Sayings Of Samuel Godfrey George - April 2016, Part 1

All humbling is good. Let us remember how powerless and hopeless we are without God. The great testimony has already been proclaimed. It is with God we stand even beyond death. Without God we are nothing, though the world may sill celebrate us as something, even after we die.

We love God by turning to Him for everything. We love God by making Him the head of our lives, letting Him manage everything, and believing that He is in control. We love God by placing our own understanding below His knowledge, and in trusting in His word even when it does not seem acceptable to our rational minds. We love God by loving and caring for His people, even the most unlikeable of them.

Though we are under considerable strain, we should learn to stand upright. For our Lord is strong, and he is a capable worker. And though we don't understand his work, and at times we cannot even appreciate it, we should go on in faith that he will not ultimately let us down. There is much ugliness in life, but as King David said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.

I submit to your wisdom today, O Lord. I just don't understand why I need to go through this. Why should such an irritation even exist in my life? Why should such flawed humanity be brought forever before my eyes? But I trust you. If you think there is a need for such ugliness in my life, I shall welcome it and learn to coexist with it. I will even give up my childish notion of instant remedy and wait for you as you silently, and imperceptibly do a work in all of us. O God, I need to trust you every day, and believe that you will lead me home.

Be strong. Don't be like those who have no stamina for a fight. You should fight for your position. You should wrestle with God as Jacob did. Jacob, the patriarch, did not receive his blessing without any pain. He suffered many years, and worked many years to obtain his wife Rachel. He stayed away many years from his brother Esau, who was waiting to kill him, for he had cheated his older brother of the blessings of their father Isaac. Jacob did not become Israel immediately. He suffered much, even a dislocation of his hip, before he received the ultimate blessing from God. So be willing to suffer, and wait as long as it takes. For such is the requirement to receive the great blessings of God.

Many who pursue God feel abandoned by God sometime in their lives. Even Jesus Christ felt abandoned by God on the cross. But he recovered from the moment of despair, by placing his trust in God, who never fails. No matter how bad it looks right now, and no matter how alone you feel, know that God is with you and that he will not let you be defeated ultimately. He will carry you if he has to. But he will never leave you and walk away from you. Let your hope in him never die.

If we have failed, we should not give up. It is hard to get up after we fall. But with God we can rise every time we fall. Believe in God. Believe that he wants the best for you. It may not seem credible right now, where you are. But see this failure as what comes before success, and success will surely come, as long as you stay in faith, focused on what God alone can do for you. Whoever trusts in God will not be disappointed in the end.

From our point of view some sins are worse than others. But all sins are sin. And any sin makes us fall short of the glory of God. But Christ has paid for all sins, the small ones and the big ones. In his eyes, all sins are equally damning.

Every day is a blessing. Every breath is a blessing. Every moment of health is a blessing. Every friend we’ve made, and every relationship in our lives is a blessing. Every opportunity to receive God's love, and every opportunity to share it with others is a blessing.

 

This is the truth that we must be aware of: we are the creations of God made to be in union with God. And if we are not united with God we will not find purpose in our lives. But this is our purpose: to know God, to know the one who created us, to know the one who gave us life, who gave us the privilege to live in this beautiful world, who gave us the privilege to be able to think, to be able to wonder, to be able to even ask this question: “Does God exist?”

 

Unforgiveness is among the ugliest things in the world. It is the quality that makes us most human and least divine.

 

 

 

 

Let us slow down and appreciate what God has created to give us joy.

Say, "I am not getting out of this without a fight. I will fight till I am everything that God wants me to be."

Salvation is not based on our performance. Thank God for that.

Sayings Of Samuel Godfrey George - March 2016, Part 2

Let us stay with God. His promises endure forever. His words will outlast everything. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Let us put our faith in God, difficult as it is. Sometimes we do realize that it is best to place our faith in God. Sometimes we actually experience the rewards of waiting on God. It may not happen always, but sometimes they do happen. Sometimes I have not understood God very well. I have not understood what he is doing in my life. Sometimes I am not able to appreciate what God is doing in my life. But let me trust God with my life. Let me trust his understanding. Let us trust God and his way and his plan, no matter how incomprehensible those things may be. Let us trust in God.

This is what I want to say. This is what I want to convey to the world. Let us give thanks to God for what we have. We may not have much. Some of us actually have little. But there is one thing we will always have, and that is God. Though some of us feel that we have little, though some of us feel that we don’t have as much as someone else has, let us be thankful for what we have. Today I’m thankful for the health that I am still able to enjoy. And I have this to say to God, “Thank you for giving me life. Thank you for letting me live. Today I will not count what is missing in my life. But I will count my blessings."

Let us not say, "Let's sing songs of praise to God" on a day such as Easter, without behaving well with our fellow beings. When we cannot behave politely with others we cannot really worship God.

Evil seemed to have had its day on Good Friday. To spiritually unobservant people, Good Friday appeared to be the triumph of the forces against Jesus Christ. But this was not the case. When Easter arrived, it became clear to all that Good Friday was also a day of triumph. It was the day when God made payment for the sins of his people. It was the day when God’s love was wonderfully manifested in the sacrificial death of his Son Jesus Christ. After the apparent darkness of Good Friday and the dismal Saturday that followed, a stunning reversal of fortune came about on Sunday. Jesus returned, and it was a brilliant return. He returned never to die again. He returned to reign forever. He returned so that we too may reign forever with him. He returned to give us a new, everlasting life with him.

On Good Friday it seemed that Jesus and his message came to an end. It seemed that Jesus did not matter anymore. It seemed that all hope was lost. His apostles surely thought so. They escaped from the scene. They were in hiding. Even the women who came to embalm his body on Sunday morning came to see a dead body. They came to embalm a dead body, but they found no such thing that morning. The tomb was empty, and the stone was rolled away. And then Jesus appeared. He appeared victoriously in a new resurrected boy. He met his disciples, who were overjoyed to see him again. He appeared to them many times, reassuring them of his reality. He gave them specific directions to bring salvation to the world, before he ascended into heaven. Thus, Easter represents the triumph of God over the forces of evil.

Death came as a consequence of sin. Sin came from the heart of man under the influence of the devil. The devil came from an angel made by God. These are the biblical facts. To say that God was not responsible for either sin or death, is to say that God is like man, who creates something without being able to forestall the consequences that emerge from the intricate working of what he creates. However, the human cannot create a sentient being. So his responsibility as a creator is considerably less. God as the one and only divine Creator is far more responsible, and if he should maintain that he is not responsible for either sin or death that emerged from the malfunctioning of what he created, then that will indeed be a surprising conclusion. But the death of God on the cross does suggest that God did take the responsibility for the problem of sin, and did what he alone could do to eradicate it. This comes across as the capable act of a responsible creator.

It appeared to some people that Jesus and his movement were crushed on Good Friday. It appeared that Jesus and all that he represented came to an end on Good Friday. His disciples dispersed in many directions. They ran away to save their lives when Jesus was arrested. All were in hiding. The work of Jesus Christ seemed to have come to an end on Good Friday. Many people thought that that was the end of the Jesus movement. Those, who considered Jesus a heretical teacher, were glad that his false teaching had come to an end. There were others who thought that Jesus was utterly defeated on Good Friday. But Jesus shocked all of them by coming back into this world. Easter represents the coming back of the Lord Jesus Christ. Easter represents the triumphant return of a God. Easter represents a stunning victory after a terrible defeat.

Easter represents God’s triumph over death. It is God who commanded death to enter this world. It is God who cursed human beings to die. It is God who subjected all creations on earth to death. And it is also God who triumphed over death. And he did this many years ago one Sunday morning. And that is what we celebrate as Easter.

Good Friday is the day on which human beings killed their God. It ought to be the worst Friday of all. Still it is good from a divine point of view. It achieved the result God wanted. God wanted the perfect, once-for-all atonement for human sins. And Jesus Christ offered the ultimate sacrifice for human sins.

Rejoicing in God is really rejoicing in life, and all that one is able to do.

We all need prayers. So let us not fail to pray for one another. Let us pray for the saints of God, battling the forces of evil. These people are everywhere, and they all need help. God's help. And they need it as much as we do. So let us pray.

I don't care who my enemies are, as long as God is my friend.

It is when something appears impossible that it becomes possible for the one who believes in God. I cling to this hope. But let God be god. And let me be a man who will always hope in Him.

If God fails to help me this time, it will not change how I essentially regard him. What I have learned from him has enhanced me decidedly. From God I have learned to distinguish between black and white. I have seen my original darkness and his intrusive brightness. I long for the gifts of God and will wait for them even indefinitely. I cannot turn from this path. If I should turn away, where will I turn? There is no alternate path worthy of pursuing, as far as I am concerned.

Don't believe in God before you consider disbelieving in him. Don't trust in God before you consider distrusting him. Otherwise belief and trust may be wispy things that cannot stand the test of time and the storm of affliction. And belief and trust should not be only theoretical constructs. They should be empirical truths governing our lives. Our daring to believe in God should bring forth the desired results. Our risk in trusting him should be validated by divine acts of rescue. And though it will not be easy for us to experience these results, it is surely the road to a secure faith.

Wear God in you heart, not on your sleeve. What you wear on your sleeve matters less, as long as God reigns in your heart.

A man wavers in faith only because he doesn't know God very well. Anyone who knows that God is faithful and able will not waver in his faith. If God denies a man's prayer, because that man's faith does nor rise to his expectations, then such an act cannot reflect the understanding and compassion we attribute to God. God may well not use the quality of faith as a measure for approving or denying a prayer request. He may even grant the secret wish of a person who does not even pray, because that could be the only way God can reach such a person.

Some things may not be possible even for God. Not all human beings can be led to the point of accepting God. There are some who will never accept God or bow down to him in this life time. If God indeed granted free will to humans, he probably relinquished control over the way humans decide. So God cannot control human beings, while he lets humans make their own decisions. However, the control that God exercises in the human heart takes place only as human beings allow God to influence them. Thus several constraints are placed on God's intervention in human affairs, and as a result, this world seems to be outside the effective control of God.

Who are the children of God? And where are the children of God? Do the children of God necessarily carry a label, such as Jew and Christian? Are they located geographically in certain pockets of the world? A child of God is any human being who is going through a process of regeneration, which began when his spirit was transformed into divine likeness by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Such a transformed person cannot carry any other label than the child of God, and any man-made label such as Christian or Jew or anything else is secondary in nature. He may be found anywhere in the world, and groups of people like him may also be found anywhere in the world, not necessarily in a politically defined geographical area. In essence the children of God are transformed humans existing everywhere and anywhere in this world.

I welcome all of you to my home. And home is where God is. And God is love. And when you come to stay with me, may you find God's love, and experience it without fear.

Humans in their natural state are consumed with lust for what God made. And they have no love for God at all.

Some of us just want to play with God's toys. We want nothing to do with him at all.

What the world needs is not criticism. What the world needs is love. Can we love without criticising? That is the question.

 

Worse than hypocrisy is the unseemly pride of the former sinner who flaunts his sanctification as though it were an accomplishment in his own strength. But then again, is that former sinner, truly former in nature? Is any sanctified human being in a perfectly sinless state while on earth? If he is let him cast his many biblically sculpted stones. Otherwise let him shut up and examine his own proud and foolish heart.