Week Thirty-Four, 2025
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10).
Rotary is a global network of more than 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.
Solving real problems takes real commitment and vision. For more than 120 years, Rotary’s people of action have used their passion, energy, and intelligence to take action on sustainable projects. From literacy and peace to water and health, they are always working to better our world, and we stay committed to the end.
Rotary members believe that they have a shared responsibility to take action on our world’s most persistent issues. The more than 45,000 clubs work together to promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, among other things.
We provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.
I am proud to be a Rotarian and have been for many years. One of the reasons that caught my initial interest was their slogan of Service Above Self. This is a biblical concept—to put others above self.
When the Methodist missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Mahatma Gandhi, he asked him, “Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?”
Gandhi replied, “Oh, I don’t reject Christ. I love Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ. If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.”
The goal of every Christian is to become like Jesus. The very term, “Christian,” means “little Christ,” and being a Christian means being like Christ. Each of us should use whatever gift we have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Romans 12:11
Do you place serving others above serving self?
Sometimes True Stories
IRS SAYS CHURCHES CAN NOW ENDORSE POLITICAL CANDIDATES
The Internal Revenue Service announced that it will allow churches to endorse candidates for political office without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.
An IRS court document filed yesterday revealed their new position.
In a defensive political move in 1954 to suppress opposition to his reelection, Texas Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson maneuvered the IRS into inserting a provision in the U. S. tax code referred to as the Johnson Amendment that said that churches and other non-profit organizations could lose their tax-exempt status if they participate in, or intervene in “any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
Credit goes to the National Religious Broadcasters and a host of churches that filed suit with the IRS over the long-standing rule, successfully making the case that the rule infringes on their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.
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What seems important to you these days? Where are you looking, to try to fill your life with meaning? Do you have a sense of joy? A sense of purpose? Do you have a sense that your life has meaning? What is it? Do you feel a sense of real fulfillment and satisfaction? This should be a sense from within and from above—that is not determined by the selfishness and standards of the world around you.
What do you seek after, to fill your life, to find your purpose, to claim or reclaim any joy in your life? Is it aligned with God, or with the world?
Take an honest look at your priorities. Are they about making money, acquiring stuff, wins, championships, seeking recognition, increasing your image or position? Or are your priorities aligned with adding value to everyone around you, sacrificially as Christ did? Lifting others who come before you to a better day. Sharing the love of Christ with your words and actions.
Is your life about you, and your priorities? At what cost so far? Or is your life about others? About lifting all others—all—God brings before you.
Here’s a helpful place for us to start to find the best answers for your life and mine, to all those questions, and those moments of uncertainty we all experience. Those best answers God would smile upon until we took our last breath on earth – Turn around. Want to find true meaning, purpose, fulfillment, satisfaction, and joy for your life? Turn around—Look at Him.
So, what seems important to you these days? Where are you looking to try to fill your life with meaning, purpose, and joy? Try by starting here—Turn Around and Look at Him! Then, follow Him. Scott Whitaker
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When most of us think about being a witness we think of testifying in a court of law or some legal situation, but what about testifying for the Lord? One of the most famous witnesses for the Lord was Luis Palau, who is credited for witnessing and teaching God’s word to more than a billion people. Mr. Palau worked for and became a protégé of Billy Graham. Mr. Palau died on March 11, 2021.
Christian author Lee Strobel interviewed Mr. Palau on his deathbed. Some of the last words Mr. Palau spoke to Mr. Strobel in the interview were these words, He said “Lee, you will never regret being courageous for Christ”. Everyone will have a final day, but before that day comes, we must live each day with courage and never miss an opportunity to be a truthful witness.
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America’s over 80 population will jump to 18.8 million in just the next five years, a jump of 4 million.
Quotes You Can Use
Either you run the day or the day runs you. Jim Rohn
If you find yourself in a place where you feel like you’ve lost hope… Reach out. People care. People love you. The world is not better without you. There is Hope… His Name is Jesus. Marty Stubblefield
God doesn’t want you to worship or serve Him out of pressure or emotional frenzy. Dan Shock
The patient must combat the disease along with the physician. Hippocrates
Our salvation is not tied to a denomination, but rather our belief in God and acceptance of His Grace. If we say we believe in God, that is not enough. The demons believe in God because they have a firsthand account, yet they are doomed. It is simply not enough to believe in God; we must accept His gift of Grace, and then will we become a child of God. Tony Ferguson
Your pastor cannot help you grow if you are not in church. A fish out of water will soon die.
True Disciples will love one another. If we have experienced love, then we can give love. You can’t give away what you have never experienced. Pastor Tony Walliser
The opposite of patience is impatience. The opposite of peace is anger, frustration, being non-content. Peace and Patience seem to be tied closely together. Old Lazy Dog.
A man who is born-again does not use the world’s opinion as his standard of right and wrong. J. C. Ryle
In 100 years, we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college. Joseph Sobran
A Bible that’s falling apart probably belongs to someone who isn’t. Charles Spurgeon
Abortion is when a baby gets the death penalty for the actions of someone else!!!!!
Don’t give up. It is often the last key on the ring that opens the door.
Society has become so fake that often truth actually bothers people!
There is no excuse for not teaching kids to say please and thank you! Manners are free!
Never argue with someone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf. Emilia Clarke
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Patrick Henry
As long as we are blessed to live, it’s our duty to make our life useful for others’ welfare than ours. And to showcase the image of Jesus, to honor God, our Father, who loved us by giving His life for us. Stephen Bernard
The world will stop and listen when they see and hear someone whose heart and life model what they profess. How are you doing on that measurement? Dwight Short
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. C.S. Lewis
The magnetic compass is a simple device that has provided direction and is credited for saving thousands of lives. The Lord is the magnetic compass for our souls, and when we follow the direction of the Lord, we are always pointed in the right direction. Tony Ferguson
To live by faith isn’t the absence of fear. Faith is trusting God in the face of our fears… We are so gripped by fear that we forget our faith and go back to being enslaved by what God has released us from. Pastor Matty Finlay
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung
The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
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