Jack’s Winning Words 5/16/19
“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on her own wings.  Always believe in yourself.”  (Unknown)  In the Bible Paul wrote to some friends of his…”I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  As I look back on my life I see times when God has entered life events and given me a kind of power to persevere.  As the bird trusts in its wings, I trust in God’s omnipresence..   ;-)  Jack

FROM GK:  Love today’s message. They all start my day.  Today’s started it but with a smile also. ===JACK:  I need to be reminded each day of the omnipotence available in God's omnipresence. 

FROM LBP;  A nice message in a harried week.===JACK:  I like this song..."Why should I feel discouraged,  Why should the shadows come,  Why should my heart be lonely,  And long for heaven, heaven and home,  When, when Jesus is my portion,  My constant Friend is He;  Oh, oh-oh, his eye is on the sparrow,  "And I know He watched, watched it over me."

FROM WALMART REV:  ... usually seen much clearer when 'looking back on life' than having to face the music there on the spot?!?! "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey!" 0;-)===JACK:  Jimmy Durante would entertain people by singing: "You gotta start off each day with a song."  Your suggestion of "Trust and Obey" is a good one...for "there's no other way." 

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  good stuff today, Jack.  thanks!    sometime i will tell you why birds can sleep all night perched on a branch, even in a wind storm,  and never fall off.  curious?===JACK:  Curious?  ...if serious.  A joke?  ...it can wait.===PAUL:  true story.  most birds of flight have a mechanism in their leg structure that is something like a vice grip.  you know what a vice grip is i am sure.  and once the bird squats down on the branch with claws wrapped around the branch,  the legs literally lock into position and the bird will not fall no matter what.  only when the bird rises up off the branch does the vice grip release and the bird can then fly away.  who knew?? ===JACK:  That is interesting information, indeed.

FROM BB IN CHGO:  Good morning!  Thank you for this inspiration  One of my favorites! ===JACK:  I'm amazed at the hummingbirds that come to the feeder at my house.  I've never seen their wings except in slo-mo pictures...and then there are the hawks that soar overhead.  Their wings fascinate me.  Different birds, but still the same.  When will we grasp that with regard to people? ===BB:  Birds fascinate me too; will see if I have pix that a friend took of a Hawk recently.  He could be a national geographic photographer.  I was also amused at yesterday’s NPR story about a brown bear that habituated to maple glazed doughnuts left by a New Hampshire? Resident.  When the guy passed away and no treats were left out, the bear began looking elsewhere in the community.  This prompted some wildlife commission to relocate it some 1000 miles away to a preserve.  They did not imagine or realize that since she still had cubs, she would travel back 1000 mi to her home town.  Nature amazes me.===JACK:  We have so much to learn from the world around.  Why waste so much time watching the news which disturbs us instead of things that amaze us?  Oh, well...

FROM JT IN WB:  Thank you, my friend.  I appreciate the reminder.===JACK:  You have the priviledge of looking out5 of your window and seeing many nature stories in your backyard.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  To thine own self be true!===JACK:  Good advice!  Do you know who said it?

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:.  I know it was wrong, but I wrote most of the speeches of two of my friends... Mike and Jeff.===JACK:  Who among us doesn't want to help out friends once in a while.  And, as for being wrong, that's why God created  the forgiveness of sins. ===JUDY:  Bird-watching is one of my favorite pastimes.  I even have named some.  They trust on their wings and we trust God’s love!===JACK:  I've never heard of someone giving the "feeder birds" name.  We're to;d that God  knows each of us by name.  

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Love this devotional thought; sharing it with my S.S. class this Sunday! Perfect for our lesson!  Thanks for brightening my day. When I retired from teaching, my Jazz Choir gave me a plague with a picture of them, and of me, with the inscription, " I Can Do All Things
Through Christ Who Strengthens Me.": I was very surprised by that, as I hadn't thought I ever
emphasized my faith in my teaching that much, but actually it was one of my "key" verses to live by!

(That I don't ever remember quoting to them!)===JACK:  Yours is an example of how what you do speaks louder than what you say.  Evidently the one who put the gift together was familiar with that verse and with you and put the two together.  There’s nothing wrong with looking back and remembering the people you’ve influenced (and who have influenced you).