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Archive for the ‘Belief’ Category

Slow Checkout Lines and Jesus

Posted in Belief, Bible Characters, Christ, Endurance, Faith, Healing, Jesus, tagged on January 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“A man named Jairus besought [Jesus to] come into his house: For he had one only daughter … and she lay a dying.

But as he went the people thronged him. And a woman … came behind him and touched … Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they … said, … the multitude throng thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? … [finally the woman] came trembling, and falling down …

While he yet spake, there cometh one … saying … Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.” — Luke 8:41-49

Whichever line I choose at the store stops. Five people checkout at the next line while I wait with two items for the one person in front of me to get a price check, call an absent manager, have a credit card denied, and/or fill out a return receipt. I don’t know how I do it!

I get impatient though I have nothing important compared to Jairus; his daughter was on her deathbed, Jesus her only hope.

How Jairus heart must have sunk as Jesus was stopped along with the way for a discussion about feelings! How he must have felt such urgency — right up to the point when the bad news came! Too late!

But Jesus is never too late, even if it takes a lifetime of waiting.

Jesus … answered …Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole” — Jesus (Luke 8:50)

— fritz

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The Bigger Picture

Posted in Belief, Explanations, Faith, tagged , , on September 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

[Lot] and his two daughters … lived in a cave. The older daughter said to her sister, Our father is getting old, and there are no men in the whole world to marry us so that we can have children … let’s … have children by him” – Genesis 19:30-32 (Good News Translation)

A lesson should be learned from Lot’s oldest daughter’s comment.

Having just endured a horrific event and personal loss she and her sister made poor choices, spawning two people groups that negatively afflicted God’s people for centuries, simply because they could not see the bigger picture. The world was much larger than their little cave and there were certainly many potential husbands.

The tendency to make poor choices because of a lack of scope is still there! Many don’t believe God heals today because neither they nor anyone they trust have recognized God’s touch. Many think the church is only as mighty as their denomination or group. Some, tragically, think life is over when it has hardly begun.

“I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.” — Psalm 121:1-2 (Message Bible)

God’s call is to look up and know He is stronger for us than anything we see.

  1. God is even now working all things to their good for those who love and follow him, even though that good can’t immediately be seen;
  2. God’s Church is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), even though some institutions have turned from it to become cold and lifeless;
  3. Each follower of Christ has a purpose, a plan, and place in God’s kingdom, even though the preparation time seems long and fruitless;
  4. Jesus is with each who call on him for help, even in apparent isolation.

— fritz@langgang.com

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Reverse the Formula

Posted in Assurance, Belief, Happy, Hope, Quotes, Shawn Achor, tagged , , on September 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.” — Proverbs 15:15

Secular thinkers have discovered an important fact known by the sages long ago — Happiness is found before not after “success”.

“The formula is clear: Work harder, then you’ll be successful, then you’ll be happier. When I asked some of my Harvard students, their answer was easy: “I’m working … now so I can be happy when … [fill in the blank with a six figure banking job, make a scientific breakthrough, get into medical school, etc.].”

But here’s what these brilliant students often forget: Getting into Harvard was supposed to make them happy….

It’s hard to find happiness after success if the goalposts of success keep changing.

Now for the good news … If you reverse the order of the formula, you end up with greater happiness and greater success rates … If you cultivate happiness while in the midst of your struggles, work, at school, while unemployed or single, you increase your chances of attaining all the goals you are pursuing, including happiness.” — Shawn Achor in “5 Ways to Turn Happiness Into an Advantage (Read Shawn’s full article “here.)

Christ provides what we really need to be happy — complete acceptance, an enduring purpose, and bright future.

“[W]e know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose … What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” — Romans 8:28,31b / Psalm 118:6

— fritz@langgang.com

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