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| As always, God had my devotional say just the right thing. I was praying all this: “God I just don’t know what to do. I can’t do this on my own. I need you.” Then the still small voice says, “I know, that is what I have been trying to tell you all along.” “When I am nothing, God is everything. ONLY when I am nothing can God be everything to me. When I come to the end of myself, God is there.” Then I was reading this in my devotional: “If we are faithful, we will preserver and overcome the challenges placed before us. God will not abandon us in tough times and we should not abandon him. When it comes to the major league difficulties like death, disease, sin and disaster – you know that God cares. But what about the smaller things? What about broken dishes, late lights, toothaches or a crashed hard drive? I’m glad you asked. Let me tell you who you are. In face, let me proclaim who you are. You are an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. You are eternal, like an angel. You have a crown that will last forever. You are a holy priest, a treasured possession. You were chosen before the creation of the world. You are destined for “praise, fame, and honor, and you will be a holy people to the Lord your God (Deut. 26:19). But more than any of the above – more significant than any title or position – is the simple fact that you are God’s child. The father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children. As a result, if something is important to you, it’s important to God. So go ahead. Tell him what hurts. Talk to him. He won’t turn you away. He won’t think it’s silly. “For our high priest is able to understand our weakness. When he lived on earth, he was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace (Heb. 4:15-16). Does God care about the little things in our lives? You better believe it. If it matters to you, it matters to Him." Then I read this in Jesus Freaks II: “Father, make us more like Jesus. Help us to bear difficulty, pain, disappointment, and sorrow, knowing that in Your perfect working and design You can use such bitter experiences to mod our characters and make us more like our Lord. We look with hope to the day when we will be completely like Christ, because we will see Him as He is…My passions are crucified and there is no heat in my flesh, and a stream flows murmuring inside me – deep down in me saying, “Come to the Father.” – Ignatius, Rome, 111 A.D. | | |
| "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." - Colossians 2:8 | | |
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A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sand box!
The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the sand. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet (he was a very small boy and the rock was very huge). When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn't roll it up and over the little wall. Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sand box.
The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, and shoved; but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy's father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded.
The moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy's father. Gently, but firmly, he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had available?"
Defeated, the boy sobbed back, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I did use all the strength that I had!"
"No, son, you didn't use all the strength you had," corrected the father kindly. "You didn't ask me."
With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox. | | |
| The Starfish Flinger
As the old man walked down the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with the youth, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.
“ But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish,” countered the other. “How can your effort make any difference?” The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves.
“It makes a difference to that one,” he said | | |
| A man dies. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates.
St. Peter says, "Here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in."
"Okay," the man says, "I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart."
"That's wonderful," says St. Peter, "that's worth three points!"
"Three points?" he says. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service."
"Terrific!" says St. Peter. "That's certainly worth a point."
"One point!?!! I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans."
"Fantastic, that's good for two more points," he says.
"Two points!?!!" Exasperated, the man cries, "At this rate it'll just be by the grace of God that I ever get into heaven."
"Bingo, 100 points! Come on in!" | | |
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