"it's not the sentiments of men which make History but..their actions" Norman Mailer - 1923- 2007-
The Double-Whammy
I want everybody I meet to meet Jesus.!! I want to see their lives transformed by Christ. But I don't think we're called to convert people. We're called to serve people. When you come to convert, people put up walls. I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't share your faith. Of course you share what is most important to you with others. It's only natural. But when you do that without relationship I think it can be counter-productive. Not always. But sometimes.
Paul gave us a great modus operandi in I Thesalonnians 2:8:
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
We need to share the gospel and share our lives. That is the double-whammy! When you share your life and serve people, even the highest walls come down. Then people want to hear what we have to say!
Here is the question we ought to ask the people we meet:
I've got a few unanswered questions about my life. I'd like to know if I'll ever be a homemaker and homeowner. I'd like to know how to sell and buy, as well as manage maintenance on, a car as a single woman. I'd like to know if I'll ever walk down the aisle as the main attraction instead of as a member of the supporting cast. I've discovered, though, that I rarely have to ask questions like this. There are plenty of other people in my life asking them for me.
At a church event one evening, I was serving punch, stocking cookie trays, and cleaning up messes, when a mere acquaintance asked one. Punch ladle in hand, attention focused on stirring pink sherbet, I heard his voice. "So, isn't it about time you got married?" Glancing left and right with the desperate hope that he was speaking to anyone else, I slowly looked up. Nope, I was the lucky target, and he hit the bull's-eye.
"Isn't it about time you got married?" He voiced one of those questions that lurks in the heart of every single adult who desires to be married. It resides next to half a dozen others we've been asked over the years--questions for which we either don't have the answers or don't like the answers:
Do you have a boyfriend?
You're a nice girl; why aren't you dating anyone?
How's your love life?
[Would you dare ask a married person this?!]
Are you looking for a husband?
So, you're still single?
Do you want to get married?
If you are single, you've fielded most of these and countless other remarks for which any answer seems inadequate. You've probably mastered the courtesy laugh and polite smile, and chances are you're an expert at shifting conversations away from your marital status.
While I laugh at both well-meaning friends and rude acquaintances for asking such bold things, they are really only voicing questions I have in my own head. I just don't ask them because I know there aren't answers.
If I'll marry, who I'll marry, when I'll marry, are some of God's question marks in my life, unknown obstacles in my race. That's the way God planned it. After wrestling repeatedly with these and other questions about singleness, I've resigned myself to the fact that God is the only One who knows the answers, and He's not telling. Most days I can live with that. Not everybody in my life has struggled through these issues, though, and so for them, I sometimes just don't fit into a preconceived mold.
One of my sisters is an expert puzzler. She holds the box in one hand and stirs through it with the other, looking for certain pieces. When she strikes, she's rarely wrong. Her practiced eye knows where pieces fit without even trying them. I love puzzles, too, and while I learned much of my skill from watching my sister, I can't compete with her prowess. I have a knack for picking a piece that looks like it should fit, but no matter how many times I try, it doesn't. I turn it and try again. Nope. I set it down in the corner of the board and when I come back to it, I think all over again that it must fit in that place. Like a dull-witted dog chasing parked cars, I keep putting the same right piece in the same wrong place. It makes no sense to me--how a piece with the right coloring and the right shape just doesn't fit.
To married friends and relatives, singles are sometimes those puzzle pieces. It looks to them as if we should fit in a certain place. In attempts to make us fit, they often ask bold questions. At times they answer their own questions when our responses fall short of what they hoped to hear:
God has someone very special for you.
You just wait--your day is coming.
You'll make somebody a perfect wife.
He just doesn't know what he's missing.
You never know who you'll meet.
I hope you meet someone special; I really want you to be happy.
Begging the forgiveness of my friends and family, I don't have nearly as many problems with the unanswered questions in my life as I do with their answers! I wholeheartedly recognize their good intentions. They never mean to be invasive or rude!!!; they really want only the best for me. I love them for it, and I've learned to laugh at them for it, too.
Like I said, most days I can live with God's absence of answers. But sometimes, I allow myself to listen to the well-meaning advice of bystanders, and I choose to hear their answers above the silence of God. When I filter their pieces of intended encouragement through my emotional sieve, I want to believe them. I want to take their statements as divine wisdom.
Maybe time will prove their words correct in my life, but I can't afford to live with that expectation. If I do, chances are good I will park myself on the side of the road or hoist a heavy bag over my shoulder and squander this leg of the race.
In poze sunt Raluca si Eldad Simon buni prieteni ... Cand faceau "reclama la casatorie" Materialul crestin este din : "Living Whole Without A Better Half" by Wendy Widder,
Happy Moments, Praise God Difficult Moments, Seek God Quiet Moments, Worship God Painful Moments, Trust God Every Moment, thank God
Worship is ...a discipline to be cultivated
Jesus said " Worship the Lord Your God" ( Matthew 4:10). To worship God throughout a lifetime requires discipline. Without discipline, our worship of GOD will be thin and inconsistent.
When I say that worship is FOCUSING on and responding to God, I hope to convey my conviction that true worship is always covered with heartprints. Worship can't be diagramed or calculated, for it is the response of a heart in love with God. And yet, we also must be able to think of worshipe as a Discipline, a Discipline that must be cultivated just as all relationships must be to remain healthy and grow.
Worship is a Spiritual Discipline- insofar as it is both an end and a means. The Worship of God is an end in itself because worship, as we've defined it, is to focus on and respond to GOD.
There is no higher goal than focusing on and responding to God. But Worship is also a means in the sense that it is a means to GODLINESS. The more truly we worship GOD, the more we become like HIM.
People become like their focus.
We emulate what we think about. Children pretend they are heroes they dream about. Teenagers dress like the sports stars or popular musicians they devote so much attention to. But the tendencies don't disappear when we become adults. Those who concentrate on "making it on the top" read the books of those " at the top", then copy their business style and personal habits. To illustrate the point on more crude level, those who focus on pornography mimic what they see. FOCUSING on the world more than on the LORD make us more worldly than Godly.
But if we would be Godly, we must focus on GOD. Godliness requires, disciplined worship.
Describing modern man! - one has written : " He worship his work Work at his play, And plays at his worship". In defiance of this, will you cultivate the Discipline of worship?
Idei scrise din cartea " Spiritual disciplines for The Christian Life...and Ten Questions to Diagnose your Spiritual Health" de Donald S. Whitney
Celebrating in Christ. Jubilating in Jesus. Listen this joyful song of Yolanda Adams.
I've got, got the victory I've got the sweet sweet victory in Jesus, Yes I do! He's Almighty conquerer, In Him I will trust, all my battles He'll fight. I've got, got the victory I've got the sweet sweet victory in Jesus. For me He died but He rose on the third day That’s why I have true victory everyday!
[Verse 1] Truly I've been through a stormy rain. I know everything about heartache and pain. But God carried me through it all Without His protection I'll surely fall. I’ve been broke without a dime to my name. But all my bills got paid because I called on Jesus’ name. You can't tell me that God isn’t real 'cause I've got the victory and that's why I’m still here.
[Chorus]
[Verse 2] I'm not worried about material things I don’t have I'm just blessed cause I’m sure in my Savior’s care Because I know that my blessing is on the way I can't see it right now but I stand by faith. I've fought many, many battles in His name I've held up the blood-stained banner and proclaimed That Jesus is the truth and the light: Believe me when I say He will make it right!
[Chorus]
[Bridge] Yeah I got the victory yeah I got the victory yeah yeah yeah [And if you have the victory sing along with me] Yeah I got the victory yeah I got the victory Yeah yeah yeah [Sing it with me I've got the victory]
