One man prayed,”Lord, I am standing on your promises!” But there was also a man in the meeting who owned the shoe shop in town and he was probably fed up with people who did not pay their bills. And he prayed,” No, Lord, that man is not standing on the promises of God. He is standing in shoes he has not paid for.”
What a message!
I am looking at a picture in a popular magazine: An old man is sitting on a chair with his laptop. He looks to me worn out and tired. That is nothing spectacular, a man sitting on a chair. But the chair is not standing on the floor, but on top of a lot of piled up 50 cents pieces. What a picture, I am thinking to myself. But as I continue to flick through pages of the magazine, because it is a long article, and there, what is that? I see even a better picture: A bent over old man with a hat is standing on top of a lot of piled up 100 Dollar notes. He seems to have something wrong with his knee. It looks as if he is nursing it.
What a foundation! What a shaky foundation. That is what I am thinking.
In church we sing beautiful hymns. The hymn: “Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior; standing, standing, I am standing on the promises of God,” is one of them. The author and composer of this hymn is Russell Kelso Carter.
One of the promises in the Bible, the WORD OF GOD, is First Corinthians 3:11. Please click on the verse and read it.
The hymn “How great thou art” comes to my mind and I am quoting verse one:
” O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow’r thruout the universe displayed!”
Original text was written by a Swedish pastor, Carl Boberg, in 1886.
“A real person will help you. 24 hours a day.” That was written on a poster I saw today. A picture of a person was also on the poster and the Phone Number. I thought that is good service. It was the poster of a bank.
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First Corinthians 6:19 says,”Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” The Holy Spirit is the REAL HELPER. John 14:16,17. (Amplified Bible)
The Holy Spirit is a PERSON. (not an influence) For a long time I thought the Holy Spirit was an influence like electricity. Wrong teaching, wrong living. Or rather inadequate teaching wrong living. Or I was not listening properly to what I was told. The Holy Spirit speaks. (Acts 1:16) The Holy Spirit teaches. (John 14:26)
And I can pray to the Lord ALL THE TIME, ask for help too.
wd
I saw that written on a wall, which looked inviting like a blackboard. I think you would call it a graffiti message.
The message is probably: We want to be free. We want to do what we like. That would be really nice. We do not want to do what somebody else tells us to do.
Straight away the following came to mind,”There is no freedom without a sense of responsibility.” I read that some time ago in the Reader’s Digest. That is true!
Think about the traffic rules. I was born in Germany. There we drive on the right side of the road. I left Germany when I was 26 years of age for Thailand. In Thailand they drive on the left side of the road like NZ. Good, that I only had a push bike in Germany. I started driving motorbikes in Thailand. I would have really trouble on the road, if I would go back to Germany now.
We must act responsible on the street. We must drive according to the road rules. Otherwise we have chaos on the street and not freedom.
Some time ago I talked to two men about the crime rate in our country. So far I could see they were not believers in the Lord. But nevertheless one was for the GOLDEN RULE of conduct formulated by our Lord. (Matthew 7:12) The other man said,”We must come back to the ten Commandments.”
I have not the money for it. But I think it would be good to have the written ten Commandments on TV every hour. It would do the whole nation a lot of good. We must not forget PRAYER of course!
Another commandment is found in Second Corinthians 6:14-16. Believers marrying unbelievers. Sometimes the girl is already pregnant on the Wedding Day. After a couple of years everything is finished. But there are also one or two kids to be looked after.– Disobedience (SIN) has long shadows.
Finally: Back to the law of the Living God. “There is NO FREEDOM without a sense of responsibility.”
Today, on the street, I was confronted with the following message:”INDEPENDENT“. The message was written on the front of a shirt worn by a young man. I talked to him and asked,”What is the meaning of what is printed on the back?” His answer,” That is probably the symbol of the slogan on the front.” I noticed the symbol also at the beginning and ending of the word INDEPENDENT.
We all want to be independent. Is that right? But we are not independent. We are not self existent. Only God is selfexistent. We are dependent beings, whether we want to or not.
The message is: DEPENDENT ON GOD!– That is wonderful!
I met him today for the first time in front of the dairy, the young man on the bike. After a while of talking commenting on the hot weather, he asked me for a Dollar to buy a drink. And what an opportunity it was, to share the GOSPEL with him, before I bought an ice cream for myself and a drink for my new found friend.
The “Kaitaia Prayer House” is not far away from the dairy. I noticed a big FOR SALE sign at the house. I do not know why the “Prayer House” is for sale. But one thing I know. We are ALL not desperate enough to flock to the “House of Prayer” to pray for the LOST!
wd
I read just now about the 1 Billion abortions in 30 years.
Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.”