CHOOSE WISELY

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust"

Gen_3:19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for DUST thou art, and unto DUST shalt thou return." Gen_18:27: "And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but DUST and ASHES:"

This is where the concept of “Ash Wednesday” came from, a reminder we will again become dust. In fact at the event of the death our physical body will, if left to itself, decay and eventually become part of the ground. It will become dust. Ashes remind us of dust.

The process will take longer if we permit the body to be treated by an undertaker. He will remove certain things and pump it full of preservatives. Even then it will eventually decompose and become part of the earth. This will happen although we try to protect it in concrete and titanium boxes. Given enough time all will disperse.

But the soul, the spirit, will never end. It will continue forever. You have a beginning (birth) but you have no end. At death you have one of two places to go: to heaven to be with Jesus, or the other place ever to be separated from him; a place some of us call “Hell”. During your physical life you have a choice of which of these destinations you will go. You will have no chance to change your mind after the physical dies. Choose the best option now while you can, the spirit dies not turn to dust and ashes.

HOW DO I TREAT MANAGERS

 

 

When I was a working man it sometimes seemed hard just to go to work in the morning or to have a positive thought about what was happening there. It was easy, some might say almost natural, to think about the management, people in a superior position over me, in a negative light. Maybe this is true for many people: in our imaginations we place upon management thoughts, attitudes, and actions we have no factual knowledge about.

 

We find it easy to think of the management as careerists, self-serving and disorganized. Sometimes this is true, but are we deceived? Are they really that way? What concrete proof do we have other than feelings, unsubstantiated thoughts and hearsay? Could we list those things on paper and back them up in a court of law? Or are we perhaps deceiving ourselves?

 

I did not want to work from a deceived heart. If I held people to be wrong in my estimation I did not what myself to be wrong. I wanted to hold those wrong whom God knows to be wrong. For this reason I needed to pray to God, “Please work in me to rid deceit from my mind, my heart, my spirit. I wish only to entertain the truth. Lord, please counsel me about what I should think of this job. I am often depressed about it. Should I look for another or should I learn contentment here? Please show me directly and put people in my way to give me good counsel. When I view my authorities here at work should I try to see you in them? You in the big boss, you in the sub-boss, you and in the administrators? Or should I want the customer as the ultimate boss? When I go to them, please be with me to show me what I should see and hear. Please help me to make the correct observations and correct judgments about them. Please help me to have an open mind about what happens and what is said. Please help me to spend my time and resources wisely for the beneficial effect of your Kingdom.