Living With The Rose

The secret of a closer relationship with Jesus

But how do we accomplish that?

How can we be more like Him?

A Persian fable says one day, a wanderer found a piece of clay. So redolent of sweet perfume. Its odor scented all the room.

“What are thou?” was the quick demand. “Art thou some gem from Samarkand or Spikenard rare in odd disguise?” Or other costly merchandise?”

“Nay, I am but a piece of clay.”

“Then, whence this sweetness, pray?”

“Friend, if the secret I disclose. I have been living with the rose.”

As in the Persian fable, it comes from living close to Him!

(2 Corinthians 3:18).

…living as He would, acting as He would, speaking as He would, and even thinking as He would.

If we don't, no matter how many good qualities we possess or how dynamic we are or how dedicated we are, no matter how good we are with people or what else we may have going for us, if we're not spending time with Jesus, we're not going to be a very good reflection of Him or His love to others.

It’s not about religion or going to church or having the ‘right’ doctrine. It’s not even about sacrifice…. It’s about spending time with the Master!

It’s about going to His Word & letting Him transform you.

Many of us tend to pick up the pace when our workloads and responsibilities increase, and that leads to more stress.

Taking time off and relaxing alone or with family or friends can help relieve the pressure, but friends or family or time alone can't give us what Jesus can.

Jesus said the requirement for a fruitful life is abiding in Him. "Abide in Me, and I in you" (John 15:4).

"Abiding in Jesus" means staying connected with Him by taking time to read His Word and pray and listen to Him for Jesus said, “apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:35

(… You and me!)

If you don’t know Jesus personally, we invite you to get to know Him. No matter what faith you belong to, He loves you & wants to reach out to you & give you His gift of eternal life.

PRAYER:

“Dear Jesus, I need your light to drive away all darkness. I need your peace to fill and satisfy my heart. I now open the door of my heart and ask You to please come into my life and give me your gift of eternal life. Amen”

Song of Solomon 2:1

“I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys”

Author: Unknown

A Lesson From Geese

Have you ever wondered why migrating geese fly in a V formation?

As with most animal behavior, God had a good reason for including that in their instincts.

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird following.

In a V formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone…

…and quickly gets back into formation.

Like geese…

… people who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier than those who try to go it alone.

When a goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position. If people had as much sense as geese, they would realize that ultimately their success depends on working as a team, taking turns doing the hard tasks, and sharing leadership.

Geese in the rear of the formation honk to encourage those up front to up their speed. It is important that our “honking from behind” be encouraging. Otherwise it’s just - well - honking.

They stay with the unhealthy member of the flock until it is either able to fly again or dies.

When a goose gets sick or wounded, two other geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and provide protection.

Then they launch out again with another passing flock or try to catch up with their own.

May we be so sacrificial, that we may be worthy of such friends in our time of need.

…To learn from God’s marvelous creation; you only need to stop long enough to observe and let God reveal His wonders to you.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A SCIENTIST...

“Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?”

JOB 12:7-9

CAN SOMEONE “ASKED” THE GEESE…

Author: Unknown

God's Ways

GOD’S WAYS

A lesson from Mother Nature

NAHUM 1:3

I recollect, when a lad, sitting on a mountain, and watching a storm as it came up the valley.

The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth was shaken by the voice of thunder.

It seemed as though that fair landscape was utterly changed, and its beauty gone never to return.

But the storm swept on, and passed out of the valley…

And if I had sat in the same place on the following day, and said:

“Where is that terrible storm with all its terrible blackness?”

And the daisy would have said,
“Part of it is in me,”

The grass would have said, “Part of it is in me,”

And the trees and flowers and everything that grows out of the ground would have said, “Part of the storm is incandescent in me.”

Have you longed for the fruit of the Spirit, and have you prayed for sweetness and gentleness and love?

Have you asked to be made like your Lord?

Then fear not any stormy tempest that may sweep through your life.

A blessing is in the storm, and there will be the rich fruitage in the “afterward.”

The flowers live by the tears that fall from the sad face of the skies;

And life would have no joys at all, were there no watery eyes.

Life And Its Purpose

YOUR LIFE AND ITS PURPOSE

What is Life all about?

Answer:   Life is all about LOVE

The best use of Life is LOVE

The best expression of Love is TIME

The best time to Love is NOW

Why?   Because we have NO guarantee of to-morrow

GOD’S FIVE PURPOSES FOR YOUR LIFE

1.“Love God with all your heart”:

You were planned for God’s pleasure, so your purpose is to

love God through WORSHIP.

2. “Love your neighbour as yourself”:

You were shaped for serving, so your purpose is to

show love through MINISTRY.

3. “Go and make disciples”:

You were made for a mission, so your purpose is to share

God’s message through EVENGELISM.

4. “Baptise them into…”:

You were formed for God’s family, so your purpose is to

identify with His church through FELLOWSHIP.

5. “Teach them to do all things…”:

You were created to become like Christ, so your purpose is

to grow to maturity through DISCIPLESHIP.

God Knows First

GOD was the FIRST to know!

That numerous truths about our world were written in the Bible hundreds or even thousands of years before science “discovered” them.

Scientists “Discover” Truths That Were in the Bible All along!

Few people might be aware of this:
There are passages in the Bible that coincide with scientific principles that weren't "discovered" by scientists until thousands of years after the Bible had been written.

Here are a few examples:

It wasn’t until around the time of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) that science established that the earth was spherical and hung in space.

The prophet Isaiah wrote in about 700 BC that:

“GOD “SITS ABOVE THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH”

Isaiah 40:22

About 3,000 years before Columbus, it was written in the book of Job that:

God “stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.”

Job 26:7

Also, when Jesus spoke of His Second Coming, He referred to a night scene (men sleeping), a morning scene (women grinding), and a midday scene (workers in the field) happening simultaneously (Luke 17:34-36). This, of course, is an indirect reference to a spherical earth.

The Bible described the hydrologic cycle:

In various passages, the Bible describes a hydrologic cycle, the process by which clouds are formed, rain is produced, and ground water is replenished. Science made the same discovery in the 1600s, long after the Bible passages were written.

Here are the related Bible verses:

Job 26:8—He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it.

Job 36:27-28—For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man.

Ecclesiastes 1:7— All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.

Galileo (1564-1642) was the first to “discover” that the number of stars is uncountable – a fact that has been clearly established by modern scientists, who now estimate the number of stars in the “billions and billions”

Johannes Kepler counted 1005.

The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe counted 777.

The Greek astronomer Ptolemy had said there were 1056.

Twenty two centuries before Galileo, the prophet Jeremiah said:

“The host of heaven cannot be numbered”

Jeremiah 33:22

The Bible stated the existence of valleys and springs in the seas:

Not until the past few hundred years did man have the technology to discover that there are deep valleys and fresh water springs in the oceans.

But the Bible always knew:

2 Samuel 22:16a - Then the channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were uncovered. …

Genesis 7:11 - In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

In 1643, with the invention of the barometer, Evangelista Torricelli discovered a way to measure the atmospheric air pressure and thereby proved that air has weight.

In what is believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, Job is quoted as saying that:

God “establishes weight for the wind”

Job 28:25

Jet streams – the strong permanent high-altitude wind currents that have a major bearing on weather systems – were discovered by science in the 19th century.

Nearly 3,000 years earlier, King Solomon wrote:

“The wind goes toward the south, and turns to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit.”

Ecclesiastes 1:6

Words of the wise…

Daniel 12:4 - But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Sir Isaac Newton, writing in the 16th century on the prophecy of Daniel 12:4 (written about 2500 years ago), said that if true, it would be necessary that a new mode of traveling should be invented, for knowledge would be so increased that man would be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour.

Voltaire, the French philosopher of the same century, true to the spirit of skepticism, rejoined:

"Now look at the mighty mind of Newton, who discovered gravitation; when he began to study the book called the Bible, it seems in order to credit its fabulous nonsense, he believed that the knowledge of mankind will be so increased that we shall be able to travel fifty miles an hour! The poor dotard!" ("Dotard" in this sense indicated a fool.)

Today even a skeptic would have to say, "Newton was a wise philosopher; Voltaire a poor old dotard."

The true relationship between science and the Bible is perhaps best summed up in the words of British astronomer John Herschel (1792-1871):

“All human discovery seems to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truth contained in the Sacred Scriptures.”

Give God Time

IMPORTANT PRAYER PRINCIPLES

Excerpt from ‘Meditation Moments’ by Virginia Brandt Berg

If you have a problem today, a great need in your life, maybe your problem is that you had done all the talking, but hadn't done any listening to God!

"Stop talking and listen for a while! Listen to God's Word! Be still and let Him speak to you.

When you get quiet and wait on Him, there will come a prompting from Him in a still small voice." Someone has also called it "A Divine Oughtness," that is, an impression that you ought to do a certain thing.

Some people think that effective praying means to keep on seeking and keep on knocking, to keep on talking and talking and asking God with a multitude of words, and an insistence in talking it out with Him!

This kind of prayer doesn’t show your trust & faith that He’ll answer, on the contrary, it shows your unbelief & lack of faith that He has heard you & the answer is on its way.

When you pray you don’t need to keep on asking, with so much talking and insistence on expressing yourself in words, but you need to keep on believing and keep on expecting and waiting! Waiting for God to answer!

Oh, the answer's there, God will answer! You know, prayer in its highest meaning is not pleading with God or demanding things, but it is communion with God, throwing your whole being open heavenward, God-ward, and waiting for the divine response.

A little word by Martha Snell-Nicholson:

Sometimes I do not even pray in words.
I take my heart in my two hands,
And hold it up before the Lord.
I'm so glad He understands.

Sometimes I do not even pray in words.
My spirit bows before His feet,
And with His hand upon my head,
We just hold communion, silent, sweet.

Sometimes I do not pray in words,
For I am tired and long for rest.
And my heart finds all it needs,
Just resting on the Savior's gentle breast.

If you have prayed and had no answer yet, no answers come and it seems as if when you pray, the Heavens are brass and He's been deaf to your pleading cries, remember this:

No earnest sincere prayer to the heavenly Father has ever gone unanswered or been unnoticed. But it is also true that God has His time for all things in working out His purposes! God has strange ways of disciplining His intercessors and prayer warriors, and that takes time.

The Chained Eagle

Many people resolve to do this or that, change this or that, break a bad habit, or start a new one. Sometimes it works; often it doesn't.

Is that because so many of us are like the bird in the following story?

A man once owned an eagle, and for many years kept him chained to a stake.

Every day the eagle walked around and around that stake, and over time wore a rut in the ground.

When the eagle was getting old, his master felt sorry for him and decided to set him free. So he took the metal ring off the eagle's foot, lifted the eagle from the ground, and tossed him into the air.

He was free--but he had forgotten how to fly! He flip-flopped to the ground, walked back over to his old rut, and started walking in circles like he had for years.

No chain and shackle held him, just the habit!

You may think it’s not possible for you to change, but if you really want to and are sincerely willing to, God can change you by the miracle-working power of His Spirit.

He'll do things you can't do!

There is a saying:

“The chains of bad habits are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken”

--and that would be true if it weren't for the Lord and His power.

You may have to put a great deal of your own will to the transformation process as well, but with God's strength and His intervention, you'll find you have more resolve, determination, and ability to change than you ever thought possible.

He said, "Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive"

(Matthew 21:22).

Following is what it means to "become a new creature in Christ Jesus"

(2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV).

Jesus coming into your life not only renews and purifies and regenerates your spirit, but it also renews your mind, literally breaking old connections and reflexes and gradually rebuilding it and rewiring it into a whole new computer system with a different outlook on life and a new way of looking at the world, with new reactions to nearly everything around you.

To change yourself is something you can’t do in your own will power and strength. If you want this change, it's necessary for you to ask Jesus to help.

Some changes are instantaneous, others take awhile.

--But if you ask Him for help and do your part, you'll be changed, because Jesus changes people!

Believe it or not, they used to build bridges by first flying a kite from one side of the river or gorge to the other.

Someone on the opposite side caught the kite and tied a little thicker, stronger string to the end of the kite string, and the men who had sent the kite over pulled the new, thicker string back across.

The teams on each side kept repeating the process, next with an even stronger string, then a cord, then a thin rope, then a thicker rope, and so on.

Eventually they could pull a small steel cable across, then a heavier one, until finally they had a cable across the expanse that was strong enough to support them and their tools and materials.

-And it all started with one tiny kite string!

Building Habits

--Peter Amsterdam

That's how habits are formed, both good and bad. Add a thread every day, and before long you can't break it.

Start developing a good habit by taking the first step, however small, in the right direction. Then keep at it until you've built up a routine that can't easily be broken.

Psychologists tell us that it usually takes us three weeks to get familiar with some new task or habit; it takes another three weeks before it becomes a habit.

Now the reason why many people are not successful in forming a new habit is because they've never made it past that six-week barrier. For your new behavior to become a habit, you must do it daily for at least six weeks.

--Maria Fontaine

So don’t give up too easily or too soon. Keep at it!

Adapted from an article by David Brandt Berg

Mother Teresa

MOTHER TERESA IN HER OWN WORDS

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”

Mother Teresa taught us by her sample what it really means to ‘live’ the Gospel.

“I think today the world is upside down, and is suffering so much because there is so very little love in the home, and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other, there is no time to enjoy each other.”

“Love begins at home; love lives in homes, and that is why there is so much suffering and so much unhappiness in the world today...

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.”

"I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?"
-- 1974 interview.

ON POVERTY

"When I see waste here, I feel angry on the inside. I don't approve of myself getting angry. But it's something you can't help after seeing Ethiopia." -- Washington 1984.

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”

“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.”

“There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation than for bread.”

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

ON WAR

"I have never been in a war before, but I have seen famine and death. I was asking (myself), 'What do they feel when they do this?' I don't understand it. They are all children of God. Why do they do it? I don't understand."

"Please choose the way of peace. ... In the short term there may be winners and losers in this war that we all dread. But that never can, nor never will justify the suffering, pain and loss of life your weapons will cause."

-- Letter to U.S. President George Bush and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, January 1991.

-- Beirut 1982, during fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas.

ON ABORTION

Abortion "is murder in the womb ... A child is a gift of God. If you do not want him, give him to me."

“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.”

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

"The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven. And St. Peter said, 'Go back to Earth. There are no slums up here.'"

-- Quoted as telling Prince Michael of Greece in 1996.

ON HER LIFE’S WORK

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

“The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.”

ON LOVE

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

“I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.”

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I do know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will NOT ask, How many good things have you done in your life?, rather he will ask, How much LOVE did you put into what you did?”

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

“Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.

Good works are links that form a chain of love.

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”

“I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.”

“I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.”

ON SERVING GOD

“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”

“Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.”

“Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.”

“There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.”

“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.”

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

“Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.”

“At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.’”  ’”

If you haven’t yet received Jesus into your heart, you can do it now by repeating this little prayer:

“Dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God and my Savior. I need Your love to cleanse me from my mistakes and wrongdoings. I need your light to drive away all darkness. I need your peace to fill and satisfy my heart. I now open the door of my heart and ask You to please come into my life and give me your gift of eternal life. Amen”

“Jesus is my God. Jesus is my Husband. Jesus is my Life. Jesus is my only Love. Jesus is my All!”

“If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”