تظاهر به دینداری

عیسی مسیح در انجیل لوقا باب 20 آیه 46 فرمود:

از این علمای متظاهر دوری کنید که دوست دارند با قباهای بلند خودنمایی کنند و به هنگام عبور از کوچه و بازار مردم به ایشان تعظیم کنند و چقدر دوست دارند که در عبادتگاهها و جشنهای مذهبی بالای مجلس بنشینند. اما وقتی دعاهای طولانی میکنند و تظاهر به دینداری مینمایند تمام هوش و حواسشان به اینست که چگونه اموال بیوه زنان را تصاحب نمایند. از اینرو مجازات آنان بسیار شدید خواهد بود.

Whom Do You Serve

Here's the secret to serving with  the light attitude: take your eyes off the physical people you are serving, and place your eyes solely on the One whom you must ultimately serve

It's workday at your church, and you're assigned the lowliest, most unpleasant job on the list,  deep  clean the bathrooms. Not very glamorous

The chemical small is only a little worse than, well, the typical bathroom smells. Dirt is ground in. You can't imagine how any place could get so dirty. In the middle of wiping around the third toilet, you realize that this is just going to get dirty again (quickly) and no one is going to notice or recognize your hand work

And then, by the fourth toilet, Jesus has let you know that it's not about you, it's not about toilets, and it's not about the rest of the church members. It's about serving. And it's about him. God is pleased when we consider our service for others as a service to him. Even when it includes cleaning bathrooms

In the end, serving him is what matters most

Ephesians 6:7

Keep On Asking

O Beloved, what is yours because you are His? Pursue it persistently. Ask, see, knock. Jesus is the One who tells you to do this. It is both a command and a loving invitation. 

Sometimes we get to a place where our prayers seem pointless. Maybe we've prayed for the same person, the same request, the same need for five years, a decade, or even longer. And the question abound: If God hasn't answered yet, will he ever? Does God's silence mean the answer is no? Does it mean our request isn't in his will? Should we just give up?

Jesus' answer to all our questions is clear - keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. In other words - we must not give up! We must pursue persistently.

As it was mentioned, persistence in prayer in both a command and loving invitation. Jesus loves to see you come. he loves to hear your voice. He delights in your dependence on him, in just the right way. Luke 11:9

Wistful Words

I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don’t let your hearts be troubled or afraid. John 14:27

If only you knew that I came to help and not condemn. If only you knew that tomorrow will be better than today. If only you knew the gift I have brought: eternal life. If only you knew I want you safely home.

If only you knew.

What wistful words to come from the lips of God. How kind that he would let us hear them. How crucial that we pause to hear them. If only we knew to trust. Trust that God is in our corner. Trust that God wants what is best.

If only we could learn to trust him.

Victory Over Death

Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your pain? 1 Corinthians 15:55

The fire that lit the boiler of the New Testament church was an unquenchable belief that if Jesus had been only a man, he would have stayed in the tomb. The earliest Christians couldn’t stay silent about the fact that the one they saw hung on a cross walked again on the earth and appeared to five hundred people.

Let us ask our Father humbly, yet confidently in the name of Jesus, to remind us of the empty tomb. Let us see the victorious Jesus: the conqueror of the tomb, the one who defied death. And let us be reminded that we, too, will be granted that same victory!

The Unspeakable Price

To all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12

Parents, who are seeking to adopt a child, spend days, sometimes weeks, immersed in different languages and strange cultures. They fight the red tape and pay the large fees, all with the hope of taking a child home with them.

Hasn’t God done the same for us? He entered our culture, battles the resistance, and paid the unspeakable price which adoption required. Legally we are his. He owns us. We have every legal privilege accorded to his child. We are just waiting for him to return. We are, as Paul said, “waiting for God to finish making us his own children.” Romans 8:23.



No Worries in Heaven

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, sadness, crying or pain. Revelation 21:4

What have you done today to avoid death? Likely a lot. You’ve popped pills, pumped pecks, passed on the pie, and pursued the polyunsaturates. Why? Why the effort? Because you are worried about staying alive. That won’t be a worry in heaven.

In fact, you won’t be worrying at all. Some of you moms worry about your kids getting hurt. You won’t worry in heaven. In heaven we’ll feel no pain. Some of you fellows worry about getting old. You won’t in heaven. We’ll all be ceaselessly strong.

We are not made of steel, we are made of dust. And this life is not crowned with life, it is crowned with death.

The next life, however, is different. Jesus urged the Christians in Smyrna to “be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10.