Someone just told me about her son’s creative idea to avoid work.
They say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Well, if so, laziness must be the father! 🙂
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How Do You Become a Saint?
Last week, the Roman Catholic Church gave the title “saint” to two former popes. One was John XXIII, who said, “We were all made in God’s image, and thus, we are all Godly alike,” perhaps having failed to read this: “Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men” (Psalm 12:6). The other, John Paul II, said when elected, “I was afraid in receiving this nomination, but I did it in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord and with total trust in his Mother, the Most Holy Madonna.” He must have missed Psalm 62:5, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”
A Nasty Little Trick of Satan’s
I have a friend and brother whose wife is, by God’s grace, recovering from a very serious injury. I wrote him the following, and then thought it might be useful to others who are facing serious trials:
Still praying for ____ (his wife), of course. And for you. And that Satan won’t tempt her to feel a burden to you and others. That’s one of his most deceptive tricks, because he makes us think we are being unselfish by not being a burden when people who love us want to help us in times of need. He has all kinds of nasty tricks he uses at times like this. Praying you will both see clearly through it all.
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).
When we have true needs, we have to be willing to give others the privilege of bearing our burdens. We must not let the accuser deceive us into acting with false unselfishness or taking on ourselves a burden of false guilt.
Craftsman in Speech
“Make thyself a craftsman in speech, for thereby thou shalt gain the upper hand.”
– On a 3000 year old Egyptian tomb (HT: John Zimmer)“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God….
…And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
– In a 2000 year old letter to Corinth from a Christian apostle
An interesting contrast, is it not? Skill in speech has its value, but if it becomes a replacement for the power of God, you get converts to men (who are too often seeking to gain the upper hand) rather than to God.
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Bigger / Better
How often do poor misguided sinners pray for our ministries, “Lord, make us bigger,” when we should be pleading at the mercy seat, “Lord, make me better!”
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The Resurrection — Six Ways God Made it Easier to Believe
(A partial summary of Sunday’s sermon.)
When is the last time you saw someone resurrected from the dead? Been a while? 🙂
There is a reason it is not easy for people to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is unique, with no parallel in our personal experience — and we find it hard to believe anything we haven’t seen ourselves.
God knows that. And the point of sending His Son to save us was, well, to save us — so He wants us to believe. Though the resurrection at first seems difficult to believe, God did quite a few things to make it easier for us to believe it.
The Christian and Death
Bill stopped by my blog and encouraged me a couple weeks ago. No one knew but Bill and me, but it encouraged me a lot, because it wasn’t easy to do. Bill has ALS, and now can’t even use a “head mouse” (which operates by slight head movements). The disease has progressed to the point where he uses eye-tracking software to operate his computer.
Mind Renewers 