New Year, Your Choice
Part 3: Simple Priorities
1 Peter 4:7-11
Be Intentionally Prayerful (v. 7)
Sober Minded, Open Eyed
Be Fervently Loving (v.8-10)
Caring, Hospitable, Generous
Be Ministerially Active (v.11)
Speaking the Word, Serving the world
More to Consider
Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.
Stephen R. Covey
A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck.
"Where's Harry?" he was asked.
"Harry had a stroke of some kind. He's a couple of miles back up the trail."
"You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?"
"Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Harry."
Bits & Pieces, March 3, 1994, p. 5.
In recent years a head coach divorced his wife of 26 years when he left coaching a college team to become head coach in the National Football League. He said he needed a wife while coaching on the college level for social functions and to show families that he would be looking out for their sons. In pro football, however, she was an unnecessary accouterment and a distraction to winning. He said winning football was his number one priority and his two sons second. How tragic!
In contrast to this, Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas cowboys said, "The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me ... I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do ... whether coaching football or talking to the press, I'm always a Christian ... Christ is first, family second and football third."
Sermonillustrations.com
Taking first things first often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.
Dwight Eisenhower.