PR service that we can. Our energy and
talents are a gift from God. We’ve simply chosen to use
them this way, with gladness and candor.
John
An offering from important
pages, and people . . .
Many
decades ago, author George Orwell sat at a table outside while
eating bread with jam. A wasp landed on the jam and began to eat
it.
Amused at first and eventually bothered by it, Orwell tried to
wave it
away. After repeated efforts to discourage the wasp, which continued
to
eat the jam, he picked up the knife and cut the wasp in half.
Yet, the
wasp continued to eat, apparently oblivious to its dire situation.
As
he watched in fascination, a stream of jam continued to trickle
from the
open end of the insect's esophagus. It was only when the wasp
attempted
to fly away that it became aware of its grim condition.
Orwell pondered: Are we like the wasp, consuming
of the world, not
realizing until it's time to leave that we are separated from
our soul?
Sounds horrible, doesn't it? Now is the time to
prevent it, and to
share the eternal salvation with others. Why wait?

This, from Nicky Gumbel,
founder of the Alpha ministry (proudly offered to you from one
who enjoyed all the plinking and plunking during his daughter’s
early piano training):
“Lord
Radstock was staying in a hotel in Norway in the mid-nineteenth
century. He heard a little girl playing the piano nearby. She
was making a terrible noise: ‘plink… plunk…
plink…’ It was driving him mad! Then, he noticed that
a man came and sat beside her and began playing with her, filling
in the gaps. The result was the most beautiful music. He later
learned that the man who joined the girl was her father, Alexander
Borodin, composer of the opera, Prince Igor.
The disciple Paul writes that "in all things
God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). As we falteringly
play our part – seeking His will for our lives through Scripture,
listening for His counsel and guidance, acting in accordance with
His will, waiting, and in our fellowship with others – God
comes to sit beside us, taking our "plink, plunk, plink"
and makes something truly beautiful out of our lives.
Also, these
selections from the instruction manual:
• "A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;
a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree."
Proverbs
11:28
• "Blessed are those who trust in
the Lord . . . They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not
bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their
leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit."
Jeremiah
17:7-8
• For everything, absolutely everything,
above and below, visible and invisible ... everything got started
in Him and finds its purpose in Him.
Colossians
1:16
And, lest we’er
forget:
Thomas Paine, American Crisis (1780-83)
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier
and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves
the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not
easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the
harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain
too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives
every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price
upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial
an article as freedom should not be highly rated."
December
23, 1776
And finally . . .
The Bible says, "David served God's purpose in his own generation."
I can't think of a better epitaph. That's what I want for my life
- that when I die people will say, "He served God's purpose
in his generation."
- Rick
Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life
We hope this message encourages you on your journey.
Charitable organizations
supported by Common Ground
Gospel for Asia
Focus on the Family
Compassion
International
Water Street Rescue Mission
Door of Hope International
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