"Quoting"

"Click on the pics above for a few quotes and hopefully a smile".

 

The writer is Leonard Pitts, a columnist for The Miami Herald. Mr. Pitts was writing concerning a young man in the South Carolina Juvenile Detention Center. The artilce was written as if Mr. Pitts were speaking directly to this young man.

"Keep your eyes on the prize. Never satisfy a short-term impulse at the expense of a long-term goal. Never do what feels good in the moment if it's going to cost you something that matters a whole lot more in the end. The trade is never worth it."

"When people make investments, they are looking for a return, a profit. In your case, that profit would be that you leave that place and never look back, that you build a life that makes you a credit to your community as opposed to one of it's deficits. You can do that. Step one is to always remember: Eyes on the prize.

Now reread that and think of the Kingdom of God. When God makes an investment, He is looking for return, a profit. In your case, that profit would be that you leave that place of sin and never look back, that you build a Christian life that makes you a credit to your community in this life and in eternity instead of being a deficit. You can do that in Christ. Step one is to always remember: Eyes on the prize...our eternal prize Jesus Christ.

 

I Corinthians 9:24,27

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any

means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

 

Philippians 3:13, 14

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

God has an investment in every believer. That investment is the very life and blood of His Son Jesus Christ. God does expect a return, a profit. That return and profit is that we live according to His Word, that we leave the world of sin and be a positive force in our communities here on earth and for God's eternal Kingdom that is soon coming and that we also multiply that investment in us by bringing others into His Kingdom.

 

What Mr. Pitts was saying can be found in Luke 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

 

What was Jesus saying here? Simply this: Consider the cost! How many things are done rashly that may never happen if a person just sat done and first figured out what it was going to cost them if they continued on the path they were on? Satan or one of his little minions comes along and whispers into our ear..."Do it!" "Do it!" C'mon and do it!" "Do it now, now, now!" The old adage tells us that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The destination of that journey may be heaven or hell and yet both journies begin with that first step. The one step toward heaven is a step toward God's glory... the step towards hell is a step towards a lamentable story. Don't throw it all away so easily.

 

Never fall for the enemy of souls pushing and shoving. They call dope dealers "pushers" because they push you into the quick decision to purchase drugs. If you would stop and really consider the cost a person would rarely do it. -Wayne Stokes

                                  

Wouldn't it be nice to get this across to all of our youth?