The road to God is not smooth. It is in fact
unpredictable. Yet God himself walks with us. Let us not forget that,
especially when darkness overwhelms us.
Wish everyone well. Especially those who have not lifted a finger to help you or even communicated with you, wish them well.
Today give before you take. Love before you hate. Smile before you weep.
For those of you who are wondering, I throw open my doors to all. I aspire to be like the carpenter of Nazareth, who welcomed all, especially the ones whom others were less inclined to welcome. So come to me. Let us walk together. This life is short, perhaps even shorter than we imagine. Let us love and share today, for tomorrow is not guaranteed.
There are some things that we will never know. Yet there are other things that we will know.
With God, we will always know less than we wish to know.
We can never be totally convinced of anything concerning God. He is a mystery and all that we say about him, and believe about him, is a mystery.
It is God who created all of us. We just become what he wants us to be, when we speak into existence our divine destinies. The creative power of our words is derived from God, who is the ultimate voice, which speaks ultimate words.
We are all made in the image of God. What we are is a reflection of God. What we say should also reflect God. But many times, what we think and say are not reflective of God. For we are fallen, and we cannot rise without God. And when we rise, we are enabled by God to be what he wants us to be. It is then we can think his thoughts and speak his words. And what we speak will come into existence.
One day, when I was a little boy, I had a dream. I saw a raging, train of fire speed across the sky. And I seemed to be in the air. I shouted at the fire, as it raced past me. I cried out, ‘I will serve you!’ I believe the fire was God, and my shout was a pledge of service.
There is a real distinction in this world between the extraordinary and the ordinary. And the truly extraordinary ones are the ones who will spare some time for the ordinary person. They cannot attend to all such people. But they should do the best that they can. If they fail to do that, they fail to be transcend the ordinary.
Those who spare their time for the humble person knocking on their door are the truly extraordinary. For they truly transcend the limits of those who are called extraordinary, and are yet very ordinary.
There are some in the world who believe they are extraordinary. And they think they are too important to spare any time for a humble one who knocks on their door.
He who has no time for his neighbour is the least extraordinary person in the world.
In this world the extraordinary live such busy lives that they may not have the time for an ordinary man or woman, who wants to speak with them.
If an extraordinary man has the time to speak to an ordinary one, he is truly extraordinary.
Finally, don't ever reply to a fool. An angry fool should be positively avoided.
Respect is primary in the maintenance of relationships.
There’s nothing objectionable about being moral in speech. We need to be moral always.
You shouldn’t stand out from the crowd by being rude. You should do it by being polite. We live in a rude world, so we need to show our difference by being polite.
A well-spoken person is not only someone who speaks correctly and honestly, but he is also someone who speaks in a manner that conveys his awareness of the other person.
Learn to see differences. You should honour those who are above you. You should honour those who are older and wiser.
You must consider the feelings of the person you are speaking to. You must respect those who are in authority. And your voice and tone must convey that respect.
"Smile, though your heart is breaking" they sing. It may be possible to smile even with a heartbreak. But let it not be an outward gesture, which does not correlate with what is going on inside. But let it be a smile of acknowledgement that life is not all pain and disappointment. There are moments in life, which one can be genuinely thankful for, at any given moment, despite any heartbreak. It is in the grateful acknowledgement of such moments that a genuine smile is born.
If you are constantly thinking about what you do not have, when are you going to consider what you have? When are you going to be thankful for it? When are you going to be happy about it?
Don't become more conscious of trouble. But become more conscious of the one who can solve your trouble. He is God. Believe in him today. Just believe.
I speak to people about Jesus and the great love of God. But I don't try to mould anyone. I leave the moulding to God. I try to live a life that others might find inspiring and revealing.
The highest love is the one that continues to give freely despite being rejected again and again.
Love is not to be bartered. Love is to be given freely in the hope that it will be received. I will give. You will hopefully receive. There’s nothing more to be desired.
Trust in God, and submit to his will. Surrender everything to him, even your heartbreak. Let God handle it. He alone can.
May God be your first love. Everything else will then fall into place. God knows your heart, and he will guard it, if you trust in him. Let God's best be yours.
Positivity is now my only hope. And hope is a good thing, perhaps the best thing. And a good thing never dies.
To be able to love everyone, that is the greatest blessing.
God will do his best for you. Just trust in him, and wait for him.
A small thing may go a long way. Don't fail to offer a small thing to someone today. Don't fail to give whatever you can. Remember it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Don't fail to be thankful today for anything you've received. For everything we receive is a gift. And even a small gift merits our thankfulness.
Say. "I trust in God to supply my needs. God is great and he is perfectly capable of doing what I want him to do. He will satisfy all my desires and grant everything that I need. I will not doubt him today, even if I do not receive what I was expecting."
Believe in the silent God, no matter how loudly the devil speaks.
The devil always fights. But God is the ultimate winner. And if you are with God, you win too.
Dreams are sometimes important. But reality is even more important. That's what I try to look at most of the time.
Worry is not from God. Panic is not divine.
Where there is panic there is no God.
Say, "God is with me. And he is guiding me. And I will not fail."
Take time to smile at someone today. And try to smile at a person from whom you can derive no apparent benefit. Give to someone today. Give to a person from whom you cannot expect to receive anything.
To love only those who are like you takes no effort at all. But to love those who are unlike you, that takes effort. And to love those whom you would normally dislike and hate, that takes superhuman effort, the kind that God alone can initiate.
If you love people welcome them. Do not avoid them like the plague. To love people means to receive them no matter who they are. To receive them means to accept them no matter what they are. This is the way of love and those who love.
Enjoy your work. It is good to do something useful in the world. Let us help others today, as we find meaning in our own lives.
The best thing you can do for people today is not to find fault with them. Even if they have faults, choose to see what is good in them. And encourage them with a kind word and a warm smile.
When I see parents walking along with their children, I see a great blessing that I do not have. And then I imagine how wonderful it would feel when I have a child of my own. How precious the child would be, and how I would guard him with all my might, and love him with all my heart! And then, I would realize the enormity of the responsibility that belongs to a parent. Parenting is not something that human beings can do without the help of God. As a parent, I would always seek God's guidance, in all matters concerning my child. I hope and pray that all parents would seek the help of God, and consult divine wisdom in their everyday lives, as they relate to their greatest blessings.
The greatest act of love a parent can show his child is
to let him live his life, without the burden of expectations. Let the
child be whoever he wants to be. For this is how God loves all of us. He
lets us make our choices and live our lives, and even if we disappoint
him by the way we live, we cannot be separated from his love, which is
always waiting for us in Jesus Christ, his Son.
Children are the greatest blessings God can give us. So let us treasure our children as such, and love them with all our might. Let parents rejoice in their greatest gifts. May they ask God to show them how to love and care for their children. May they love their children enough to tell them about God, and his great love for humanity. May they also love them enough to let them decide what is best for themselves. May parents not clash with their children, and inflict wounds that are hard to heal. But let them love like God, who lets us live our lives, and make our choices, and not let his love be adversely affected or diminished by any disappointments that we may cause him.
Having a child would be the best thing in my life, I think. Yet I see people around me, who have beautiful children, and yet, are not happy with them. I hear a woman screaming from a nearby house. And I hear her son screaming back at her. At least, this is what I assume is happening. Their rage is beyond my imagination. They seem terribly unhappy. I heard from a friend of mine that there are parents who send their children out to beg on the streets. I also heard that some parents abuse and neglect their children. At times, I wonder why some parents are totally undeserving of the blessing of parenthood. In extreme moments I think that the ones who truly deserve to be parents are without children and those who don't deserve to be parents are given the blessing of children. I don't know what the truth is. But there is much unfairness, imbalance and injustice in this world. Life is a bag of riddles, and terribly inexplicable facts. But in all this mess, there are also wonderful, examples of goodness and love. And indeed, this world does have excellent parents and wonderful children, who experience the joy and wholeness that God intended for them. And this keeps me hoping, even as I nurse the hope of having my own children.
Think about what you can give to someone today. Don't always think about what you can take from someone.
God is great. He is faithful. He won't let you down, if you wait on him. I waited, and today God didn't let me down.
Enjoy today what God has given you. That's how you rejoice in the Lord.
Say, "Thank you Lord" always. Say "Thank you Lord for
what you have given." Celebrate what God has given. And dare to expect
more. May God grant you a heart that desires what he alone can give you.
And never stop desiring to receive more of what God alone can give you.
Dare to hope. Dare to receive. And when you receive, say, "Thank you
Lord."
Dare to go the extra mile. Dare to do what seems terribly difficult. Dare to go further, if God is with you. Don't be content to be where you are. Don't be content with safety. Dare to go with God into what appears to be like danger. Dare to go as far as you can, for this is the race that you must run. It is not for those who are content to be where they are. Go where God tells you to go. Do what God tells you to do. And God does not tell you to do what is easy. God tells you to do what you will not normally do. So dare to do what God tells you to do.
You try to do it yourself. You go a certain distance. And then you cannot go any further. That is when you need to be still. That is when you need to dare. You should dare to believe in a god who is God. And then you should let him be God in your life. Will you dare to allow God to take over what you cannot do on your own?
Do you dare to be blessed today? Can you forget the terrible past, and dare to receive a blessing today? Do you dare to receive more than what you can even imagine? Do you dare to believe in a God who will bless you like that? I dare. May you dare as well.
What is the use of trouble if you cannot console another person in trouble? Let the troubled people of the world be beacons of light to one another. Let our troubles unite us in the hope that God is with us, and cares for us, and will ultimately deliver us from all our afflictions. For this is his promise, and he is faithful. We cannot ever doubt the goodness or faithfulness of God.
Trust God. He will take care of you. Whatever your trouble, do not despair. Refuse to give up hope.
Hold on to your faith. Say, "God is in control of my life. And I will not be destroyed. He will save me from my troubles. And I will smile in the end. Yes, I will rejoice, and be happy. For God himself will wipe my tears and console me. And he will let me live with him forever."
Don't underestimate the need for faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. And we need to please God. God should be pleased with us, for him to act favourably towards us. Jesus reminded us that it will be done to us according to our faith. This is a significant reminder. Let us then show faith in God today. But faith cannot come from us. Faith comes by hearing, and we need to hear what God is saying to us. Let us read our Bible. Let us hear each other's testimonies of faith. Let our faith enlarge, as a result. And may God be pleased with us.
So the gift has not arrived yet. But it will arrive. God will not forget the one who asks of him. God will not forget you. For he has carved you on the palm of his hand. He knows yours pain. He has seen your tears. And he cares. And he will not let you slip away. He will not let your dreams die. So stir up your faith in God today. Rejoice in what you have. And hope to receive what you want. For God is able, and he is capable of giving you what you do not even dare to want. So let your faith stand up today. For it is impossible to please God without faith. And you need to please him today.
Say this to your mountain today, "No mountain is higher
than my God. No mountain is mightier than my God. My God is with me. I
rest in his shadow. So be removed from my sight, for you cannot hinder
me anymore!"
Don't despair. God is with you. And he will solve your problem.
Sincerity is the most profound language. It may contain few words. But it carries much weight.
You should do the right thing in every situation. And the right thing is doing something not because of what someone might think or even what God might think. It's doing it for the pure pleasure of doing something right, without the expectation of anything beyond it.
If I do an act of love today, let it not arise from fear. If I send you a note of thanks for something that you did, let it not be out of fear of what you might think of me if I didn't express my thanks. Let me do something good because it is good to do good. It ennobles the doer as well as the receiver. And if I live a good life for God let it not arise from fear of what God might do if I live rebelliously. Let it be for the pleasure of living a good life. For doing good is the greatest pleasure, if you know how to do it. And that is the pleasing kind of life God desires for us, but never imposes on us.
"How do I get saved?" the jailer asked Paul the Apostle. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved!" Paul answered. Anyone who reads this text alone, can be misled by the great apostle's answer. I wish he had elaborated on what exactly is implied by the phrase "believe on". Could it mean lean on, rely on, depend on, and could it also mean, lean on nothing else, rely on nothing else, depend on nothing else but Jesus Christ? He alone is the way to God. There is no other way of salvation. Or could it mean even more? Believe in the incredible, self-sacrificing, love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Trust in that sacrifice, and believe that all your sins are washed away in the shedding of the blood of Jesus. And believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and see it as your own victory over death. For if Christ died, and rose again, and you are in Christ, you too will rise again after death. The cryptic statement of Paul could mean these and even more. But some uninformed person reading it, may not see the depth of what is implied in Paul's statement. It is analysis that will make the biblical text come alive.
If you want to tell people about Jesus Christ, you need to do only one thing. Love them despite who they are.
God is critical about sin. But he is favourable to the sinner, who is willing to repent. And the latter is the remarkable fact.
Charity is not in my nature. Even love is not in my nature. But charity and love come from another person living in me. And I call him my God.
Be thankful even when things don't go your way. Remember the time when you were pleasantly surprised and even delighted about what happened in your life. Hold on to these memories, and derive your thankfulness from them.
There is no one as charming as a person who is willing to admit his or her mistake.
Love is the motivation behind all my actions. I was given love once. Now I share it with whoever is willing to receive from me.
I would like all people to know God and worship him. Still I know that it will not happen, not in this age, at least.
Guilt is not good. Be repentant, but do not be guilty. There is no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ. And if you are in Christ, stop letting yourself be condemned. Jesus has paid for all your sins. So don't try to pay for them. You just cannot. And you are wasting your God-given time by feeling guilty.
It is good to confess your sins. But also remember that God cares for you, and that he will forgive you. But you should also be willing to let God work in you and transform you into the image of his Son. Will you allow him to do this?
Romantic love is beautiful when it is reciprocated. But when it is not returned it is a strain on the person who gives it. She will be ultimately without reward and joy. In that case it is best to turn away from it, and love someone who is willing to respond.
The best thing I can say to you today is: "Don't lose hope in what you were made to be. Be utterly determined to be what you were designed to be. Say to yourself, "I will be what I am destined to be.
Nothing is going to stop me from being that. This world needs my life. And I will be a blessing to everyone in this world."
You won't get saved by a dip in the water, or by reading the Bible. You get saved only when you give up your hatred and littleness and accept the love and the bigness of God.
Contentment is godly. Discontentment is satanic.
The knowledge of your littleness is your greatness.
Know that you are nothing, and you are something only with God. In fact,
you can do everything with God.
Can you love someone who is utterly unconnected with
you, and from whom you have nothing to profit? Can you devote your time
and energy to that person? For this is the test of your godliness.
Rejoice in pain, for you can still feel it.
Romantic love is a popular love. It is a love that
consumes much time and energy. But there is a higher love. It is the
love that we show to others, celebrating who they are, without expecting
anything from them in return. Such love is rare and unpopular, and
unnatural and difficult for human beings.
Love more, hate less. Thank more, complain less. This is my prescription for those who want to be godly.
Let God increase in you. Let Satan decrease in you. This is what the spiritual journey is all about.
A complaining spirit is more akin to Satan than to God. If you want to be more like God, be thankful for who you are.
Be satisfied with who you are. That is how you defeat
Satan, whose great contribution to you is a perennial sense of
unsatisfaction.
How did Satan become sinful, a friend asked. How did
sin originate? I thought about this for a while. It is not easy to
answer a question, which God himself has not made clear. But this is my
guess. Sin began when Satan's unsatisfaction began. When Lucifer was not
happy with who he was, sin began in him. And he transmitted his disease
to all of us.
Love the one you are with. Don't pine for the one who will not come.
Love without expectation. Dare to have your love rejected. Then you won't be disappointed.
Don't fail to love someone today. For if you fail to do so, you will fail to love God.
Every day I am more aware of my limitedness and littleness. This is God's graciousness to me.
Tread softly where you want to run.
Innocence is ignorance of a childish kind. Corruption is wisdom of a devilish kind.
A grateful heart is what will carry your through to the end of the day, as God has willed it for you.
The wages of trouble is wisdom.
Be grateful for what you have, even if what you have is different from what you want to have.
There is a thin line between desire and greed. Let desire not turn into greed. This is my prayer today.
It takes a certain mad kind of belief to go where God wants you to go.
May God guide you through this terrible storm.
Remember, he has promised never to leave you or forsake you. Take
strength from that today. And believe that he is near, and that he will
not let you go. You will certainly celebrate your victory.
Celebrate your little victories if big victories will not come. Celebrate anything. But don't remain quiet and sad.
We should never stop praying. We should always keep
hoping. We should always want more of life. For life is a gift from God,
and let it keep coming till God puts an end to it. Therefore, let God
alone decide when earthly life must end. Let us not pray for death. But
let us pray for life. And not just any life, but an abundant life with
God, receiving from his bounty and sharing it with all his people.
Let me learn to say, "May God's will be done" in all
situations. For that is more important than any pressing desire that may
distract me.
God will provide. Believe that. Say that. And tell somebody about it.
God will show mercy to the one who will ask him for it. Ask him now, and don't doubt his heart. Now rest.
Lord, please let me be aware of myself, and what I am
in you. Let me know what I am capable of through you. Let me know my
strengths today, and let me not be bothered by my weaknesses. When I am
weak, then I am strong, for you are with me, to strengthen me in my
weakest moments. O Lord, let me not forget this today.
Try to see the good in others, even when it is overwhelmed by so much that is bad.
You may not have all that you want in your life. But if
you could only see the value of what you have now, you will not long so
much for what is not here.
Knee-jerk reactions are not for me. Immediate replies
are not my cup of tea. I think about everything. And sometimes I never
speak out my thoughts.
Don't think about it. Pray about it. Pray about it again and again.
Never do anything for the sake of doing it. Do it because you are inspired. Do it only when you cannot resist doing it.
Nine years I have tended a plant for God. Let me not
forget this plant, which has now grown into a young tree. The tree is
now a shelter for God's children. Let me not walk away from this tree to
plant another seed somewhere else. Let me take care of what God has
entrusted to me. And let me believe that God will give me the resources
to sustain and protect what he has graciously given me.
If I work for Jesus Christ, what do you think my religion is?
The time is now. You are a child of God now. You are
more than a conqueror now. You are able to do all things now. You can
live the godly life now. Don't think all this will happen only later.
They can happen now. Just believe.
Growing up is slow business. So be patient, and enjoy
the stillness of the moment. For you will not be here tomorrow, if you
are indeed growing up.
The book that I don't want to part with is the Bible. That's the book which you will find with me often.
Believe and you shall receive. God does not withhold what is good from his children.
There is no way I can do anything without God. My very
breath is a gracious act of his love. Today I say to God, "I cannot move
without you. And I will not even dream of moving without you. Guide my
steps and lead me to the place where I have to go."
It is a privilege to say "God bless you" to the one who
has been unkind and unfair to you. It is the privilege of the Jesus
Christ follower.
Do something for someone today without being noticed and applauded.
It's blessed to be the last. It's blessed to be the least.
A most important lesson to learn is to say to thank you sincerely.
Let us be prepared to face death today. The only way we can face death today is if we do what we know is right.
Why believe in the lie even if it excites you? Believe in the truth even though it numbs you.
If you keep replaying the old memories, rethinking the
old thoughts and re-enacting the old rituals how will you change? To
change you must discard the past and embrace the new, even if it is
uncomfortable and painful.
You cannot change into a new person immediately. It takes time. It takes a process.
If you can appreciate people and ignore their littleness you have come close to loving them.
You must go on despite virtually nothing happening. And that's what going on is in the God kind of work.
Life is meant to be enjoyed. Let's enjoy it with others. And let's let others enjoy their lives as well.
Rejoice in the little that you have, and you will have more.
We are all rather paltry beneath our glorious skins. The moment we understand our littleness is the moment we grow.
Under pressure I appear to wilt. And then I recover. I
know why I do. I feel no shame before God, for I know he knows
everything about me.
If we are now Christ's, that's what we will always be. Do rest.
No matter how many disappointments you have gone
through in life, learn to think of yourself as God thinks about you. You
are his child, his precious one. And he will not leave you or forsake
you. He loves you and cares for you. He will supply all your needs today
and every day. Reflect on these truths. Absorb them deeply in your
inner being. And then begin to say these truths loudly. Affirm them
vocally, so that you may hear them first. And then God will hear you.
This is what I have learned in my walk of faith. God is
unpredictable in His predictability. He does good but in His own way
and in His own time. Any guesses regarding his modus operandi is an
utter waste of time.
Most who egged me on and cited me as an inspiration are
now either silent or have simply disappeared. But I still go on. And
maybe this is so because I never actually relied on outside support to
get myself going. All that I have done, I must have done despite
external noise.
When
we consider the contemporary approaches to God, and their insistence on
living a full life, characterized by material prosperity, one needs to
ask the question. Are we to live a full life, for our sakes or for the
sake of others? Are we bought at a certain price, so that we cannot live
for ourselves, as Saint Paul clearly said, or are we redeemed for
living materially prosperous lives for our
own sakes, and for the sakes of the immediate members of our family,
whom we are always concerned about? Ultimately the life for God as
projected by some of the present day leaders of faith, appears to be
more of a life for oneself and than a life for others. And this draws a
stark contrast with the self-sacrificing life that Christ and his early
disciples followed.
The cross is not popular. I very rarely hear about the denial of the
self, and the picking up and carrying of the cross in contemporary
expositions of the faith life. Declare and get is the popular theme of
modern approaches to God. Become prosperous for God wants you to live
the full life is the current pep talk of certain leaders in faith. But
no matter how many ways in which you look at this, the way Jesus Christ
revealed discipleship diverges markedly from the way contemporary
approaches to God project the godly life. Still, very little discomfort
is visibly seen in the faith world regarding such divergent paths to
God.
We must be thinking people of God, not just elegant parrots, declaring divine words that don't come from our innermost place. However, this is how faith is conducted these days. Declare and get. That is the name of faith today. I think God is at least a little deeper than that.
We must be thinking people of God, not just elegant parrots, declaring divine words that don't come from our innermost place. However, this is how faith is conducted these days. Declare and get. That is the name of faith today. I think God is at least a little deeper than that.
And there is a further truth to our vulnerability to
the scheming of the devil. We possess at the very core of our being
cravings that are similar to the devil's own cravings. The devil desires
to overturn and distort every God-ordained purpose and design, and the
appeal of such modifications and distortions is much greater than the
appeal of the true purposes of God to our original sinful nature, which
is identical to the fallen nature of the devil. In our unregenerated
state we are much like the devil without his consummate power.
The
life we live is a gift from God. So life is not something we created on
our own. It was given to us by someone else. This is the first
realization. Once we know this, we should also know that since our life
comes from God, we cannot be in control of our lives. In fact, we cannot
do anything apart from the source of life. And God is that source of
life. We cannot live apart from him. We can achieve
nothing of value apart from him. This is the second realization. Once
we know this, we should also know that since we cannot control our own
lives, we should submit to God, and his ultimate wisdom, concerning the
way we should live. We should let him control us by our surrendering our
will to him. We should trust in his wisdom and lay aside our own
understanding. We should be willing to receive from him humbly. And when
we receive, we should share what we have received with others in the
same humble manner. This is the third realization.
Don't ever say, "I won't accept charity". Such an
attitude belongs to pride and not to humility. Humility is to know that
we are dependent on one another. We cannot live in this world without
the help of others. We have accepted help from others right from the
beginning of our lives, and we will continue to accept help from others
till the very end of our lives. So it is good to be at peace with who we
are. And we are dependent on one another.
Whatever unmasks a person, welcome it, even if it is
terrible, abusive anger. We should not be disturbed by malicious
behaviour. Let's be ready to peel off the tolerable veneer to see the
intolerable hiding beneath.
She does her best. Her best may not be good enough. Her
best may be your worst. But live with her best as long as she does her
best.
If you are a sinner and may be the worst one at that, you are probably as fit a candidate for God as the Apostle Paul.
Those who wish to avoid sin are most likely to meet it.
Say, "God is good, though life is not good right now.
God is doing something new in my life, and though I can't see it, I
sense that something is happening inside me. My mind is being renewed
everyday by the Holy Spirit, as I submit my thoughts and impulses to
him. God won't let me down, though people will often disappoint me.
Everyone may turn his back on me. But God won't ever turn his back on
me. He knows who I am. And he will give me what I desire on the day he
has appointed for me."
Don't be anxious no matter what happens. The Lord is
with you. And he will make a way for you, even when your path is
blocked, and you appear to suddenly come to a halt. When that happens,
don't stop. Take a diversion. Do something different. But always work
for the good of others. For helping others is helping God.
The road to God is not smooth. It is in fact
unpredictable. Yet God himself walks with us. Let us not forget that,
especially when darkness overwhelms us.
Wish everyone well. Especially those who have not lifted a finger to help you or even communicated with you, wish them well.
Today give before you take. Love before you hate. Smile before you weep.
For those of you who are wondering, I throw open my
doors to all. I aspire to be like the carpenter of Nazareth, who
welcomed all, especially the ones whom others were less inclined to
welcome. So come to me. Let us walk together. This life is short,
perhaps even shorter than we imagine. Let us love and share today, for
tomorrow is not guaranteed.
God chose me first. But I chose him later. And that is important.
There are some things that we will never know. Yet there are other things that we will know.
With God, we will always know less than we wish to know.
We can never be totally convinced of anything
concerning God. He is a mystery and all that we say about him, and
believe about him, is a mystery.
It is God who created all of us. We just become what he
wants us to be, when we speak into existence our divine destinies. The
creative power of our words is derived from God, who is the ultimate
voice, which speaks ultimate words.
We are all made in the image of God. What we are is a
reflection of God. What we say should also reflect God. But many times,
what we think and say are not reflective of God. For we are fallen, and
we cannot rise without God. And when we rise, we are enabled by God to
be what he wants us to be. It is then we can think his thoughts and
speak his words. And what we speak will come into existence.
One day, when I was a little boy, I had a dream. I saw a
raging, train of fire speed across the sky. And I seemed to be in the
air. I shouted at the fire, as it raced past me. I cried out, ‘I will
serve you!’ I believe the fire was God, and my shout was a pledge of
service.
