Someone writes: “There is no use walking anywhere to preach, if your walking is not preaching.” True words. It’s easy to tell others how they should live, or to continually find fault with the behavior of those around us. Still, we all have clay feet. Wait, let me rather just talk for myself. Recently, when someone reminded me that I wrote about the control of our tongues and that it seemed to her that I spoke too easily in a specific situation, I tasted my clay tongue right there. I remembered that it’s easier to preach than to walk your preaching-route in everyday life.
Your route map for 2012
By
According to tradition, tent-dwelling Bedouins in the desert asked three things of any strangers they encountered: “Who are you? Where are you coming from? How far have you progressed on your journey?” Good questions, right? How about another here at the start of 2012: “How do you feel about the stage of your life that you’re currently at?”
That “midriff” … and other pleasures
By
A piece of additional good news here in the week of feasts, parties and eating-big is that researchers from the USA found that people don’t really pick up as much weight during the Christmas season as everyone thought. Yanovski and his team suggest that the average American pick up about 0.48 kg during the Christmas season. In fact, Lorrie Grant found that 25% of people doing shopping during this time suffer from intense headaches, and 11% of people struggle with sleeplessness. As to be expected, people generate 25% more rubbish during the festive season than in any other time of the year.
Hello there!!!
By
In a scene in one of the ever-popular Charlie Brown sketches, he stands dejected in front of his post box. That’s after he realized that he still didn’t receive any letter or Christmas card. Then Charlie walks away and mumbles: “Nobody sent me a Christmas card today. I almost wish there weren’t a holiday season. Now I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to draw attention to it?” Ouch! But still, this comic character gives us a window to see the loneliness that many experience during Christmas time.
Build your future right
By
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” writes Alan Kay. We don’t know what our futures look like. Like the author of Ecclesiastes say, we don’t know what lies around the corner. But we do know what God’s future is like. For instance, we hear in Matthew 25:31-46 that on the last day of world history Jesus will ask every person on earth how he treated Jesus’ friends. And his friends are the blind, naked, poor, strangers and jailbirds. This question is a certainty in the future of each of us.
It doesn’t matter
By
- It doesn’t matter where you are in your life right now — the Lord is there.
- It doesn’t matter how dark your life is at the moment — the Lord’s light is shining at full strength in the darkest dark and the brightest day.
- It doesn’t matter how far you have fallen, or whether you’re still falling — the Lord will catch you every time. You can never fall far enough to fall out of his hand.
- It doesn’t matter how small your faith is — the Lord will never give up on you. He stays faithful even when you are unfaithful.
- It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, God never measures your worth in monetary terms.
God’s way!
By
Frank Sinatra sang: “I did it my way.” I would also like to someday sing: “I did it God’s way.” No wait, I actually want to sing that tonight before bedtime already. I really don’t want to postpone walking with the Lord, from early to late, for another day. Days come and go. Months race past, the one after the other. But Godly days — they come only once.
Break down the house
By
Divine chances might come only once in a lifetime. That’s why the friends of the paralyzed man in Mark 2 opted for the radical route. They decided to break open the roof of Peter’s house in Capernaum, and to lower their friend down to the feet of Jesus. Talk about extreme! They couldn’t not do it. Maybe tomorrow Jesus would be gone. Then the chance of a lifetime would have been missed. They would lose their only chance to bring their friend to Jesus.
“Mine, mine!” or “I lack nothing.”
By
“Mine!” That’s what most toddlers say when you take their toys. There’s trouble if you dare not leaving it alone immediately, because it’s “Mine!” Some adults still live like this. Every desirable item they see has their name on it. “Mine, Mine!” is what they tell themselves every time they see a nice new car, cell phone, piece of clothing, camera, computer, or whatever. And then there is no rest for their souls until they acquire that very item. Oh yes, and they barely have it before the next thing must become “Mine!”
Fast and slow enough in the same breath
By
Do you sometimes want to push the guy in front of you in traffic off the road, out of hurry or pure frustration? Do you sometimes finish slow speakers’ sentences for them? Does someone who appears unexpectedly throw your schedule into disarray? Is your heart hurried? Wait, it’s not wrong to be fast. The problem is to be too fast. Or too slow! I’m referring to too fast or too slow for the Lord. If He does not determine your pace of life, you are always too fast or too slow!
Echurch is an online community of followers of Jesus. But we have a large footprint offline as well. We take the charge to care for those who can't care for themselves very seriously.