When God called Jeremiah to be a spokesman, the young man – probably in his late teens or early 20s – said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD…I do not know how to speak; I am only a child,” and hearing this, God said, “I’m sorry, Jeremiah, I must have made a big mistake.”  Not so, but God did reach out and touch his lips and gave Him the message He wanted delivered.

There’s good news, friend!  Life is not a matter of chance or fate.  Winning is not the equivalent of standing in front of a slot machine when you feel lucky, or picking the right five or seven numbers in the lottery.  Some 3,000 years ago David wrote, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:15,16).

Armin Gesswein called it, "One of the rarest prayer promises in the Bible," referring to the words of Jesus to the disciples in the Upper Room when he said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).

"Wake-up calls" is the term applied to them--those close brushes with death which may come by being a participant in a near-fatal car crash, a heart attack, being a passenger on a plane which is hijacked, or waking to the smell of smoke in your house, or about anything when you know that death stalked you but you didn't fall prey to its grasp.

The word that a parent uses most often when there is a toddler in the house is, "No!" and the expression that kids use is, "Why can't I?" not really listening for an explanation.  The word "No" draws the lines of battle.  And that line is intact from the cradle to the grave.  The reality is that a lot of life is circumscribed by the negative prohibition, "No!"

"I have just heard your commentary about the tongue," wrote a listener.  This friend added, "I am one of those who … is brutally frank.  I know the truth is bitter, but my greatest defect is to tell a person what wrong he has done which he ought not to do.  Is it unchristian?"  It's amazing to me how many folks such as the woman who wrote feel compelled to point out people's flaws.

On November 2, 1863, several months after the battle of Gettysburg, David Wills, a local judge and prominent Pennsylvania citizen, invited Abraham Lincoln to make a "few appropriate remarks" at the consecration of a cemetery for the Union war dead.  Edward Everett, then the young nation’s foremost northern orator, had been invited to speak on September 23, but Everett needed more time for preparation so fate put both of the men on the same program on November 19, 1863.

Anyone who has ever written anything for publication was undoubtedly amused when they read the quote of the actress Alicia Silverstone, who was commenting on the film in which she starred, "Clueless."  The British-based Plain English Campaign has awarded her their Foot in Mouth Award for saying, "I think that [the film] 'Clueless' was very deep.  I think it was deep in the way that it was very light.  I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness."  Right!  Whatever that means.

Speaking in public and talking in private are not the same at all.  There are people who are great public speakers.  They motivate, they inspire, they move people to tears and incite them to storm the ramparts, but talk to the same person one-on-one and it’s like trying to get a dead fish to swim, or a corpse to tell you how he feels.

Men and women have always had difficulty communicating, and now we know why--at least, to a very small degree.  It's a proven fact that women listen with both sides of their brains, men primarily with one side.  But what we've known for ages is still true: though it may be a challenge, it can be done.  I am convinced that communication is the key to any relationship, whether it is your marriage, getting along with your neighbor, or succeeding in business.