March 2009

Monthly Archive

March 25, 2009

Hope and Endurance

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“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”1

You may have read the story about the “piano teacher who was affectionately known as Herman. One night at a university concert, a distinguished piano player suddenly became ill while performing an extremely difficult piece. No sooner had the artist retired from the stage when Herman rose from his seat in the audience, walked on stage, sat down at the piano and with great mastery completed the performance.

“Later that evening, at a party, one of the students asked Herman how he was able to perform such a demanding piece so beautifully without notice and with no rehearsal. He replied, ‘In 1939, when I was a budding young concert pianist, I was arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. Putting it mildly, the future looked bleak. But I knew that in order to keep the flicker of hope alive that I might someday play again, I needed to practice every day. I began by fingering a piece from my repertoire on my bare board bed late one night.

The next night I added a second piece and soon I was running through my entire repertoire. I did this every night for five years. It so happens that the piece I played tonight at the concert hall was part of that repertoire. That constant practice is what kept my hope alive. Everyday I renewed my hope that I would one day be able to play my music again on a real piano, and in freedom.’”

I’m sure that some of our readers at this time are facing great hardships and may even be in peril for their life. The Apostle Paul knew what it was like to experience great hardships, shipwreck, whippings, and being thrown into prison for his faith. He was the one who wrote today’s Scripture verse encouraging the Christians in Rome (who, if they weren’t going through persecution at the time, would soon be) to find encouragement and hope in the Word of God. May you and I do the same.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in times of hardship, despair and suffering, please help me to keep practicing my faith every day, putting my trust entirely in you. And please bring me through triumphantly to the last day when I will see you face to face and know you as you are. Grant that this hope and the encouragement from your Word will keep me enduring to the end. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1. Romans 15:4

(NIV). <:))))><

Daily Encounter … Hope and Endurance [Thursday, May 8, 2008]

 

March 15, 2009

Love God … Love People

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“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’…and…’Love your neighbor as yourself’.”1

Ron Clark of Tasmania, Australia, tells how he “read of a halfway house for men released from prison where they could stay until they got a job and somewhere to live. One young man had been in a penal institution for most of his adult life. One day as he sat in the lounge, the three-year-old daughter of the couple who ran the shelter crawled up onto his lap, put her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. With tears running down his cheeks he said, ‘This is the first time I can remember anyone touching me in love.’

“A few weeks later he gave his life to Jesus Christ. God used that unique communication of physical contact and love to break the scars of all those years.”

I recall reading in one of Leo Buscaglia’s books about a fairly small child who went to a neighbor’s house where a husband lived whose wife had died. When she returned home, her mother asked what she did. She said, “I just sat on his lap and helped him cry.”

If there were one answer for the ills of the world, it could be summed up in the words of Jesus when he was asked by a lawyer, “Which was the greatest of all the commandments?” To which Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”2

If we truly love God, we will serve him. We will also love people and do all we can to help them because we serve God by serving people.

1. Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV).
2. Matthew 22:37–40 (NIV).

<:))))><

Daily Encounter … Love God … Love People [Tuesday, May 6, 2008]

 

March 12, 2009

Prosperity Gospel

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“I [Jesus] have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble [tribulation]. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”1

A Daily Encounter reader from a much poorer country than North America asks, “Can you please write a message on prosperity teachings. [Some American preachers]…say it is a sin to be poor and when you are prosperous (have money) you are blessed.”

Amazing isn’t it?

If God has gifted me to be a good businessman and to make money, and I can do that honestly, then I’d say it would be my responsibility to make money … not for personal indulgences but so I would be able to give generously in supporting the Lord’s work on earth.

I for one, however, don’t have that gift or that calling. Neither am I a gifted fundraiser, so financing God’s work for me has always been a challenge and probably will be until the day I retire or die … whichever comes first!

However, to some degree I have been gifted with an ability to communicate. Thus it is my responsibility to be trained in this area and communicate God’s truth and the gospel to the best of my ability. Not to do so would be a sin for me as the Bible says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”2

To claim that everybody is gifted to make money or to communicate effectively is not true—and, if claiming this to be true, could lead many to doubt God’s blessing on their life. The same goes for those who are led to believe that it is God’s will for every Christian to be financially prosperous.

Think of Jesus, for example. Was he prosperous? Not at all. Were the twelve disciples prosperous? Matthew, the tax collector, may have been at one time but through questionable methods. Peter and the other fishermen and disciples probably made just enough to make ends meet. True, Moses came from a well-to-do background, having grown up in Pharaoh’s household, but he gave it all up to serve God and lead the people of Israel.

If, however, prosperity is God’s will for everyone, then let’s take this message to the poverty-stricken parts of the world where untold thousands of people are dying of malnutrition.

For the rest of us less prosperous ordinary folks, let’s do the best we can with the gifts God has given to us to help make our world a better place in which to live.

1. John 16:33 (NIV).
2. James 4:17 (NIV).

<:))))><

Daily Encounter … Prosperity Gospel [Monday, May 5, 2008]

 

March 12, 2009

Lazy People

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A stitch in time does save nine.

Clyde and Dee Kilough


This world has plenty of lazy people. The habits they gain keep them bouncing around from one chaotic point to another. Their path is not an easy one. It is loaded with sharp barbs and painful experiences: work is never really prepared; the car is barely drivable and breaks down often. Life is a transition from one problem to another.

It does not have to be this way.

The way of an upright person is like a highway (Proverbs 15:19)—smooth, free of debris and easy to travel on. Progress is swift and frustrations are few.

An upright person is active and doing, foreseeing trouble and taking the appropriate precautions. That way of life is the only way that works—but there are few who take it. It is not hidden or complicated. In fact, all the information we need is conveniently included in one book: God’s Bible.