Connecting to the world

Several years ago Keith Miller wrote a book, A Second Touch, in which he tells about a twelve year old boy who had a conversation with his dad. The boy was unhappy and resentful. He had no friends. He was having trouble in school. He thought his classmates were the problem and they needed to change. This young boy noticed a change in his father. He wanted to talk to his father about it. His dad replied, “Well, son, I was making a mess out of my life. A big mess, and I decided to let God take it over and to show me how to live it.” And then he said, “I don’t know how else to say it, except to say that it has made all the difference in the world to me.” That boy said to his father, “Dad, I think I would like to do that too.” Then an interesting thing happened. The father was out of town for a couple of weeks. When he returned home from his business trip, his twelve year old son met him at the airport. As they were walking through the concourse the young man said something extremely perce...

It was more than we could have hoped for! First they gave themselves to the Lord; and then, by God’s will they gave themselves to us as well. (2Corinthians 8:5) Hebrews 10:25 tells us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, we are to encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer. So why is Fellowship so Important? You see you and I belong in God’s Family with other Believers. Galatians 6:10 So then, as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to our family in the faith. We are no longer as those who have no part or place in the kingdom of God, but we are numbered among the saints as the family of God. We resting on the base of the Apostles and prophets, and Jesus is the chief keystone, and He keeps all rightly joined together as the holy house of God. (Ephesians 2:19 - 21) And though we are many different people, we are one family and we are all joined to e...

John 17:20-2520 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. Bible references: John 17:20-25; Acts 4:34-5:11; 1 John 1:10; Psalm 63; Luke 14:27; Luke 14;33; Luke 9:23; John 8:31-32; James 1:22; Psalm 143:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-18; Ephesians 4:13; Romans 8:38-3...

John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!" 37 So Pilate asked him, "Are you a king, then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me." 38 "And what is truth?" Pilate asked. Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, "I cannot find any reason to condemn him. What is 'Truth'? Is anything really THE truth? In our postmodern times, it is popular to think that all things are equally true. Buddhism is true for some, Hinduism is true for some, and Christianity is true for some in this age. Of course, like the Christian, the Hindu believes Hindu doctrine is true, and so cannot agree with the Postmodernist, just as t...

Thought to Cherish - Deuteronomy 31:23 “The Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun, ‘Be strong and courageous, for you will take the Israelites to the land I have promised them, and I will be with you.’” What dreams have you had come true? What did you do to bring them to pass? Perhaps you dreamed of a career that you are now pursuing. Maybe it was of having a family, which you now enjoy. You may have dreamed of close friends with whom you could share your struggles in life. Perhaps you desired to make a difference in this world and have searched for the opportunities to do so. God is a dream-giver; He has dreams for each of us that He intends to bring to pass if we listen and obey. Because of His greatness, He is able to fulfill those dreams if we follow His lead and direction. Joshua followed God’s dream. It was not a new dream, but rather it was one that God had given hundreds of years beforehand to Abraham. It was the vision of a land. George Bernard Shaw wrote t...

L. Learning I. Impacting F. Friendship building E. Experiencing How can we encourage one another and build one another up? How can each of us change to a life grounded in friendship building? How can people who do not have a habit of reading and a drive to be educated, be encouraged to do so? How can we encourage those who are not comfortable with sharing their experiences to do so? Learning is as much about growing friendships and community that produce relationships that last. Where we can impact each other with real information and we learn to be accountable to each other (not for each other). With learning, it is as important to grow friendships numerically as we ourselves are growing personally. To do otherwise is a waste of energy and time. So what is L.i.f.e.? Life is not a university course. It allows and encourages the sharing of life experiences in light of the knowledge we have through education ...

Is My life affected by my circumstances or do I build on my dream I have a friend who spent several years in prison. When he was released he made a comment to me that everyone he seen after his release was a lot happier. What he came to realise was that he was the one who was happier. Because he was happier he spread this where ever he went. You see he had made some decisions for his life and these decisions were not based on his circumstances but on what was important to him. So when something went wrong it did not alter his happiness. His focus was on where his life was going and not on what went wrong. He would count his blessings and name them. It is like the saying – two prisoners looked out the window – one saw stars and one saw bars. It is important to take in to build up our lives – it is also important to give out, this also builds up our lives. We learn as much from giving of ourselves as we do from taking in. What we speak with our tongue needs to be guarded. So when we lif...