Is It Christmas Yet? 7/1/2015

Good Morning,

I am happy to say that I am breaking out my July supply of Door County White Christmas Coffee. Only six months until Christmas!!!!!

Have you ever wondered why people call you on the telephone? I am not talking about sales people, politicians, or survey takers. I am talking about friends or relatives. Here's the answer. They call because they want to talk to you. They call because they care enough to share part of their God given day with you. Or it could be that they value your thoughts and just need to talk? Or they are led by the Holy Spirit to call on you and check your condition in life. I have noticed this though, during  my many years on this Earth, sometimes the call comes when it is the least convenient for you. You need to put others first.

I heard someone say once that they were lonely. I noticed that when I called them I always felt as if I had to apologize because I called. So I quit calling and then I heard that they were lonely.

Here is a simple math equation. You are as friendly as you choose to be. In turn you are as lonely as you choose to be. You are in control of your own loneliness meter. In order to be a friend and to be befriended you need to be approachable and ready to be friendly.

The Bible has much to say about friendship. I have attached some great Bible verses below. Use them as a test to see what kind of friend you are.

John 15:12-15 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Greatest Friend is God

James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

How To Pick Your Friends

Proverbs 12:26 One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Proverbs 14:6-7 A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
Proverbs 22:24-25 Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

How To Treat Your Friends

Luke 6:31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Colossians 3:12-14 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Go ahead, be a great friend.

Marty