Forwarded Messages

If you're going to spend over $650,000 building a new house, there's one important thing to do before you begin: make sure you are building in the right place. That's the lesson a Missouri couple learned the hard way. While building a luxury home in a beachfront development in Florida, they accidentally constructed on the lot next to the one they owned; they built on land belonging to someone else. The initial survey of the property was wrong, leading to the misplaced construction. Hopefully an acceptable agreement can be reached with the neighbors on whose land the house was built. You may also have heard the news about the Rhode Island developer that mistakenly built a $1.8 million house on public park land. Again, the survey was wrong. The error came to light when prospective buyers had their own survey done of the property. In that case, no settlement could be reached, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court ordered the house removed from public land. Jesus talked a...

We are connected to our iPhones, iPads, iTouch, iTunes, iMac, iChat, but have we lost the connection to the I AM?

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.  Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  (James 1:5-6 NLT) Father, give me wisdom as I begin this new day.  Help me to use my time,the time You have allotted me, wisely, not wastefully. Father, give me wisdom as I write these words. Please put words into my mind and allow them to flow into thoughts that are good news to the poor, that announce pardon to the imprisoned, recovery of sight to the blind, words that set the burdened and battered free, and words that announce, "This is God’s year to act!" (Luke 4:18-19 MSG). Father, give me wisdom so that when I speak I will say things that are pure and clean and words that help and give life to those who listen. Father, give me wisdom to lead my fami...

Constriction happens when we feel like our options are reduced to one or two bad possibilities. It's either "this" or "that," and "this" is horrible while "that" is disastrous. Here’s how to avoid making a hasty decision in panic, and prevent them from doing something rash. The first strategy is  D ELAY . Keep from making a rash move by waiting. As a Christian, waiting is not inaction; it is waiting on the Lord (Isaiah 40:28-31). It is time for prayer and for seeking God's will in Scripture. Often we cannot see the real situation and all the other possible options because we’re so caught up in the miseries of the moment. So often in the haste of the moment, we don't have all the facts or have misperceived the situation. A prayerful delay for a short time allows us to refocus and opens our heart so God can show us another way.

Is your computer safe? Do you know who might be lurking in your files, swiping your private information, accessing your financial records? Is someone stealing from you? Studies say that one out of every twenty Americans has suffered some sort of identity theft. Smartphone users were one third likelier to be targeted by thieves. There are approximately 378 million victims per year, or more than 1 million each day and 12 per second. Have I made you paranoid yet? In Jesus' day, identity theft wasn't a problem. Computer hackers didn't steal information. No one worried about cyber crime. Yet Jesus issued a security warning. He said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19). Even then, almost two thousand years ago, people had to worry about having their treasure stolen. Jesus had a solution as to how to prevent that: "But store up for yourselves trea...

I think sometimes that I don't understand anything about prayer. I pray a lot, mind you. It's just that I don't understand a great deal about it. I sometimes pray for good things, and they don't come. At other times, I pray for myself or others to be spared bad things, yet they still happen. How does prayer work? How do I know what to pray for? Do questions such as these ever bother you? Maybe at least part of our problem is in praying for wrong things. If that is the case, then I can certainly begin to see how praying could be confusing. When we are wrong-headed in what we ask, we can hardly blame God for failing to answer. Let me try to make sense of what I am struggling to say. Back in the earliest days of the church, Peter and John were called before the religious authorities of Jerusalem. They were ordered to stop preaching about Jesus in the city. They were, in fact, threatened that bad things would come down on them if they didn't stop. Duly wa...

She was nobody. A nameless woman in a sea of people.  A woman with a secret: she had a gynecological problem that caused her to bleed continually. Under Jewish law, anyone that touched her would be ceremonially unclean. So she hid in the crowd, seeking anonymity and isolation. Jesus was with Jairus, an important man in the community, a ruler of the synagogue. They were on an urgent mission to save Jairus' daughter, who was gravely ill. The woman wanted to be healed as well. She had heard of Jesus and the miracles he had done. She knew that no holy man would touch her on purpose... they wouldn't want to defile themselves in that way. She would have to find a way to be healed in secret. The gospel of Mark tells the story: When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from ...

The lead story on our local news this morning was about potholes. After the rough winter we have experienced already, the roads are a mess — with auto-damaging potholes on all the main thoroughfares. It reminds me of the way human life works. Life is a journey. We map our roads to success and happiness. There are curves along the way, and we must not give in to the temptation just to coast. Okay. You've got it. Right? The notion of life as a road to travel has been used in the Bible, by Scott Peck, and in the vocabularies of practically all of us. There are no roads without potholes. So the people who get the most joy out of life are the ones who learn early how to deal with discouragement. Temperament appears to predispose some people to see the dark side of situations and to incline toward pessimism. There are external circumstances over which one does not have control. There are people who can make life harder for you as critics or enemies. But you are not helpl...

How should Christians think about work, success and wealth?  The Parable of the Talents in MATTHEW 25:14:30 provides a helpful framework for this question.  1. First, this parable teaches us that success is a product of our work.   In the book of Genesis we see that God placed Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it. We were made to work. As Christians we have a mission that our Lord expects us to accomplish in the here and now. Far too many evangelical Christians today see their salvation as simply a “bus ticket to heaven.” They believe it doesn’t matter what they do while they “wait for the bus.” The Parable of the Talents teaches us what we are supposed to do while we await the return of our King. We are to work, using our talents to glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom. Biblical success is working diligently in the here and now using all the talents God has given us to produce the return expected...

REPOST FROM KALI Blogs  The two towering figures of the 20th-century church were canonized today at St. Peter's Square, in Vatican. Pope Francis has declared two of his predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, saints of the Roman Catholic church. Here's  the guardian update . I was once a believer of saints. I called them and prayed to them just like most of you do. But then, I learned the obvious - that they are human beings, lived a  holy life and served God with all their hearts and with all their souls. Just like us, when we live according to the teachings and examples of Jesus, when we put Him at the center of our lives, we too, is definitely living a holy life. Then, what made them extra special? I will not preach nor condemn the Roman Catholics. I understand we have differences.  You have your beliefs, and I have mine. The only thing that  I can do is to share a little of mine (since this is my blog)... Isn't Jesus enough?  He claimed it ...

It's the right time of the year. Maybe not the exact week nor the exact day. But this is the time of the year when Jesus Christ was crucified. For many of us, it's hard to imagine all of that really happening: the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the conflicts at the temple, the Last Supper, the prayerful night in Gethsemane, the betrayal, the arrests, the trials, the terrible death on the cross. It's easier to think of this story as a fable or fairy tale. Fodder for movies, Renaissance paintings and children's picture books, but not a part of the world we live in. But the crucifixion is a fact of history. God sent his Son to the earth, and evil men put him to death. Even the resurrection seems out of place in our world, though it fits the season better. Dead people stay dead in our world; the thought that Jesus escaped unscathed from the tomb seems like an unrealistic plot twist. Yet the resurrection also has its place in history. The two things go toget...

There was an old country doctor who would take his dog along with him  when visiting patients. The dog would remain outside while the doctor  went in for the house call. On one occasion, the physician went to the home of a man with a  terminal disease who didn't seem to have much time to live. The man  confessed to the doctor his fears about death and said, "What's it like  when you die?" The doctor thought for a moment, then got up and opened the front door.  His loyal canine friend, who had been waiting patiently on the porch,  gleefully bounded in to join his master.

Sometimes we say ...   "Lord, I am tired because there is too much ..."     * Too much stress.     * Too much stress over money.     * Too much stress over balancing, or trying to balance accounts.     * Too much stress over things that we cannot change.     * Too much stress due to talking about having a simpler life.     * Too much discontent.     * Too much time wasted on trivial and useless endeavours.     * Too much stuff.     * Too much stuff happening.

By Tom Norvell A friend of mine calls them dry times. Dry times are those times in  your life, more specifically in your spiritual life, when there seems  to be a void. A time when all the things you typically do to nourish  your soul seem to have stopped working. Some of you understand the dry  times very well. You have lived through them. You may be  going through  one right now. Maybe you have recently come out of such a time. Here  are a few examples of how a dry time may express itself. You are going through life pretty much like you always have, but one  day things seem different. The sky is not as blue. The breeze is not as  cool. The sunshine is not as bright. The snowfall is not as white.  Rainbows don't provide much of a thrill. And very few things seem to  give your heart much of a thrill. You are doing the same things you have always done. Except now you are  enjoying it less. Very few things seem to excite y...

There's an old story about an elderly woman who was told by her  physician that she probably wouldn't live much longer. Soon thereafter,  she called in her family to discuss her funeral arrangements. They  talked about how the service would be, where she would be buried, what  kind of casket would be used, etc. As the conversation was winding  down, the woman remarked, "There's one thing that's very important: I  want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."

We have a great coffee maker at work. You make one cup of your  personal favorite drink at a time. You can have any number of different  kinds of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Even better, you can brew your  cup at whatever strength you desire: weak, medium, or strong. You can  make it caffeinated, or decaf. And it only takes about one minute to  make. If Christians could ever present Christianity like that, we could  interest a lot more people. Christianity in small doses… however you  want it at any particular time. If you are feeling particularly  religious, you can get a strong dose of Jesus one day. If not, go a  little weaker. Jesus to suit your taste – just like you want him to be.

  Have you heard of the Winchester Mystery House? The sprawling house in  San Jose, California, is famous for its huge size and irregular layout.  It was under constant construction for 38 years, eventually coming to  have almost 160 rooms. Despite its great size, the house can be considered unfinished in many  ways. There are dozens of doors that open on blank walls, others with  knobs on only one side and inside doors with screens on them. There are  stairways that reach no destination, chimneys with no stoves, and  floors that you can see through. The construction shows a fascination with the number 13. All the  stairways are constructed in series of 13 steps. The chandeliers all  have 13 lights. Every wall has 13 panels. Each glass door has 13  pieces. Who would build such a house?

"Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not  light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds  it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors  together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin. In  the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the  angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:8-10 NIV).

I admit it. I love the office shredder. It might be because I am  mesmerized by loud machines that destroy things. But I am also  fascinated by the process. After a document is run through, there is no  way to reconstruct it, no way to put it together again, and no way to  know what was originally there. We use it to destroy sensitive  documents, addresses, and any material we do not want seen. I also use it for something else. I use it to destroy my mistakes. If I  print the wrong form, misspell a name, or use the wrong name -- a quick  trip to the shredder and it is as if it never happened. It is gone  forever.