Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Trust and Dreams, Faith and a Parakeet... That was our week
Danny revives his traditional Friday Roundup format by summarizing the week's spiritual lessons,Whether you're facing challenges, rediscovering old dreams, or seeking spiritual grounding, this episode offers practical wisdom for your faith journey.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Good morning everyone, and welcome this morning. It's really good to have you here, and today we're going to do something that we haven't done for quite a while now. We're going to do a Friday Roundup and, for those of you that have joined us just in the last six months or so, on Fridays we originally had a tradition where we would do a brief summary of each of the four episodes from Monday through Thursday every week, and today we're going to do that again, as I'm getting used to doing some new recordings for you again as well. So please be patient today as we go and take a look first of all at our Music Monday episode this week, where we looked at the old hymn Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus, and we called the episode Trust Amidst Tragedy.
Speaker 1:In 1882, louise Stead was a missionary to South Africa and, while still a young woman, she had already faced a great deal of tragedy in her life. Just two years prior, before heading to the mission field, her husband had died while trying to save the life of a young boy at the beach. Then, within the next year, louisa took their daughter to South Africa to walk the mission field there, where she met Robert Wodehouse. They were married shortly thereafter. For many years she had health problems, severe health problems. Not only health, but being on the mission field, there were all those other stresses and problems in dealing with that and trying to raise a daughter on the mission field, which was never easy, particularly at that point in time. It was during all these trials and struggles that she wrote the hymn "'Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus". The first verse of the chorus goes "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. How I've proved him o'er and o'er Jesus. Jesus, precious Jesus, offer grace to trust him more". Psalm 56 and 11 tells us "'In God I have put my trust and I will not be afraid'". This is what Louisa had to do and what this song really is all about trusting Jesus. No matter what you're facing, no matter what you are going through, whether it is a struggle with your work, with your finances, with your family or with your health. Trust in Jesus. Keep trusting him, no matter what.
Speaker 1:Tuesday's episode was one of my personal favorites. It was a bit of a man named Giuseppe Paterno and the episode was called Dreams Don't Expire. You see, giuseppe was an amazing man. At the age of 96, he graduated from the University of Palermo in Sicily. He was Italy's oldest graduate ever being interviewed after his graduation, giuseppe was asked why would you go through all of that at your age? It is said that he smiled, looked at his certificate in his hand and said and then said they just didn't understand the significance of a dream, a dream that you've had all of your life.
Speaker 1:You know, much of the time God has placed a dream deep within us too. Maybe as we were a teenager, even a little bit later in life, we had dreams that God had placed deep within us. But somehow life happened. And when life happens, sometimes dreams get pushed out of the way, but those dreams never die. They are always there. Acts, chapter 2, verse 17, says In the last days, god says I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.
Speaker 1:Dreams are an important part of our lives. God has placed them deep within us so that we can work towards what he has designed for us to be and do. If God has placed a dream in you, back in your life, at some point in time, don't let it die. Don't lose sight of what God wants you to do and what he's called you to be. If he wants you to reach out to make a difference in someone's life, reach out and do it. Let God's work be real in you. Let him work through you, let him make an impact in you and by you. God's dreams for us are almost always bigger than our dreams for ourselves. It takes faith, it takes trust, it takes stepping out and believing that God is really, truly wanting to do something powerful, and I believe that there are many of us today that God wants to do more with. He wants us to see and accomplish more of what he truly wants us to be. So I encourage you think back on those old dreams that you had. Don't let them die. Dig out your Bible or your old journal where you wrote all that stuff down and listen carefully to it one more time. Let God speak to you and use you, because he still has dreams and purposes for you.
Speaker 1:Wednesday's episode was called Sucked In, washed Up and Blown Over. It featured my old pal Sparky, a parakeet, who got sucked up by a vacuum while his owner was cleaning the cage. Once she freed Sparky from the vacuum, she took him over to the sink and washed him off and then took a hair dryer to blow him dry. And, poor old Sparky, he was never the same after that. In fact, his owner described him as having lost his song, and there are times when we can all feel a little bit like poor old Sparky, where we go through something that is just so overwhelming and so trying and so difficult that we just feel like we have nothing left to sing about. All the good has been knocked out of us, all of our energy is gone and we may even feel we've lost our purpose or our plan for life. But our God does understand this, and he tells us that we need to be aware of this happening in people around us, so that we can be the encouragers, the ones who lift them up and help them when they need it the most.
Speaker 1:Colossians, chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, says Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves. You must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. We all know people who are going through stuff and often what they need more than anything else is to just have someone to listen to them, and that can make all of the difference in the world. To listen to them and to pray with them, buying them a cup of coffee, giving them a phone call, giving them a hug. God will use you to bless that person and he will bless you as well.
Speaker 1:Yesterday's episode was called Faith in the Creator. Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1, says In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. The word there that is translated as created is the word bara. Bara means to make out of nothing, to start with nothing and then create something. That's what God did. He created all the world, all the earth, out of nothing. It was not a Big Bang, it was not an evolution. It was nothing like that. It was God's ability to create out of nothing. Evolution, it was nothing like that. It was God's ability to create out of nothing.
Speaker 1:For years, there's been this so-called battle between science and Christianity over how the world came to be. Yet in 1974, wernher von Braun, the one-time director of NASA, was asked what he thought about the existence of God. He gave this very interesting answer he said to be forced to believe that everything in the universe happened by chance would violate the very objectivity of science itself. What random process could produce the brains of a man or the system of the human eye? The evolutionists challenge science when they try to prove that God does not exist. They say they cannot visualize a designer. Well, can a physicist visualize an electron?
Speaker 1:Francis Schaeffer once said it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in the Creator. You see, our walk with God is based on faith, and our faith says that God is God. He is the mighty creator, and this mighty creator is with you and me right now. He will never leave us or forsake us. So we can trust him, have faith in him and know that he never changes. He is God, he is powerful above and beyond all things. You can trust him to be with you and to help you. Well, that's it, gang. That's a roundup for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Pray for your pastor and his family, make sure you get to church on Sunday and let God bless you as you worship with other believers. Have a great weekend, my friends, and we will talk again on Monday. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac.
