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Ambition
Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please [Christ]. 2 Corinthians 5:9. Ambition, n., a strong desire for fame, success, honour, wealth or other position. Ambition is wanting to achieve something with our life. It isn’t ‘human’ to drift aimlessly through life like plankton. Ambition, excellence and success are […]
Resentment May Kill You
Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25. My dictionary defines resentment as having negative or bitter feelings about someone or something. There’ll be many people in your life who will not measure up to your expectations. And […]
Hope Versus Optimism
Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Romans 5:4. Hope and optimism are not the same. ‘Hope is humble, trustful, vulnerable. Optimism is arrogant, brash, complacent. Hope has known the pang of suffering and the chill of despair. Only one who has cried de profundis can really appreciate the meaning of […]
Don’t Nurture Your Resentments
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God… 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Is everything that happens God’s will? The answer is ‘no!’ if we mean God causes all bad things to happen. (Certainly God permits everything, otherwise he would not be omnipotent). Who rained all those calamities […]
Give Me This Mountain!
So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke…; it may be that the Lord will be with me.Joshua 14:12. Caleb knew what he wanted: ‘Give me this mountain.’ He didn’t ask for an easy job. It was the most hilly part in the area, infested by giants. Israel’s enemies were strongest […]
Don’t Nurture Your Fears
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18. Eighty-one times the Bible quotes God or Christ urging his people not to be afraid! Ours is certainly an ‘age of anxiety’. Anxiety is fear in search of a cause. The wealthy are afraid inflation will eat into their savings. […]
Good And Evil
Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy [the land], for we are well able to overcome it.’ Numbers 13:30. Our task is to assess realistically the world in which we live, in the light of what God wants us to do in it. There is opposition […]
Trust – And You Will Be Protected
Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. Psalm 32:10. Here the psalmist contrasts the wicked and the righteous. The wicked trust in themselves; the righteous person trusts the Lord, and is dependent on him. Happy people are trustful people. ‘In the morning, when I wake, […]
Who Am I?
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, Mortals that you care for them? Psalm 8:4. Mark Twain has a story about a man who went to heaven from California. Arriving at the pearly gates he was asked where he’d come from. He tells them proudly, ‘From California’. But nobody knows where California […]
Faith And ‘Facts’
The people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large. Numbers 13:28. One of the characteristics of ‘statesmen/women’ over other leaders is that they usually hold a minority opinion about something very important, and have to wait until the tribes catch up. They are strong enough to be […]
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