Johnson at 4719300 Our office is located conveniently downtown or if you can't come to us we'll come to you Gordon Williams and Luke Johnson your family attorneys 471-9304 all of your estate planning needs 471-9300. This is Aaron budget of Living God ministries knowing the history and purpose of down to the word John the charities twitterings revelations Druids years especially now after John to learn more about this and other subjects' listen to the broadcast of Living God ministries on this station 100.7 The word Monday through Friday from 7 to 7 30 pm for listen through our free radio archive at Living God Ministries dot net. It's time for another great episode of adventures in Odyssey furnished by Focus on the family. Last time and then she's not so what are you and Mitch up to this week is supposed to top with aging flailing about going after. You've been accused of apparently a use I supposedly purchased was reported as a hit and run be a glimpse of so there's and that lives on with it I think with means someone stole his identity the bill from the funds do not pal make another purchase $52.00 inch television it's just what we need the television had to be shipped somewhere else we can call Ted's appliances to find how we. Think it worked I think I got the IP address of whoever hacked into which account. Leaked can't be let's try well according to this it's me couldn't just be around the fence it has to be someone that knows both of. Probably don't realize what a chance I'm taking here smuggling computers into a high security prison isn't the easiest thing in the world to do if there is money at the end of this whole thing right Charles. Songs the sweet taste. Agent Borland The only thing I can think of is that someone broke into with profile through my profile or whatever it. May also have your. Back for your computer I went home right away and tried but I couldn't break through the encryption codes the obviously wanted the police or the f.b.i. To trace everything back to me so that I'd look guilty. Or compromised. I'm sorry what do you mean. Why. No I don't believe in my. So I've got to get you out of the way less oil analysts are here but Guard. You want to help. But you can't get rid of me that he's. Clearly what are you doing here but you're going out with Mitch tonight he's too busy trying to catch the bad guys for where I'm heading over there a little bit more supposed to go out for coffee I'm not holding my breath. Trouble in paradise that's not funny or do you think I mean leave me for the f.b.i. And then complain that's a good question but what's a good. Not the best person to ask me I've been ditched so often you could fill me with water and call me. Never mind. How do you think he feels about you sat on the best thing that ever happened to him Do you think he meant. He said Could man from what I've seen I don't think he deceive you on purpose what does that mean the father said those same words that he loved me more than anything that I was the best thing. Which lasted until someone else became the best thing that ever happened to him but that's. You know how dad is I believe the measure of the time he said it at least he thought he meant. They were young people tend to jump right into things without thinking they follow their hearts and can lead them astray. Had I known then do you think Michel change his mind about. Which is a very driven young man I have no doubt you're very important to him. Now. I don't discourage you cannae but it might be good for him to give you some space let you test the relationship see what it's really made. It's so much when your father left me and. I don't ever want you to coast who's ever you need there I'm not saying which is like you but if he's going to leave I don't want him to take your heart with him. Here it is walnut Lang doesn't look like there are any hunters on the street though this is the address they gave me and this is where the t.v. Was delivered. By the way as it turns out they also delivered a computer to this address that I bought he had oh I'm such a swell guy for 9 to Walnut lane there it is hum looks like. An abandoned warehouse. Are you sure this is the place yet Ted suppliant said that the guy who bought it gave the code to get in the code pad on the side of the door there. Oh look someone's been here you recognize those tire tracks they're all terrain tires just like the ones on our mystery man's pickup truck will what's next. Find out who owns the warehouse and who has access to a city record should have that information. Livery was made to my where I have place been closed for months so Mr Policeman would anyone else have access to it I don't see how with. Except the security service we contracted with security service. Safety 1st security good there you kept an eye on it for us but we figured why hire someone to watch over an empty building so we ended the contract a few weeks ago do you happen to have a list of the names of the people who watched over the planes. I think they gave us that list at some point you needed when the delivery made your warehouse was done illegally and could be part of an Internet fraud scheme. Is investigating at the f.b.i. Yes sir. Well let me see if I get to the last man inside. A 3 for 6 come with me so. I'll me. All right in here. Ok Charles what is so important I can't keep pulling you out of your cell every day to talk to you people are going to start getting suspicious someone is on to us. Because of the warden know someone on the outside but when I framed how do you know he's on t v well what his IP address I can monitor everything we don't why am I explaining this to you why what is he some kind of computer expert I wouldn't call him an expert but he's good enough to concern me he's been investigating online purchases something's gone wrong and you really think this guy can catch up to you oh yes he caught up to me before that he's the one who put me in here what you know him I thought it was just some guy you picked at random. That's what you get to think. I'd never would have agreed to this if I'd known what you were doing time out of this thing you can carry on without me just give me my money and we'll call it square that's a long time so whose salary Mr Sun can do that if I go down I will make sure if you go down at this point you have more to lose the night I'm already in prison you see so don't lose your don't pad what I figure this out. Mitchell's investigation is centered around with the. Right why. He's the one who bought me my car what d'you mean. Well I had that fake id for Whitaker that you gave me so I did a little shopping walked. Post and up the information we have but I needed a car my mama so why did you just pick neon signs with arrows pointing to us but it's the jukebox not my actual couple others say Oh that explains everything no wonder Michel is able to track us I told you repeatedly that we had to handle this operation carefully so as not to draw attention to ourselves but a little work done no you didn't you left a trail littered with your stupidity. I think we'll have to employ a mooch plan. We always want to give our kids fun gifts but it's hard to find things that last or had any real meaning then we found this great club that gives them access to all of the adventures in Odyssey episodes it has just the right balance of faith fun and imagination and the kids love it with their one year membership they can choose from over $800.00 audio drama episodes to stream or download for later plus a monthly magazine finally a gift that lasts and they'll love order today at a I o. Club dot org slash radio. Why did I have to take him to Frank's breakfast in what are you talking about there are dozens of the good restaurants around the city with out the initials f b I Funny how a prince to it's God's will would be thought into question many initials h.g.v. Your looking for God's Will restaurant names well. I mean it's not like me to have had time to even talk about what he's going to do well that's my fault he's been a bit preoccupied with my case that's an understatement Connie I don't think God's will is supposed to be as mysterious as you think but it is how am I supposed to know what he wants me to do by knowing him as a star What's that supposed to mean well. All right listen let's say you were going to throw a birthday party for me what kind of party would it be. Not a huge one handful of your closest friends oh Lenin poppy seed cake with raspberry filling a favorite and probably now gives because that makes you uncomfortable. No no no no my point is how do you know these things I never told you well not directly I've known you a long time lapse exactly Carty and it's the same with God you know learn what he wants you to do is you get to know Him and trust Him and love. You and that you're driving yourself crazy with all this 2nd guessing and a truce may be right under your nose in life. This isn't a pop quiz from God that you're going to fail he's with you in your decision. Can I help you yeah I brought my computer in here a few weeks ago to be repaired Yes Yes And I was wondering if you could tell me exactly who repaired the well that depends on a lot of thing is their problem I just need to ask whoever it was a a technical question can help you why can't you because I've got a lot of people working on a lot of computers really your shop isn't that big Look I've only got 2 guys here so I have to outsource a lot of the work you send the computers out yeah it's. I've got contracts with other repair shops places like Campbell college and if you add there's I see but you must keep records. Computer systems a little on the fritz at the moment so who repairs your computers and you know that's funny you must write comedy for a living don't you look this is really important I'm sure it is but I'm sorry I just can't out leave your name and your phone number and I'll call you the name at the system's back Ok thank you you've been most helpful anytime. And. I will teach well did you find out anything of the computer repair shop know they can't trace who worked on my computer right now they'll call me when you can now it's too bad I was about to go check out the security guards and I thought I'd see if you could go for sure but I was wondering couldn't you just call agent and have him check the names to be faster he could probably find out if any of them have criminal records. I don't want to call Borland why not I just rather leave him out of this what's wrong which something happened between you. He took me off the case why he says I'm compromised because the IP address traced back to me that's a fair point maybe he's right but it's frustrating I do all this legwork and then get the carpet pulled out from under me it drives me crazy. That's what makes me think I should give it up forget about working for the. Who really think so maybe this is the sign I've been asking for and maybe this is exactly what I've been eating need a good slap of reality maybe guts telling me that I don't belong in a job like this which tell me something what do you want to do forget all about this 2nd guessing about God's will for not just tell me what you want the truth I'd love to be an investigator with the f.b.i. . Well that was easy. What's holding you back a lot of things. Well. Not a lot of gas what the Kani. She's the best thing that ever happening with. How can I leave or stay here for her or for me he's the most important part of this decision no matter what I want to be with her. His significant yet is a. I don't think I realized how significant tell now which since you're off the case anyway why don't you do something with Kani this afternoon we can follow up on this list tomorrow when our own. Ok thanks a catch up with you 1st thing tomorrow sure I'll see that. Ok Charles I think we can pull up your merges the plan I don't like it but it can be done oh no this just sucks I'm so glad to hear it but there's one thing we have to change what why can't sneak out in the laundry truck like we thought the old man be in 10 minutes I promise and then what are you suggesting. He'll have to go out in the garbage truck the garbage truck it's the only way. One does it come tomorrow morning. Morrow morning. That's cutting it very close which will not have it all figured out but I can just tell him somehow How am I supposed to stall him from. I don't trust the thing to throw a little monkey wrench into the works. Come in. Saying hi Connie did you turn your cell phone yeah I didn't want any more calls from Agent Borland he's been bothering you yes he took me off the case and I won't let him know how much you mean you won't let him I'm not his employee I'm a private citizen who's helping with it I told him that and he doesn't like it I got at least 6 emails from him in the past hour yaks Is this smart I think so but you don't want to make him angry if he's going to be your bond. Many won't be my boss. I wanted to talk to you about this whole f.b.i. Thing I stopped by to see you but you weren't home yet so you came back here to play with your computer some more well I'm running another trace any way I talk to your mom and well I knew you were coming over here anyway so you didn't hang around no I wish you had. You know. What is not being able to talk this through with you. And wondering about deep dish pizza and my dad leaving in not knowing what's going to have been juicy deep dish pizza. I'm. Scared scared. Ok. What's this all about. Are you leaving I don't know. If in fact at the moment I'm not sure I want to go anywhere and certainly not to the f.b.i. Why not. Because I love you. No matter where I am I I want to be with you really. I want to ask you something but. When you marry me. I mean are you serious. Yes Time serious here this will show you how serious I am. It's been. I mean. It's really it's a White House. Now. It's real because it's real. Why do you say why. Don't I get. Instant Message but it sounded like. Who is pretending to be era and what will Conny say will she marry minutes Oh my so many questions stay tuned for scenes from our next adventure an odyssey and remember we always love to hear from you to send your card or letter to adventures in Odyssey Colorado Springs Colorado 80995 in Canada right to box 9800 Vancouver b.c. Nice 64 g. 3 and don't forget to ask how you can get a copy of today's episode it's called Here Today Gone Tomorrow That address once again is Colorado Springs Colorado 80995 And don't forget about our Web site too at White Sands dot all our adventures in Odyssey's of presentation of focus on the family here today gone tomorrow part 2 was written by Kathy wearing and directed by Marshall younger a vocal talent included Katie Lee Steve Burns called her linger magma Luly keys Silverstein gray Berg and Jess Arnelle our sound designer was Alan Hurley and our producers are Marshall younger and Bob who's And I'm Chris hoping you'll join us for our next show. Here. This is freaking me out. Wondering if I'm so sorry that you missed him but we can swing by tomorrow it's not like we're under deadline. Is everything set for tomorrow morning to stop here and I hope you realize the risk I'm taking. It's going to be someone on the inside or it could be the pastor who wants to throw you off the track for some reason Look it was one little mistake I could never. Be quite. I'm trying to think. And answer the. Question. To keep listening for more adventures in. Today's episode we heard the villainous Mr Charles and his evil plots to escape justice but he certainly wasn't the 1st villain to come to Odyssey How well do you know your odyssey villains Come on let's make a game out of it I'll tell you a little bit about them and you see if you can guess who it is Ok villain number one he 1st appeared to Campbell college running a great changing scandal then he burned down Tom Riley's barn Here's a sound clip to help you out I told you I'm a room and I dabble in lots of things particularly moneymaking kinds of things got it ask him Officer Orion and what might your name. Richard Maxwell did you get it Ok let's try another 1000000 number 2 he made his 1st appearance as an odyssey city council member he tried to stop Jenny Whitaker's plan to save the building that became wits end Harry is in person I'd like to say again I am not a racist some of my best friends are born extinction extraction this villain only seemed to have a grudge against Tom Reilly he tried to build a highway through Tom's land and trying to prove that Tom's apples were contaminated any guesses Let's let him speak for himself. Ladies and gentlemen as many of you know my name is Philip. Gloss than he was a slimy one let's try another villain number 3 was put in charge of the bones of Wrath when someone thought wrong. He wasn't doing a good job here's a sound clip there are 2 things you better learn about me in fast one I don't like being questioned and 2 nobody questions me got it yeah good he's named after a c. Animal you got it for you well my friends are called jellyfish but you can call me jellyfish did you get that one Ok here's another villain number for arrived in town as general manager of Nova Conn and seemed a little scary at 1st but he too had a change of heart operation thing well in slave the human race if you look him up and eventually in his words he's saved the world any guesses I'm off addict what a pleasure it is to make sure that's right our 3rd did you guys are good and we haven't even talked about the most famous Odyssey villain of them all 1000000 number 5 arrived in Odyssey he tried to steal a powerful computer program called apple sauce whatever it takes just do I want. To hear it but I have to tear down the which a brick by brick he even tried to get a mineral so he could create the deadly Rugova virus do you know who it is. That's because I talked to a lot. Will How will do you know your odyssey villains How many did you get correct. Now all we have to do is find out what's going to happen to Mr Charles you know how to do that right keep listening to adventures in Odyssey I've won or examined the war. a $1000000.00 of Term insurance may only cost you about $200.00 a month called term providers speak with big blue at 807771225 Big Blue will find a term life policy for you even if you have type 2 diabetes are overweight or have high blood pressure term providers help thousands of people like you who think they can't afford term life insurance to buy a $1000000.00 of affordable term life for you all you need to do is call Big Lou at 807771225 who will make sure the scales are tipped in your favor call 807771225 Bigloo will answer your call and work to fit you into a term life policy that you can afford remember Big lose like you he's on meds to call 807771225807771225 by chance I got our new hero Alex bracelet she tell me about oh god we've gone ours how do you like them great I have this new insurance plan and I need to monitor every part my activity to get the best rates and the hero Al. 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Better time management is among your New Year's resolutions the next few minutes will be time well spent today on turning point Dr David Jeremiah continues his focus on determining your priorities specially as the impact your spiritual walk learn the value of spending time in God's word each day and more as David introduces the completion of a elling message putting 1st things 1st well if you're joining us for the 1st time in this new year let me tell you that in the 1st few days of every new year I try to do some teaching then helps us get ready to face the challenges that are before us you know I cannot remember the changing year in my life when I haven't had time to reflect a little bit and to vision what the future might hold to write down some goals and some purposes and I'd like to encourage you to do that I'd like to encourage you to take 2018 is God's new opportunity for you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and to begin to serve him as never before and make a difference with your life so we've already talked about getting ready and now we're talking about putting 1st things 1st and the whole issue of priorities move get back to that in just a moment as we look at a passage from 1st Timothy Chapter 4 kind of as are. The nuance of this whole message is caught up in that verse We'll get back to it in just a moment but 1st I want to remind you that next Monday I'm going to spend the whole turning point program talking with. My friend David Greene we've done an interview that I asked some interesting questions and he gave me even more interesting answers about what God has done in his life when he and his wife and their family committed their business their lives their legacy their influence to the things of God Let me tell you one thing that happened a brand new testimony to the integrity of God's word in the Bible Museum in Washington d.c. When you get there you need to go visit that place Don and I had the privilege of being there we actually had a board meeting there right before it opened and it's magnificent it is the product of the generosity of the Green family and there it is sort of like the testimony of what happens when you put God 1st he's written about all of this giving us some of his secrets and strategies and this is a book you really want to have it's called giving it all away and getting it all back again yours for the asking when you send your gift a turning point today well let's finish up our discussion of putting 1st things 1st . Question number one. Are we prepared to respond to the challenge of change. So you're going along. And you are where you are but you're not where you want to be and so something's got to change. One thing for sure if you keep doing what you're doing you're going to keep getting what you're getting. One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. Someone has said that anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the un important. The spiritual masters have taught us. And have warned us that the one who would get in touch with his soul my. Yes do so with diligence and determination there is a little bit of discipline in this matter of walking with God. One must not be afraid of feelings and fatigue and distractions and all of the other such things one of the best examples of such a life is the apostle himself and what I'm about to read to you you might think would be written by someone at the beginning of his life as he starts out in ministry but I'm here to tell you this was written by the apostle at the close of his ministry. One of the lighter letters that he wrote. I want you to listen to these words in light of what I have just been saying to you about. The Christian life listen carefully. Not that I have already attained or that I am already perfected but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me brother and I don't tell myself to have apprehended but one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind reaching forward to those things which are ahead I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and I think to myself I don't know how old Paul was when he wrote that but here he is at the end of his life and you say I'm still in the battle I'm still in the fight I'm still press and I'm still stretch and I'm still reaching I'm still trying to get to the place where I want to be in my relationship with God lays in gentlemen when you ever stop having that sense that there's still more that God wants for you you should be concerned about that you remember what the Lord Jesus said he said Bless you know those who hunger and thirst after righteousness I don't know that I am his righteousness I should be but I can tell you honestly ladies and gentlemen I hunger and I thirst for righteousness. So. Are you prepared. To make some changes because if you keep doing what you're doing it going to keep getting what you're getting that seems pretty simple number 2. Are you prepared for the resistance of your enemy. One of things I've noticed over my life looking back over my shoulder every time that God seemed to be urging me on to something new in my life spiritually those have been the times when I have felt the fiercest fiercest of attacks of the enemy. The Bible says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and against powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this age and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places places and gentle more in a spiritual warfare and when you say in your heart by the grace of God I'm going to go further I'm going to take another step toward godliness get ready the enemies come after you don't be surprised by it don't say words that come in from just get ready for it you'll realize it when it happens. Packer once said If I were the devil one of my 1st aims would be to stop people from digging into the Bible knowing that it is the Word of God teaching men to know and love and serve the God of the word I would do all I could to surround it was spiritual pits thorns and man traps to frighten people off at all costs I would want to keep them from using their minds in that this simple and way to get the measure of the Bible's message I'm not the only one to say this one thing the enemy doesn't want you to do but as much as he doesn't want you to do anything he doesn't want you read the Word of God So when you decide you're going to do that you get started in the plan get ready and he's the master get your mind off the issue. Question number 3. This is a little more. Philosophical but maybe the most important question of all. Are we prepared to replace the urgent. With the important you say I thought urgent and important were the same that's the problem. They're not. Much of the pain of life comes from a sense that we're succeeding in one role but we're losing something else in the other role sometimes we think we're succeeding in the on important things and we're failing. We live in today which some people have described as the day of urgency addiction urgency addiction is a self destructive behavior that fills the void in your life that's created by unmet needs it's the idea that you're always after you've got to do this you do that you move in here somebody is calling here you know if I allow myself to do this I could live every day as a servant of the urgent how many of you know sometimes always urgent. Something's always urgent. How does it feels when you're captivated by urgency let me describe it for you. Stressful pressured tense exhausting but sometimes exhilarating. We feel useful we feel successful we feel validated we get good at it whenever there's trouble we ride into town we pull out our security or we do the varmint in we blow the smoke off of our gun get out on our horse and ride off into the sunset and we're heroes. Or problem solvers we have taken care of the urgent. When I was a young pastor. Just getting started in trying to figure out some of these things for myself not knowing what to do and never been down the road before someone gave me a little book written by a guy named Charles Hummel. And that little book is called The Tyranny of the urgent I thought it was in it you know an intriguing title so I got it and I read it over and over again I still have some all frayed copies of that book it was given to me back then. And Charles Hummel put his finger on this issue of the difference between the important and the urgent. He said the important task rarely must be done today. Or maybe even tomorrow or maybe even this week. The urgent task calls for instant action. The momentary appeal of these tasks seems irresistible and important and they devour our energy but in the light of times perspective their deceptive prominence fades with a sense of loss we recall the vital task we pushed aside we realize we've become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent There are many things that contribute to our overall objectives and give richness and meaning to life that don't tend to act upon us or press us because they're not urgent they are the things that we must act upon. Here's another way to look at this again from a book by Stephen Covey he said most of us realize that a good percentage of the health problems we have our lifestyle related. And without an extreme wake up call such as a heart attack many of us live in a rescue fantasy we live the way we want to live little or no exercise poor nutrition burning the candle at both ends and when we have a problem we expect the medical profession to pick up the pieces and while we may be able to diminish the pain with prescriptions and Band-Aids if we're really going to make a difference we need to go to the underlying root cause of the pain we need to attend to pray. Vention in a profound way what he is saying is if you don't take the important under grass you will always be victimized by the urgent while we're running around trying to solve everybody's problems and responding to the urgent things and the Glock being the one thing that's going to make the best difference remember this one thing we were talking about it's going to make us better it's going to make our families better it's going to make our relationship better why don't we do it because we're running around always responding to the urgent things so that the important thing doesn't get done nobody's going to pressure you to do the important things that's why you have to exercise What's that 2nd word yourself. Exercise your self toward godliness. I've written down in my journal but the more urgency we have in our lives the less importance we have in our lives. And somebody like me doing what I do. I have to fight this all the time I have to never take my office ball because if I do I'm just running around trying to fix everybody and everything. And I end up not having time for the important things in my life. One last question and we're almost finished here here's the other question 4 questions this is number 4 are you prepared to record your progress in a journal you know how you get from where you are to where you want to be one day at a time one step at a time and if you put your thoughts down in a journal it will help you keep track of how you're doing I have to tell you the story when I got 6 years ago some of my friends said you're going to experience a lot of great things Dr Jeremiah and my advice to you is that you keep a journal during this time. I've never kept a journal I was. Sure what one was but I believed that they were for women and for mystics that's what I thought. People who were mysterious and for women since I wasn't either one. I said Now don't think I'm going to do that and then one day I was reading a book by Gordon McDonald called The Life of God blesses and in that book he talked about how he kept his journal in his computer and I thought that sounded very manly so I started keeping my journal and my computer and during those days when I was going through all that stuff I kept a journal every day sometimes many pages long. I go back and read them now and I respond with great love for the goodness of God in my life. I remember the struggles in the late night walking. In the warehouse and turning point and crying out to God. And I remember how God met me during those times and helped me get from where I was to work he wanted me to be. Journals are hard at 1st. I remember trying to learn how to do it better and I look for literature on journaling I couldn't find hardly any hardly anybody has written books on journaling when I wrote a book on prayer years ago prayer the great adventure the last chapter in that book is all about how to do a journal. I remember how honest I was with my journals Some people ask me Are you ever going to publish them and I said Oh no never I want to shred them I'm. These are between me and God I don't want anybody else to see them because when you write a journal you talk about everything you know you can tell God anything if you put it down on paper you need place to lock it up. And I was going through my study of journals and I came across this from Jim Elliot you remember Jim Elliot was. As the missionary who was killed by the all Indians and he was a journal or. And here's an entry from Jim Elliott's Journal Listen to this quote in studying Spanish I left off English Bible reading and my devotional reading pattern was broken and I have never restored it translation in preparation for daily Bible lessons is not sufficient to empower my soul prayer as a single man is difficult because my mind always reverts to Betty now it's too hard to get out of bed in the morning I've made resolutions on this score before but never have followed them tomorrow it's to be addressed by 6 am and study in the apostles before breakfast so help me God now is the entry and you know I felt so much better. Here's this revered man who gave his life for the Gospel What is his journal say is journalist as he's in the struggle he's in the fight he's in the battle and his journal reflects what he learns about himself so that he can do better if you see the resolution at the bottom he started out with all of the issues but he came out of it with a resolution tomorrow it's going to be better. I went in my little talk today. With one of my favorite stories from Stephen Covey's book. Tells a Story of a rather familiar experiment. But his ending will surprise you. He said I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time. At one point he reached under the table and he pulled out a wide mouth gallon jar and he set it on the table next to a platter that had some fist sized rocks sitting on it and he looked at his. Crew and he said how many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar. After we made our guess he said Ok let's find out so he said one rock in the jar and then another then another I don't remember how many he got in said Covey but he got the jar full and then he asked the class is the jar full. Everybody looked at the rocks and said yes. And he said no he reached under the table pulled out a bucket of gravel and he dumped some of that gravel in and shook the jar and the gravel went in all around the little spaces left by the big rocks and he grinned and once more he said is that you are for. By this time we were under him so we answered probably not. Good he said and he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. And he started dumping the sand in and all around the little spaces left by the rocks on the gravel and once more he looked at us and he said is the jar full o. . This time we roared no. He said good and he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in and he got something like a quart of water and that jar. And he set the water jar down and he said. Oh what's the point. Somebody raised their hand and said Well there are gaps but if you're really work at it you can always stuff more into your life. No he said that's not the point. The point is this. If you don't put the big rocks in 1st you will never get them in later. And never forgot that in fact I remember going to get myself a rock and put it on my desk at home to remember. If we know what the big rock saw our. And we put them in 1st it's amazing how many of them we can put in and how much of the sand gravel and water fits in between the spaces if we put the big rocks in 1st we reverse a tendency that we all have and we create a framework to accomplish what we feel is important and then around that we can fit in the other activities of life. Someone put it this way we need to remember that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. So this is a good time for all of us as we emphasize the reading of the Bible publicly. To ask ourselves if it's not a great opportunity for us to take another step and emphasizing the reading of the Bible privately. So let me finish with this story I argued with myself all week whether I should tell you the story because if you don't listen to it carefully you'll think I'm trying to make you feel guilty but I'm not I'm trying to motivate you and encourage you and help you understand what you can do when you want to do it. Evangelist Robert Sumner wrote a book called The Wonder of the Word of God. And in this book he tells of a man in Kansas City who was severely injured in an explosion. His face was badly disfigured and he lost his eyesight as well of both hands. He had just become a Christian when this accident happened and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible and then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips hoping to do the same he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille but he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been so badly damaged that he couldn't distinguish the Braille characters . So one day. As he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips his tone happened to touch. A few of the raised characters and he could feel them. And like a flash he thought I can read the Bible using my. And at the time Robert Sumner wrote this book this man had read through the entire Bible 4 times using his time. To read the Bible. Oh man God forgive me. If you can read the Bible with this tone I need to read it more with my eyes that you've given me that are still pretty good even if this age . And that's what I want you to take away from this I do believe with all my heart what we said at the beginning as our experiment that over the long haul all things being equal there's not anything you can do that will lift you up in most areas of your life like the regular systematic reading of the Bible. When you do that you allow the Spirit of God who lives within you to take the word of God which is before you change your life well I hope I have motivated you to consider your priorities and what it means to put 1st things 1st you're something I hope you'll remember also we have a book that will really contribute to all of this reprivatize ing of our lives it's written by David Greene It's called giving it all away and getting it all back again it's a hard back beautiful book published by Zondervan and by any measure David Greene is a successful businessman but more important he understands that God in trusts us with his resources to do his work here on Earth and this is amazing and inspiring book about the potential to change the way you look at everything. And you do and I want you to have it it's a 1st of the year book read you will read this book probably in one or 2 sittings and you'll be enamored with everything that's in it full of strategies and ideas and honesty and. How you struggle through the hard times but most of all how you give God the glory and how you teach yourself to be generous as for giving it all away and giving it all back again when you send your gift a turning point during the month of January when I do it today and get this off your list to get this book on its way to you it'll be in your home before you know it and you can factor all these truths in this book into your strategy for the new year it will change the way you think about the future and it will change the way you live every day and I recommend it to you strongly and in one sense to you so be 100 points the word this is Aaron budget of Living God ministries knowing the history and purpose of baptism before John the Baptist brings revelations through its use during and after John to learn more about this and other subjects listen to the broadcast of Living God ministries on this station 100.7 The word Monday through Friday from 7 to 7 30 pm or listen through our free radio archive at Living God ministries. You know it's one thing to make a wrong turn during a road trip and being inconvenienced probably is the worst that will happen but imagine the consequences of thinking that you're on the right road to heaven and the truth is you are deceived about yourself they should make sure you know the truth about celebration listen for John MacArthur study myths about salvation and the next great. 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