**I came across this blog post by a friend of mine, the other day, and thought each of you would find this helpful as well.
When I was little, I didn’t like making my bed in the mornings. I thought, what’s the point when you have to sleep in it again soon?
After several days of negligence, my mom took me aside and showed me a Bible verse:
The smoke of the fires below stung his eyes. Perspiration ran in torrents off of his face. His arms and legs, shaking from the exertion, seemed about to give way. The rocks he was hanging onto, were slippery and some felt as if they were about to break loose. His breath came in short, labored gasps.
“Oh,” Sean thought, “If only I can make it to the top. To be free from this pit called Smokeville!”
At a marriage celebration
I think of when Christ worked his first miracle. Here were people at the most exciting point of their lives. As I read the description of the celebrations, I couldn’t help but travel there in my minds eye and see Christ mingling with each of these different people. At the very outset of his ministry, Christ went to a place of celebration!
I stand beneath the cross and gaze upon a sacrifice of love displayed to a mocking world.
Oh, we are completely unworthy of this love! and yet displayed for all the universe to see is the worth of you and of me! There he hangs—agony and pain written across His face, blood oozing down in little streams.
And then to add to the agony my sins—oh the horror—are crushing the life out of His heart. There, in their blackest houghs, are my sins. I drop down before the cross. My heart breaking within. For I realize that it is I that murdered the son of God! With tears streaming down my cheeks, I plead for His forgiveness, for I have crucified the song of God!
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
The questions echoes through the mist of time from two thousand years ago. Human nature was no different then than it is today. Humans struggled with sin then as much as they do today. I find Paul asking the all important question, “should we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”
I’m sitting on the front porch, and it couldn’t be a more beautiful evening. The fresh smell of the recent rain still lingers in the air. The music of myriads of insects fills the air around me as nature’s great orchestra begins to play. The flickering fireflies over in the violin section introduce the score. A bullfrog responds in a resounding bass as the playful waterfall weaves in and out between the different parts. It is as if nature is doing her best to serenade me. Rest—peaceful rest envelops the entire landscape. Peace, that is what is out here. A peace that our world knows less and less of. . .
*A letter Ellen White wrote to a women who was struggling with discouragement. Thought others would appreciate it as well.
I would call your attention to the precious promises in the Word of God. All who are children of God have not the same powers, the same temperaments, the same confidence and boldness. I am glad indeed that our feelings are no evidence that we are not children of God. The enemy will tempt you to think that you have done things that have separated you from God and that He no longer loves you, but our Lord loves us still, and we may know by the words He has placed on record for just such cases as yours. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2: 1). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9).
Note: Before reading this, I want to re-iterate that this comes only out of a deep desire, passion and love for God and Jesus Christ. Someone could read this and come to the conclusion that doing these alone will produce the results wanted. But the truth is, as you fall in love with God, the following will come naturally. Consider this a snap shot into the life of a man who was deeply in love with Jesus Christ, and wanted to live his life in such away that Christ was always the center and focus of everything he did and said.
In the spring of 1866 there was born to a religious Quaker family in Pennsylvania a baby boy who was destined to become Public Enemy #1 in his generation. He left home at the age of 20 and found his way into Canada where he married two years later and started in business as a cheese manufacturer. A little daughter came into the home and this happy little family became popular in the community.
It was only a little song, tender and sweet,
But it soothed a stricken heart,
And from stony paths drew the weary feet
Within a flowery park.
It was only a little word, cruel and cold,
From lips we love,
But it wounded an immortal soul:
The wound was felt above.
