Sunflower

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

“‘The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.'” – Isaiah 40:8

“The more we have, the more we want; we are never satisfied,” is a translated saying from German. In German it rhymes.

That proverb came to my mind today when walking back from town to our home, and when I was thinking about all the Mother’s Day advertisements I saw there.

Mother’s Day

There are not many here who are not aware that coming Sunday is Mother’s Day in New Zealand.

I think Mother’s Day is about making money and the word greed came to my mind.

Greedy people are “excessively desirous of food or wealth,” says The Collins Concise Dictionary.

And what does the BIBLE say about  greed and greedy people?

The BIBLE teaches that:

We must be on our guard against greed.

Greed is idolatry and we must put it to death.

Greedy people will not inherit the kingdom of God.

___________________

Luke 12:15; Colossians 3:5; First Corinthians 6:10

AT THE BEACH

“Life is full of little duties. Worrying about them, grumbling about them, dwelling upon them makes the duties shackles which bind us, but just doing the duties makes them wings,” says an anonymous writer.

I have the little duties on my mind. Do you also have the little duties on your mind? The anonymous author tells us what to do with the little duties.

Eugenia Price knows also about the “daily routine.”

“Is your daily routine wearing you down and does mealtime seem to come six times a day instead of three?” she asks in her book “Women to Woman”.

Just now I am reading the book called “SPIRITUAL DEPRESSION” by D. Martyn Loyd-Jones with great interest. Weary in Well Doing is chapter XIV in the book and there he writes:

“‘Ah,’ we say, ‘the same old thing week after week.'”

Have you ever thought that?

“You may say: ‘Here is another day to get through.'”

Have you ever said that?

Or a preacher may say: ‘Another Sunday, and  I have to preach twice today.”‘

Have you ever said that as a pastor? Maybe you are a pastor and you only have to preach once every Sunday.

D. Martyn Lloyd – Jones says also, “It is the sheer grind of daily life  that gets us down.”

But after talking about  the “little duties,” the “daily routine,” the daily grind, he points us to the cure:

1. “HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE?” he asks.

I know how I got into the Christian life. There was a once and there is a now.

Once I was without the Lord Jesus Christ. I was a alien. I was a stranger. I was without God.

But now I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am reconciled. How did that happen? I am reconciled by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ died for MY sins.

“COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.” Those words I have written in big letters on a paper and framed. I am looking at the words now.

2. “THIS LIFE OF OURS ON EARTH IS BUT A PREPARATORY ONE,” he reminds us.

I am going to think about that the next time I am going to do the dishes.

I am also going to think about heaven. Heaven is a perfect place. Please read Revelation 22:5. Let us remember that heaven is a place of perfect government and glory

3. “LET US CONSIDER THE MASYER FOR WHOM WE WORK, “he exhorts us.

Please read Hebrews chapter 12. In verse two it says, “Let us fix our eyes on JESUS, …” And in verse three we read, “Consider HIM …”

I cannot remember how old I was at the time (I must have been in my teens), and I am almost sure that I did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ at that time, but I remember the following saying from that time in German:

“Wirst du nun  aber deiner und deines Lebensinhaltes ueberdruessig, so wirfst du weg, was Gott dir gab.”

Here is my translation:

“If you are weary of everything, your life and what you are doing, you are throwing away, what God gave you.”

“Ueberdruessig is not really a common word in German and I was actually pleasantly surprised that the translation of “ueberdriessig” is “to be weary.” (I looked the word up in the Collins German Dictionary.)

THE CROSS

“For you

First Peter 1:23

Intr.:

have been born again,

1.  not of perishable seed,

2.  but of imperishable,

End:

through the living and enduring word of God.”

Sunflower

“‘THE LORD WILL DO WHAT IS GOOD IN HIS SIGHT.’

” – Second Samuel 10:12