<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19019">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">All Shall Be Well -
Juliana of Norwich<BR><BR>The English mystic and Benedictine nun Juliana of
Norwich (1342-1414) had reasons enough to worry. She lived during the Black
Death that killed 75 million people in medieval Europe. Many people interpreted
the bubonic plague as divine punishment, but not Juliana. In her
unapologetically optimistic view of life, she believed that God loved every
person and that he would redeem every tear. In her book of visions called
Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love - by some accounts the first book published
in English that was written by a woman - Juliana wrote one of the most
well-known sentences in all of Christian history that's also the perfect
antidote to worry.<BR><BR>In her thirteenth vision or "shewing," Juliana
concluded that she was wrong to worry about the sins and sorrows of life. Jesus
told her that these trials and tribulations were, in fact, "behovely" (from
which we get our word "behoove"). Even our sins and anxieties are somehow
incumbent upon us. They're part of our human story. Despite "all the pains that
ever were, or ever shall be," Juliana believed that God longs to "comforteth
readily and sweetly." He does so by reassuring us that, because of the certainty
of his boundless love, "All shall be well, and all shall be<BR>well, and all
manner of thing shall be well."<BR><BR>Daniel B. Clendenin, Listening to the
Birds, Looking at the Flowers
<BR>________________________________________<BR><BR>The Breakdown of
Worries</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Some years ago I read
the following in a business magazine:<BR><BR>Stress management experts say that
only two percent of our "worrying time" is spent on things that might actually
be helped by worrying. The figures below illustrate how the other 98 percent of
this time is spent:<BR><BR>40% on things that never happen<BR>35% on things that
can't be changed<BR>15% on things that turn out better than expected<BR>8% on
useless, petty worries<BR><BR>Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical
Notes<BR>__________________________________<BR><BR><BR>When I Look
Back</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sir Winston Churchill
once said, "When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the
old man who said on his death bed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life,
most of which never happened."<BR><BR>Sir Winston
Churchill<BR>___________________________________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Unnecessary
Worry</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A bassoon player came up
to his conductor, Arturo Toscanini, and nervously said that he could not reach
the high E flat. Toscanini just smiled and replied, "Don't worry. There is no E
flat in your music tonight." Many of our worries are like that-- unfounded and
unnecessary.<BR><BR>David Beckett, Hakuna
Matata<BR>____________________________________<BR><BR>Humor: She Was Talking to
the Doctor</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A man was seen fleeing
down the hall of the hospital just before his operation. A security guard
stopped him before he could leave the hospital and asked, "What's the
matter?"<BR><BR>The man said, "I heard the nurse say, 'It's a very simple
operation, don't worry, I'm sure it will be all right.'"<BR><BR>"She was just
trying to comfort you," said the security guard. "What's so frightening about
that?"<BR><BR>"She wasn't talking to me," exclaimed the man. "She was talking to
the doctor!"<BR><BR>David Beckett, Hakuna
Matata<BR>____________________________________<BR><BR>God's Days</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Robert Burdette wrote
this piece called God's Days:<BR><BR>"There are two days in the week upon which
and about which I never worry -- two carefree days kept sacredly free from fear
and apprehension. One of these days is Yesterday. Yesterday, with its cares and
frets and pains and aches, all its faults, its mistakes and blunders, has passed
forever beyond my recall. It was mine; it is God's.<BR><BR>"The other day that I
do not worry about is Tomorrow. Tomorrow, with all its possible adversities, its
burdens, its perils, its large promise and performance, its failures and
mistakes, is as far beyond my mastery as its dead sister, Yesterday. Tomorrow is
God's day; it will be mine.<BR><BR>"There is left, then, for myself but one day
in the week - Today. Any man can fight the battles of today. Any woman can carry
the burdens of just one day; any man can resist the temptation of today. It is
only when we willfully add the burdens of these two awful eternities - Yesterday
and Tomorrow - such burdens as only the Mighty God can sustain - that we break
down.<BR><BR>"It isn't the experience of Today that drives people mad. It is the
remorse of what happened Yesterday and fear of what Tomorrow might bring. These
are God's Days ... Leave them to God."<BR><BR>Robert Burdette, God's
Days<BR>____________________________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>I'll Go with
You</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">During the Holocaust,
when the Nazis put people in concentration camps, they would work the imprisoned
until they could no longer do anything. Then, they would execute them. One
family was composed of a father, a mother, and their two children, one of whom
suffered from a physical disability. Every day, the mother and two children were
taken to one work site and the father was shipped to another. And every night,
the father checked on his family. One night though, the father found only his
one son. "What happened?" he asked. The surviving child said that the brother
with the disability had no longer been able to work. And so the guards had taken
him to be executed. He clung to his mother's skirt, sobbing. She picked him up
and, holding him close to her, said, "Don't be afraid. I'll go with you." And so
she did. That's akin to the God we have through Jesus Christ. In Christ, God
stands with us in the darkest and the worst of times--even in death--so that all
who trust in Him will be ushered into eternity with Him! How can we worry when
we have a God like that?<BR><BR>Mark Daniels, Do Not
Worry!<BR>_______________________________________<BR><BR>The Worry
Tree</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Once there was a man who
had a "worry tree." He had a stressful executive position and every night,
before he walked through the front door of his house, he touched a tree close to
the porch and said, "God, all these worries I've been stewing over, I'm giving
to you here now at the worry tree. I'll pick them up from You tomorrow if You
seem to be telling me there's anything I can do about them. Otherwise, I'm
turning them over to You...and thank You!"<BR><BR>Mark Daniels, Do Not Worry!
</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>_______________________________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><BR><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The future is something
which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does,
whoever he is. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>C. S.
Lewis</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">___________________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>With God's
Help</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A pastor was visiting
with a church member one day. They sat together on the front porch of the man's
home on a hot July afternoon. He was a recovering alcoholic who had been sober
for over five years. That day he talked of his past -- of spending more adult
years drunk than sober, of times when but for the grace of God he should have
been killed in a fight or automobile accident, of the patience of his wife and
the influence of the church and A.A. in turning things around. He spoke
reverently of the role of prayer and the ever-present power of Christ. The
pastor had not known him in those other years. He knew him only as a devoted
member of his church, a hard worker and a good friend. So, the pastor remarked
(perhaps too enthusiastically): "It must be satisfying after all those years to
know that you've finally made it." The church member answered quickly: "I don't
know that at all. Neither do you. All I know is that with God's help I will make
it through today."<BR><BR>Michael B. Brown, Be All That You Can Be
<BR>_______________________________________<BR><BR> </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The conclusion to this
illustration and for many additional illustrations and sermons for the Epiphany
8 can be accessed at <A style="COLOR: #800080" href="http://www.Sermons.com"
shape=rect target=_blank
__removedLink__947127399__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=aelnpceab&et=1104611279144&s=45429&e=001prfcIn0G0cdbJkRhRVOpob56e0KqAg8tCe6B10ZA9ORncSpeSR6NU0TYLbbi3qT2OSOXfhx2WQp8oduP5XJAPgmsz9wdyxm2q9S8gkuIS8DmbhAFIi1IFA==">www.Sermons.com</A>.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>