TEN THINGS GOD WON’T ASK ON THAT DAY
1. …God won’t ask what kind of car you drove. He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.
2. …God won’t ask the square footage of your house; He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.
3. …God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet; He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.
4. …God won’t ask what your highest salary was, He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.
5. …God won’t ask what your job title was, He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.
6. …God won’t ask how many friends you had. He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.
7. …God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived, He’ll ask how you treated your neighbors.
8. …God won’t ask about the color of your skin, He’ll ask about the content of your character.
9. …God won’t ask why it took you so long to seek salvation. He’ll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven, and not to the gates of hell.
10. …God won’t have to ask how many people you forwarded this to, He already knows your decisions.
I received this from someone who thinks I am a ‘keeper’, so I’ve sent it to the people I thing of in the same way… Now it’s your turn to send this to those people that are “keepers” in your life.
Good friends are like stars….you don’t always see them, but you know they are always here.
Keep them close!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
RULES OF CIVILITY
RULES OF CIVILITY
Here are but a few examples drawn from Washington’s rules of civility:
• When you speak, be short and comprehensive.
• Do not argue with your superior; submit your ideas to him modestly.
• When subordinate does his best, even if he does not succeed, do not blame him.
• When you must give advice or criticism, consider whether it should be given in public or private; whether is should be given now or at some other time; and in what manner it should be given. If you must criticize someone, do so carefully.
• If you are admonished by your superior, do not argue at the time; rather, if you are not at fault, tell your superior the facts later.
• Do not make fun of anything important to others.
• If you criticize others for some fault, make sure you eliminate it from yourself first. A good example speaks much louder than words.
• Do not be in haste to believe bad reports about others.
• Associate yourself with other good people; it is better to be alone than in bad company. Do not speak about others with malice or envy.
• Always allow reason to govern your actions.
• A man should not overly value his own accomplishments.
• Do not detract from others, nor be overbearing when giving commands.
• Do not speak badly of those who are not present.
• Do not go where you are not wanted.
• Do not give unasked-for advice,
• Make no comparisons among people.
• Do not be quick to talk about something if you do not know it is true.
• Some matters are better kept a secret. Do not be curious about the affairs of others.
• Do not start what you cannot finish.
• Keep your promises.
-George Washington
Here are but a few examples drawn from Washington’s rules of civility:
• When you speak, be short and comprehensive.
• Do not argue with your superior; submit your ideas to him modestly.
• When subordinate does his best, even if he does not succeed, do not blame him.
• When you must give advice or criticism, consider whether it should be given in public or private; whether is should be given now or at some other time; and in what manner it should be given. If you must criticize someone, do so carefully.
• If you are admonished by your superior, do not argue at the time; rather, if you are not at fault, tell your superior the facts later.
• Do not make fun of anything important to others.
• If you criticize others for some fault, make sure you eliminate it from yourself first. A good example speaks much louder than words.
• Do not be in haste to believe bad reports about others.
• Associate yourself with other good people; it is better to be alone than in bad company. Do not speak about others with malice or envy.
• Always allow reason to govern your actions.
• A man should not overly value his own accomplishments.
• Do not detract from others, nor be overbearing when giving commands.
• Do not speak badly of those who are not present.
• Do not go where you are not wanted.
• Do not give unasked-for advice,
• Make no comparisons among people.
• Do not be quick to talk about something if you do not know it is true.
• Some matters are better kept a secret. Do not be curious about the affairs of others.
• Do not start what you cannot finish.
• Keep your promises.
-George Washington
THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING-POINTS TO PONDER
By: Chandru Gidwani
• The person who has never felt the hand of sorrow has never really lived, for sorrow is the master-key to the gateway of one’s soul – the port of entrance to Infinite Intelligence. – N. Hill
• Nothing can be gained in the absence of suffering. Is there a mother who delivers a child without pains? She obtains a precious gift only when she bears suffering. Saints and prophets have risen through suffering. Why should we avoid suffering?
• “Suffering is the primeval stuff; it is the guide on the spiritual path and is like the visa for the journey to the Lord. Suffering is synonymous with love; it is another name for love. It must be assumed that the Lord is made of suffering and we can realize him only when we accept suffering.
Suffering is peerless and beyond praise. Take the example of the rose. The Lord has granted it a high status among flowers, but only after its acceptance of the company of thorns. Rose garlands are offered to saints. Likewise, if a seeker accepts suffering, the Lord grants him a high status.”
It is true that where there is love there is suffering also. Love is mixed in suffering as cream in milk. Love and God are one. Therefore suffering is where God is. As Shah Abdul Latif has said:
“It is never heard,
God is realized without suffering.”
Look at the accounts of various saints, lovers, fakirs and you will find that none has realized God without suffering. God can be realized only if one accepts suffering. Suffering is excellent and highly beneficial. –Dr Rochaldas
• The world is full of suffering. Birth is suffering; so is ild age; sickness and death is suffering, too. To meet a man whom one hates is suffering, to be separated from a beloved one is suffering, to be vainly struggling to satisfy one’s needs is suffering. In fact, life that is not free from desire and passion is always involved with distress. This is called the truth of suffering. – Book on Budhism
• Suffering is the guide to spiritualism and to God-realization. It is wrong to underrate the importance of suffering, and to say that suffering is not desirable. As with any birth, the birth of a Jiva is the result of labour pains; he is the product of suffering. He cannot avoid suffering. It is always with him from birth to death. He has to sustain that. It is only when a Jiva cheerfully accepts suffering that he can realize God. –Dr Rochaldas
• It is natural in this world of suffering for people to think and act selfishly and egoistically and, because of it, it is equally natural for suffering and unhappiness to follow.
• People favour themselves and neglect others. People let their own desires run into greed and lust and all manner of evil. Because of these they must suffer endlessly.
• Actually, problems are a sign of life! In fact the more problems, the more you are a part of life. The only place I’ve ever been where people have no problems is a cemetery and there they are all dead. Be glad that God trusts you with some problems. Thank him for the compliment. He believes you have what it takes to handle them.- Norman Vincent Peale
• Suffering, longing, yearning, ardour, uneasiness and restlessness for meeting the Lord constitute anguish. The thirsting desire, choking eagerness to meet the beloved is called anguish. A ‘jiva’ can gain nothing so long as he does not develop anguish for meeting the beloved. Anguish must arise first. It helps in progress towards the Lord. Anguish is very much liked by the Lord.- Dr Rochaldas
• The emotion of sorrow refines the souls of those who experience it, and gives them courage and faith to meet the trials and tribulations of struggle in a world of confusion and chaos, provided always that sorrow is accepted as a benefit and not as a curse. Resentment of sorrow causes the development of stomach ulcers, high blood pressure and general unfriendliness from other people.- N. Hill
• Sorrow has revealed to the world geniuses who never would have been recognized except for its deep, soul-searching effects.
• The person who has never felt the hand of sorrow has never really lived, for sorrow is the master-key to the gateway of one’s soul – the port of entrance to Infinite Intelligence. – N. Hill
• Nothing can be gained in the absence of suffering. Is there a mother who delivers a child without pains? She obtains a precious gift only when she bears suffering. Saints and prophets have risen through suffering. Why should we avoid suffering?
• “Suffering is the primeval stuff; it is the guide on the spiritual path and is like the visa for the journey to the Lord. Suffering is synonymous with love; it is another name for love. It must be assumed that the Lord is made of suffering and we can realize him only when we accept suffering.
Suffering is peerless and beyond praise. Take the example of the rose. The Lord has granted it a high status among flowers, but only after its acceptance of the company of thorns. Rose garlands are offered to saints. Likewise, if a seeker accepts suffering, the Lord grants him a high status.”
It is true that where there is love there is suffering also. Love is mixed in suffering as cream in milk. Love and God are one. Therefore suffering is where God is. As Shah Abdul Latif has said:
“It is never heard,
God is realized without suffering.”
Look at the accounts of various saints, lovers, fakirs and you will find that none has realized God without suffering. God can be realized only if one accepts suffering. Suffering is excellent and highly beneficial. –Dr Rochaldas
• The world is full of suffering. Birth is suffering; so is ild age; sickness and death is suffering, too. To meet a man whom one hates is suffering, to be separated from a beloved one is suffering, to be vainly struggling to satisfy one’s needs is suffering. In fact, life that is not free from desire and passion is always involved with distress. This is called the truth of suffering. – Book on Budhism
• Suffering is the guide to spiritualism and to God-realization. It is wrong to underrate the importance of suffering, and to say that suffering is not desirable. As with any birth, the birth of a Jiva is the result of labour pains; he is the product of suffering. He cannot avoid suffering. It is always with him from birth to death. He has to sustain that. It is only when a Jiva cheerfully accepts suffering that he can realize God. –Dr Rochaldas
• It is natural in this world of suffering for people to think and act selfishly and egoistically and, because of it, it is equally natural for suffering and unhappiness to follow.
• People favour themselves and neglect others. People let their own desires run into greed and lust and all manner of evil. Because of these they must suffer endlessly.
• Actually, problems are a sign of life! In fact the more problems, the more you are a part of life. The only place I’ve ever been where people have no problems is a cemetery and there they are all dead. Be glad that God trusts you with some problems. Thank him for the compliment. He believes you have what it takes to handle them.- Norman Vincent Peale
• Suffering, longing, yearning, ardour, uneasiness and restlessness for meeting the Lord constitute anguish. The thirsting desire, choking eagerness to meet the beloved is called anguish. A ‘jiva’ can gain nothing so long as he does not develop anguish for meeting the beloved. Anguish must arise first. It helps in progress towards the Lord. Anguish is very much liked by the Lord.- Dr Rochaldas
• The emotion of sorrow refines the souls of those who experience it, and gives them courage and faith to meet the trials and tribulations of struggle in a world of confusion and chaos, provided always that sorrow is accepted as a benefit and not as a curse. Resentment of sorrow causes the development of stomach ulcers, high blood pressure and general unfriendliness from other people.- N. Hill
• Sorrow has revealed to the world geniuses who never would have been recognized except for its deep, soul-searching effects.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Bible Passages : Please reflect!
LIVE IN HARMONY WITH ONE ANOTHER
Romans 15:1-6
We who are strong in the faith ought to help the weak to carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves. Instead, we should all please our brothers for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith. For Christ did not please himself. Instead, as the scripture says, “The insults which are hurled at you have fallen on me.” Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us. And may God, the source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus, so that all of you together may praise with one voice the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
FOLLOW CHRIST WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH
Philippians 3:12-16
I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. Of course, my brothers, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above.
All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you. However that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now.
PERFECTION THROUGH LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains – but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned – but if I have no love, this does me no good.
Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.
When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways. What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete – as complete as God’s knowledge of me.
Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.
BE ONE IN SOUL AND MIND
Philippians 2:1-4
Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look our for one another’s interests, not just for your own.
A CALL TO HOLY LIVING
1 Peter 1:13-25
Therefore prepare your minds for actions; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raise him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
That word is the good news that was announced to you.
JUDGMENT AND THE FUTURE BELONG TO GOD
Ecclesiastes 3:16-22-4:1-8
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work. I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes downward to the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?
Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed – with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power- with no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive; but better than both is the one who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Fools fold their hands and consume their own flesh.
Better is a handful with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind.
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. “For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?” this also is vanity and an unhappy business.
PREACH AT ALL TIMES
2 Timothy 4:1-5
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and because he is coming to rule as King, I solemnly urge you to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience.
The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends. But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News, and perform your whole duty as servant of God.
EVERYTHING HAS ITS TIME
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.
THE FRUSTRATION OF DESIRES
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill. A man may beget a hundred children, and live many years; if he does not enjoy life’s good things, or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered; moreover it has not seen the sun or known anything; yet it finds rest rather than he.Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good – do not all go to one place?
All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what human beings are, and that they are not able to dispute with those who are stronger. The more words, the more vanity so how is one the better? For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them what will be after them under the sun.
FORGIVENESS FOR ALL PEOPLES IF THEY BELIEVE
Romans 10:9-13
If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved. The scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him. As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.”
CONFIDENT THAT GOD WILL HELP US
Psalm 54
Save me by your power, O God;
Set me free by your might!
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to my words!
Proud men are coming to attack me;
Cruel men are trying to kill me –
Men who do not care about God.
But God is my helper. The Lord is my defender.
May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.
He will destroy them because he is faithful.
I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O Lord;
I will give you thanks because you are good.
You have rescued me from all my troubles,
And I have seen my enemies defeated.
GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS
Acts 13:38-39
All of you, my fellow Israelites, are to know for sure that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; you are to know that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.
RETURN TO GOD AND PURIFY YOUR HEARTS
James 4:1-10
Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. Unfaithful people! Don’t you know that to be the world’s friend means to be God’s enemy? Whoever wants to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. Don’t think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.” But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
VARIOUS SINS
Sirach 21:1-10
Have you sinned, my child? Do so no more, but ask forgiveness for your past sins.
Flee from sin as from a snake; for if you approach sin, it will bite you.
Its teeth are lion’s teeth, and can destroy human lives.
All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword; there is no healing for the wound it inflicts.
Panic and insolence will waste away riches; thus the house of the proud will be laid waste.
The prayer of the poor goes from their lips to the ears of God, and his judgment comes speedily.
Those who hate reproof walk in the sinner’s steps, but those who fear the Lord repent in their heart.
The mighty in speech are widely known; when they slip, the sensible person knows it.
Whoever builds his house with other people’s money is like one who gathers stones for his burial mound.
An assembly of the wicked is like a bundle of tow, and their end is a blazing fire.
The way of sinners is paved with smooth stones, but at its end is the pit of Hades.
YOUTH AND OLD AGE
Ecclesiastes 11:7-10 to 12:1-8
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Remember your creator in the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.
CONFIDENT THAT GOD WILL HELP US
Psalm 54
Save me by your power, O God;
Set me free by your might!
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to my words!
Proud men are coming to attack me;
Cruel men are trying to kill me –
Men who do not care about God.
But God is my helper. The Lord is my defender.
May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.
He will destroy them because he is faithful.
I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O Lord;
I will give you thanks because you are good.
You have rescued me from all my troubles,
And I have seen my enemies defeated.
GODLESSNESS IN THE LAST DAYS
2 Timothy 3:1-9
You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. As Jan’nes and Jam’bres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone.
God Is Love
1John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Buy this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world, God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is , so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say , “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
FAITHFUL TO THE END
Matthew 24:1-14
Jesus left and was going away from the Temple when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Yes”, he said, “you may well look at all these. I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.”
As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him in private. “Tell us when all this will be,” they asked, “and what will happen to show that it is the time for your coming and the end of the age.”
Jesus answered, “Watch out, and do not let anyone fool you. Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will fool many people you are going to hear the noise of battles close by and the news of battles far away; but do not be trouble. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attach one another. There will be famines and earthquakes everywhere. All these things are like the first pains of childbirth.
“Then you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and be put to death. All mankind will hate you because of me. Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another. Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people. Such will be the spread of evil that many people’s love will grow cold. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. And this Good News about the Kingdom will be preached through all the world for a witness to all mankind; and then the end will come.
Romans 15:1-6
We who are strong in the faith ought to help the weak to carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves. Instead, we should all please our brothers for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith. For Christ did not please himself. Instead, as the scripture says, “The insults which are hurled at you have fallen on me.” Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us. And may God, the source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus, so that all of you together may praise with one voice the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
FOLLOW CHRIST WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH
Philippians 3:12-16
I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. Of course, my brothers, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above.
All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you. However that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now.
PERFECTION THROUGH LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains – but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned – but if I have no love, this does me no good.
Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.
When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways. What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete – as complete as God’s knowledge of me.
Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.
BE ONE IN SOUL AND MIND
Philippians 2:1-4
Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look our for one another’s interests, not just for your own.
A CALL TO HOLY LIVING
1 Peter 1:13-25
Therefore prepare your minds for actions; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raise him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
That word is the good news that was announced to you.
JUDGMENT AND THE FUTURE BELONG TO GOD
Ecclesiastes 3:16-22-4:1-8
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work. I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes downward to the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?
Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed – with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power- with no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive; but better than both is the one who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Fools fold their hands and consume their own flesh.
Better is a handful with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind.
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. “For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?” this also is vanity and an unhappy business.
PREACH AT ALL TIMES
2 Timothy 4:1-5
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and because he is coming to rule as King, I solemnly urge you to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience.
The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends. But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News, and perform your whole duty as servant of God.
EVERYTHING HAS ITS TIME
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.
THE FRUSTRATION OF DESIRES
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill. A man may beget a hundred children, and live many years; if he does not enjoy life’s good things, or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered; moreover it has not seen the sun or known anything; yet it finds rest rather than he.Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good – do not all go to one place?
All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what human beings are, and that they are not able to dispute with those who are stronger. The more words, the more vanity so how is one the better? For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them what will be after them under the sun.
FORGIVENESS FOR ALL PEOPLES IF THEY BELIEVE
Romans 10:9-13
If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved. The scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him. As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.”
CONFIDENT THAT GOD WILL HELP US
Psalm 54
Save me by your power, O God;
Set me free by your might!
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to my words!
Proud men are coming to attack me;
Cruel men are trying to kill me –
Men who do not care about God.
But God is my helper. The Lord is my defender.
May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.
He will destroy them because he is faithful.
I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O Lord;
I will give you thanks because you are good.
You have rescued me from all my troubles,
And I have seen my enemies defeated.
GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS
Acts 13:38-39
All of you, my fellow Israelites, are to know for sure that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; you are to know that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.
RETURN TO GOD AND PURIFY YOUR HEARTS
James 4:1-10
Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. Unfaithful people! Don’t you know that to be the world’s friend means to be God’s enemy? Whoever wants to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. Don’t think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.” But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
VARIOUS SINS
Sirach 21:1-10
Have you sinned, my child? Do so no more, but ask forgiveness for your past sins.
Flee from sin as from a snake; for if you approach sin, it will bite you.
Its teeth are lion’s teeth, and can destroy human lives.
All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword; there is no healing for the wound it inflicts.
Panic and insolence will waste away riches; thus the house of the proud will be laid waste.
The prayer of the poor goes from their lips to the ears of God, and his judgment comes speedily.
Those who hate reproof walk in the sinner’s steps, but those who fear the Lord repent in their heart.
The mighty in speech are widely known; when they slip, the sensible person knows it.
Whoever builds his house with other people’s money is like one who gathers stones for his burial mound.
An assembly of the wicked is like a bundle of tow, and their end is a blazing fire.
The way of sinners is paved with smooth stones, but at its end is the pit of Hades.
YOUTH AND OLD AGE
Ecclesiastes 11:7-10 to 12:1-8
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Remember your creator in the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.
CONFIDENT THAT GOD WILL HELP US
Psalm 54
Save me by your power, O God;
Set me free by your might!
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to my words!
Proud men are coming to attack me;
Cruel men are trying to kill me –
Men who do not care about God.
But God is my helper. The Lord is my defender.
May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.
He will destroy them because he is faithful.
I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O Lord;
I will give you thanks because you are good.
You have rescued me from all my troubles,
And I have seen my enemies defeated.
GODLESSNESS IN THE LAST DAYS
2 Timothy 3:1-9
You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. As Jan’nes and Jam’bres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone.
God Is Love
1John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Buy this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world, God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is , so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say , “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
FAITHFUL TO THE END
Matthew 24:1-14
Jesus left and was going away from the Temple when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Yes”, he said, “you may well look at all these. I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.”
As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him in private. “Tell us when all this will be,” they asked, “and what will happen to show that it is the time for your coming and the end of the age.”
Jesus answered, “Watch out, and do not let anyone fool you. Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will fool many people you are going to hear the noise of battles close by and the news of battles far away; but do not be trouble. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attach one another. There will be famines and earthquakes everywhere. All these things are like the first pains of childbirth.
“Then you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and be put to death. All mankind will hate you because of me. Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another. Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people. Such will be the spread of evil that many people’s love will grow cold. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. And this Good News about the Kingdom will be preached through all the world for a witness to all mankind; and then the end will come.
COOPERATE WITH LIFE
By: J. Maurus
Cooperation is a way of life in the case of the sane and the healthy. It helps to live effortlessly and to make the best and the most of it.
There is no satisfactory health or happiness that a person can obtain that neglects the source of life itself and the only all-embracing power there is.
We are cooperating with life when we remove the inner conflicts that cause resistance. Intelligent living consists in our ability to establish a healthy compromise between the pleasure-seeking elements of our nature and the disciplinary elements of our conscience.
A healthy mind produces a healthy body.
The way of wise cooperation is the achievement of a harmonious balance of our basic needs, such as security, acceptance, love and the Lord. Often, however, with our needs reduced, we are increasingly likely to function more positively, almost in direct proportion to how much we feel valued.
We are able to achieve results when we:
1. LIVE EACH DAY FULLY. Believe in today and in the work you are doing. Yesterday is a cancelled cheque; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is ready cash – spend it wisely.
TODAY
Be present – to yourself and to others.
Be interested – don’t try to be interesting.
Be pleasing – don’t expect to be pleased.
Be entertaining – don’t wait to be entertained.
Be lovable – don’t wait to be loved.
Be helpful – don’t ask to be helped.
An elderly man was working around the front yard of the house, whistling non-stop. The sound of the whistling was loud and clear, but its seemed rather aimless and purposeless, with no recognizable tune in evidence.
A visitor walked up to the man and said, “I see you’re fond of whistling.”
“Oh” he said, “it’s second nature to me now.”
Then pointing to the woman on the porch, he explained that she was his wife, and that they had been happily married for thirty-eight years when she became blind. Coming as it did so late in life, the blindness had been a deep-seated insecurity.
“I figured,” he went on, “if I just keep whistling while I’m outside the house, she’ll have the security of knowing I’m still with her.”
2.TAKE TIME TO REST. It is necessary to the body as is food. Good rest, a good night’s sleep is health. Rest is the best eraser of fatigue, the means to let off steam, to overcome interior conflicts. Sleep is nature’s way of building up energy. The ability to rest is the secret of wiser and more efficient work. It helps enjoy the normal pleasures of life.
Robert Louis Stevenson prayed: ”The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces: let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and honoured, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep.”
Use these specific techniques to spend the day in a restful and relaxed way:
a.) An optimistic philosophy of life will aid you in controlling your negative emotions. Unhappiness causes you to be chronically restless and constitutes one of the major causes of insomnia.
b.) Keep in mind that recreation is mental medicine. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
c.) Take things in their natural stride.
d.) Enjoy your work. Man is a worker. Work is love and joy made visible.
Thank God when you wake up every morning, that you have something to do, that you have a job. Many people are jobless and the future will offer still less work.
Do your work with due responsibility and intelligence. Your attitude toward work determines how successful it will be.
A worker has the right to just and favourable remuneration insuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity.
Work keeps us from boredom. It gives life its savour and health. It is the source of prosperity and lays the foundation of every fortune.
Behold the tiny ants!
How they march in a line,
Carrying grains of sugar in their mouths
And piling them in a mountain heap!
What a lesson do they not yield to us!
Here’s the secret of success
In all great and noble undertakings
With small means –
Study nature through and through,
Read her lessons between the lines,
And you will fine it written
On every page in bold characters:
“Continuity, persistence”.
4. KNOW THE VALUE OF TIME. Take time as your counsellor – it is the wisest. Time flies, but you are the navigator.
Start each morning determined to make the most of the day. “If you have a time and place for everything and do everything in its time and place, you will not only accomplish more but have more leisure than those who are always hurrying as if vainly attempting to overtake what has been lost” (T. Edwards).
Take time to laugh,
It is the music of life.
Take time to think,
It is the source of power.
Take time to play,
It is the source of youth.
Take time to read,
It is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to pray,
It is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to be friendly,
It is the road to happiness.
Take time to listen,
It is the way to be accepted.
Take time to work,
It is the price to success.
5. A SENSE OF HUMOUR. Humour is an innate quality in every human being, enabling him/her to perceive life objectively.
Humour is more an attitude in depth than a skill in witty remarks. It is rooted in the personality’s detachment from life situations. Sir Thomas More, as he was about to ascend the gallows, said to the master of the Tower (London), “Help me climb up. I can manage the trip down myself”!
Humour is a safety valve, an effective drug for longevity in our tension-ridden society. The person who laughs remains free. Psychologist Gordon Allport describes the value of humour thus: “Humour may throw an otherwise intolerable situation into a new and manageable perspective. The neurotic who learns to laugh at himself may be on the way to self-management, perhaps to cure.”
Humour and sanity go hand in hand. A king said to his jester., “Say something silly.” The jester replies, “You are a great man!”
It has been said, and rightly so: “Humanity will have enough to laugh for when it realizes that man, woman, is a little less than angels and a little more than monkeys.”
Cooperation is a way of life in the case of the sane and the healthy. It helps to live effortlessly and to make the best and the most of it.
There is no satisfactory health or happiness that a person can obtain that neglects the source of life itself and the only all-embracing power there is.
We are cooperating with life when we remove the inner conflicts that cause resistance. Intelligent living consists in our ability to establish a healthy compromise between the pleasure-seeking elements of our nature and the disciplinary elements of our conscience.
A healthy mind produces a healthy body.
The way of wise cooperation is the achievement of a harmonious balance of our basic needs, such as security, acceptance, love and the Lord. Often, however, with our needs reduced, we are increasingly likely to function more positively, almost in direct proportion to how much we feel valued.
We are able to achieve results when we:
1. LIVE EACH DAY FULLY. Believe in today and in the work you are doing. Yesterday is a cancelled cheque; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is ready cash – spend it wisely.
TODAY
Be present – to yourself and to others.
Be interested – don’t try to be interesting.
Be pleasing – don’t expect to be pleased.
Be entertaining – don’t wait to be entertained.
Be lovable – don’t wait to be loved.
Be helpful – don’t ask to be helped.
An elderly man was working around the front yard of the house, whistling non-stop. The sound of the whistling was loud and clear, but its seemed rather aimless and purposeless, with no recognizable tune in evidence.
A visitor walked up to the man and said, “I see you’re fond of whistling.”
“Oh” he said, “it’s second nature to me now.”
Then pointing to the woman on the porch, he explained that she was his wife, and that they had been happily married for thirty-eight years when she became blind. Coming as it did so late in life, the blindness had been a deep-seated insecurity.
“I figured,” he went on, “if I just keep whistling while I’m outside the house, she’ll have the security of knowing I’m still with her.”
2.TAKE TIME TO REST. It is necessary to the body as is food. Good rest, a good night’s sleep is health. Rest is the best eraser of fatigue, the means to let off steam, to overcome interior conflicts. Sleep is nature’s way of building up energy. The ability to rest is the secret of wiser and more efficient work. It helps enjoy the normal pleasures of life.
Robert Louis Stevenson prayed: ”The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces: let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and honoured, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep.”
Use these specific techniques to spend the day in a restful and relaxed way:
a.) An optimistic philosophy of life will aid you in controlling your negative emotions. Unhappiness causes you to be chronically restless and constitutes one of the major causes of insomnia.
b.) Keep in mind that recreation is mental medicine. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
c.) Take things in their natural stride.
d.) Enjoy your work. Man is a worker. Work is love and joy made visible.
Thank God when you wake up every morning, that you have something to do, that you have a job. Many people are jobless and the future will offer still less work.
Do your work with due responsibility and intelligence. Your attitude toward work determines how successful it will be.
A worker has the right to just and favourable remuneration insuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity.
Work keeps us from boredom. It gives life its savour and health. It is the source of prosperity and lays the foundation of every fortune.
Behold the tiny ants!
How they march in a line,
Carrying grains of sugar in their mouths
And piling them in a mountain heap!
What a lesson do they not yield to us!
Here’s the secret of success
In all great and noble undertakings
With small means –
Study nature through and through,
Read her lessons between the lines,
And you will fine it written
On every page in bold characters:
“Continuity, persistence”.
4. KNOW THE VALUE OF TIME. Take time as your counsellor – it is the wisest. Time flies, but you are the navigator.
Start each morning determined to make the most of the day. “If you have a time and place for everything and do everything in its time and place, you will not only accomplish more but have more leisure than those who are always hurrying as if vainly attempting to overtake what has been lost” (T. Edwards).
Take time to laugh,
It is the music of life.
Take time to think,
It is the source of power.
Take time to play,
It is the source of youth.
Take time to read,
It is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to pray,
It is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to be friendly,
It is the road to happiness.
Take time to listen,
It is the way to be accepted.
Take time to work,
It is the price to success.
5. A SENSE OF HUMOUR. Humour is an innate quality in every human being, enabling him/her to perceive life objectively.
Humour is more an attitude in depth than a skill in witty remarks. It is rooted in the personality’s detachment from life situations. Sir Thomas More, as he was about to ascend the gallows, said to the master of the Tower (London), “Help me climb up. I can manage the trip down myself”!
Humour is a safety valve, an effective drug for longevity in our tension-ridden society. The person who laughs remains free. Psychologist Gordon Allport describes the value of humour thus: “Humour may throw an otherwise intolerable situation into a new and manageable perspective. The neurotic who learns to laugh at himself may be on the way to self-management, perhaps to cure.”
Humour and sanity go hand in hand. A king said to his jester., “Say something silly.” The jester replies, “You are a great man!”
It has been said, and rightly so: “Humanity will have enough to laugh for when it realizes that man, woman, is a little less than angels and a little more than monkeys.”
A Charles Ringma Collections: Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen
THE RISK OF LIVING
Moving beyond safety and security
-2 Corinthians 5:17
We can create a very safe world for ourselves. We establish our work routines. Cultivate a few friendships. Develop certain family patterns. Establish our ideas about God and the meaning of life. Maintain certain spiritual disciplines and take on certain commitments. None of these things in themselves need necessarily be inappropriate.
But all these may spring from the doubtful motivation of trying to make for ourselves a safe and secure world. A world which guards us from risks. A world which shelters us from new challenges. A world where the very fabric of our routines not only sustains us, but also anaesthetises us.
The inner life cannot fully develop under these circumstances. Safety is not always a key to growth. But questioning, searching and risk-taking are. Henri Nouwen makes the observation that the questions we raise ‘have to be lived rather than developed intellectually’. In other words, we need to cease taking our world for granted and begin to take our questions into the arena of life by living them out practically. True questioning can only lead to a new doing. Searching can only lead to shattering some of our securities. And risk-taking, when born of a desire to live more truly and authentically, can only lead to new life.
ACTION AND HOPE
Sustaining purposely activity
Acts 2:43-47
Hope is not just a vague feeling that somehow things will become better. Hope involves action, and action is what moves us towards the things we hope for. Hope inspires action and action begins to realise our hopes.
But not all action is helpful our constructive. Action born of frustration or compulsion seldom achieves positive results. While this form of activity may be characterised by initial energy and promise, it quickly fades or becomes sidetracked. Neither frustration nor compulsion are good motivations for the long journey of positive and constructive action.
Action inspired by guilt or duress or action as therapy are not helpful either. Action as therapy, embarked upon to rid us of a sense of guilt, becomes action that soon looks away from achieving the general good. It finally becomes self-seeking and self-serving, for it only looks to what it can do for us.
Action under duress is limited action as well. Before long, resentments will cause us to abandon the things we are made to do and we will begin to subvert the system in some way.
Purposeful action should not spring from frustration, compulsion, guilt or duress. It should come from freedom and hope. And hope will be all the more significant and powerful when the eye of faith can see its final realisation.
Henri Nouwen reminds us that action ‘is not a fearful attempt to restore a broken order’. Such action assumes too much, for we are not sufficiently wise and all-seeing. And we would never be able to sustain our action in order to achieve such a monumental outcome. We would become overwhelmed in the attempt.
Instead, as Nouwen rightly reminds us, action ‘is a joyful assertion that in Christ all order has already been restored’. Such action works out of a final promise, not towards such a promise. It springs from a believed goal, rather than making such a goal believable. Such hope not only inspires our action, but makes it sustainable.
PRAYER AND HOPE
The prayer that leads to partnership.
-Matthew 26:39
We have suggested that solitude has primarily to do with developing a new attentiveness. Thus listening lies at the heart of the practice of solitude. But good listening involves conversation. In conversation what one hears can be questioned, elaborated upon, made more specific and made more applicable to our situation.
This type of conversation highlights one form of prayer. This is not the prayer of adoration, nor that of thanksgiving, nor that of supplication. It is the prayer that probes and looks for greater light. It is the prayer that goes on seeking because it is not satisfied that it has understood all that needs to be grasped.
While Nouwen’s assertion that ‘every prayer is an expression of hope’ is true, the prayer that probes is particularly the prayer of hope. Its hope is not that it expects God to intervene marvellously and to change situations miraculously. Its hope is very different. Its hope lies in gaining a sense of what is on God’s heart. It seeks to understand God’s purposes. It seeks to enter into God’s concerns and obediently to discern his will. It does this because it believes that in doing the will of God our life will find its true purpose and this world will become a better place.
This form of prayer, which probes and question in order to understand more clearly, is the prayer that believes in partnership. It sees us linking our concerns, priorities and activities with God’s intention and this lives in the hope that God’s kingdom will be more fully reflected in our world.
HINDRANCES BECOME A WAY
The creative use of difficulty
-Jame 1:2-4
Creating space for ourselves, learning to be still and entering into solitude serve not only our spiritual development. These disciplines also help us to become our own persons. It is a way in which we can become sure of who we are, what we believe and what we must do. Solitude is a way of self-formation.
Solitude is also a way of making us more resourceful and creative. It can help us to reorient our thinking, so that, in the words of Nouwen, ‘what seems a hindrance becomes a way’. This is not easy. Hindrances and difficulties often frustrate us. They can make us angry at others, and even at God. They make us feel victimised and can drive us to self-doubt and despair. We prefer to side-step difficulties. We feel that we have run out of luck when too many hindrances stare us in the face. We curse fate and we doubt God’s benevolence and care. We seldom do well in difficulty.
This is often due to the fact that we lack inner resources and a strong resolve. We see hindrances and difficulties as ‘just one more thing on our plate’ that we don’t have time for.
And yet we could learn so much if we faced our difficulties. Sometimes difficulties can tell us much about ourselves. They can always tell us something about our world. And they can usually teach us something regarding new ways of responding and acting.
It is difficulty that has inspired some members of the human race to great creativity. It is an important factor in change. It is also the way in which we can become more careful and prayerful. And sometimes, when we take the time to be still and face the difficulties before us, we discover that they were not what they at first seemed- a hindrance – but were in fact a way to new experiences.
PRAYER FRIEND
Nourishing the inner life.
John 15:15
It is a paradox that in this time in history where we have created the megapolis and therefore live in increasingly crowded spaces, we can experience so much loneliness. It is a further paradox that in spite of the major advances in medical technology, we are still so unwell and that, in spite of the communication revolution, we still feel so alienated. We can safely say that whatever we seem to create at a societal level, however good it is, also has negative implications.
But more deeply, our difficulties cannot simply be laid at the feet of society. They also lie within us. And often feel deeply lonely, purposeless, frustrated, misunderstood and unloved. Our brave front and our many achievements don’t ease the pain of our inner poverty.
The enrichment of our inner life is therefore not an optional extra. It is life itself. It will allow us to hold our achievements with open hands in the realization that we are more than our accomplishments. It will also allow us to respond creatively to difficulty because we have wells to draw from that need never be dry.
Prayer is one way of nourishing the inner life. This is so, as Nouwen reminds us, because ‘the praying man is he who comes out of his shelter and not only has the courage to see his own poverty, but also sees that there is no enemy to hide from, only a friend who would like nothing better than to clothe him with his own coat.’
ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
Sowing good seed for good results
Luke 8:15
We live in a refractory and difficult world. Our experience confirms this. Things do not always work out, despite our careful planning.
This does not mean, however, that everything is random. Some things do follow. When we freely forgive a person who has hurt us we can be sure that we will banish bitterness from our hearts. When we serve others, not out of guilt or compulsion, but out of love, we ourselves will be blessed. When we give, not because we expect to receive, but freely and with a generous heart, we will receive. When we become men and women of prayer, we will grow in spiritual wisdom. When we live in obedience to God’s will, our lives will be fruitful.
Things, however, follow not only in the spiritual realm, but in the practical as well. If we take time for solitude and renewal, we will be refreshed,. If we care for our souls, our bodies will also be blessed.
Henri Nouwen asserts that ‘he who has the day will gain the night as well’. If our day is spent purposefully, the blessing of a good night’s rest will be ours as well. Good actions can have good consequences. Good seed can produce good fruit.
Sadly, we often focus too much on results and not enough on the factors that produce such results. We want to pluck fruit from trees we have not planted and watered. We want to be blessed without walking the road of obedience. We want to experience well-being without caring for our own bodies. We want inner peace without being honest and transparent.
Yet we can have what we want. But this will involve sowing and watering. It will involve laying good foundations. It will involve doing what is right ahead of that which suits us. It may well involve walking the seemingly long road of faith and obedience rather that taking short cut to grasp the promised goal.
Moving beyond safety and security
-2 Corinthians 5:17
We can create a very safe world for ourselves. We establish our work routines. Cultivate a few friendships. Develop certain family patterns. Establish our ideas about God and the meaning of life. Maintain certain spiritual disciplines and take on certain commitments. None of these things in themselves need necessarily be inappropriate.
But all these may spring from the doubtful motivation of trying to make for ourselves a safe and secure world. A world which guards us from risks. A world which shelters us from new challenges. A world where the very fabric of our routines not only sustains us, but also anaesthetises us.
The inner life cannot fully develop under these circumstances. Safety is not always a key to growth. But questioning, searching and risk-taking are. Henri Nouwen makes the observation that the questions we raise ‘have to be lived rather than developed intellectually’. In other words, we need to cease taking our world for granted and begin to take our questions into the arena of life by living them out practically. True questioning can only lead to a new doing. Searching can only lead to shattering some of our securities. And risk-taking, when born of a desire to live more truly and authentically, can only lead to new life.
ACTION AND HOPE
Sustaining purposely activity
Acts 2:43-47
Hope is not just a vague feeling that somehow things will become better. Hope involves action, and action is what moves us towards the things we hope for. Hope inspires action and action begins to realise our hopes.
But not all action is helpful our constructive. Action born of frustration or compulsion seldom achieves positive results. While this form of activity may be characterised by initial energy and promise, it quickly fades or becomes sidetracked. Neither frustration nor compulsion are good motivations for the long journey of positive and constructive action.
Action inspired by guilt or duress or action as therapy are not helpful either. Action as therapy, embarked upon to rid us of a sense of guilt, becomes action that soon looks away from achieving the general good. It finally becomes self-seeking and self-serving, for it only looks to what it can do for us.
Action under duress is limited action as well. Before long, resentments will cause us to abandon the things we are made to do and we will begin to subvert the system in some way.
Purposeful action should not spring from frustration, compulsion, guilt or duress. It should come from freedom and hope. And hope will be all the more significant and powerful when the eye of faith can see its final realisation.
Henri Nouwen reminds us that action ‘is not a fearful attempt to restore a broken order’. Such action assumes too much, for we are not sufficiently wise and all-seeing. And we would never be able to sustain our action in order to achieve such a monumental outcome. We would become overwhelmed in the attempt.
Instead, as Nouwen rightly reminds us, action ‘is a joyful assertion that in Christ all order has already been restored’. Such action works out of a final promise, not towards such a promise. It springs from a believed goal, rather than making such a goal believable. Such hope not only inspires our action, but makes it sustainable.
PRAYER AND HOPE
The prayer that leads to partnership.
-Matthew 26:39
We have suggested that solitude has primarily to do with developing a new attentiveness. Thus listening lies at the heart of the practice of solitude. But good listening involves conversation. In conversation what one hears can be questioned, elaborated upon, made more specific and made more applicable to our situation.
This type of conversation highlights one form of prayer. This is not the prayer of adoration, nor that of thanksgiving, nor that of supplication. It is the prayer that probes and looks for greater light. It is the prayer that goes on seeking because it is not satisfied that it has understood all that needs to be grasped.
While Nouwen’s assertion that ‘every prayer is an expression of hope’ is true, the prayer that probes is particularly the prayer of hope. Its hope is not that it expects God to intervene marvellously and to change situations miraculously. Its hope is very different. Its hope lies in gaining a sense of what is on God’s heart. It seeks to understand God’s purposes. It seeks to enter into God’s concerns and obediently to discern his will. It does this because it believes that in doing the will of God our life will find its true purpose and this world will become a better place.
This form of prayer, which probes and question in order to understand more clearly, is the prayer that believes in partnership. It sees us linking our concerns, priorities and activities with God’s intention and this lives in the hope that God’s kingdom will be more fully reflected in our world.
HINDRANCES BECOME A WAY
The creative use of difficulty
-Jame 1:2-4
Creating space for ourselves, learning to be still and entering into solitude serve not only our spiritual development. These disciplines also help us to become our own persons. It is a way in which we can become sure of who we are, what we believe and what we must do. Solitude is a way of self-formation.
Solitude is also a way of making us more resourceful and creative. It can help us to reorient our thinking, so that, in the words of Nouwen, ‘what seems a hindrance becomes a way’. This is not easy. Hindrances and difficulties often frustrate us. They can make us angry at others, and even at God. They make us feel victimised and can drive us to self-doubt and despair. We prefer to side-step difficulties. We feel that we have run out of luck when too many hindrances stare us in the face. We curse fate and we doubt God’s benevolence and care. We seldom do well in difficulty.
This is often due to the fact that we lack inner resources and a strong resolve. We see hindrances and difficulties as ‘just one more thing on our plate’ that we don’t have time for.
And yet we could learn so much if we faced our difficulties. Sometimes difficulties can tell us much about ourselves. They can always tell us something about our world. And they can usually teach us something regarding new ways of responding and acting.
It is difficulty that has inspired some members of the human race to great creativity. It is an important factor in change. It is also the way in which we can become more careful and prayerful. And sometimes, when we take the time to be still and face the difficulties before us, we discover that they were not what they at first seemed- a hindrance – but were in fact a way to new experiences.
PRAYER FRIEND
Nourishing the inner life.
John 15:15
It is a paradox that in this time in history where we have created the megapolis and therefore live in increasingly crowded spaces, we can experience so much loneliness. It is a further paradox that in spite of the major advances in medical technology, we are still so unwell and that, in spite of the communication revolution, we still feel so alienated. We can safely say that whatever we seem to create at a societal level, however good it is, also has negative implications.
But more deeply, our difficulties cannot simply be laid at the feet of society. They also lie within us. And often feel deeply lonely, purposeless, frustrated, misunderstood and unloved. Our brave front and our many achievements don’t ease the pain of our inner poverty.
The enrichment of our inner life is therefore not an optional extra. It is life itself. It will allow us to hold our achievements with open hands in the realization that we are more than our accomplishments. It will also allow us to respond creatively to difficulty because we have wells to draw from that need never be dry.
Prayer is one way of nourishing the inner life. This is so, as Nouwen reminds us, because ‘the praying man is he who comes out of his shelter and not only has the courage to see his own poverty, but also sees that there is no enemy to hide from, only a friend who would like nothing better than to clothe him with his own coat.’
ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
Sowing good seed for good results
Luke 8:15
We live in a refractory and difficult world. Our experience confirms this. Things do not always work out, despite our careful planning.
This does not mean, however, that everything is random. Some things do follow. When we freely forgive a person who has hurt us we can be sure that we will banish bitterness from our hearts. When we serve others, not out of guilt or compulsion, but out of love, we ourselves will be blessed. When we give, not because we expect to receive, but freely and with a generous heart, we will receive. When we become men and women of prayer, we will grow in spiritual wisdom. When we live in obedience to God’s will, our lives will be fruitful.
Things, however, follow not only in the spiritual realm, but in the practical as well. If we take time for solitude and renewal, we will be refreshed,. If we care for our souls, our bodies will also be blessed.
Henri Nouwen asserts that ‘he who has the day will gain the night as well’. If our day is spent purposefully, the blessing of a good night’s rest will be ours as well. Good actions can have good consequences. Good seed can produce good fruit.
Sadly, we often focus too much on results and not enough on the factors that produce such results. We want to pluck fruit from trees we have not planted and watered. We want to be blessed without walking the road of obedience. We want to experience well-being without caring for our own bodies. We want inner peace without being honest and transparent.
Yet we can have what we want. But this will involve sowing and watering. It will involve laying good foundations. It will involve doing what is right ahead of that which suits us. It may well involve walking the seemingly long road of faith and obedience rather that taking short cut to grasp the promised goal.
A Henry Gariepy Collections : When Life Gets Tough
WHEN LIFE COMES TUMBLING DOWN
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.-Psalm 46:1
Trouble eventually knocks at everyone’s door. Sometimes it doesn’t bother to knock, it bangs the door down –ruthlessly, violently, unexpected and unwanted.
Job’s plaintive warning echoes across the centuries: “Man is born to trouble…” Sometimes it is as a far off shadow, but inexorably it moves closer and will surely come to our door.
So what do we do when trouble comes, when life comes tumbling down about us? Do we seek to run from it? Refuse to face reality? Give up?
Any glib and simple answers about trouble and tragedy just do not ring true in a world where headlines scream to us of the millions of starving, the plight of refugees, the inhumanity of the holocaust, the slaughters by terrorists, and the nuclear nightmare that haunts every new generation.
“Bad things do not happen for nay good reason,” states Rabbi Harold Kusner in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. “But, “ He tells us, “we can redeem these tragedies from senselessness by imposing meaning on them. The question we should be asking is not, “Why did this happen to me? That is rally unanswerable. A better question would be, ‘Now that this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?”
The psalmist invites us to put our trust in God as our refuge and strength. The God who cares is there to help and to heal when life comes tumbling down around us.
TODAY GOD IS REACHING OUT TO YOU. WILL YOU REACH OUT TO HIM?
THE CRISIS OF CHANGE
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.-Hebrew 13:8
Many of us can remember when “setting the world on fire” was merely a figure of speech, only preachers were preparing people to travel to outer space, a floppy dist was something you consulted your chiropractor about, and people were smarter than machines. Dynamic change is a trademark of our times. As Bob Dylan sang, “The times, they are a changin’!”
It has often been said since September 11, 2001, that life will never be same again. In a matter of minutes, our nation was changed from a country of peaceful security to a place vulnerable to the monstrous acts of terrorism and threatened with weapons of mass destruction.
The crisis of change also occurs on a personal level. Today we may march forth in health and vigour. Suddenly, sickness unhinges our knees and we become horizontal citizens of the sickroom, unwilling initiates into the fellowship of pain. Misfortune can overtake us in a moment, shatter our dreams, and bring us to the brink of desperation.
Alvin Toffler’s popular book, Future Shock, was written to “help us survive our collision course with tomorrow” as we face “death of permanence.” It was designed as a textbook with strategies for survival for those overwhelmed by change and its impacts.
But, of course, we already have a textbook for coping with the crisis change. The Bible provides the needed survival strategies and tells us of the One who remains unchanging in our changing world.
IN THE SWIRL OF CHANGE, COMMIT TO CLING TO THE ONE WHO NEVER CHANGES FOR YOUR STRENGTH.
THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR
Therefore we will not fear. –Psalm 46:2
When the forecast calls for a storm, ships need a sure anchor; trees, deep roots; persons, a firm foundation of faith.
Faith in god becomes the antidote to fear. Like the psalmist, we, too, can declare in the middle of life’s crises, “Therefore we will not fear.” Throughout the Bible there are 365 “fear nots” or its equivalent. God has given us one for every day of the year!
A symbol of arrogance is found in the epigram carved over a doorway on the Titanic: “Not even God can sink this ship.” Its blasphemy still rots at the bottom of the Atlantic. Modern man is infected with the myth of self-sufficiency, of autonomy. The psalmist reminds us that we are insufficient in our own strength alone, that we need God as our refuge and strength for the trials and testings that surely will come our way.
This 46th Psalm became a major source of comfort and courage in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001. The psalm was read on televised programs across the country. As described in the psalm, those things that had once seemed so secure came tumbling down upon us. Life could never again be the same. More than ever we have needed the assuring word that God is an ever-present help in trouble, and because He is with us, we need not fear.
Sooner or later stressful situations will beset each life, some striking us as emotional earthquakes.
WHEN SHATTERING EXPERIENCES COME INTO YOUR LIFE, IN PLACE OF FEAR GOD WILL GIVE YOU COURAGE AND COMFORT.
ABIDE WITH ME
Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. –Luke 24:29
In one of the most beautiful accounts in the New Testament, following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. For them, it was a road of disappointment, of heartbreak, of defeat. Their bright dreams of tomorrow had been turned into the grim nightmare of Calvary.
They did not recognize Christ, and as they approached their destination He seemed ready to take leave of them and go on. But following His luminous discourse with them, they urged Him to stay with them as evening was falling.
To each life there comes the time when the shadows of evening fall upon our pathway, and we need the presence of the lord. It is evening for our world when hope seems hard to find. It is evening for our families when troubles come. It is evening for us when we experience loss, illness, grief, or tragedy. And nightfall often comes with death.
When the evening times of life come, we would ask the risen Lord, as did the disciples of old, “Abide with us.” His presence sustains us and His promise stretches past the darkness into the brightness of day. As those two companions of old, we ,too, will rejoice in the glow of His presence as He turns our Good Friday into Easter Sunday.
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
TAKE A MOMENT TO STAND AND READ ALOUD THIS PRAYER.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
If a man dies, will he live again? –Job 14:14
Job asked the universal question. He put into words the yearning of all humanity.
This ancient question echoes across the centuries and remains the central question of life. Inscriptions on tombs of tribes extinct for centuries offer mute testimony to man’s ancient quest for immortality.
Posed as an anxious question, Job referred to death as “the king of terrors” and “a journey of not return”. Death imposes for many a certain fear and anxiety. The question expose Job’s hope and quest for immortality.
The schools of philosophy cannot answer Job’s question. It is beyond the realm of science and technology. This ancient, anxious, and argued question finds its answer only in Christ. The Risen Lord alone could declare with ultimate authority: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25). The resurrection of Jesus Christ once and for all indisputably answered Job’s age-old question, “If a man dies, will he live again?”
Beethoven’s 6th symphony sounds the crash of the storm, followed by the first tremulous notes of new hope, broadening into a song of thanksgiving. That is something of what happened between Good Friday and Easter. And because of that, when storm and death strike, we have a hope that is an anchor for the soul.
Christ’s resurrection solved the riddle of death. It means that the worst has been met and conquered, and no matter what, the last word will be victory.
YOU CAN BE CONFIDENT IN CHRIST THAT DEATH IS NOT THE END BUT THE BEGINNING IN ETERNITY.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.-Psalm 46:1
Trouble eventually knocks at everyone’s door. Sometimes it doesn’t bother to knock, it bangs the door down –ruthlessly, violently, unexpected and unwanted.
Job’s plaintive warning echoes across the centuries: “Man is born to trouble…” Sometimes it is as a far off shadow, but inexorably it moves closer and will surely come to our door.
So what do we do when trouble comes, when life comes tumbling down about us? Do we seek to run from it? Refuse to face reality? Give up?
Any glib and simple answers about trouble and tragedy just do not ring true in a world where headlines scream to us of the millions of starving, the plight of refugees, the inhumanity of the holocaust, the slaughters by terrorists, and the nuclear nightmare that haunts every new generation.
“Bad things do not happen for nay good reason,” states Rabbi Harold Kusner in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. “But, “ He tells us, “we can redeem these tragedies from senselessness by imposing meaning on them. The question we should be asking is not, “Why did this happen to me? That is rally unanswerable. A better question would be, ‘Now that this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?”
The psalmist invites us to put our trust in God as our refuge and strength. The God who cares is there to help and to heal when life comes tumbling down around us.
TODAY GOD IS REACHING OUT TO YOU. WILL YOU REACH OUT TO HIM?
THE CRISIS OF CHANGE
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.-Hebrew 13:8
Many of us can remember when “setting the world on fire” was merely a figure of speech, only preachers were preparing people to travel to outer space, a floppy dist was something you consulted your chiropractor about, and people were smarter than machines. Dynamic change is a trademark of our times. As Bob Dylan sang, “The times, they are a changin’!”
It has often been said since September 11, 2001, that life will never be same again. In a matter of minutes, our nation was changed from a country of peaceful security to a place vulnerable to the monstrous acts of terrorism and threatened with weapons of mass destruction.
The crisis of change also occurs on a personal level. Today we may march forth in health and vigour. Suddenly, sickness unhinges our knees and we become horizontal citizens of the sickroom, unwilling initiates into the fellowship of pain. Misfortune can overtake us in a moment, shatter our dreams, and bring us to the brink of desperation.
Alvin Toffler’s popular book, Future Shock, was written to “help us survive our collision course with tomorrow” as we face “death of permanence.” It was designed as a textbook with strategies for survival for those overwhelmed by change and its impacts.
But, of course, we already have a textbook for coping with the crisis change. The Bible provides the needed survival strategies and tells us of the One who remains unchanging in our changing world.
IN THE SWIRL OF CHANGE, COMMIT TO CLING TO THE ONE WHO NEVER CHANGES FOR YOUR STRENGTH.
THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR
Therefore we will not fear. –Psalm 46:2
When the forecast calls for a storm, ships need a sure anchor; trees, deep roots; persons, a firm foundation of faith.
Faith in god becomes the antidote to fear. Like the psalmist, we, too, can declare in the middle of life’s crises, “Therefore we will not fear.” Throughout the Bible there are 365 “fear nots” or its equivalent. God has given us one for every day of the year!
A symbol of arrogance is found in the epigram carved over a doorway on the Titanic: “Not even God can sink this ship.” Its blasphemy still rots at the bottom of the Atlantic. Modern man is infected with the myth of self-sufficiency, of autonomy. The psalmist reminds us that we are insufficient in our own strength alone, that we need God as our refuge and strength for the trials and testings that surely will come our way.
This 46th Psalm became a major source of comfort and courage in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001. The psalm was read on televised programs across the country. As described in the psalm, those things that had once seemed so secure came tumbling down upon us. Life could never again be the same. More than ever we have needed the assuring word that God is an ever-present help in trouble, and because He is with us, we need not fear.
Sooner or later stressful situations will beset each life, some striking us as emotional earthquakes.
WHEN SHATTERING EXPERIENCES COME INTO YOUR LIFE, IN PLACE OF FEAR GOD WILL GIVE YOU COURAGE AND COMFORT.
ABIDE WITH ME
Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. –Luke 24:29
In one of the most beautiful accounts in the New Testament, following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. For them, it was a road of disappointment, of heartbreak, of defeat. Their bright dreams of tomorrow had been turned into the grim nightmare of Calvary.
They did not recognize Christ, and as they approached their destination He seemed ready to take leave of them and go on. But following His luminous discourse with them, they urged Him to stay with them as evening was falling.
To each life there comes the time when the shadows of evening fall upon our pathway, and we need the presence of the lord. It is evening for our world when hope seems hard to find. It is evening for our families when troubles come. It is evening for us when we experience loss, illness, grief, or tragedy. And nightfall often comes with death.
When the evening times of life come, we would ask the risen Lord, as did the disciples of old, “Abide with us.” His presence sustains us and His promise stretches past the darkness into the brightness of day. As those two companions of old, we ,too, will rejoice in the glow of His presence as He turns our Good Friday into Easter Sunday.
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
TAKE A MOMENT TO STAND AND READ ALOUD THIS PRAYER.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
If a man dies, will he live again? –Job 14:14
Job asked the universal question. He put into words the yearning of all humanity.
This ancient question echoes across the centuries and remains the central question of life. Inscriptions on tombs of tribes extinct for centuries offer mute testimony to man’s ancient quest for immortality.
Posed as an anxious question, Job referred to death as “the king of terrors” and “a journey of not return”. Death imposes for many a certain fear and anxiety. The question expose Job’s hope and quest for immortality.
The schools of philosophy cannot answer Job’s question. It is beyond the realm of science and technology. This ancient, anxious, and argued question finds its answer only in Christ. The Risen Lord alone could declare with ultimate authority: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25). The resurrection of Jesus Christ once and for all indisputably answered Job’s age-old question, “If a man dies, will he live again?”
Beethoven’s 6th symphony sounds the crash of the storm, followed by the first tremulous notes of new hope, broadening into a song of thanksgiving. That is something of what happened between Good Friday and Easter. And because of that, when storm and death strike, we have a hope that is an anchor for the soul.
Christ’s resurrection solved the riddle of death. It means that the worst has been met and conquered, and no matter what, the last word will be victory.
YOU CAN BE CONFIDENT IN CHRIST THAT DEATH IS NOT THE END BUT THE BEGINNING IN ETERNITY.
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