Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - March 2015

Blessings are of many kinds. Some seem good, others seem bad.

A touch of love is more than enough most of the time, One word of love can quieten the fires of fury that are intent on destruction. Yet to speak this word of love sincerely we need a mountain of strength. That can come only from God.

Let us not forget what God is calling us to do today. He is not calling us to lament over something, or complain about something. He is not calling us to denounce and curse others who we feel are unfair to us. He is not calling us to be rude and impolite and hateful. He is calling us to rejoice over his goodness, and to trust in his timing. He is calling us to love and bless others with our words and deeds. He is calling us to be like him. For all that he expects from us, he has already done for us. If we are his children, we must act like him.

Let me pray for the offender today. Let me pray that she recognizes a God who loves her just as she is. Let her receive the love of God today, and when she does, she will be able to accept God's forgiveness. And when she knows that she is forgiven she will be free to love and forgive everyone who irritates her.

The offender is a greater victim than the person she victimizes.

To be able to turn to God any time we sin, in the confidence that he will hear our prayers and forgive us, is the great confidence that God has blessed us with.

Knowing that there is a God who loves us unendingly is our greatest blessing.

Let our eyes be fixed on God. Let his loving words dwell in our hearts. Let his promises be the rock on which we stand. Let us not be distracted by the hatred around us, and let us not pay attention to the curses uttered to us. Let us absorb God's love and forgive the vilest offender today. O God grant us the grace to do this!

The eye is the lamp of the body. To be able to see like God is the greatest of blessings.

God's love is our greatest blessing. It is not based on who we are but on who God is. And God's love never ends.

Take time to enjoy the blessings that are out there right in front of you now. And celebrate God's love for you.

To live well you must dare to experiment. You must be willing to fail in your attempt.

With God you are most likely to walk into uncharted territory. And the only way to do this is to stop questioning and start trusting.

If I could only tolerate myself as God tolerates me, I will be at peace.

You must learn to live with your imperfections to be at peace with yourself.

The undeserving me is the best candidate for God's grace.

A day with myself is the best therapy for my pride.

The first step in love is forgiveness. Forgiving who you are and forgiving what others are are the necessary ingredients of this forgiveness. We need to forgive ourselves for our moral ugliness, and forgive others for theirs. And the next step in love is tolerance. If we can tolerate who we are, when we know who we are, then we should do the same for others. If we cannot do so we are being terribly unfair.

When I know myself, I can only love others.

People are people. You either welcome them with open arms, or do a background search to screen out the undesirable, and then let in only those who make you feel comfortable. I wonder what the Jesus approach is.

With God it is impossible not to enjoy life.

Let what happens in my life today be according to God's will. Let God govern every thought, word and act that proceed from my mind.

How many outsiders will look on the Christian community and see a loving, tight-knit group of people devoted to glorifying God without being negatively impacted by individual differences and peculiarities that mark people in general? How many will see Christians as a compassionate group of people who are driven purely by the motive of sharing God's unconditional love with others in the same unconditional way?

What is the use of faith and devotion when you can't treat one another well? What is the use of knowing the Bible like the back of your hand, without being able to be kind and considerate in your dealings with others? As Saint Paul said, all the heavenly and earthly knowledge amount to nothing if we don't have love. Let us today focus on the one thing that makes us something - love. And let us first receive that love from God graciously and then give it to others also graciously.

The hypocritical talk regarding sin must stop first. Who has not sinned in this world? By God's definition everyone has sinned and is actively sinning every day. There's nothing we can do about it as long as we are in this world. So if we have anything to say, let us lift one another up, and encourage one another. There is a God in this world who loves us despite our sins. This is the message that we must send out. This is the joyful truth by which we must live.

God does not always answer prayers affirmatively. When we do not receive an answer to repeated prayers, we must still thank God and affirm our faith in his greatness. We must trust in him to do what is best for us in his time.

Our love for one another must reflect God's constant love for us. If God is constant the people of God should also be constant. To be constant one must commit to loving at any cost, to enduring any situation or reaction. It is to persist in understanding love, persevering despite the challenges in the expression of that love. This alone can be our greatest act of worshipping a constant God.

If you are troubled and you believe in God, remember that Jesus Christ told us not to worry. To worry is to betray fear. And to worry a lot does indicate a flagging confidence in God. Let us remember the times in the past when God stood by us and saved us from many difficulties. What he did then he will do again, if we would only believe.

To forgive you must love.

Only God can recover his own territory. And the territory that God prizes the most is the human heart. And slowly but surely human beings are turning back to God.

Who are the children of God? And where are the children of God? Do the children of God necessarily carry the label Jew and Christian? Are they located geographically in certain pockets of the world? A child of God is any human being who has gone through a process of regeneration, when his spirit has been transformed into divine likeness by the mysterious work of the holy spirit in all those who have believed in God's love for the world expressed in the act of sacrificing his own son, Jesus Christ, on the cross as the expiation for all the sins committed by humans from beginning to end. Such a transformed person cannot carry any label other than the child of God, and any other man-made label such as Christian or Jew or anything else is only 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 spirits existing everywhere and anywhere in this world.

The entire world is God's territory. And he will have it bit by bit if necessary. But he will have it eventually and entirely. According to the biblical story, the world was given to Man for safekeeping. And Man gave it away to Satan, when he became the devil's slave through his fallen nature. The world will now be wrested away from the devil and his demons degree by degree. The first and the foremost act in this direction was accomplished by Jesus Christ through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead many years ago. Now God is gradually reconciling humans to himself by the preaching of his gospel to the ends of the world, and by turning men and women to himself, he is recovering the most important territory, the hearts and minds of people. This is far more significant than any geographical conquest.

It is difficult to remember the great deeds of God when we tread a problem-ridden path. Every time we face a problem on such a path, we tend to panic and even lose our faith. No one saw miracles of the kind that the Israelites witnessed on their way out of Egypt into the promised land. Yet frequently they panicked and lost hope. They gave up on God many times. But God did not give up on them. Today as we go through problems in life, let us remember the times when God saved us in difficult, even impossible situations. And let us keep the faith when we come upon bitter waters in a time of great thirst.

Do not embrace your weakness. Embrace your strength.

We shall fall, and we cannot prevent that. But we shall also rise every time we fall in the strength of God. This we must not fail to do.

Christ lives in us. But we are responsible for the extent to which we allow Christ to be seen in us. And the more we reveal Christ along with our prejudices and insecurities, he will come across to others as a god who is also marked by prejudice and insecurity.

God exists. He exists in us. When people see us they see God in us. Let us take care as to how we reveal God to others.

We teach love by showing love. Let us show love today. And let us show it to everyone regardless of who he or she is.

We are never in a position to discriminate between who is good and who is bad. We are certainly not in that position at a moment's notice. The danger of not letting someone in is this: this person may be someone whom God has sent to us for a purpose, and only by letting him in will that purpose be fulfilled. If we let our superficial, faulty judgement of the character of this person come in the way of our ministering to him, or his ministering to us, we miss out on God's will either way.

If you are worried about the one who knocks on your door, remember that you too knocked on Christ's door disfigured and distorted by sin. He took you in just as you were. If you are in Christ, then you are like Christ. And if you are like Christ you cannot turn away the person who knocks on your door, no matter how terrible he is. However, this belief is neither accessible nor practicable to all. We are still a fear-ridden, self-protective group of people desperate to be like Christ, yet without the daring to be like him.

When someone knocks on your door, the most Christ-like thing you can do is to let him in.

Spiritual arrogance is more deadly than worldly arrogance.

Jesus Christ did not come into the world to begin a religion called Christianity. He came into the world to reveal God's love for all people in the world. Let us not pretend that God is only for a select group of people called Christians. And even Christians are terribly divided and uncertain of any commonality. Our greatest act of worship is love, modelled on the love of God for all people. If we wish to honour God, let us love and respect one another and believe in our equal access to his throne of grace, despite our various, dissimilar paths. On the contrary, to believe that Christians alone have an access to God denied to others, and Christ can be perceived only by Christians, may be a severe underestimation.

No one should be absolutely sure that he belongs to God. God alone will decide who is his and who is not his. We must always seek him in the awareness of our own unworthiness, the depths of which we have not fully discovered.

A discriminating mind is not a loving mind. To discriminate people based on differences is not the way of love. Ultimately we are all children of God, not just the Jews, not just the Christians. To glory in our state of being the elect, is a terrible kind of arrogance, which is not in keeping with what Jesus Christ taught.

Fear is from the devil. Faith is from God. Yet we cannot see the power of faith in the absence of fear. When faith rises above fear and hopes in God even in dire circumstances it becomes glorious.

It is never too late to say thank you. Say thank you to someone today, no matter how delayed your thanks may be.

Let us never treat the elderly with disrespect. They need us and let us be there for them, no matter how difficult they are to be with.

Be kind to your brother and sister today, even if this person has hurt you.

Let us not sow bad seeds today. Let us not punish people for their behaviour towards us. Let us not fail to show kindness to everyone, especially to the one who has hurt us. Let us ask God to give us the strength to do this.

Faith in the absence of fear is no faith.

Faith must walk alongside fear and overcome it.

Do not fear today whatever the trouble. Cast your cares on God. Trust in him to deliver you. Sing a song of praise no matter how you feel. Believe. Just believe.

A love for God and all that God has done is what will unite the people of God. Doctrines and theologies emerging from human understanding can only divide.

I entrust all my cares to God. And I will be happy today. For this is God's will for all his children.

Great weaknesses bring about a great humility.

I need to have a child-like faith in God above all book knowledge and spiritual wisdom.

I have lost many things in this life lived for God. Still Jesus Christ will always remain mine, and I will always remain his.

Let all brothers and sisters learn from Joseph, son of Jacob. He did not curse his brothers even once, though he had much reason to. God has not given us brothers and sisters so that we may curse them, no matter what the provocation. Let us learn to forgive and coexist in love. It is certainly good and pleasant when brothers and sisters live in harmony.

What can a human curse do to me when I have God's blessing on me?

If someone curses you, bless that person. Forgive that person and pray to God that he may heal that person Say boldly, "I am blessed and I cannot be cursed, If God is for me, no one can be against me."

The greatest need today is to receive God's love. If we taste God's love we can forgive anybody and anything.

No day is a bad day to say thank you to God.

God will not let his children be humiliated. So just believe that you will be all right.

It is sad when the children of God instead of building each other up are tearing each other down. Instead of looking at what is good and admirable in others they are distracted by what they find bad and distasteful. No one in this world can satisfy another perfectly. Since each one of us falls short of the glory of God, and still God accepts everyone just as he or she is, we must do the same for one another. If we fail to do that we prove that we only want to receive grace but not return it to others.

Jesus has proved conclusively that we are absolutely in no position to throw stones at anyone. So let's put down our stones, and remove the beams from our eyes.

Do you work quietly. Love everyone. Judge no one. Leave everything to God.

Do the right thing. Don't do the selfish thing. It brings immediate satisfaction. But the right thing brings lasting satisfaction even if it hurts at the beginning.

There was a time when I gave and very few were willing to receive. But I continued to give. That is why I'm still giving and there are now many who are willing to receive.

Even if some people don't welcome you, you welcome everyone.

God, help me see the good in everyone. And let me not be quick to judge anyone. Grant me compassion to see people as you see them, so that I will not condemn them.

I just want to take my eyes off the world and look only at God. This is my prayer today.

Losing our temper is our excuse for uttering curses. We say that we spoke in anger and didn't really mean it. If we didn't really mean it, we should have never spoken those hurtful words. Once we have spoken them we have become responsible for them. And we will not escape from being condemned by them.

Let our rage not become our excuse to destroy others. We are all capable of verbal destruction. But blessed is the human who can rein in those terrible words even after a horrible provocation.

Even an unuttered curse in our hearts is as bad as an audibly spoken curse. And we must account for that.

If we want a blessing we must bless others. It is that simple. Yet the last thing we do sometimes is to bless others. In fact many times the first thing we want to do is to curse others.

Let's do a hard thing today. Let's bless the one who has cursed us. Let's pray for this person and ask God to heal the mind of this person.

There is a terrible truth regarding words. We can't undo the words we speak. And it is impossible to tame the tongue. Let us pray today and ask God for mercy and grant us the grace to speak words that will not destroy both others and us.

God requires people to show faith in him. Without faith it is impossible to please God. So those who ask for proof to believe in God are wasting their time.

A particularly good test of Christ-likeness is when one is repaid evil for doing good.

What really hurts the Christ worker is not rejection by non-Christians but rejection by Christians. I have said this before. I say it again. Christianity is hurt most by Christians.

There is no point in running away from temptation. You must face it boldly and study it thoroughly. You must know yourself, and know your weakness. You must ask God to grant you his strength, for you cannot overcome your weakness without the strength of God. And the release from your bondage will be gradual. You must trust in God and believe that he will grant you the grace to overcome your temptations degree by degree. Finally don't run away from your weakness. For when you are weak then you are strong. God works best in your weakness.

Many are the troubles of God's people. But God will deliver us from them all eventually. This is the promise we must bear in mind as we undergo troubles in life. And God does not give us only troubles. He also gives us moments of relief and joy, when we can replenish ourselves to continue the struggle.

Without the Bible there can be no proper understanding of God and his mission in this world. The great story of God's love will not emerge in its present clarity without the biblical texts that progressively reveal the heart of God to the point of climax in Jesus Christ. For me, the Bible is essentially a message of love and forgiveness to the world, and a reminder of God's faithfulness to his people, whom he loved to the extreme extent of sacrificing his own beloved Son for them. It also presents God as the ultimate judge who cannot accept sin and those who sin and by sinning transgress his holy law. Still the perfectly just God emerges in the Bible as the one who above all knows that there is no human being other than Jesus, who can ever fulfil the requirements of his law and merit the reward of eternal life in heaven. That is why Jesus fulfilled the requirements of God's law for all of us. It is by resting in Christ by faith that we fulfil every commandment that God has laid out for us. When we do this there is no place for boasting in our lives, for nothing in our path to salvation is achieved by our own efforts. And the greatest of God's commandments are to do with love. We must love God with all our heart and mind and might, and this we can do only when we love one another as we love ourselves. This brings us to the ultimate point. How can we love ourselves? Can we love ourselves by rejecting ourselves? Only if we can do that we can reject others whom we love. Or can we love ourselves by not even knowing ourselves? Only then we can love others by not knowing them, by not even associating with them. None of God's commandments can we fulfil without being in Christ. When this is the case no man should boast of his ability to do God's will. And the will of God is that we should know his love and share it with others as we receive it ourselves. The Bible should lead us to this realization and not impede it. A legalistic and literal understanding of the biblical texts will lead to a strident, inflexible interpretation of the spiritual life, which is devoid of love and compassion, the ultimate guiding principles of life.

You can't find those who are lost by keeping your distance from them.

Abandoning everything to seek the lost is the distinguishing characteristic of Christ and all who follow him.

You can't choose the people you love. You can't run away from the people you love. The one who chooses and distances himself from those he claims to love, is no lover in the order of Christ.

Love is not love if it is controlled by fear. Love bears all things. Love conquers all. Anyone who says he loves and yet fears what might result from that love cannot love at all.

Ultimately the people of Christ should be characterized by love - accepting, embracing, forgiving and participating love. Such love must also show compassion for all those unlike us, because we ourselves were like them, when Jesus Christ reached out to us. Jesus did not leave us or forsake us even when we were lost in our sins. He was very much with us loving us until we recognized his presence in our lives. We, the body of Christ in whom Christ lives and works must learn to love people as Christ loved us. We must not reject or despise people for being different from us. We must not condemn or denounce them for their imperfections. We must love them even when they hate us and bless them even when they curse us. Above all we must care for them even when they reject and kill us. This is the love of Jesus, which must reside in us, if we are to be anything like him.

The difference between Jesus Christ and Saint Paul is this. Paul taught us love, but it was Jesus who showed us love. Paul spelt out the faith. Jesus demonstrated that faith through his own life. Paul led us to Christ. But it is Christ who saved us ultimately. Paul is a servant of God speaking for God. Jesus is God, speaking for himself. Knowing this difference will make it easier for us to understand the Bible.

Jesus said before he went to the cross, "Love one another as I have loved you." Our question as Jesus followers should be this. "How did Jesus love us? Did he love us even when we didn't love him? Did he love us even when we were sinners totally removed from his light? Or did he love only those who responded to him and sought his light? Did he love us by coming to us and spending time with the most despised among us, or did he love us by distancing himself from us? How did he respond to those who felt lost? Did he let them go, or did he go after them, determined to find them at any cost?" Once we arrive at the answers, we must ask a further question. "If Jesus loved like this, should we also not love like this, as he commanded?" And we must ask God to give us the grace to love like that.

God doesn't change people by teaching them. He changes them by loving them.

The last thing a sinner needs is a lesson in morality. Give him love and forgive him completely. That is what he needs to turn around.

To love people we must be with them without trying to teach them something. If possible let us try to learn from them.

If we spend our time being afraid of people then we will have no time to love them.

If compassion and humanity are the hallmarks of Christianity, then the world will pay attention to it.

The problem with being like Jesus lies in being with people we would rather avoid.

If you want to be like Jesus you must accept all who come to you.

I who hated and despised God have become a worker for God. I who hated and despised my human father was led to him just before his death, and given the grace to apologize and seek forgiveness. God has led me from darkness to light. And this testimony is true.

Don't let yourself be condemned today. Jesus Christ paid a price for you, and that is the one and only payment required. You don't have to do anything more to retain your salvation. The work of Jesus Christ is truly finished in you today.

Perhaps none of us is normal. Every one of us may be disabled in some way. Yet many of us find ourselves in many ways less disadvantaged than those whom the world labels disabled. Let us who find ourselves in this position give thanks to God for what we have.

Even I couldn't see God once. Now I see him in all the life forms around me. I see him particularly in the human being, who consciously desires to be good. This desire alone speaks powerfully for God, to whom the human seems irreversibly linked. Yet this is not a link that everyone discovers.

God is everywhere, even in your heart if you have welcomed him there. You can worship him wherever you are.

Now it certainly looks bleak. But it will not stay like this forever. Believe in God. Trust in his working.

Let us not give God give any time frame for acting. He will act in his time.

Some people don't like the idea of God because it seems so primitive, and so remotely detached from the intellectual giants that they have become. Also the acknowledgement of God may lead to the imposition of an external authority on them, which may not agree with their liberated temperaments. So to avoid this regression to God, they try their very best to progress to a godless scenario, which is difficult to demonstrate. Yet this difficulty cannot dissuade them from venturing further, for a godless universe is a premise that they will not discard.

God showed clearly through Jesus that he identified with the poor and the humble people of this world. So let us also stay with the poor and identify ourselves with them.

Sex is God's gift to Man. But when sexuality occupies a place that only God should occupy in a person's life, it has become a bondage. And no man can overcome this bondage on his own, for lust of this kind cannot be humanly tamed. It must be submitted to God, who alone can liberate a person from this bondage.

Show me love today, O Lord. And you will have shown me everything.

There is always something to be afraid of if you want to give in to fear. But if you have God in your life why should you fear? The last thing God wants you to be is to be afraid.

Do not fail to help those who are dependent on you. These are your family members and your spouses. Be firmly committed to helping and supporting them in their time of trouble.

Our troubles are very little in comparison with those of Christ on Calvary many years ago. His suffering is on a different scale and may even be in a different dimension. But we participate in the sufferings of Christ to be identified with him in death so that we may be identified with him in his glorious resurrected life as well. Though the intensity of our suffering cannot be the same as that of Christ, it is still rather severe and cannot be ignored. We suffer with Christ so that we may be glorified with him. This is the essence of it. And what we undergo to achieve this is by no means little.

Love the people you have in your life today. And love them well. This is the one task that you must fail to do. For if you do so you will also love God.

It is indeed good when brothers and sisters live together in unity. But will they? Let us pray for this unity.

It's good to crawl towards God. For once I was just sitting without moving towards him.

Love someone today who least expects your love. Show kindness to someone today who least expects your kindness.

The best parenting I've had is from God. I've had good human parents. But without God I cannot even stand.

Let there be more of hope and less of dread in my faith. The tendency to fear is so great in the human being that God had to repeat "Fear not" hundreds of times.

There is only so much I can do (and even that I cannot do without Christ living in me). Everything else must be done by God.

Don't be afraid of being weak. Because when you are weak, then you are strong. God works best in people who are so weak that they cannot function without him.

The best way to convey Christ to someone who does not know Christ is to love him unconditionally and do our very best for that person without forcing him to believe in Jesus Christ or imposing any other theological demand on him. Any forced act of belief is not belief at all.

The act of telling people about Jesus Christ does not automatically lead to salvation of souls. People may hear the audible message and fail to respond to it with their hearts. The act of conveying a message is twofold: one, the ability of the speaker and two, the receptivity of the hearer. The success of communication lies equally with the hearer, whose mental and spiritual states, if he is hearing about Jesus, are vital to his receiving the message. So ultimately success in the process of telling people about Christ does not lie in the hands of the speaker but in the hands of God who alone facilitates both the speaking and the hearing.

Tell children about Christ. But tell a story about him. Don't theorize. Don't get into theology. Tell the story of the prodigal son, for there is no other story that better illustrates our great forgiving God. And make it clear that God forgives so much because he loves so much.

Children cannot understand what Christ has done for them. Even I, a 43 year old, have not yet grasped what Christ has done for me.

Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - February 2015

It may not be always possible to feel joy in God. But we must learn to rejoice in the fact that even during troubles God is blessing us, for difficulties lead us to God.

In the most trying circumstances let me be calm and think kind thoughts about people who have not behaved well.

Let the true colours of your faith be exposed by troubles.

All trouble is humbling. And all humbling is ultimately good.

Don't try to understand trouble. Just try to give love. And try to say a prayer.

Fill me with your love O God. Your love alone will help me absorb the wickedness of this day.

My life in pursuit of God seems like an experiment gone terribly wrong. Yet there are also moments when I see the immense use of it. There are moments when I feel that I have lost more than I gained. And there are other moments when I'm glad I lost it for whatever I have gained. Feelings are bound to fluctuate. Impressions are equally fleeting. A most suspect God appears totally faithful in a matter of moments. So I cannot go by feelings. But I should go by truth, not by my truth, for I don't know what it is, but by God's truth that seems so hard to believe, yet must be believed for the sake of trust, which lies at the core of my dealings with him.

Forgiveness feels like the worst thing when directed at others. Yet it seems like the best thing when directed at us.

Every scathing moment is a brilliant opportunity to forgive.

Someone said today that he marvels at my videos. I respond to him by saying that I marvel at my own videos. How can I speak so calmly about my faith when I am going through turmoil in my life? I wonder whether anyone can guess what suffering I went through even as I spoke my messages calmly and collectedly for my God. Even now as I go through another wave of turbulence I say to God, "I'm still hoping in you, I still believe in your goodness, though what I see in my life are disturbing scenes. God give me the faith to believe in you today. God give me your peace. For I see everything heading toward ruin. Please pray for me Holy Spirit. I cannot even pray for myself right now."

I have had a good life. God gave me plenty of time to make mistakes. And these mistakes have led me to God.

My life is in God's hands. And I will not worry about what I cannot do anything about.

A person who says, "I love you. I love you so much", and does not show up or express his love in any action is, to say the least, a most unconvincing person.

To talk about love and not express it is the most pitiable thing of all.

The rule of love remains the same for all of us. It doesn't differ from person to person. If you cannot discard your own father or mother or brother or sister, then you should not discard someone who is not related to you by blood, as well. Discarding people and detaching from them is more for your protection than for the purpose of love. Love truly bears all things. Human beings with their imperfect ability to love cannot.

We must love everyone no matter what influence they have on us. And we must give to everyone, especially to those who do not know Christ. Distancing ourselves from people is the last thing we must do. For if Christ had done that to us, we will not be saved today. Our lives with others should not be marked by paranoia of what they may be able to do to us, but by confidence in Christ, who will enable us to do all things for others. Our love should know no fear.

No goodness will go unresisted in this world.

The best of men was hated by many men to the point of being murdered on a cross. What hope do lesser man have of escaping the hatred that runs in human blood?

A religion which is based on Jesus Christ, who taught us to love everyone, cannot marginalise those who are not within its perimeter of acceptability. Such a religion cannot be like Christ who spent much of his time with the social rejects of his age. He who welcomed prostitutes and tax collectors cannot be the founder of a religion which keeps out moral and social offenders and has little love to offer anyone who is disturbingly different. Jesus Christ taught us to love those who are different from us and accept them as one of us. They are made eligible to be in his kingdom not by status or education or morality or religion but by his overpowering love, which cleanses each and every one of us of our essential human corruption. None of us, even in the name of religion, can show contempt for anyone or any group that fails to match our social and moral standards, for none of us ever deserved to be included in God's kingdom. Those who received grace cannot practise a religion based on Christ without grace.

A life with God has brought me a lot of trouble. But with that trouble has come a string of benefits, which I could not have obtained without God.

My father was a Hindu. Could I have rejected him and failed to fellowship with him because of his religion? No I could not have done that. My father is my father. Ultimately I don't care about his religion. And my father cared even less about my Christian faith. Our father son relationship rose above all these man made distinctions. After he died I cried for many days. I wept for a man whom I couldn't love when he was alive. And whatever trouble I had with him while he was alive had nothing to do with religion or faith. After he died, all that buried love was resurrected from my heart. And that I believe was a work of my Christian God. Think of that. A Christian God awoke the love in my heart for my Hindu father. If I have a son someday, and if he were a Muslim, would I fail to fellowship with him? Absolutely not. I would love my son unconditionally. He is my son. I am his father. And that is all that matters. Anyone who withdraws himself from another on the basis of religion or any other distinction is someone who does not know the first thing about love.

The rule of love remains the same for all of us. It doesn't differ from person to person. If you cannot discard your own father or mother or brother or sister, then you should not discard someone who is not related to you by blood, as well. Discarding people and detaching from them is more for your protection than for the purpose of love. Love truly bears all things. Human beings with their imperfect ability to love cannot..

There is only one thing that matters today. We need to love one another despite our many irreconcilable differences.

A part of being wise is to be able to ignore the voices of idiots.

The best approach is to be direct. If what you want to say or do is acceptable, then do it promptly and directly.

If you want to be with God be prepared for trouble. And when you are faced with many troubles learn how to rejoice.

There is only one way to run this race. And it is not by being afraid.

A boy said to me once, "Why do you want to pray for me? I have everything." Those who are in Jesus Christ are the children of God. They indeed have everything. Yet some of them are far from being as confident as this boy who is not even a Christian. They seem guilt-laden, fear-ridden and panic-stricken. And displaying these qualities they attempt to win other people over to Jesus Christ.

A fear-stricken faith is as pathetic as slavery to sin.

No human can keep the commandments of God. No human should even aim at keeping the commandments of God. A human must only aim at being in Jesus Christ, who alone has kept the commandments of God. It is God's plan that those who seek Jesus Christ and desire him as their Saviour, will be ascribed his righteousness. And with his righteousness as ours we become fit to be citizens of heaven.

Should we be scared? Or should we be bold? Should we be bound? Or should we be free? Let everyone answer this question himself or herself. This is how I answer. I should be bold and free. I should be bold to live without the fear of punishment, for all my sins are already paid for. I should be free to serve God without the fear of condemnation, for I am the very righteousness of God in Christ. And this is not a truth that can be erased.

To be aware of one's faults is one's blessing. May such blessings never end.

When God appears to be doing nothing, that is when you have to keep your hopes up and believe that he is up to something in your life. You must lay aside your feelings and doubts and trust in the unchanging nature of God, who will not fail those who trust in him.

It is good to declare and expect the goodness of God in your life. But beware of this. God's goodness may come in a form that you may not be looking forward to.

Trust in God and wait for him to answer, even if takes a very long time.

Trust in God and what he made you to be. And then live the life he gave you by doing what you know will please him and do it without fear.

Don't sleep in the morning. We were not made to stay awake at night and sleep in the morning. The morning is the most stirring and vibrant time of the day. It's the time when all life wakes up. We should not miss God's recreation of the new day every morning. Acknowledge God early in the morning. Declare his goodness in your own life. Recognize yourself as the child of God who has a good plan for you, a plan to prosper you and not to harm you. Then speak to him as a child would speak to his or her father. Tell him that you will rest in his truth and trust in his faithfulness no matter what happens today. And then work with your hands and devote your mind and heart to glorify God in some way.

We may not have tomorrow. So let's love today.

Belief in God is difficult. Your belief must stand the test of difficulties. You must endure severe trials of your faith and survive the fear of defeat. Will you believe like that?

No matter how dark this journey of life is, don't forget what Jesus promised you. He will never leave you alone. So be strong today.

I'd like to keep my faith simple. So my simple cry of "Father help me!" will serve as an adequate prayer today, for I am in need, and only God my father can supply my need.

He may have a stern exterior. But no one understands and sympathises with the human being as much as God. So approach him boldly today expecting to receive his kindness. He will not disappoint.

We should not be afraid of being influenced by other people. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Love should not be marked by fear. There is no fear in love. And we must love people without fear.

Jesus loved people and accepted them more than he preached to them. You don't change people by preaching to them. I don't think Jesus related to people at the spiritual level only. To love people you must meet them at every level.

Your loving someone does not make sense if the other person does not receive your love. To love someone without associating yourself with that person can hardly do good to that person. And it can't do any good to you either.

Jesus came as a great light to illuminate our dark world. He came that those who lived in darkness might see his light. He walked into our darkness shining his light. He could not have given his light to us if he did not want to step into our darkness. The sole purpose of his light is to dispel darkness. His light lives in us, and if we do not shine it into the darkness of other people, how then shall they be filled with the light? So if you are anything like Christ I know you will not hesitate to step into the darkness of another person's heart and shine your light there. I believe that this is what Jesus expects of you.

Let the Bible not become your excuse for not loving someone unlike you today. You should love like God. And God loves everyone. And God wants everyone to be his child. We should not forget this.

God shows us how to love. Let us learn to love like God today. And let us not give up if we fail.

Let us love others despite their many faults just like God loves us despite our many faults.

In the Jesus kind of love the recipient is always an unworthy one.

If you feel that the other person is worse than you, so he or she is not the right one to be with, you are in trouble.

God is not just good. He is better than that. He is great.

Even John the Baptist doubted Jesus Christ. If the greatest man who ever lived could reach that point, I can't see how lesser mortals can avoid that doubt.

We do more damage to God as spiritually cocksure people than we would do as spiritually humble people. Everything about God is a matter of faith and nothing can be established with undeniable proof. The only thing we can do for God is to show what he has done in our lives. We must show his strength rising above our weaknesses. And we should pray that he does something like that in the lives of those we want him to touch. It is he who does the touching. We cannot do that.

No faith is flawless just like no man is flawless. We must learn to admit our inadequacies with regard to the spiritual life as we admit our inadequacies with regard to the earthly life. In the spiritual life, it is better to be poor in spirit than rich. Jesus made that clear.

When I cast my care on God, l leave the situation with him and trust him to do what only he can do. I will not try to help him do it.

The scenario is highly discouraging. Yet don't be discouraged. Let us hope against hope.

We need to dismantle the places of worship that we have built over the years. We need to throw away everything that we held central in the place that only God should occupy. We need to throw away everything that hinders and seek God with a repentant heart.

We may not even be aware of what God is doing in our lives. But as long as we are alive we are receiving from him the great gift of life. For this let us be thankful.

The highest point in faith is to survive the sense of abandonment that a believer in God feels at a moment of crisis in his life. Even Jesus Christ felt this abandonment. But a moment later he felt a sense of unity with God. His great despair came before the great reward of the resurrected life that God bestowed on him.

Will you reject your own son if he rejects God? Will you reject any member of your family if he or she should reject God? No we are commanded to love one another. And one another means everyone, even those who are not aware of God. God loved the world, not just the believing world, but also the unbelieving world. He came to save the lost and not to be content with the ones that were still with him. We who say we love Christ, must also seek the ones who are lost and go after them determined to find them and bring them to God. Anything less than this is not service to God.

"Love one another as I have loved you", said Jesus to all his disciples. How did Jesus love us? Did Jesus separate himself from sinners and unbelievers? Jesus came to save those who were in darkness. Surely saints and believers are not in darkness. The great commission of the Lord is to spread the message of love to all people in all parts of the world. So we the followers of Jesus must tell unbelievers about the love of God. Separating ourselves from them and forming Christian clubs will hardly appeal to those who are not aware of God. We must be inclusive and not exclusive. And we must always reach out, especially to the most resistant.

Approach with love and give joy to others. You cannot fail.

Fasting is not merely a matter of abstaining from food and water and spending time in devotion and prayer. It is actually a matter of helping others in distress and saving people from their difficult situations. It is not turning away from your own flesh and blood. This is the kind of fasting that God has ordained.

If your reply is going to hurt, then don't reply. But if you must reply to do good, then reply even if it causes hurt.

Just say, "God will not fail me", even if the ground under you is shaking.

Now that we are in with God we must look forward to suffering. Those who are with God become the enemies of the devil. And he will fight against the children of God all day every day. Be ready. Above all be willing.

The worst thing we can do for God is to adopt a holier-than-thou attitude while dealing with his people.

Appreciate when you want to find fault. Compliment when you want to rebuke. Just love people today despite their faults. For the day will come and may have already come when you need the same thing from others.

We are different but we are made by the same God. Therein lies our oneness.

Even as distressing and disturbing events take place in my life I am trying to say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." it is not easy. It seems even hopeless. But I must say it.

It is not important whether you observe Lent or Christmas. Observe love. Think the thoughts of love. Speak the language of love. And perform the actions of love. This is what you really need to observe.

When you see the light you have to smile.

God is love. And love is the language of his creations. The one language all living beings understand and respond to is love. So learn to speak love.

Love is the safest investment in the world. It always provides returns.

Today look for what unites you with others. Don't search out what tears you apart.

We need to trust in God because we cannot trust in anything else.

When you give you have not wasted your time. You have not wasted your God-given energy.

You can't ever discount the heart. It is the most deceptive of deceivers. Even a dying ember can resurrect in a demonic blaze. So you need something outside of yourself to keep it checked. And that is the power of God.

Today I choose what brings life even as my heart desires what brings death. As time moves on I discover that my heart is not as persuasive as it used to be, and that my head is now in the ascendant. Above all, the Spirit of God has occupied more territory in me and is now more palpably bringing God's kingdom to me.

Regardless of how I am today God will be great.

Faith minus love is nothing.

The problem with accepting God's forgiveness is this: we can't forgive ourselves for what we've done, so we can't accept God's forgiveness for our sins. We want to be punished. We expect to be punished. But God welcomes us with open arms. And we are ashamed to approach him.

Whatever I wish for myself I wish for you as well my brother and sister. Therein lies what Christ has done in me.

God's greatness will be revealed in our lives today. Let's hope in this.

Instead of telling people that they might fry in hell, tell them that they will be forever in the embrace of God. That will make a world of a difference in the way they respond to God.

Look forward to the love of God today. God is a just god, and his justice will be done. Above all his love will reign supreme.

Let the fear of hell and imminent death not scare you into believing in Jesus Christ. Know his heart and be moved by his love. He loved you enough to give up his life for you. He cared for you so much that he didn't want you to perish. He desires the very best for you and wants you to live with him eternally. Know all this, and belief in Jesus Christ will follow.

Love even those whom God did not give you. For all need love.

Jesus did say, "Repent!" But we cannot repent without knowing his love. The adulteress could repent only after Jesus said, "Even I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more." So it takes the experience of love to evoke repentance. And repentance is a gift from God, and cannot be humanly produced. So let us ask God today for a revelation of his love.

It is only when we experience the love of God that we can repent for our wrongdoings. Repentance is a gracious gift of God to those who are irresistibly drawn to him. It cannot be humanly produced.

Christians come and Christians leave, but Christ goes with me forever.

Those who follow Jesus Christ and worship God should be honest with one another. They should be kind, considerate and helpful whenever they can. They should honour their word and if they cannot do so they should explain and even apologize to those who are affected. The God we worship would find a lack of honesty and kindness among his people more lamentable than the grief he supposedly feels over the way his people celebrate Christmas and Easter, which are described by some as pagan in origin. What God cares about is the way we treat one another. His final commandment to us is that we should love one another as he loved us. I believe God cares more about this than our celebration of festivals.

The last thing I will do today is to overrate the power of evil. God is in me, and he is bigger than any evil that lurks around.

Today I will bask in the light and not wander in the darkness. There is a lot of darkness in the world. But the only way to dispel the darkness is to increase the light. Let the seekers of light walk into the light and may they reflect more light on the dark parts of this world.

Has God waited 2000 years to terrorize people into heaven? He waits because he is patient. He waits so that people may respond to his love and approach him on their own without coercion. None of us want anyone to come to us under duress. None of us desire love that is forced and given to earn a reward from us. God is certainly not trying to do that. Let us not make him out to be one who demands our love with threats of the worst punishment in a terrible lake of fire if we fail to give him what he wants. It is a dreadful way to present a wonderful God.

Any friend of God is a friend of mine, despite any personal disagreement.

Those who believe in God should allow God to solve their problems without interference. Though it is hard to be still this is exactly what they must do.

We should thank God even when nothing makes sense. For this is what God expects of us at all times, and especially at such times.

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is speaking. It is speaking to God our best friend. It is acknowledging his role in our lives. It is acknowledging the fact that we cannot live without him. We may live without knowing him. But we can never live without having him in us, for our very life is a breath from his nostrils.

Fear-mongering is the lowest tactic in religion. It has brought many terrorized people to God. But It has also driven many brave people away from God.

Even if God didn't exist, a life for God will never be a waste. It will be lived for others and will be a blessing to everyone. For God is the noblest person in life. From him come all notions of goodness and beauty. Anyone who embraces God, even if he should turn out to be a gigantic effort of collective imagination, will not be a loser.

The Christian ought to be the humblest, the most repentant and the most accepting person in the world. He should be glad to be seen with the lowly and the sinful without any care for his own reputation. His only goal should be to love the unlovely and to care for the downtrodden. He should lose everything he values to embrace what no one values.

May we reach out boldly to the one who is waiting at our door today. May we not restrain ourselves from doing what we ought to do.

You don't get to bottle love and store it away for a rainy day. You need to pour out that love today indiscriminately and with total abandon for anyone and everyone you meet in life. And you need not fear running out of love, for you will receive even more of it from the only one who can give you an endless supply of it. His name is God.

Don't bottle your love. Let it flow freely to all around you.

The most heroic thing in this world is a persevering faith in God.

We have to rejoice in the Lord always no matter what is coming at us.

It is God who gives. People are only agents.

Let prayer not be our excuse for inaction today. Let our prayers lead to action whenever that is possible.

The best way to thank God for his priceless gift of life is to live it joyfully, exploring what is beautiful and edifying to our souls.

There is only one way in which evil is overcome. And it is by doing good to those who do evil. It is by blessing those who curse you, and praying for those who hate you. You do this only in God's strength, for God alone is love, and his love alone can extinguish the hatred glowing in human hearts.

Jesus Christ came into the world to show the love of God to people who were living in darkness. He came not to condemn the world but to save the world through laying down His life for us. We, who follow Christ, must endeavour to reveal the love of God expressed in Christ to all who do not know it. It is love alone that compels a human soul to step out of its darkness.

One of the best things we can do for others is to pray for them. But if there is something more that we can do for them, and we still choose only to pray, we reveal a reluctance to move out of our comfort zone. Prayer is very essential, Yet doing something to help, when such help is possible is even more essential.

One of the regrettable things anyone can do is to make a promise and then fail to keep it. But for a Christ follower to do it, seems even more regrettable. Failing to keep a promise is bad enough. But failing to apologize for not keeping the promise is even worse.

Don't look at what you do not have. Look at what you have.

Rejoice in what you have. Give thanks to God for what He has given. Count your blessings. And expect to receive more.

I will make an attempt to be friendly today no matter how many times my friendship is not accepted. I give not to receive. I give because I have received.

The human being is the most compelling evidence for God. We stand apart from the entire animal kingdom in our ability to reason. In the very act of our questioning God's existence we prove that we are unlike other living forms, and that we are unique in this ability to question and verify every concept. Thus we prove the biblical assertion that we are the crown of God's creations and made in the image of God. Like God we seek what is true and even question truth in the process of knowing what is true.

Don't seek human approval. You never need it.

To be able to love your neighbour you must be able to love yourself.

To love God more you must be forgiven more.

Sometimes God seems distant from us, though He is really quite near. Our prayers don't seem to reach Him, though He actually hears them. Yet His apparent silence and inactivity send the wrong signals to us. So we must persevere in faith and expect Him to intervene and save, though there seems to be little hope of that happening.

What God does for me is so much better than what I do for myself. I've received the best gifts in my life without much praying.

A Christian must have the heart to forgive. When an offender reaches out in apology, he must be forgiven. If a Christian can't forgive even after an apology, then he must seriously consider his relationship with Jesus Christ, who forgave all His killers even before they apologized for their murderous act.

God's faithfulness far exceeds our faithlessness. So He is perfectly able to be faithful and good even while we are faithless and lost.

It is not by human might, or by human power, but by your Spirit that the work of God will be done. This I will not forget today.

 

 

Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - January 2015

We may look for solutions to our problems and suffer needlessly. But if we wait on God, He will provide what He alone can give.

If we know the love of God it is our blessing to show it to those who do not know it.

There is nothing impossible for him or her who believes. So let's believe that we'll conquer our difficulties despite the hopelessness of our situations.

Let's decorate our minds with the love Jesus wanted us to show to one another.

Let God's grace not be a license to sin. Let it be a freedom to do what pleases God.

I will not abandon hope in God, for to hope in God is the surest thing in the world.

Don't forget to say thank you for every blessing that you know and for every one that you do not know. Great love is given to us sometimes without even our knowing it. Every moment of our life is a testament to a divine love.

The best miracles are the unexpected ones.

Only God makes the ordinary into the extraordinary. Only He can transmute the base creature into something glorious. And credit entirely belongs to Him.

If you need help, help someone. If you want God to help you, pray to God for someone else who needs help. To reap you must sow.

I believe that God is free to do whatever he wants. He always chooses to do good, because he is good. And though his good may not always seem good to us, it is in fact good. He can certainly do bad, and sometimes it does seem to us that God does bad things as well. Job admitted this: "Shall we accept good from God and not bad?" God can do bad but this is not what he ultimately does. God's love and God's goodness eventually overpower whatever we see as bad within him. Yes, God can be seen as hateful and destructive. But he eventually emerges as love. Because God is ultimately love, it is his love that will have the final say. God may seem bound by his promises. But this is what results from the irrevocable nature of his words. However this does not impair his free-will.

In a trouble-filled life Jesus is the person the afflicted one turns to every time. Jesus is everything to the person who has nothing else.

I must continue to do the work that God inspired in me. And I will do it as he inspires it. We may not differ in the crucial aspects of Christianity at least in my eyes. But where you see a difference that makes you separate yourself from me I see only diversity, a mark of the human race, which will continue to resist homogeneity. I maintain that differences should not drive us apart but bring us together. As far as I know I have said nothing that is against the spirit of Christ. Christ was never here to condemn the world but to save the world. And he saves the world by love and by accepting it just as it is. The people who were with him will not be suitable companions to most of us even today. Yet that is how Jesus lived and that is how the followers of Jesus should also live.

Now that I am Job I will have to hear out three or more friends.

To give the lie the appearance of truth, you must mix the lie with the truth.

The spokespersons of Satan believe that they speak the truth. They may even believe that they speak for God.

The purveyors of deception are themselves deceived. That's the salient point.

To care about something and to do nothing about it is not caring at all.

The man of God is supported by God through His people.

I do not work for humanity. I work for God. And as far as he takes me forward, I shall gladly go. What one sees now is only what one has been allowed to see.

Someone is praying for you even when you cannot pray. God himself is praying. And I will pray too.

"What am I doing with my life?", I have often wondered. Am I frittering my life away pursuing an imaginary goal set by an imaginary god? Or am I truly following the voice of the living God? I try to speak for God and about God as well as I know him. I want to be as honest as possible about my knowledge and experience of God, so that I am not unworthy of my calling. But do I really succeed? Is my message really heard? Is anyone really benefited and guided to God through my voice? That is a question that has not been answered yet at least clearly.

I study the Bible. I read Christian authors. I read experts on religion. I even read the atheists. I speak for God. I speak about my own experiences. I read the Bible on YouTube. I try to enthuse others about God. I do little else.

I fooled around a lot. I spent my time on worthless activities as well. I abused my speech, i.e. overspoke and misspoke. But after all the nonsense I went back to sense refreshed.

I wasted a lot of time on the pleasures of the world. At least this is what I thought sometimes. But at other times, I realized that I needed to waste time so that I could learn from it. There is much to learn from nonsense and idiocy. And after you spend time on the useless you can turn to the useful with great hunger.

My first obligation is to God. My only obligation is to God.

Let's not forget how great wonderful God's love is. Whatever we are going through today we have God's love with us.

Don't be in a hurry. Be willing to go at God's pace.

If you want to see Jesus Christ today, you will have to see him in the people in whom he lives.

We speak of light because we are filled with light. It is not the light of our own. It is the light of God who lives in us. So let us not be proud of our light, or expect commendation for it. Instead let us praise and thank God for filling our darkness with his light.

How can we learn to serve without expecting gratitude and thanks? This should be our most urgent question to God today.

Today and every day our attitude to others should be: what can we give to others without wanting to take anything from them?

We are all rebels. Let us not measure the extent of our rebellion. But let's remember this. We now belong to God despite our rebellious hearts. You and I belong to God.

It is best to be weak. When you are weak, then you are strong. The Lord works best in our weakness. Just say to yourself, "I belong to God no matter how I feel and regardless of what I think and do."

Keep trying as long as it takes. Be determined to get it out of you. See someone who is in touch with God. Above all set your mind on God and focus on him alone. There are demons in all of us. But let us choose to see the higher presence. Greater is he who is in us than the devil who is also with us.

We may not believe in the effectiveness of our prayers. But the name of Jesus Christ is enough as long as you trust in its power. Just trust. Be absolutely determined. You belong to Christ. Believe it. Say it a hundred times and even more.

Just say, "Deliver us from evil. Deliver me from evil." Pray for all your brothers and sisters caught in similar webs. Focus on God. Fix your eyes on him. And this is what he says to all of us, "Fear not, I am with you." He will neither leave you nor forsake you. He is right there beside you, near you and in you. Remember him and look to him.

I know. It seems unfair. And God seems distant and uninterested. If we didn't believe in God we would think that he is a terrible cheat and a liar. But we do believe in God and we accept his goodness and faithfulness by faith. So let's hang in there with a devil or many devils, as God wills. You take it easy. The battle belongs to the Lord and never to you, though it seems like it's all yours. Don't lose heart. Fix your eyes on God and just relax. Believe that you are well already. Just believe it and declare it, though it may feel like you're fooling yourself. Think about the good in your life. Celebrate the goodness of God that you have observed in this world. God's there for you. That's what I choose to believe. I'm praying.

You will have whatever God wants for you. Just say the greatest prayer everyday. "Thy will be done in my life."

Be strong in the Lord. Declare yourself to be strong and free. You are God's child. And you are blessed and you cannot be cursed. You belong to God alone, and no matter how you feel, know that God will never let you go. Speak to Him and seek His wisdom. Listen patiently till you hear His gentle voice within you.

When you are weak then you are strong. He is always with you no matter what you do. Sometimes when I struggle with myself I remember what Paul said, "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything." I just say this to remind myself of what I could be, what I ought to be. But In Christ, we are already more than conquerors. Let us run this race to win.

Despite what the enemy tells we will believe in God. The enemy is persuasive and the evidence seems to confirm his harmful suggestions. But we will trust in the Lord, won't we?

Life seems like a never-ending struggle. Still God does show up every now and then, and infuse hope into what seemed like a hopeless situation. I know that. And I wish every child of God knows that.

We are well. Let's believe that and live accordingly.

But even Elijah knew fear. And Moses was not exempt from it. Fear may not be bad. Sometimes it leads us to seek God even more.

Pray for a heart that seeks God above all things. But distractions may also serve a purpose. The more we are distracted the more we are aware of what we need to follow. I think distractions are only distractions. The obsession will stand out against the distractions.

I like human approval as well. But the more we seek it, and the less we are satisfied by it, we will eventually turn away from it. Or at least we will not glamorize it any more.

If Satan is telling you anything, it is so because He sees you as someone who belongs to the other camp. If you belonged to his camp, He will not waste any time with you.

Remember the mystery about weakness. When we are weak, then we are strong. It is when we are weak that God works best.

Satan preys on our weakness, which is ignorance. Remember what God said. "My people are destroyed out of ignorance." We are ignorant of this: that we are weak, and this, far from being a barrier to God, is really the mindset in which He works best. We are sinful. But Jesus has washed away our sins. So let us not be obsessed with our sins, and worry about sinning. The process of sin is not halted in this life. And if we sin, we are directed to confess to God who will wash away our iniquity. So why should we worry about our place with God on account of sin? We are in His hands, and nothing, not even our weaknesses and sins, can pluck us away from them. Yet this is exactly where Satan attacks. He wants us to believe that we can ruin our relationship with God by our sinful acts, which are already atoned for.

If you are uncomfortable about Satan that is a good thing. The people who belong to Satan are those who are so comfortable with him that they do not even know that he exists.

You can't sell your soul to Satan now. It is not yours to sell anymore. When you accepted Christ He became the owner of your soul. Only He can sell it or give it away. And He will do neither.

Weeping may endure for a night. And the night may seem endless. But remember this, and look forward to this, REJOICING COMES IN THE MORNING.

How supremely confident we ought to be be in what God is doing in us, when we are actually afraid of what might happen to us.

And let the laughter continue. For He who makes you a conqueror never ceases to do so.

Satan is most persuasive many times. But there comes a time when one must look beyond and see through his lies. And then one will see God who till then appeared unlikely to be the truth.

Yet our fears hold us back. We must abandon our fears altogether if we are to be with God.

I will surrender all to Him. That is the key to being relieved. As long as I hold on to my baggage, I will never feel relieved.

I surrender all = I abandon all

We surrender only when all other hope fails.

Someone asked me what's in a name. Quite a lot I think. Remember Jacob who became Israel.

We all doubt. And we all learn to reject our doubts. That is the way of faith.

Jesus wants you to stop doubting. Just as he said to Thomas. You are hurting yourself more by your doubts. And that's what He really cares about. May God ease your soul, and let it enter into His rest. Just determine to believe that He is good and faithful, no matter how it looks.

God is great. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. We ARE free despite how we feel.

Rest in His faithfulness. Submit everything and everyone to God.

Yes. But this is a long battle. It will take some time, but we're getting there.

We're all selfish. But with Christ, our selfishness will be slowly stripped away. But this is a process. And we must learn to live with our imperfections for now.

If only we would be at peace with our weakness! This is the one thing that nails us to the cross.

Remember that it is when you are weak you are strong. If you desire strength, that is fine. But now, cling to your weakness. That may well be the road to your strength.

Know your weakness. But don't despise yourself. Because God sees you as His workmanship. Love what you are going to be when God is done with you.

Love God and do whatever you want, said Saint Augustine. When you love God you will only do what He wants. You can't love Him and cheat. You can't love Him and be selfish. Just pray that God fills you with love, the love for God and godliness. Meanwhile don't be so hard on your human nature. For it will surely pass.

Yes, it is scary. Our boat will surely be rocked. But who is in our boat apart from us? Let us remember Him.

If Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith and everything else about us, then we should just trust and walk on.

We have nothing to lose, when we are with God.

You will not be destroyed. Just cling to God and declare that you belong to God. Say that you have been freed by Christ and are certainly free. Believe and then speak. Don't be afraid. Be clear about this. You belong to God.

God is real. His love for you is real. That Christ died for you is real. That the Holy Spirit is with you is real. Hold on to that. By faith.

I don't know whether God speaks audibly to his people. But we are required to believe by faith. If faith is required, then God will by and large avoid anything that overrides the need for faith.

The only voice you need to hear is that of God. And he has already spoken loud and clear. In the Bible.

You should value your life. It belongs to God. But you must rest now. Rest in the knowledge that no matter what, nothing shall separate you from the love of God, which is in Jesus. Say this to yourself: "NOTHING shall separate me from God's love, neither angels nor demons will be able to separate me from God's love." Stand up in faith. And God will be faithful.

No demon can pluck you out of God's hand. We all fall and we all make a fool of ourselves. But that's all right. For God knows how hard it is. And he will forgive and restore. Think about the goodness of God and not about the badness of the devil.

Don't give up. God is good despite our worst doubts.

Now let's hope for the best. We all need help. None of us have made it.

We cannot give up, though it seems impossible that any good will come out of this. We must persist in faith, for there is no other alternative.

We have the mind of Christ, whether we experience it or not. And we have everything that is required to live the godly life. To be sane is to know that God is good even when He appears to be anything but good.

Remember, the last thing we need to do as Christians is to worry. When we submit a problem to God, we should learn to take our eyes away from it to Him, who is able to do whatever we ask of Him.

Love God more than you love anyone else. And you'll be well.

To have faith is to believe no matter how hopeless it looks.

We are in a great battle right now. But let's not lose sight of this. The battle belongs to the Lord. We should only stand and watch our deliverance. Will we stand? Let's pray for strength and determination.

We all have a major distraction in our lives. If we could only make God our only attraction these distractions will fall into place. Keep fighting. Ask God for an undivided heart. Take control of your mind and think about something else. Love someone. Help someone. Rejoice in what you can still do. Don't focus on what you can't do.

Don't worry. We're all in God's hands. And He won't drop us. No one can pluck us out of His hands.

I am strong. I am rich. I am dead to sin. I am a conqueror. I am the righteousness of God. No matter what we feel like, all these are true of every one in Christ Jesus.

Don't try so hard. You're more than a conqueror in Christ. What you need to triumph over you have already triumphed over in Christ. All that you need to do is to discover it gradually.

My righteousness does not come from my acts. My righteousness comes from Jesus Christ who gave it to me in exchange for my sins.

This is what we should remember today and every day. It's not by might, nor by power but by His Spirit that we go on.

The greatest challenge in faith is to believe in the goodness and faithfulness of God when he appears to be anything but good and faithful. The greatest challenge is to be still, and to be hopeful, when nothing seems to happen and everything seems to deteriorate.

A prayer is the most beautiful offering we can give to God. Yet sometimes we can do even more.

A prayer of David is still the need of the hour. May God give us a clean heart and a steadfast spirit today.

Be untiring in your appreciation of others. For that's exactly how you would expect them to be with you.

The one who wants to share cannot be shy. Share everything, give away everything. Withhold nothing that can help anyone.

We are all little yet God values us greatly. Let us also respect and like one another despite our faults and shortcomings. Let us learn to look at others as God looks at them. This is how we discover the image of God in us.

The Lord is my Shepherd. I WILL NOT be in want. This is not merely a declaration of faith. I believe it has already happened, though I am still very much in need. For this is the way of God's people. They live by faith. They look at the unseen in great hope without being defeated by the hopelessness of what is seen.

If I am acceptable to God, I'm also acceptable to the world. If God made me this way and if He loves me, then the world can also love me. I will believe in what God has made me to be. I will not be ashamed of who I am.

I want my blessing. I want my place with God. I will wrestle with him and I will prevail.

You cannot merit grace. You can only receive it. And you can receive it only if you are unintentionally hopeless.

When I consider the problems of others my own problems seem little in comparison.

God is our father. We are his children. So he will not abandon us.

It is better to believe that God is on our side, that he will not forsake us, that he will supply all our needs eventually, that we will always have enough of his grace to draw from in every dire situation. This is what I choose to believe today even as I am staring at a very bleak scene all around me.

We don't worship an inept God who does not know how to keep us. We are safe in his hands. And though we may wander a fair distance we are never really out of his grip. No one can pluck us out of his hands. If we believe this we can rest.

There's nothing to fear. That there's something to fear is the great deception. You won't get lost. God redeems your life from destruction and leads you in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. You can't get lost. God's name is at stake. And he won't let it be tarnished.

The situation seems impossible. Hope seems hopeless. But God is with you. And He is faithful.

Everything is a miracle. Every breath is a miracle. This day is a miracle. And if we are here tomorrow, tomorrow is a miracle as well.

When a miracle happens acknowledge it.

Rush not my son. Be content to walk at God's pace.

There is nothing wrong with love even if it is in a guise that you hate.

If religious bigots deal in hatred and exclusion let Jesus followers deal in love and inclusion. Let them dare to love even hateful bigots and overcome evil with good.

If religion is bad, it also necessitates the good. The bad creates the desire for the good. Just as darkness makes the light desirable religious prejudice and hatred make acceptance and love worth pursuing.

Religion is not so bad. I knew that there was someone called God only from religion. Religion is a starting point. Sadly some people just stay there.

What is an unbearable temptation will turn into a bearable temptation if you delay falling into it.

Focusing on God in this fallen world is hard work. But in the end it is well worth the strife.

No matter how great your trouble is don't fail to worship your God today.

Our convictions are at best suspect and at worst preposterous.

Don't fall so easily into what tempts you. Know the difference between what thrills temporarily and what pleases lastingly. Knowing this will take a little time, but acting on what you know and avoiding the temporary thrill may take a much longer time. Yet you must strive.

To be saved people should believe in Jesus Christ and what God did through Him. People are required to participate in their salvation, and even work it out with fear and trembling. It is not something that comes to all human beings automatically. Our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus, when we apply it on us, and participate in His sufferings. They are not washed away by merely looking at His suffering as a spectator.

Shine as much light as you can till you can. This is how our little lights together can dispel the great darkness.

We cannot love everyone and everything. We are just not equipped for that. Let us then love those whom we can love and appreciate what we can appreciate, and let us do this well.

God has given each of us something to be very thankful for, and let us not lose any opportunity to thank Him for it.

To connect with people you have to appreciate them.

Don't give up on yourself. God has not given up on you.

I'll not forget the benefits I received from God. This day and every day I will remember His many kindnesses to me.

This life that I live for God and the work that I do for Him cannot happen without God's gracious help. Apart from God I can do nothing. This realization is clearer today than it ever was. I need God's help and plenty of it. May God send it now any way He chooses. I'm waiting in hope. May we who hope in the Lord not be put to shame.

Lord, teach me how to respond to beauty. Teach me how to respond to anything. I need to learn from scratch.

O Lord, you keep my smile going.

I need only one recognition. That is God's recognition. Every other recognition is ultimately useless.

Speak the message of love as many times as you can, till it is heard, or till your last breath.

The love of God endures all forms of human coldness. Let us aspire to love like God, without expectation and without letting our love be defined by human response.

When someone curses you don't curse back. Remain silent and forgiving. Bless that person. Ask God to reveal his great love and mercy to that person. And may he or she be transformed by that love. Every time someone curses us we have the great opportunity to bless. And when we bless the one who cursed us we render impotent the evil effects of the person's curse. For we overcome evil not with evil but with good.

Those who curse are the weakest ones in the world. They deserve our pity, even our blessing.

God is with us always. We may not always be aware of His presence. But His voice is heard at the right time. Sometimes when I'm about to do or say something rash, a voice speaks quickly, "Wait, don't do that!" That is God. At other times the voice is not so clear, yet I hear it, even when I do wrong. Sometimes God is quiet even as I do something wrong. And later I hear God but not in condemnation. He speaks compassionately and helps me amend my wrongs.

When we have so much wrong with us, it is not right for us to point out someone's wrongs and condemn the person for those wrongs.

We may not recognize a blessing when we see it. But we should know that God is with us always and that he desires to bless us.

Why Should We Trust In God?

Recently I asked a question. Why should we trust in God when it appears that sometimes in life God is not with us? There are people in the world who have suffered great tragedies even while believing in God. There are people who waited for miracles and never experienced them. There are people whose entire lives have been destroyed even after they trusted in God. How could these things happen? It seems that God has abandoned some of his people. It appears that God is not always answering prayers. It appears that God is not always helping his people. So I asked this question. Why should we trust in God? Is it necessary? Is it important? Can we not live without God? Do we really need God when he appears so erratic?

And this is the answer that I received from my mother. She said, "No matter what happens let's trust in God." Whatever happens in life let's trust in God. Let's not worry about those moments when God appears insensitive. Let's not think of those times when God appears absent. Let's just trust him. Let's keep on trusting him.

There are times in my life when God has come to my rescue. And there are other times when God appeared absent. But I'm still going on. I'm still here. I'm still holding a camera. I'm still speaking despite the difficulties, despite the wreck that my life appears to be. Despite the troubling, dismal outlook I'm still here, still doing the work of God. And for once, it appears that I'm being heard.

It does appear at times that God is not interested. It does appear at times that God is absent. It does appear at times that God is even an enemy. But we are told that God is our friend. Saint Peter said, "Cast all your cares on God for he cares for you." Saint Paul said, "And my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory." Let us be reassured today. No matter how difficult life is, let us trust in God, for there is simply no one else whom we can trust. God alone can be trusted. King David said, "Some trust in chariots, others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." Shall we learn to trust God like King David today? Shall we declare our faith along with him?

- Samuel Godfrey George

Is Man's Weakness God's Fault?

Man suffers a great deal with guilt. Why does he feel this guilt? What is the source of this guilt? Who inspired this guilt? Isn't it God? Isn't it God who inspired this guilt in Man? God's rules are so antithetical to Man's essential nature. Man is essentially a rebel. Man is born in rebellion against God. And all his life Man finds it difficult to live according to the rules of God. And his suffering comes from guilt. Human suffering is born of guilt, the terrible guilt that issues from not living according to God's rules. So, isn't God really the cause of Man's sufferings? If God is indeed responsible for human suffering, then Man is not responsible. If God is responsible for Man's fallenness, then Man is not responsible. Man can be exonerated. Man is free from blame. Man should not be blamed for the way he conducts himself. Is this a justifiable position? It does seem that God did not create Man perfectly. It does seem that God came up with rules that are contrary to Man's nature. All this seems wrong. It seems like God made a big mistake. But did God make a mistake? Is Man really not to blame?

Man is the creation of God. God is the Creator. The Bible admits that. Man is also a flawed creation. The Bible acknowledges that. There is a flaw in human nature. It is said that Man was made in the image of God.  But if one were to consider a human being, one may not find much of God in that person. Sometimes one may not see anything of God in a certain human. Still it is said that Man was made in the image of God. Then why does Man have a problem with being like God? Shouldn't it be effortless for Man to be like God? Yet Man finds it difficult to be like God. Though Man was made in the image of God, he has forsaken that image. He has forsaken and forgotten that image. When God created Man he looked very different from the way he looks today. How we human beings look today is very different from how we used to look before we fell. And we fell.

Man fell from a certain lofty place. When God created Man, Man existed at a certain level. And Man fell from that level. Man disobeyed God. Man did not just disobey God, he also wanted to make his own rules. Above all he wanted to be like God. That was the temptation at Eden. The temptation was not to eat a certain fruit. The temptation was to be like God. That is what led Man to his fall. Man forgot his place. He forgot the fact that he was a creation and wanted to be like the Creator. Is Man not responsible for his fall?  Can Man say, "Look, I have been created imperfectly. That's why I fell. The person who programmed me did not do a good job. That's why there was an error."  I don't think he can.

God gave Man the entire world, in fact the entire Garden of Eden. Man was free to eat from any tree in the garden except one. God forbade Man to eat from a certain tree. Man was given the freedom to do anything he wanted except to eat from that tree. But it was the fruit of that tree that Man desired to eat above everything else. He chose to disobey God. He chose to give up all his privileges for tasting the fruit of that tree. He ate that fruit believing that it would make him like God. This was a conscious decision that Man made. So Man then could not say that it was not possible for him to say no to the temptation. The truth is that he could have said no, but he actually said yes. And that has remained the way of all flesh. Even now humans do what God told them not to do. Even now human beings say yes when they ought to say no.

Is God responsible for Man's fall? Or is Man responsible for his own fall? The Bible clearly presents Man as guilty. It presents Man as responsible for his fallenness. Man was given a certain privilege. He was given the freedom to choose. And he chose what God forbade. And that is what all human beings continue to do. We humans often choose evil. It is not that we are powerless to choose good. It is that we prefer evil to good on many occasions. We choose evil because we prefer evil. Evil appeals to us more than good does. The Bible clearly states that Man is guilty. And I believe that Man is guilty because Man has the power to say no to evil, and yet he says yes. He chooses to do evil. Every time Man does evil, he chooses to do it. And it is he who is responsible for his action.

God did not create Man to behave like a robot. He did not want humans to obey his rules without understanding and acceptance. He wanted us to understand and accept his goodness. This is the power that he gave Man -- the power to judge and to know. All human beings have been given that power. Adam had that power. But he preferred to do what was evil. And that tendency has stayed with all of us, his children. When Adam, our father, chose to do evil, he knew it was evil. He knew it was not what God wanted him to do. And yet he did it. He did it knowingly. So he was responsible for his actions. He could not say, "I was too weak. God made me so weak that I could not resist the temptation." That was not the way it was. He could have chosen not to eat the fruit that was forbidden. But he chose to eat. Even today we, his children, could chose not to do many of the lamentable things that we actually do. Yet we do them anyway. We do them knowing well that we should have acted differently. As long as we know that, we are responsible for our actions. So we are responsible for the way we are. We suffer because of the mistakes that we knowingly make, not because of how God created us to be. Therefore it is not God who is culpable, we are.


Samuel Godfrey George