April 30 - The Real Thing

The Real Thing

            Talk about potent!  Unlike most products, this combination of ingredients has far undersold its multiple uses especially as a cleaning agent.  Consider some of its results:

●    You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of it and it will be gone in two days.

●    In many states the Highway Patrol carries two gallons of it in the trunk to remove blood from the   highway after a car accident.

●   To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:  rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in it.

●   To clean corrosion from car battery terminals:  Pour a can of it over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

●   The active ingredient in it is phosphoric acid.  It’s pH is 2.8.  It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

     What is the miracle working cleanser, you might ask?   You got it!  Coca-Cola!  It’s the real thing, it adds life, and who knew it had other uses besides filling us with that great taste we’ve grown to love (sorry, Pepsi fans).

            In May, 1866, Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia.  John Pemberton concocted the Coca- Cola formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard.  The name was a suggestion given by John Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson.

            Being a bookkeeper, Frank Robinson also had excellent penmanship.  It was he, who first scripted  “Coca- Cola” into the flowing letters which has become the famous logo of today.  The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, on May 8, 1886.  About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day.  Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50.  The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expenses, so the first year of sales were a loss.  However, by 1900, the drink would become a national hit.

            In 1925, the only written copy of its formula Coca-Cola admits to having was retrieved from a New York bank (where it had been held as collateral on a sugar loan) and reverently laid in a safe deposit box in an Atlanta bank, the Trust Company of Georgia.

            But, that was only the first step.  That same year the company set a policy whereby no one could view the formula without written permission from the Board, and then only in the presence of the President, Chairman, or Corporate Secretary.  After all these years, the recipe for Coca-Cola is still one of the best kept secrets in the industry.

            The Bible reminds us that God isn’t into secrets.  In fact, He’s very interested in sharing His enterprise with everyone.  Seems at one time while the things of God were hidden to many, Christ has made them known to all.  Mark 4:12 says, “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you.” 

Everything has been revealed including God’s salvation, healing, hope, eternity, relationship, purpose, and plan.  All has been given for each person to experience and enjoy.  Oh, and by the way, it’s a powerful cleaning agent whenever you need it.

                       

                                                                        Refreshed By Him,

                                                                        Pastor Terry Risser     

Consider reading the Word today;

 

                                   

April 29 - God’s All-Star Team

God’s All-Star Team

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…”

1 Corinthians 1:27

Tell most people that God wants to use them, and they’ll usually write themselves off quicker than an IRS refund.  In one way or another or another, we find ourselves minimizing our talents, lauding the gifts of others, or simply excusing ourselves because of past mistakes.  The truth is, if God only used perfect people, nothing would ever get accomplished.

Once President George Washington was having a painting done when the artist offered to remove any facial blemishes from his work…to which the President replied, “I want my painting done, warts and all.”  That is exactly how God uses us.  Recently, I read about a search committee that reviewed the Bible characters, only to come up short on possible recommendations to join God in His work.  Their review included:

ADAM:  Good man, but has problems with his wife.

NOAH: Preached for 120 years with no converts.  Prone to unrealistic building projects.  Great animal lover, but the last neighborhood received a flood of complaints, right as he was leaving town.

MOSES:  A modest and meek man, but poor communicator, even stutters at times.  Sometimes blows his stack and acts rashly in business meetings.  Skeleton in his closets includes a murder charge.

DAVID:  The most promising leader of all until we discovered the affair he had with his neighbor’s wife.  Besides, he can’t control his own household…so how could we respect him.

ELIJAH:  Prone to depression: collapses under pressure.  Besides, no one has seen him in a long time.  Doesn’t blend well with other religious leaders, either.

HOSEA:  A tender and loving pastor, but our people could never handle his wife’s occupation.

JOHN: Says he is a Baptist, but doesn’t dress like one.  May be too Pentecostal.  Tends to like both hands in the air to worship when he gets excited.  You know we limit to one hand.  Sleeps in the outdoors, has a weird diet, and provokes denominational leaders.

PETER:  Too blue collar.  Has a bad temper, even said to have cursed on occasions. He’s a loose cannon.

PAUL: Powerful CEO type and fascinating preacher.  However, he’s short on tact, unforgiving with young ministers, harsh, and has been known to preach all night.  Very offensive to women when he starts his “submission” stuff.  And besides, he has a rap sheet a mile long in numerous cities.

1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”  He’ll take us quirks and all, if we’re willing to join Him.  After all, it’s not really about what we bring but what He brings that counts.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)   What is the biggest reason you have disqualified yourself in the past?

2)   Can you think of a Bible character who said the same thing?

 Consider reading the Word today:

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser

April 28 - Miracles In Our Midst

Miracles In Our Midst

A few years ago, Ashley Smith, an Atlanta-area woman was taken hostage by the subject of the largest manhunt in Georgia history.  In spite of the pressure, she calmed the killer by reading an excerpt from Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life and talking with him about God.  She escaped by persuading him to let her pick up her daughter from a children’s program at a Southern Baptist Church.

One newspaper quote said,  “I asked him if I could read,” Smith, then 26, said in recounting the ordeal to reporters outside her attorney’s office.  He said, ‘What do you want to read?’ ‘Well, I have a book in my room.’ So I went and got it.  I got my Bible, and I got a book called The Purpose-Driven Life.  I turned it to the chapter that I was on that day.  It was chapter 13.  And I started to read the first paragraph of it.  After I read it, he said, ‘Stop.  Will you read it again?’ ‘So I read it again,’” Smith said.

On Day 33 of the book, author Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist pastor in Southern California, writes, “We serve God by serving others.  The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position.  If you can demand service from others, you’ve arrived.  In our self-serving culture with its me-first mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.”

The gunman, Brian Nichols, had overpowered an Atlanta courthouse deputy, as he was being escorted to court for a rape trial.  He then shot and killed the presiding judge and a court reporter before killing another deputy as he left the courthouse.  Later he killed a federal agent in an attempt to flee authorities.

Nichols, 33, held Smith at gunpoint outside her Duluth apartment around 2:30 a.m., apparently having chosen her at random as she returned from a trip to a nearby store.  He tied her up and then began to converse with her.

Smith asked Nichols not to kill her because she was scheduled to pick up her 5-year-old daughter the next morning.  Four year earlier, Smith’s husband died in her arms after being stabbed in a knife fight, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Smith was concerned that her daughter would become an orphan.

As time passed during the early morning hours at the apartment, Nichols and Smith talked about God, family and life experiences while the fugitive apparently became more comfortable with the hostage.

I said, “You know, your miracle could be that you need to—you need to be caught for this,” Smith continued. “You need to go to prison and you need to share the Word of God with them, with all the prisoners there.”

By 9:30 a.m., Nichols agreed to let Smith leave to pick up her daughter.  When she reached the first stop sign on her route, Smith dialed 911 and within minutes a county police SWAT team had surrounded the apartment with Nichols inside.  Nichols waved a white piece of cloth to signal his surrender and was taken into custody.

May we always remember that God is able to work in the most impossible situations to bring change in seemingly insurmountable situations.  No matter what you or those around you are facing, God’s answers are just a conversation away.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)   What did Ashley Smith share about God’s heart for Brian and all of us?

2)   Do you believe God can reach the most difficult person you know if we pray for them today?

Consider reading the Word:

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser

April 27 - One Solitary Life

One Solitary Life

(Anonymous)

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. 

He grew up in still another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. 

Then for three years, He was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.

He never held an office.

He never had a family or owned a house.

He didn’t go to college.

He never traveled 200 miles from the place

where He was born.

He did none of the things one usually associates

with greatness

He had no credentials but Himself.

He was only 33 when public opinion turned against Him.

His friends ran away. 

He was turned over to His enemies and

went through the mockery of a trial.

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

When He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing.

The only property He had on earth.

When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave

through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today, He is the

Central-Figure of the human race,

the Leader of mankind’s progress.

All the armies that ever marched,

all the Navies that ever sailed,

all the the parliaments that ever sat,

all the kings that ever reigned, put together,

have not affected the life of man on earth

As much as that

One Solitary Life

Consider reading the Word today: