This is a great article I found on www.relevantmagazine.com - thought I would share it :)
............................
I had a Samsung Black Jack for a couple of years--the cute little red one. Unfortunately, my dog chewed on it one too many times, and some of the buttons stopped working. It did not receive emails, and picture texts were 30 cents each. My husband, who adores his iPhone, kept trying to persuade me to get one as well. It just seemed like too much work to me. Finally after my Black Jack had received it's last phone call and promptly died, I decided it was time to get an iPhone. After all, it would be nice to have all of those apps, right?
Everyone kept telling me, "If you get an iPhone you will love it!" I wasn’t totally convinced, but after a week of app-ing it up and texting pictures like crazy, I admit: I love this thing.
This morning when I was walking into the office, checking my emails on the elevator, I realized why people love the iPhone. Simply put, it makes them feel important. It makes them feel needed. It makes them feel that they are a supply in demand.
Think about the first people who started to carry pocket watches. These were the wealthy gentlemen who were imperative to society like the doctor and the mayor. Their time was so precious and their schedule so important that they had to have access to the time constantly. Before pocket watches, I am sure no one was ever on time. Nothing was pressing and no appointment was set in stone. But those people who carried time with them constantly--they were needed; they were important.
Again we saw this phenomenon with automobiles. All of the sudden someone’s affairs were so important that they had to have faster, more efficient transportation in order to get to their highly exclusive and significant events. I am convinced, that new technology is addicting because it gives people this false sense of self-worth. Any history teacher or stay at home mom can suddenly be the coolest and trendiest person with the help of that new great thing. Do you remember the first family in your neighborhood that got a desktop computer? Now they were cool.
On one hand, feeling important can be good for one’s psyche. It is the fake-til-you-make-it philosophy. I feel important, so I will act important. It is amazing what a little blind confidence can do for someone. But on the other hand, self-importance seems to be something swallowing our culture whole. Everyone wants to be famous. Everyone wants to be cool, creative, artsy. Everyone wants to have a blog—oh, wait a second ...
Everyone wants to feel important. I cannot accept this phenomenon at face value; I think this goes much deeper to an incarnate need we have as humans to feel valued and adored. Every person seeks to meet this need. Amazonian tribal members, who don’t own iPhones, seek importance through the acceptance and respect of the tribe’s elders. Infants seek to know their value displayed on their parents' faces and in the tone of their voices. And twenty-somethings with tiny seedling careers, like me, we seek it through the iPhone.
While the search for self-importance, the search for self-worth, can be extremely destructive when sought through artificial means, this ardent search is unavoidable. It is one reason why we get married, why we have careers and why we have children. It is our default setting, designed by God to make us eternal seekers for what is true, lovely and pure. I think God knew that we would, in a search for worth, pour our lives into our communities, into our children, and into others. I don't think it is an accident or wrong that we do this. Some people might protest that we should not seek to find meaning through avenues aside from Christ, but I believe that when our efforts are relational and not self-seeking, we find God there. One of the greatest surprises in life is when we realize our worth in Christ, and we weren't even looking for it.
by Kate Blackwell
Thursday 27 May 2010
Thought for the day
"Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others
without putting his thumb on the scale."
- Byron J. Langnefield
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,
but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
Philippians 2:3
without putting his thumb on the scale."
- Byron J. Langnefield
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,
but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
Philippians 2:3
Thursday 20 May 2010
Liquid
Dear God,
Help us to allow you to be liquid in our lives.
Seep into our cracks and crevices and fill our empty spaces.
Allow us the ability to let go and let you flow.
We call on you for every little thing...
no matter how big or how small.
We invite you in.
We love you.
Abide in us.
Amen.
Help us to allow you to be liquid in our lives.
Seep into our cracks and crevices and fill our empty spaces.
Allow us the ability to let go and let you flow.
We call on you for every little thing...
no matter how big or how small.
We invite you in.
We love you.
Abide in us.
Amen.
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Let's get building!
So I heard my first 'lady-exhort' on Sunday at Mt Colah meeting in Sydney...Jenni Pogson gave a brilliant talk and I enjoyed it so much that I asked her if i could share some of her thoughts with you! I hope you find as many gems as I did :) Hurrah! :)
.................................................
Now Haggai is an interesting book, it kind of doesn’t get much attention, it’s hidden away with all the other minor prophets, and it can be sometimes hard to find any encouragement or message from those guys up the back of the Old Testament, let alone trying to pronounce their names right. I’ve always said Haggai, some people say HaggAi, but I think I’ll just stick to what I am used to.
So Haggai was a prophet at a time where the people were back from exile in Babylon and had been living in Jerusalem for some years. These people had been through a lot, they had been living in a completely different country for decades in a foreign culture, a lot of them would know no other life really. I would have taken awhile to get back on their feet, get used to their country again, establish roots and find some normality in their lives. But it had been quite a few years since they had been back, probably about 16 years in fact, and everyone was settled in, had built some very nice houses for themselves. But while they were living these nice lives, God’s house, the Temple, was still lying in ruins. The foundation had actually been laid just after they arrived back in Jerusalem, but never finished, and so it just sat there, neglected and basically in ruins for years and years.
It says in Haggai that the people kept putting it off – “The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built”, they said. They were waiting for the perfect time, a time when they felt it was right to be built. They had to be ready, the conditions had to be right, before they could really make an effort to build God’s house. But God would have none of that. “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains in ruins?” he says through Haggai. The people were so caught up in their own lives, so intent on making a comfortable live for themselves, on focussing on their own concerns and comforts first, that they really had no time to be thinking about God. It was them first, God second. They did not make God a priority in their lives.
Sounds familiar hey. I know it’s so easy to get caught up in our lives, to be concerned about getting our own lives in order, getting a nice house, focusing on doing well at our jobs so we can move up the ladder and do well for ourselves and our family, that God is kind of pushed to the side a little. I mean, we come to church on Sunday, but how much of a sacrifice is that? God’s not interested in playing second, third or fourth fiddle to everything else going on in our lives. He wants to be our whole lives, for us to be so consumed with passion for Him that in permeates every aspect of our every day.
And it’s so easy to think that it really has to be the right time before we can do God’s work. We have to wait for the right moment to really commit ourselves to building God’s house, to build his church, to allow ourselves to do his work here on earth, to put Him first before anything else. But while we wait for the right time, God’s house is lying in ruins. There are people in our community who need us. There are people who are so lonely that just one visit a week from a few friendly people would mean the world to them. There are people who are not able to perform tasks such as mowing their lawn or changing a light bulb, because of a disability or some sort of limitation. And there are people who have everything but feel some sort of emptiness inside and are searching for more, but don’t know where to look. The community needs us, and God needs us to build his house here in Mt Colah.
I know sometimes we’ll do a preaching effort and spend a day really trying to do good and spread the word of God. Sometimes we feel like we have “planted much, but harvested little”. That’s what the people of Haggai’s day felt. They felt they had done some pretty good stuff, but they weren’t seeing the benefits of it. It can sometimes feel like that, can’t it. We do a big preaching day and then are surprised and disappointed that no one responds. Oh well, we say, we tried. We tried to build God’s house, we spent a whole day trying to do it, but no one cared. I guess they are just not interested. Or we do something nice for someone, a good deed, and feel really good about ourselves. I don’t really think this is building God’s house. It may be laying the foundation, but then there’s no follow-up. It takes more than one day to build a house. It takes commitment and it takes care and consistency. It needs to be ongoing, we need to take an interest in people’s lives, rather than just a blitzkrieg and then nothing. If we’re going to build God’s house it takes time and it takes effort.
Haggai said to the people, “go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured”. Going up a mountain takes effort. Going up a mountain and carrying massive trees back down, it’s not just an afternoon activity.
It all just seems like hard work doesn’t it? But it’s not about work, it’s about changing the way we live our lives to be more responsive to what God is leading us to do. It’s putting Him and His work first in our lives. And you know what? God is with us! God says to the people “I am with you”. He is behind us 100%, because it’s not our work we’re doing, it’s His! He’s got this weird way of working where he uses the weakest things you can imagine, us, to complete his will on earth.
So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerrubabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people, says in verse 14. And they began work on the house of the Lord Almightly, their God.
Do you sometimes feel stirred to do something? You get a sudden enthusiasm for a particular project or idea, and you get really excited, maybe after a conference, or after hearing something, and you just really want to do it! But then after a while things get in the way, and the excitement dies, and then you pretty much forget about it. It happens to me all the time. Did you ever think that maybe God is stirring us to do something? But if that’s true, what happens when we just ignore it and do nothing?
At a recent women’s conference one of the speakers was the founder of the A21 project, an organisation that seeks to end trafficking of women and children around the world and rescue them from sexual slavery. The speaker said on a recent trip to the shelter they have for these women in Greece there was a woman, originally from somewhere in Eastern Europe, who had only been saved from sexual slavery for about two days. She was understandably angry and bitter and still untrusting of the organisation that had helped rescue her. In her broken English she asked the speaker why they had come and why they were doing this work. The speaker said they were Christians and they felt they were doing God’s work in freeing women from bondage and abuse. She felt good she could explain to this woman how great God was that he could free her and others from such horrific circumstances.
Suddenly the woman burst out, “Then why didn’t you come sooner?” The speaker was taken aback, as this was not the response she was expecting. “There are thousands of women who have been in slavery for years, why are you only coming now? Why has God only heard our cries for help now?” the woman asked angrily.
The speaker paused, then said to her: “Honey, God has always heard your cry, it just took me this long to hear it”.
God always hears cries for help. He is not deaf or busy doing something else, he hears the cries from our lips and the cries from our hearts. “When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate,” says the Lord in Exodus 22:27.
“The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles,” David writes in Psalm 34:17.
However, the way God works in the world, the way he chooses to do his will and outwork his plan for the earth, is most extraordinary. He uses us. Us, the weak and broken people we are. He uses us to spread his message of love, justice, peace and salvation to the world. He uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong, 1 Corinthians says.
We are Christ's ambassadors, Paul says. Jesus was sent here on the earth to show us that we can become the righteousness of God.
Why does God, all throughout the Bible, urge us to “defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless” (Psalm 82:3), “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute,” (Prov 31:8), “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Why doesn’t just God do it himself? Because God works through us for his own purpose, if we allow ourselves to be his instruments. We are the answers to the millions of prayers that rise to God every day, we are the answer to the cries of help from those who are lonely, who need a friend, who need encouragement. But God will not interfere with our free will. He wants us as willing servants. He may want us to be an answer to someone’s prayer, but it is up to us whether we are willing. He may stir us to so something, but it is still up to us whether we do it.
How many answers to prayers have been delayed because we couldn’t be bothered listening to that call in our heart to reach out to someone in need? How many prayers are still waiting to be answered? We are how God defends the cause of the weak and fatherless, we are how God looks after orphans and widows in their distress. But we need to be willing participants in God’s work. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few, Jesus said. Why does God allow suffering and loneliness and injustice in the world? Because we allow it.
So next time we have an urge to call someone we haven’t spoken to in awhile, to help that elderly neighbour do some housework, to send a card, to donate money, to start a project at here at Mt Colah or your church, maybe we shouldn’t ignore it. We may just be the answer to a prayer. It may be God desperately trying to get us to help him do his work. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).
We need to respond. We need to build God’s house, we need to get to work! For too long God’s house has remained a ruin while we live comfortably in ours. God is with us! He has asked us to be part of this exciting adventure we call life. If we let him God can take us on an amazing journey, where we can meet amazing people and allow God to touch lives through us, and let him touch our lives as well. We should be honoured that God lets us be a part of his plans. It’s not meant to be a chore, or work, it’s meant to be our life. So let’s live it the way God wants us to, not because that’s what God told us to do, but because our will and his will align so closely together. Let us begin work on the house of the Lord Almighty, our God.
.................................................
Now Haggai is an interesting book, it kind of doesn’t get much attention, it’s hidden away with all the other minor prophets, and it can be sometimes hard to find any encouragement or message from those guys up the back of the Old Testament, let alone trying to pronounce their names right. I’ve always said Haggai, some people say HaggAi, but I think I’ll just stick to what I am used to.
So Haggai was a prophet at a time where the people were back from exile in Babylon and had been living in Jerusalem for some years. These people had been through a lot, they had been living in a completely different country for decades in a foreign culture, a lot of them would know no other life really. I would have taken awhile to get back on their feet, get used to their country again, establish roots and find some normality in their lives. But it had been quite a few years since they had been back, probably about 16 years in fact, and everyone was settled in, had built some very nice houses for themselves. But while they were living these nice lives, God’s house, the Temple, was still lying in ruins. The foundation had actually been laid just after they arrived back in Jerusalem, but never finished, and so it just sat there, neglected and basically in ruins for years and years.
It says in Haggai that the people kept putting it off – “The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built”, they said. They were waiting for the perfect time, a time when they felt it was right to be built. They had to be ready, the conditions had to be right, before they could really make an effort to build God’s house. But God would have none of that. “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains in ruins?” he says through Haggai. The people were so caught up in their own lives, so intent on making a comfortable live for themselves, on focussing on their own concerns and comforts first, that they really had no time to be thinking about God. It was them first, God second. They did not make God a priority in their lives.
Sounds familiar hey. I know it’s so easy to get caught up in our lives, to be concerned about getting our own lives in order, getting a nice house, focusing on doing well at our jobs so we can move up the ladder and do well for ourselves and our family, that God is kind of pushed to the side a little. I mean, we come to church on Sunday, but how much of a sacrifice is that? God’s not interested in playing second, third or fourth fiddle to everything else going on in our lives. He wants to be our whole lives, for us to be so consumed with passion for Him that in permeates every aspect of our every day.
And it’s so easy to think that it really has to be the right time before we can do God’s work. We have to wait for the right moment to really commit ourselves to building God’s house, to build his church, to allow ourselves to do his work here on earth, to put Him first before anything else. But while we wait for the right time, God’s house is lying in ruins. There are people in our community who need us. There are people who are so lonely that just one visit a week from a few friendly people would mean the world to them. There are people who are not able to perform tasks such as mowing their lawn or changing a light bulb, because of a disability or some sort of limitation. And there are people who have everything but feel some sort of emptiness inside and are searching for more, but don’t know where to look. The community needs us, and God needs us to build his house here in Mt Colah.
I know sometimes we’ll do a preaching effort and spend a day really trying to do good and spread the word of God. Sometimes we feel like we have “planted much, but harvested little”. That’s what the people of Haggai’s day felt. They felt they had done some pretty good stuff, but they weren’t seeing the benefits of it. It can sometimes feel like that, can’t it. We do a big preaching day and then are surprised and disappointed that no one responds. Oh well, we say, we tried. We tried to build God’s house, we spent a whole day trying to do it, but no one cared. I guess they are just not interested. Or we do something nice for someone, a good deed, and feel really good about ourselves. I don’t really think this is building God’s house. It may be laying the foundation, but then there’s no follow-up. It takes more than one day to build a house. It takes commitment and it takes care and consistency. It needs to be ongoing, we need to take an interest in people’s lives, rather than just a blitzkrieg and then nothing. If we’re going to build God’s house it takes time and it takes effort.
Haggai said to the people, “go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured”. Going up a mountain takes effort. Going up a mountain and carrying massive trees back down, it’s not just an afternoon activity.
It all just seems like hard work doesn’t it? But it’s not about work, it’s about changing the way we live our lives to be more responsive to what God is leading us to do. It’s putting Him and His work first in our lives. And you know what? God is with us! God says to the people “I am with you”. He is behind us 100%, because it’s not our work we’re doing, it’s His! He’s got this weird way of working where he uses the weakest things you can imagine, us, to complete his will on earth.
So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerrubabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people, says in verse 14. And they began work on the house of the Lord Almightly, their God.
Do you sometimes feel stirred to do something? You get a sudden enthusiasm for a particular project or idea, and you get really excited, maybe after a conference, or after hearing something, and you just really want to do it! But then after a while things get in the way, and the excitement dies, and then you pretty much forget about it. It happens to me all the time. Did you ever think that maybe God is stirring us to do something? But if that’s true, what happens when we just ignore it and do nothing?
At a recent women’s conference one of the speakers was the founder of the A21 project, an organisation that seeks to end trafficking of women and children around the world and rescue them from sexual slavery. The speaker said on a recent trip to the shelter they have for these women in Greece there was a woman, originally from somewhere in Eastern Europe, who had only been saved from sexual slavery for about two days. She was understandably angry and bitter and still untrusting of the organisation that had helped rescue her. In her broken English she asked the speaker why they had come and why they were doing this work. The speaker said they were Christians and they felt they were doing God’s work in freeing women from bondage and abuse. She felt good she could explain to this woman how great God was that he could free her and others from such horrific circumstances.
Suddenly the woman burst out, “Then why didn’t you come sooner?” The speaker was taken aback, as this was not the response she was expecting. “There are thousands of women who have been in slavery for years, why are you only coming now? Why has God only heard our cries for help now?” the woman asked angrily.
The speaker paused, then said to her: “Honey, God has always heard your cry, it just took me this long to hear it”.
God always hears cries for help. He is not deaf or busy doing something else, he hears the cries from our lips and the cries from our hearts. “When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate,” says the Lord in Exodus 22:27.
“The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles,” David writes in Psalm 34:17.
However, the way God works in the world, the way he chooses to do his will and outwork his plan for the earth, is most extraordinary. He uses us. Us, the weak and broken people we are. He uses us to spread his message of love, justice, peace and salvation to the world. He uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong, 1 Corinthians says.
We are Christ's ambassadors, Paul says. Jesus was sent here on the earth to show us that we can become the righteousness of God.
Why does God, all throughout the Bible, urge us to “defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless” (Psalm 82:3), “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute,” (Prov 31:8), “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Why doesn’t just God do it himself? Because God works through us for his own purpose, if we allow ourselves to be his instruments. We are the answers to the millions of prayers that rise to God every day, we are the answer to the cries of help from those who are lonely, who need a friend, who need encouragement. But God will not interfere with our free will. He wants us as willing servants. He may want us to be an answer to someone’s prayer, but it is up to us whether we are willing. He may stir us to so something, but it is still up to us whether we do it.
How many answers to prayers have been delayed because we couldn’t be bothered listening to that call in our heart to reach out to someone in need? How many prayers are still waiting to be answered? We are how God defends the cause of the weak and fatherless, we are how God looks after orphans and widows in their distress. But we need to be willing participants in God’s work. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few, Jesus said. Why does God allow suffering and loneliness and injustice in the world? Because we allow it.
So next time we have an urge to call someone we haven’t spoken to in awhile, to help that elderly neighbour do some housework, to send a card, to donate money, to start a project at here at Mt Colah or your church, maybe we shouldn’t ignore it. We may just be the answer to a prayer. It may be God desperately trying to get us to help him do his work. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).
We need to respond. We need to build God’s house, we need to get to work! For too long God’s house has remained a ruin while we live comfortably in ours. God is with us! He has asked us to be part of this exciting adventure we call life. If we let him God can take us on an amazing journey, where we can meet amazing people and allow God to touch lives through us, and let him touch our lives as well. We should be honoured that God lets us be a part of his plans. It’s not meant to be a chore, or work, it’s meant to be our life. So let’s live it the way God wants us to, not because that’s what God told us to do, but because our will and his will align so closely together. Let us begin work on the house of the Lord Almighty, our God.
Sunday 16 May 2010
Life
The adventure of life is to learn.
The purpose of life is to grow.
The nature of life is to change.
The challenge of life is to overcome.
The essence of life is to care.
The opportunity of life is to serve.
The secret of life is to dare.
The spice of life is to befriend.
The beauty of life is to give.
By William Arthur Ward
God, please help us to learn, grow, change, overcome, care, serve, dare, befriend and give.
Amen.
The purpose of life is to grow.
The nature of life is to change.
The challenge of life is to overcome.
The essence of life is to care.
The opportunity of life is to serve.
The secret of life is to dare.
The spice of life is to befriend.
The beauty of life is to give.
By William Arthur Ward
God, please help us to learn, grow, change, overcome, care, serve, dare, befriend and give.
Amen.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
The Future
“I am not afraid of tomorrow,
for I have seen yesterday
and I love today.”
- William Allen White
"…In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."
2 Timothy 4:8
by BlueRose
for I have seen yesterday
and I love today.”
- William Allen White
"…In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."
2 Timothy 4:8
by BlueRose
Sunday 9 May 2010
Hope
God help us
If our world should grow dark
And there is no way of seeing or knowing.
Grant us courage and trust
To touch and be touched
To find our way onwards
By feeling.
Amen.
By Leunig
If our world should grow dark
And there is no way of seeing or knowing.
Grant us courage and trust
To touch and be touched
To find our way onwards
By feeling.
Amen.
By Leunig
Tuesday 4 May 2010
The 8 Happiness Rules
1. Keep your mind stored with positive, constructive thoughts.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Philippians 4:8
2. Look for the beautiful, simple and pleasant things in life.
"God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:24-25
3. Adjust yourself to whatever happens in life so you can make the best of it.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 1:2
4. Live in the present instead of worrying about the past or future.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
Matthew 6:25 – 34
5. Give every man a square deal, whether he be prince or pauper.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8
6. Do your job, no matter how humble it may be, with the best efforts you can give.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
Colossians 3:23-24
7. Do something for someone every day.
"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:16
8. Have faith in yourself, in others and in God.
"Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Psalm 37:5-6
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Philippians 4:8
2. Look for the beautiful, simple and pleasant things in life.
"God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:24-25
3. Adjust yourself to whatever happens in life so you can make the best of it.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 1:2
4. Live in the present instead of worrying about the past or future.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
Matthew 6:25 – 34
5. Give every man a square deal, whether he be prince or pauper.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8
6. Do your job, no matter how humble it may be, with the best efforts you can give.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
Colossians 3:23-24
7. Do something for someone every day.
"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:16
8. Have faith in yourself, in others and in God.
"Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Psalm 37:5-6
Saturday 1 May 2010
Bless us
God bless our contradictions, those parts of us which seem out of character.
Let us be boldly and gladly out of character.
Let us be creatures of paradox and variety: creatures of contrast, of light and shade: creatures of faith.
God be our constant.
Let us step out of character into the unknown, to struggle and love and do what we will.
Amen.
by Leunig
Let us be boldly and gladly out of character.
Let us be creatures of paradox and variety: creatures of contrast, of light and shade: creatures of faith.
God be our constant.
Let us step out of character into the unknown, to struggle and love and do what we will.
Amen.
by Leunig
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