Twenty-One Words

In 1871 a young medical student was worried and upset over his future, like so many of us he was overthinking his path, “what area of medicine should I get into, what direction should I take.” Questions and thoughts like this are not uncommon but if they occupy all of our emotional real estates they leave no room for God. Then something happened to this young man that would forever change the direction of his life. He heard twenty-one words, yes, twenty-one words are all it took!

What were those twenty-one words? Here they are, “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly in the distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

With that William Osler found the secret of living for today, he became the most famous physician of his generation. He organized the world famous John Hopkins School of Medicine, became the Regis Professor of medicine at Oxford, the highest honor given to any medical man in the British Empire. The King of England knighted him. Forty-two years later at the graduating class at Yale University, William Osler, giving the address said this, “My success was not due to my talents, intellect, or gifts, rather it all began with a simple idea of doing what lies clearly at hand and leaving the rest up to God.”

We can all plan our future, but we can only live today! So let’s give each day our best and let the future unfold with God’s blessing. I might add, whatever you plan on doing, don’t ask yourself if you have enough, or what it will take, instead ask yourself, do I have enough to get started!

Download my series, How to Change your Future! And get started on a fantastic journey.

-Dr. Rob Carman, Is the founder of Victory World Missions, a prolific author, church planter and well-know conference speaker. www.robcarman.com

You Can Change Your Future

We all have many things in common, but there’s one big thing we all have in common and when this is understood we can change our future. So what is this big thing that can change our future?

All of us live our lives out of a narrative, a story. Regardless of our background, religion, or culture. This narrative has been formed from many sources, through family, friends, tragedies, experiences, culture and religion. These narratives have built pictures, images in our lives that control or influence the way we act, the decisions we make, the career path we choose, the type of person we marry and the opinions we form. Since a story can be seen it can be concluded that if we can change what we see by changing the story we can change our future.

The Bible is God’s story, His story of creation, His story of redemption and His story of salvation. As we see God’s story it begins to have a great influence upon our lives. So what is God’s story and how can it change our future?

God’s story is a story of creation. God created the world and He created it wonderful, filled with an expression of Himself. No doubt you have visited places where you can hardly take in the beauty of it. All creation is a reflection of its creator. Like us, whenever we build or design or construct something it’s a reflection of us.

God’s story is a story of how we left Him to go on our own. That’s when mankind fell and fell apart. How can we discover our true identity and worth apart from the one that created us? But the story continues.

God’s story is a story of redemption. God never gave up on us. He sent His son in our likeness and as our substitute to take upon Himself the full penalty of our sins so we can be reconciled back to Him

God’s story is a story of salvation. Salvation came through His son Jesus and through Him we can be reunited back to our creator placed in right standing because of what Jesus did.

So how does that story affect us and how can we change our future? When we allow God to introduce us to us, we gain a picture of us that is bigger, better, stronger ad greater than what we could have come up with. Through God’s picture of us we can change our future.

-Dr. Rob Carman, Is the founder of Victory World Missions, a prolific author, church planter and well-know conference speaker. www.robcarman.com