May I suggest you stun the World? Mr. Magorium

 One of my favorite movies is Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. In the movie, a young lady of 23 goes to her boss and dearest friend (Mr. Magorium) and confides to him that she is stuck. Her life seems to be going nowhere and she believes that it is time for a change. The wise, old man looks at her with a sweet smile and suggests that she "stun the world".

 Do you ever feel stuck - that your life is going nowhere? Maybe you have made a few mistakes that you wish you hadn't... maybe you feel that your life really hasn't amounted to much... maybe you just wonder what God has put you here for in the first place.

God really does have a purpose for your life. It is to serve Him as best you can. It is to help others along the way - not necessarily to have an easier time of things, but to come closer to God and to Christ. Further, God has placed within you with special abilities; abilities that if used well are nothing short of amazing. Our duty is to find out what those abilities are and use them for Him.

It is important for us to understand, when we are feeling rather useless, that God has never made a mistake - and that includes you. He has put within us all a capacity for remarkable achievement - a genius, if you will, that will literally stun the world if we use it to it's full potential.

So, if you haven't yet, may I suggest that you change your focus from your failures and place it squarely upon your capacity for success? If you and I will do that very thing, I believe that someday we will stun the world. In doing so, we might even surprise ourselves a bit at what God has allowed us to accomplish.

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. II Thessalonians 1:11, NIV

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Charles Dederich

Zig Ziglar tells the story of a large southern town that had a garbage dump close to town. As with all growing cities, the dump just got too close to be pleasant and something had to be done. So the people stopped dumping garbage there, removed what they could, and then covered the rest with clean fill dirt. Then they built a large shopping center which employed hundreds and served thousands.

There is a lesson in this little story, for those who would take the time to learn it. How many times have we seen people who have made a big mistake or a series of small mistakes that rendered their lives, for the lack of a better phrase, a garbage dump? I suspect that we have all been in that very situation a time or two ourselves - but what can you do? You do what the people in the town did!

The first step one must take in order to get rid of a garbage dump is to stop dumping garbage. It seems obvious, but many miss this step and are doomed to being surrounded by filth. The second step is to remove the garbage that can be removed. The third step is to cover over the garbage that cannot be removed. The fourth, and perhaps most critical step, is to build something beautiful in its place.

Would this work for you, or for someone you know? Aren't we all called to repent - to stop dumping garbage? Aren't we all called to wash away our sins? Aren't we all called to walk a newness of life? Today really is the first day of the rest of your life, with all of the promise and potential that a new life holds, if you will decide to make it so. God does not want us to live in a garbage dump. He has called us to something better! Why not accept His call?

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:13-14, NIV

What the world needs is a return to sweetness and decency.

Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday

There was a time when movies did not need a restricted rating to attract audiences. There was also a time when life didn't need a "restricted rating" to be considered worthwhile. In fact there was a time when sweetness and decency were sought after, and when anything else was unacceptable.

Now this is not an article about the "good old days", rather, it is an attempt to suggest that virtue may not be as outdated as some might imagine. As evidence, we see that some young men still prefer their young women to be virtuous and that some young women still admire virtue in their young men. We see that most of our coaches and teachers still hold character in high regard among their students and that nearly all parents still hold respect and honesty as minimum standards of behavior in their households.

So why is it when we consider such things as sweetness and decency that we often consider them relics of the past, rather than as a vital part of modern society? Maybe it is because we have bought into the lies of so many of the social elite that political correctness is the new paradigm, and that virtue is for narrow-minded, judgmental bigots who are so bold as to suggest that certain lifestyles are indecent.

Perhaps it is time to start treating those whose god is political correctness as the relics of the past, rather than a vital part of modern society. Perhaps it is time to realize that such people are much easier to replace than time-tested values such as sweetness and decency. It will be only when we once again affirm without apology that we admire virtue and disdain indecency, that our nation can return to a society that is worthy of God's children.

The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men. Psalm 12:8, NIV

When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.

Proverbs 28:28, NIV

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness. Malachi 3:3, NIV

I heard this story over 25 years ago, and it has always stuck with me. There was a Sunday school teacher who was going to teach on this passage from Malachi, and decided to do a little first hand research. There was a silver refiner nearby, so she went down to his shop to find out how the process worked.

When she got there, she found the refiner peering intently into a large vat that was suspended over a fire.  She explained the reason for her visit, but was a little put off by his actions. Instead of looking up, he simply continued to peer into the vat of silver while at the same time working with a hand operated bellows. Finally he spoke, still not even looking up to see to whom he was talking to, and explained something of the refining process. He said, "I'm burning off the impurities  from the silver. If the fire is not hot enough, the impurities will remain. If it gets too hot, it will ruin the silver."

The teacher thought, "So that's it". When Malachi described God as a refiner, he was showing what God does as He removes our impurities. He gets the fire just hot enough to remove the bad things from our lives,  while at the same time making sure that it doesn't get too hot for us to stand." Satisfied that she had learned the lesson of the refiner, she thanked the man, who still had never looked up from his work, and started to leave. As she turned to go the refiner said, almost as an afterthought, "I have to keep my eyes on the silver at all times to know the exact moment that it is ready. I know it's ready when I can see my reflection".

There is a lot in that, when you think about it. God truly does allow us to go through many things in this life - not to harm us, but to perfect us for His service. Sometimes the fire seems awfully hot, but we need not worry as He will never take His eyes from us. And, of course, the most important part is that we will not be ready until the Master can see His reflection in us. Do you think that others can see God and Christ reflected in our lives? Probably, we all still have a bit more fire to go through before we are ready.

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. II Chronicles 16:9, NIV