I remember years ago, traveling to the mountains of North Carolina with my fine wife Bev and my parents for a long weekend get-away.

We started looking for a hotel room and were unable to fine one for over 60 miles along Interstate 40. 

The clerk at the first hotel we stopped at told us that we would have a problem finding accommodations.  He informed us that the annual Furniture Market was taking place in High Point, North Carolina and there wasn’t a sleeping room to be found within 60 miles in any direction of that huge event.  We found out he was right.

This particular journey was before the days of cell phones and computers.  If you wanted to call ahead you use a pay phone.  We stopped at exit after exit only to hear the same message. . .there was no room in the inn  . . . Holiday or otherwise.

Failure is an event. . .it’s not who you are.  Failure is never final if you have the God-given desire and direction to change your destiny.

Here are the A to Z’s on how to run failure straight into success.

A-Admit it when you mess up.  The best way to overcome failure is to face it, learn from it and move on.

Proverbs 28:13 in The Living Bible says:

“A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.”

Lady Margaret Thatcher once said:

“I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.”

Have you ever heard the expression. . .you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression?

That’s true.  I will tell you that you can’t always judge a book by its cover. . .but the look of that cover may keep me from ever finding out what’s in the book.

The late Maya Angelou said:

This is the time of year for Christmas lists…from the youngest family member to the oldest.

As our family members grow in age. . .so do the price of their toys.

Dale Evans, wife of Roger Rogers, my childhood heroes once said:

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.”

Roy L. Smith, a renowned Methodist writer of Sunday School literature, once said:

During two days last week on the Rich Thoughts For Breakfast phone calls we discussed seven scriptural insights to a better life.

These insights are all contained in Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 in the Message Bible which says:

“After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live.”

As I’ve read and re-read that verse in preparing the teachings. . .I was stirred by Ecclesiastes 5:19 which says:

I'm going to share with you two verses which describe an event that changed the course of human history.

Luke 3:21-22 says:

²¹ Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

²² And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”

Why were you born?

I can tell you it wasn’t just because your Mom and Dad wanted to have a child.

You were born for a purpose. . .God knew you before you were formed in your mother’s womb.

Yet, too few believers understand their purpose or why they were born.

Ephesians 5:14:

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”

Walt Disney never took failure as final. . .or no as the last word.

Here are seven of my favorite Disney quotes.  I urge you to print out this listing and write how you can apply them to your life. . .so your dreams can come true.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

“Whether you say you can't or you can, you're right.”

As you looked at the title of this teaching...you might assume that I'm going to teach on the 2nd coming of Jesus.  Not true.

Many of you know I don’t spend a lot of time reading, wondering or worrying about the end-times.

I’m more concerned about growing up in Jesus than going up to meet Him.  If I live the kind of life I should. . .then I will never have to worry about going up.

In my lifetime there have been nine anti-Christs identified by well-meaning believers who are or no doubt will be in heaven.

Are you facing any giants today?

How do your giant(s) compare with Goliath?

1 Samuel 17:4 says:

“And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.”

Based on the King James Version of the Bible six cubits and a span would make Goliath over nine feet tall.

When you consider the average height of a man in Biblical times was five feet three inches. . Goliath was truly a giant.

1 Samuel 17:5 says: