A Preacher’s Tweets

Acceptance.  There is no moral obligation to accept things with which you profoundly disagree. Acceptance must be volitional. If not, it is tyranny.

Accomplishment.  You cannot have an authentic feeling of accomplishment without actually doing something. The feeling is the function of the relationship.

Accountability.  True accountability involves disclosure, explanation, acceptance of penalty and embracing of reward. Anything less won’t do.

Affection.  Me: “If you don’t watch it, little girl, I’m going to grab you, whirl you around, hug you and kiss you.” She: “I’m not watching it!”

Age.  Your age perspective informs you that Social Security is either the most important concern in your life or a meaningless statistic.

Attitude.  “Death has been swallowed up in victory!” I like that. Truth with an attitude!

Attitude.  Be a verb, not a noun. Don’t let things happen to you; you happen to things! Let people feel your spirit, and attitude. Bring life to their lives!

Attitudes.  Believers can survive tough times and terrible incidents; they cannot survive toxic attitudes.

Attitudes.  Monitor your daily attitude shifts. People are more likely to erode than they are to suffer a cataclysmic fall.

Balance.  The best bike in the world won’t hold you up if you lose your balance.

Belief.  Jesus’ enemies would not believe; therefore they could not believe. Jn 12:37. They did not lack evidence; they lacked honesty and humility.

Best.  When the best rises to first place in your life, the rest must suffer demotion. Forget the gain if you can’t stand the pain.

Blame.  Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.

Blessing.  The “Greater-Blessing Principle:” The level of responsibility is tied to the level of blessing. Luke 12:48.

Blood of Jesus.  The full impact of Jesus’ blood is: A covenant relationship with God; absolved of all your sin, moral debt, shame and your guilt.

Calvary.  Calvary was a carefully planned strategy carried out according to a pre-conceived plan that existed in the mind of God.

Carefulness.  Misplaced carefulness: Esau didn’t find repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. He wasn’t careful when he should have been.

Change.  Change has a neutral value. Whether it turns out good or bad depends entirely upon its coefficient.

Change.  Change often produces fear before it yields results. That might be why God repeats “Fear not” in the Bible sixty-three times.

Character.  We must never cast character aside in order to achieve a noble objective. Righteousness cannot be secured by unrighteous acts.

Cheap.  The man who wants a really cheap gift can find what he’s looking for in the mirror.

Children.  Always be aware of the possibility that your child or student may have a divine purpose far greater than anything you may imagine.

Choices.  If two seemingly opposites stand before you, choose both; it’s not either/or. It’s both inward AND outward holiness; both spiritual AND practical.

Christianity.  You cannot simply add Christianity to your religious experience. You cannot have Jesus accidently, incrementally or tentatively.

Coincidences.  Coincidences are when God chooses to remain anonymous. -Unknown

Commitment.  Many people like to flirt with Jesus, but when it comes to a marriage commitment, they resemble the runaway bride.

Commitment.  The greatest characteristic of truly powerful persons is their steadfast commitment to a righteous cause.

Conservativism.  Liberals think the world is a zoo with all the dangerous animals locked in cages; conservatives understand that the cages are open.

Consistency.  Consistency won’t break records, get standing o’s or have them rolling in the aisles, but it gets the tough jobs done year in and year out.

Criticism.  We have a responsibility to be discerning, but not a right to be critical.

Dads.  Great dads live in submission to their spiritual authority; know how to laugh and enjoy life; do not live vicariously through their kids.

Dads.  Great dads spend time with their kids; don’t criticize them to demean or discourage them; never ridicule them; do not compete with them.

Dads.  If Dad say’s “Don’t get me anything.” Either he doesn’t need anything, or he knows he’s the one that will have to pay for it anyway!

Demas.  Whatever Demas finally decided to be, it never measured up to what he could have been.

Depression.  When depressed, Shakespeare thought himself no poet, Raphael doubted he could paint. So, at times, Christians doubt their salvation.

Desires.  Identify your values, but control your desires: it is when you desire what you value that you attain the greatest satisfaction in life.   

Desires.  Lay your wants down and ask Jesus for your daily bread. His bread and His water will become a banquet feast for you.

Difficulty.  Satan always exaggerates the difficulties of serving God and always minimizes the trouble he causes you.

Doctrine.  Doctrine does divide; it divides truth from error, righteousness from unrighteousness, and sheep from goats.

Doctrine.  People come and go, personalities rise and fall, trends fade in and out of popularity, but doctrine builds enduring congregations.

Duty.  Duty is slow and reluctant; love is swift and direct. Duty gets discouraged; love has boundless reserves.

Duty.  Is it love or duty? Duty leads to weariness; love continually refreshes. Duty wants to know minimums; love lives abundantly.

Early Risers.  God reserves his most spectacular views for those who get out of bed early.

Evidence.  Our question is not “Do I have enough evidence to believe?” Rather, it is “Will I believe the evidence I have?”

Excess.  Be careful! Your excesses will define your children’s normalcy.

Experience.  Experience is a hard teacher. First comes the test, then the lesson.

Experience.  Experience is the ability to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

Faith.  Faith is our only reliable tool for spiritual navigation: “We walk by faith and not by sight.”

Faith.  Spiritual Scrabble: You can’t spell “impossibility” when you draw the letters F-A-I-T-H!

Faith.  Your doc’s name is unpronounceable; prescription illegible; pharmacist unknown; medicine incomprehensible…yet you take it. That’s FAITH!!

Faithfulness.  I am amazed at all the things God accomplishes through our unremarkable, but faithful acts.

Focus.  Only by focusing on the positives do the negatives become manageable.

Food.  Chew your food! There is a spiritual lesson here.

Forgetfulness.  No matter where life takes you…don’t ever forget where you came from. Honor the path that brought you to this moment!

Forgiveness.  Forgiveness: I show you the grace of God; I release you from the debt you owe to me; and I send away the offense into the blood of Jesus.

Forgiveness.  If you want people to forgive and forget, live in such a way that you virtually erase the memory of the sin.

Forgiveness.  Need forgiveness? Don’t minimize your sin; display humility; implement change; restore loss; live so the other person will forget.

Forgiveness.  Need forgiveness? Never minimize your transgression; keep a humble attitude; expect certain changes; make a real attempt at restoration.

Foundations.  Mat. 7:24-27 The difference was not the men, the houses, or the storms. The difference was in the foundations.

Freedom.  “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Anyone who lives a lie forfeits the power that truth alone can deliver.

Freedom.  Freedom comes down to one question: Who will control me? Romans 6:18

Freedom.  When we lose one freedom for the “greater good,” we stand to lose all freedom for the good of one: the tyrant.

Future.  The future happens whether or not we have a vision. W/o a vision, we perish; with a vision, we flourish. Do you want to perish or flourish?

Generations.  Generation X produced Generation Y. The emerging generation’s starting point is always the previous generation’s frontier. 

Giving.  If you only give what others deserve, you only get what you deserve. The Christ Way is undeserved kindnesses.

Giving.  Jochebed left Moses in the river as a slave, he returned as royalty; left under a curse, returned with a blessing; left poor, returned rich!

Giving.  We cannot give too much to God; He will be indebted to no man.

Goals.  In life, as in basketball, hand-eye coordination is critical to making baskets. Keep your eyes on the goal.

Goals.  Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability, brains or courage, but because they have never organized their energies around a goal.

God.  The acts of God are enfolded within the acts of man! “[He] is able to do exceeding abundantly…according to the power that worketh in us.”

God.  The God who never changes always changes into the answer for your specific problem.

God’s Will.  Airplanes were made for the air, not the hanger. God’s will can never be fulfilled in ruts of inaction and mediocrity. Run, stretch, fly.

God’s Will.  You can’t pray for God’s will to be done if you insist on defining God’s will for yourself; nor if you have no intention of obeying it. Rom 14:12

Gospel.  The gospel is to be proclaimed, not merely preferred, commanded, not suggested, contended for, not commented upon.

Government.  What are we going to do when the gov’t decides that the Bill of Rights isn’t good for us?  Wait! Has that already happened?

Government.  Why does the gov’t always tell us what’s best for us, but never wants to hear what’s best for it?

Grace.  G-R-A-C-E = God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense

Gratitude.  Appreciate the gratitude of others, but don’t rely on it.

Habits.  You can’t steer a train unless you control where the tracks are laid. Neither can you steer your life unless you establish right habits.

Heartache.  Do not permit one heartache to overshadow a thousand joys.

Heaven.  I wonder how the Apostle John felt when he saw his own name among the inscriptions on the foundations of the Holy City!

Holy Spirit.  No one has a superior strain of the Holy Ghost. Some are just better at giving Him control.

Homes.  Why do we invest in state-of-the-art security systems for our houses but allow our homes to go unsecured?

Humility.  Fly high enough to stay above the fray but not so high your head is in the clouds.

Ideas.  The road to improvement runs straight through the town of fresh ideas.

Image.  God made us in His image; we then try to re-make God in our image; when we do, we always end up with a false god.

Importance.  Dream about doing important things, but not about being important.

Improvement.  When an archer misses the mark he looks within himself. The bull’s-eye bears no blame. To improve your aim, improve yourself.

Integrity.  Honesty is your relationship to others. Integrity is your relationship to yourself.

Intellect.  Unseen spirits, rather than studied symptoms, often lie at the root of our problems. They stay one jump ahead of intellectual analysis.

Isolation.  Isolated, unloved babies don’t grow properly & r susceptible to disease. Isolated Christians can neither give or receive ministry.

Jesus.  Acts 4:13 “…they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. “Can anyone measure the “Jesus effect” on you?

Jesus.  Even atheists, every time they write the date 2010, have to acknowledge the existence of a man called Jesus! How sweet is that!

Jesus.  Every blessing, healing, gain, miracle, need supplied is a by-product to knowing Jesus. He doesn’t just give prizes—-he IS the prize!

Jesus.  The disciples baited; Thomas debated; Jesus waited.

Jesus.  The supreme lesson that Christians must learn is that Jesus doesn’t just have the answers, Jesus IS the answer!

Laughter.  Watch out for people who can’t laugh at themselves!

Law.  If our lawmakers don’t honor the law why should they expect the citizens to honor any laws they make?

Leadership.  Leaders cut the fat, falsehoods and futile elements out of their ideas and hone them into doable goals.

Life.  “Give me whereon to stand”, said Archimedes, “and I will move the earth.” Find your place to stand and you can move your world!

Life.  Don’t hurry building the foundation for life. A fraction off at the benchmark leads to major problems in the superstructure. Get it right.

Life.  Don’t be so obsessed with the “if onlys” of life that you do little or nothing with the “I haves.”

Life.  Earn your status You can’t have a diploma w/o study, expertise w/o knowledge, privilege w/o responsibility or respect w/o respectability.

Life.  If you intend to do a lot with your life, start doing more with your hours and days.

Life.  Make your life a mission, not an intermission.

Life.  Out-of-control curiosity, insatiable interest, incorrigible wanderlust and irrepressible desire make life an adventure.

Life.  You can’t have a diploma w/o study, expertise w/o accumulating knowledge, privilege w/o responsibility, respect w/o respectability.

Light.  The beauty of a candle goes beyond light, heat or fragrance. If held close enough, it has the capacity to ignite countless other candles.

Love.  God is love…and I have it in writing!

Love.  Love is compelling. It turns miscreants into martyrs, stubborn hearts into silly putty, and brutes into puppy dogs.

Love.  Love is greater than hope or faith. Transcendent love is not circumstantial or random; rather, it is planned and deliberate.

Love.  Love your friends; be very careful about the friends of your friends!

Love.  Plaque at cracker barrel: Each morning I fall in love with you all over again!

Love.  The “Love-Forgiveness Principle:” The magnitude of forgiveness=the magnitude of love. Luke 7:47.

Love.  Truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. 

Magnification.  God cannot magnify Himself; He is already omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. We must magnify Him to grow our perception of Him.

Magnification.  Got trials? Find God in them and magnify Him. Got blessings? Find God and magnify Him. Battles? Opportunities? Find God and magnify Him!

Mandate.  God gives supernatural experiences with a mandate attached.

Maturity.  Spiritual maturity is sharing truth in love. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” Prov. 27:6.

may confiscate the wealth of the rich, but it cannot have their propensity to create it.

Miracles.  Somewhere in your life, there is a miracle you can’t deny. You have an experience that forever ties you to God!

Mission.  The man with a mission doesn’t need an incentive; his reason for living makes the rewards immaterial.

Moms.  And, most importantly, Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud!

Moms.  Motherhood is the most underappreciated, underpaid, overworked and overloaded role a woman can have. Can I get an AMEN, somebody?!

Morality.  Morality is a bank into which past generations have deposited courage, loyalty, responsibility and commitment. Made any deposits lately?

Motivation.  Prodding works better than pampering. Not one college basketball team was ever pampered into the Final Four.

Needs.  No one matures past his or her spiritual needs.

New Birth.  The real challenge is letting God re-make us into his image! That’s the purpose behind the new birth.

Obedience.  The privilege of giving orders comes from obedience, not conferred authority.

Openness.  We don’t like it when we’re shut in; nor when we’re shut out; nor shut up. Our problem is with the shut. Openness is the solution.

Options.  Israel at the Red Sea: When you can’t turn right, left or back, one option remains – GO FORWARD! God will make a way.

Parenting.  Parents: Love w/o doting; Provide w/o spoiling;Enjoy w/o obsessing; Protect w/o smothering; Teach w/o dictating; Discipline w/o abusing.

Pathway.  A pebble in your shoe is worse than a tree limb across your path.

Patience.  The irony of mindless impatience is that it wastes time. Patience is not just waiting; it is informed waiting.

Paul.  He saw lights, heard voices, had conversations with God, joined a radical group who followed a man crucified for crimes: was Paul crazy?

Perception.  Don’t magnify your problems. The evil spies reacted to their own perceptions, not to the reality of God’s might and dominion.

Perspective.  Perspective may be the most important concept we have in living for God; it puts everything in the right relationship with everything else.

Perspective.  Spiritually, nothing in your life’s picture will work unless Jesus Christ is placed in the right perspective—the center of it all!

Political Correctness.  Political correctness is inherently doomed. People soon catch on that the nice new words mean the same thing as the nasty old words.

Prayer.  Prayer enables you to bond with the heart of God. “Pray ye therefore…that he would send forth laborers into His harvest.” Lk 10:2.

Prayer.  Secret prayer yields public strength. Like load-bearing beams hidden in ceilings, the source of spiritual strength is rarely seen.

Preaching.  Preacher, preach today with confidence! “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.”

Present.  Remember this present moment. Growth needs memory to measure itself and become meaningful.

Present.  Your present “you” is just as valuable as your past “you”. Start now—with where you are and who you are. This is the new birth.

Pride.  Don’t allow “spiritual” prayer to become vocalized wishes of a carnal heart. Prayer for revival must not have pride as its basis.

Pride.  Pride is at the root of most failures. When Cain’s pride was insulted, he murdered his brother. Absalom’s pride cost him his life.

Pride.  Pride is not just thinking you are better than others; it always having to be right; it is stubbornness; it is not listening to anyone.

Pride.  Pride is pretending you have no weaknesses; it is refusing to accept someone else’s solution.

Problems.  Isolation and condemnation do not cure a problem. They cause problems to metastasize and become toxic.

Process.  A building is a process. A painting is a process. An education is a process. A marriage is a process. Understanding God is a process.

Process.  God’s work involves process; He rarely gives the end result on the first day. “I travail…til Christ be formed in you.” Gal. 4:19

Process.  Perfection will only be a realized goal in eternity. On earth, the process is all that will ever count.

Process.  The process makes us wait; it rubs our noses in the dirt; it breaks our bones; it skins our egos; it makes us walk; it makes us pray.

Progress.  Progress is more a function of direction than distance.

Purpose.  It is not enough to believe that God loves us, saved us. We must believe that WE ARE NECESSARY to His purposes and work in the universe!

Purpose.  When you get too engrossed in the mundane events that stretch out before you, you lose awareness of the divine purposes working within you.

Quotations.  Quote this: “The complexities of life cannot be condensed into a single quote.”

Religion.  Spirituality without truth is the cruelest form of religion.

Repentance.  Repentance is…something you think; something you say; something you stop doing; something you start doing.

Responsibility.  There are two words that really sum up what it means to be a real man: Taking responsibility.

Restoration.  “You who are spiritual, restore…” Four Stages of Restoration: 1) Creation 2) Deterioration 3) Restoration 4) Celebration

Resurrection.  Three days that changed the world: Day 1) Crucifixion, Death Day 2) Devastation, Disillusion Day 3) Explosion of Life, Powerless Grave

Revival.  Every great revival was birthed in adversity.

Sacrifice.  Sacrifice never seems reasonable. Any time you contemplate making a step for God, it will appear rash, unreasonable, even stupid.

Saints.  The saints who go marching in are the saints who kept plodding through.

Satan.  Do not grant omnipotence to Satan. In all of his wiles and deceptions, he is a grand failure.

Satan.  Do not grant omnipotence to the devil. In all of his wiles and deceptions, he is a grand failure.

Signage.  The efficiency of the signage directing you to a facility is inversely proportional to your need to find it.

Slippery Slope.  The problem with the slippery slope is not the ride down but when you reach the bottom.

Slippery Slope.  Well, yes, there is a problem with the ride down the slippery slope; you can’t stop sliding

Solutions.  If you’re not going to think about the solution, don’t think about the problem.

Speed.  The speed of the driver ahead of you is inversely proportional to how fast you want to drive.

Spiritual Warfare.  In spiritual warfare, do not fight to be a hero, but because it is the best choice you can make! 2 Tim 4:7.

Stupidity.  Hilarious: A man and wife discovered a thief upstairs when the man told a joke and the thief laughed!

Success.  The best definition of success is this: “Success is something that happens on the way to fulfilling the will of God in your life.”

Success.  There are infinite ways to fail, but only one measurable way to succeed: To be like Jesus!

Suffering.  When you allow God to take you to the depths, he will then take you to the heights. Suffering is a part of reigning.

Suggestions.  If people were personally responsible for carrying out their suggestions, there would be a lot less suggesting going on!

Survival.  Turbulent survival is better than serene drowning.

Talent.  Let the stars shine! Phil Jackson did not win six NBA championships by averaging Michael Jordan’s talent in with the rest of the team.

Talkers.  He who has nothing else to say should stop talking.

Talkers.  The loudness of the non-stop talker behind you on the plane is directly proportional to your need to sleep.     

Teaching.  The world may teach us to do things better, but it will never teach us better things.

Temptation.   Stand your ground! Weakness forces your enemy to sue for conditions of peace. Satan tempted Christ because he was a loser! Luke 14:31.

The Cross.  Jesus died at Gethsemane before He was crucified at Calvary. If you have no Calvary in your life, you probably lack a Gethsemane.

The Cross.  Whether for grace or judgment, the whole world marches steadily toward the Cross.

The Past.  You cannot recreate who you used to be. Who you are now is just as valuable as you were. Start now—with where you are and who you are.

The Word of God.  With no overt Biblical message, look for the implied message. In the absence of a specific command, stand on the principle.

Thinking.  A critical thinker holds his own biases in contempt.

Trouble.  Anyone who has been in the people business for any length of time knows that when somebody says “It’s nothing”—you know something’s up!

Truth.  Truth does not conform to popular opinion nor does it worship at any man’s altar. We must all rise to truth: it will not fall to us.

Truth.  Truth is where and how you find it, not what you make it.

Truth.  When truth is used as a weapon instead of a tool, the wounds it causes are not the fault of the truth, but of the one who uses it.

Understanding.  See with “the eyes of your heart.” Eph 1:18 NIV. Our understanding must from the heart , not just the head.

Unity.  Unity finds fulfillment in Christ alone. Embrace his doctrines, keep his priorities, live his life and die his death: unity will appear.

Value.  Jesus has infinite value, but He is not always desireable. “He hath no form nor comeliness;…no beauty that we should desire him.”  

Victory.  Victory in this life is marked by a consistent steady movement forward into ultimate victory in Christ.

Vision.  Vision processes develop imagery about the future, and work backwards to understand how to get there. (Grove Consultants, International).

Volunteers.  Job security for volunteer laborers will never be in jeopardy.

Waste.  Guard your treasure. The Prodigal committed no crime, suffered no misfortune, fell victim to no one…his mistake was WASTING his substance.

Weakness.  Obsessing on weakness make you lose sight of God’s wonders. The greatest lesson to learn, therefore, is to magnify God and minimize self.

Word of God.  “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Hide the Word in your heart, not just your head.

Words.  Only words verified by actions mean something.

Words.  Use precise words. Thingy, whatchamacallit, thing-a-ma-jig, doo-hickey or ‘you know what I mean,’ do not qualify.

Worship.  Never disparage singing and worshiping. They edify our hearts rather then our heads.

Writing.  Writing Rules: Always avoid annoying alliteration; Be more or less specific.

Youth.  Seniors, before answering “What should I do with my life,” fast-forward to a future question: “What did I do with my life?”

Youth.  Your youth perspective decides whether romance is just puppy-love or a heart-wrenching drama.