Let
us not claim to know what we do not know. We do not know which religion
of all religions is true. We do not even know whether religion can take
us to God. Christians believe that Christ is the way to God, but they
do not know this, nor do they know what it really means. What does the
term "Christ - the way" mean? Does it indicate a way of life as taught
by Christ or a religion as made by human beings? Let us NOT downplay or
denigrate any religion that we do not know or understand. It is not at
all in the interest of mankind.
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Sunday, 30 September 2012
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Making Sense Of God's Goodness
For all the wounded children who wonder where God is and whether he cares
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
The God of the Bible and the God of "The Shack"
There is no consistent presentation of a loving God in the Bible according to some people. The popular novel, "The Shack" presents a loving God who is not in accordance with the God of the Bible. Which of these portrayals of God bears the mark of truth?
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Think Before You Decide To Follow Christ
The decision to follow Jesus Christ should not be an emotional decision, nor should it be a desperate decision. It should be a well considered decision.
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Don't Waste Your Time Fighting The Devil
The best way to fight the devil is to ignore him and be with God.
Monday, 17 September 2012
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Psalm 91 (To those who live in fear)
Those who hope in the Lord, yet are in fear, consider the mighty promise of your God: "Because he loves me, I will rescue him. I will protect him for he acknowledges my name." There are no terrors for the one who believes in this God.
For my friend in distress
For my friend in distress
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Monday, 10 September 2012
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Thursday, 6 September 2012
The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - August 2012
Enjoy something because God created it.
Don't enjoy it because of what you can get out of it. There are limits to what
you can get out of something God created.
What a little thing pleases you! Look
closely. Your passion is spent on a little thing that is as common as dirt.
Smile through the pain. Hope through the
disappointment. This is the way to honour your God.
God understands better than any man will
ever understand. God forgives more than any man will ever forgive. I prefer God to Man any day.
God wants us to enjoy life and not to run
away from it. There is no danger in pleasure as long as it does not injure another,
and is experienced in order to glorify a Glorious Maker.
To achieve something you must be calm and
untroubled. You cannot work out anything with a burdened and hindered mind.
To say "It's not all about me" is
an achievement. To say "It's never about me" is a crowning glory.
Maybe it is the man who appears to fail in
the world who achieves success with God.
Don't hurry out of anything. Walk out
slowly and deliberately. Know well that you are leaving something you cannot be
in any longer. Know that you have no ties with it any more. And walk into that
which you cannot deny any more. Know that this is where your entire well-being
lies.
You try so hard to impress people. What
makes you think that they even care? And if they do care why should you even
bother?
"It is good to be positive", they say. For good things happen to positive people. Does that mean good things will not happen to negative people? Some negative people outlive the positive. Some negative people enjoy far more than positive people do. Some negative people have created philosophies from their negativity. Some negative people have made a ton of money with their negative prognostications. Is the negative then really undesirable?
Wait, wait! Don't run away now. You will be
tired of your little game soon.
This is a time of abundance. There was a
time when I couldn't write anything. I was so uninspired. Now I want to write
even when I am off my computer. I want to scribble something down even in the
lavatory.
Those who give praise without the intent of
receiving anything in return, let them alone praise me.
Say it especially when nobody appears to be
listening.
To work for the pleasure of working, to
think for the pleasure of thinking, to help for the pleasure of helping - to do
all these without the desire for personal gain, that is my greatest hope.
Just don't do the first thing that comes to
your mind. Then you may not do the second or the third thing. What comes later
may be a more profitable use of your time and energy.
We should question and test everything. No knowledge is as satisfactory as that which is proven in experience.
If you stumble today move the stumbling
thing from your path and walk on. If you should stumble again steady yourself
and if you should fall rise. Then walk on.
A burdened mind is a hindered mind. A
hindered mind cannot find the expression that it desires. The person who is
hindered cannot believe that he can complete his task to his satisfaction or
achieve anything that he sets his mind on.
Saying it is one thing. Doing it is
another. Believing is one thing. Being what one believes is another. Describing
it is one thing. Experiencing it is another. This is the gap between me and
what I want to be.
The time has indeed
come when I need to fix my eyes on God alone. All the false saviours have left
the stage. Now I must recognise that there is only one who is able to save.
I have struggled
much in my life. That is my blessing. Today I smile because I still struggle. I
know what struggle is. I have also tasted success in certain areas of my life.
But none of these successes came easy. Everything came after prolonged work and
much struggle. Even now as I write about the value of struggle, I realize that
whatever knowledge I convey today cannot be conveyed without a prior struggle
for understanding in the years of confusion and distress. I still struggle and
that is good. Further knowledge will result from this struggle.
It's God who keeps
me going. Let me not take any credit for it.
When Saint Paul told us to flee evil, he did not tell us to run away from evil in fear. We
should not run away from evil. We should confront it in the strength of Jesus
Christ and defeat it. When we run away from evil, we acknowledge that evil is
more powerful than we are. The truth is that we, who are in Christ, are more
powerful than the forces of evil. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. We
are more than conquerors in Christ. So let us act as conquerors and confront
evil and defy it in the power of God. When Saint Paul told us to flee from
evil, he told us to walk away from evil deeds in the power of Christ.
The prayer of a
sinner is sweet to God's ears. But the prayer of the self-righteous he abhors.
The devil takes something beautiful and turns it into something ugly. God takes that ugly thing and reveals its true beauty.
When you see the
disease in your imagination you are on your way back to health.
There is a lesson
that you can learn from your greatest pain. There is a glory that you can receive
from your greatest shame. Just be aware of the potential in the
terrible experience.
There is a path
that seems right but it leads to destruction. There is a joy that seems right
but it leads to disaster. Happy is the man who heeds the warning and walks away
from danger.
When God opens your
eyes you will see the horror of what you considered beautiful before. And
it is when you see that horror that you will be released from the need to revisit what has become horrible.
If you could feel
my flood today you could feel the One who floods in me.
In whatever you do, give thanks to God, the giver of the ability to do anything. Ask God to guide you to the truth regarding
all things, and he will show you what is good for you.
Let fear be the
least of your motivating forces.
I am here to let my
light shine and not to seek applause for it.
I do not have a
healthy opinion of what I am, for there is little health in me. But I do have a
very healthy opinion of who I am in Christ. In Christ I am more than a
conqueror. I am the voice.
Let the giver be
ready for rejection. Let the speaker of wisdom be ready for a non-existent
audience.
The purpose of
knowledge is to share it with others and not to show it off.
It is love that compels best. Fear is the worst motivation for change.
There is always an
English teacher in me even if I have walked many a mile away from teaching
English.
If there is
function in my dysfunction and clarity in my confusion. I attribute these entirely to another living in me.
It is not good to
have an angry, unforgiving nature. Having said that it is God alone who can
make us less angry and less unforgiving. For it is human nature to take offence
and hold grudges against the offender till kingdom come.
In considering what
may happen tomorrow, let me not forget what happens today. Let me be thankful
for today even if it is the most ordinary day.
Faces are unimportant. What lies behind the face, what is deep beneath the skin, that
might well be of some importance.
Respect the will of
God even if it seems to be against you. Respect God's choices for you, which may go
against your desires. Respect and then accept the will of God.
Christ is the Truth. And He is an unpalatable truth to many.
Having hope when it seems hopeless is good. Giving hope to another when it seems hopeless is better. Clinging to hope and offering hope to others even after many disappointments is best.
In life you must be able to take the rough with the smooth. Especially when it is all rough and not smooth you must accept life and use the many opportunities for learning and development that difficulties and disappointments present. To have hope in such circumstances is not only the kindest act you can do for yourself but also the most beneficial one in the long run.
Forgiving may be difficult, but those who
forgive can live without the burden of an unforgiving heart.
May we be blessedly unhurried.
Let us hope in what
is good. Let us hope that good may follow from our actions. Let us delight in
every act in the hope that it will produce the best results.
To take joy in
small things, that is an art and an absolute requirement to experience everyday
happiness. Happiness itself is the sum total of a grateful and joyful heart
that delights in every little gesture of love. To take joy in small things is the first step forward.
There is only one
reason to live. There is only reason to do anything in life. It is to
acknowledge the source of life. It is to please the Giver of all gifts. It is
to glorify God. It is to proclaim that we belong to Him.
Don't run away from what scares you. Don't turn away from what tempts
you. Face your fear and go through your temptation, knowing that God is
at your side, and even inside you. His strength shall see you through.
Sometimes it pours.
Sometimes it drizzles. Sometimes nothing arrives from the sky. Be thankful for
everything from the pouring rain to the dry season. Be firm in faith that
everything will turn out for your good. For God is good and He wants to do
something good for you.
I'm glad to be alive. I'm glad to be able to do something. I'm glad to be able to give thanks to God. I'm glad to
be of help to anyone. I'm just glad to be around. Just glad. That's me today.
What you
want may not be what you really want. What you turn away from may be what you really want. Know this today before you know anything else.
Be blessed with rest. It is a great
blessing.
I can't run away
from God because I don't want to run away from God.
Respect the truth of
the Bible. There is no greater truth.
It is not possible to
escape from a place of total dependency on God. This I am slowly learning.
Today Lord I submit
all. All my longings and all my frustrations I submit to you. I give all you my
thoughts, both good and evil. What is good make it better. What is evil make it
good. I submit my life. I submit both my walking and my staggering. Strengthen
my walk and steady me when I stagger. Oh Lord, you are my only hope.
Today above all let
me be sincere with God. Let untruth and exaggeration depart from me.
Truths are hard to manage. They are not easily told. And they may be badly
received.
A good attempt is
all that is required of you.
When God says,
"No" it is irrevocably "no". There is nothing that one can
do about it. One must accept this response with grace and move on.
Why would one want
to play in darkness when there is light to be enjoyed? This is the truth that overwhelms
the folly.
Trusting in God's
timing is a difficult kind of trust.
Hatred is the first
response. Love is the last response.
We submit to
temptation not because we cannot avoid it but because we want to submit to it.
What you have is a
blessing even if does not feel like one. What you do not have you do not have
to be bothered about.
We say that we
cannot control our base impulses when we really don't want to control them.
We'd rather release them for this is what we want.
Can I cut off my
hand because it doesn't serve me as well as it did before? Even an impaired
hand is better than no hand. Even a dysfunctional life is better than being
dead.
Unless you risk you
shall never find out.
My greatest problem
in faith is that from time to time I don't trust God to solve my problems.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Every Time I Doubt The Existence Of God - Saying of Samuel Godfrey George
Every time I doubt
the existence of God I must think of how I was led to meet my father just
before his death. A most disturbing dream impelled me to meet my father and do
something uncharacteristic. I who was at loggerheads with my father nearly all
my life was finally moved to apologize to him for my many faults. This humbling
of myself must have given him some relief. It surely gave me relief from my guilt, which had I not apologized
would have been unbearable. He gave me his blessing before the end hopefully
cancelling all the negative statements he had made earlier. So every time I
wonder whether God is real I must ask myself, "How did I meet my father
just before his death? What made me say the words that freed both of us from
the burden of discord? This cannot be just a fortuitous accident."
I'm Not Afraid - Psalm 91
Experience the strength that you can find in the promises of your God
For Dianne Partain
For Dianne Partain
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Romans 8 - Nothing Can Separate Us From The Love Of God
Paul, the apostle of Christ, expresses the faith that all believers in Christ must swear by (Romans 8: 31-39).
Monday, 3 September 2012
Does one have to be a Christian to be good?
Goodness does not proceed from Christianity but it proceeds from a charitable frame of mind that is within the reach of all people regardless of religious affiliations.
Regarding Devil Worship
If the Devil thought that he could tempt Jesus into worshipping him, he would certainly think that every human being who ever lived could also be tempted in the same way. Where Jesus triumphed many humans have fallen. There is a powerful tendency in all human beings to seek evil and even worship the Devil consciously.
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