Josh Groban Smile with Lyrics
Friday, February 28, 2014
De Carbono a Diamante
Jesus falando em profecia
Você sabia que o carbono pode se transformar num lindo diamante se sofrer calor e pressão suficientes? Talvez o ajude pensar nisso de vez em quando se estiver se sentindo um pouco pressionado. Imagine-se no processo de transformação. A pressão de suas muitas responsabilidades e o aperto que está sofrendo devido a tudo que está acontecendo em sua vida não são para esmagá-lo, mas pode transformá-lo.
Pense, por exemplo, em Pandita Ramabai.[1] Foi muita pressão quando ela se sentiu chamada por Mim a fazer o máximo possÃvel para levar o Meu amor ao seu povo, até nos seus últimos anos de vida. Mas Eu lhe dei aquele fardo e jugo. E ela aceitou. Tomou a sua cruz e a carregou com alegria, e pude agir através dela. A necessidade pesou nela, é verdade, mas era o fardo que Eu lhe dera, e a ajudei a carregá-lo. Isso é um exemplo de pressão boa em comparação com estresse.
O apóstolo Paulo foi outro exemplo de viver com o tipo certo de pressão. Ele teve uma vida longa e produtiva sob pressão praticamente constante. Quando ele disse: “Pois me é imposta esta obrigação; e ai de mim se não anunciar o evangelho”, é claro que estava se sentindo bem pressionado no espÃrito. O seu desejo de evangelizar o mundo à s vezes era um grande peso para ele. Por causa da sua soberana vocação, Paulo muitas vezes viveu de forma bem desconfortável e sacrificada, até mesmo sofrendo dor e privação. Mas como aprendeu a lançar os seus cuidados sobre Mim, pude lhe dar toda a graça e forças que precisou para prosseguir, até completar a sua carreira e ganhar o prêmio. Ele não teve que suportar tudo aquilo com sua própria força. Teve que se apoiar em Mim.
Existem exemplos incontáveis na história de pessoas que Me permitiram aplicar pressão em suas vidas — pressão suficiente para mantê-las em movimento, crescendo e mudando, sem se acomodarem — e que foram transformadas em lindos diamantes cintilando para Mim.
Lembre-se que a pressão pode ser algo bom e não precisa prejudicá-lo, mas pode ajudá-lo. Você tem capacidade para fazer muito mais do que pensa, se aprender a Me deixar viver e agir mais plenamente através de você.
*
A vida sempre vai ter suas batalhas, dificuldades e obstáculos, mas se lutar para superar cada uma ficará mais forte, tanto no espÃrito como em Mim.
Se ficar desencorajado consigo mesmo ou achar que não está progredindo, veja até onde você chegou. Pense em como era há alguns anos e se compare positivamente com o que é hoje. Eu já lhe apresentei muitos desafios, os quais o fortaleceram, amadureceram e lhe deram grandes alegrias. E mesmo que hoje ainda sinta que tem muito chão pela frente, veja até onde Eu já o trouxe, e isso lhe dará fé para o futuro.
É claro que você não “alcançou”, mas se pensar bem, isso jamais acontecerá. Aprender, crescer e progredir é um processo sem fim. É assim que a sua vida continuará sendo na terra — cheia de desafios e oportunidades para você se expandir e adquirir mais força espiritual. Então, num certo sentido é bom querer continuar fazendo progresso, pois é um desafio que o impulsiona. Não deveria desanimá-lo, porque o desencorajamento o detém e evita que progrida.
O desencorajamento é como uma parede bem alta que o faz parar e achar que não dá para seguir adiante. É como uma areia movediça que o mantém parado no tempo, afundando nas mentiras do Inimigo. É por isso que precisa lutar contra o desencorajamento com fé — fé em Mim, e até fé em si mesmo, de que posso e o usarei apesar de seus pontos fracos e incapacidades. Minha capacidade sempre superará as suas incapacidades, a Minha força sempre será superior à sua e o Meu poder está sempre disponÃvel, mesmo quando você se sente como uma bateria descarregada ou um carro sem combustÃvel.
Você nunca está além do ponto de ser ajudado pelo Meu poder, não importa como se sinta, por mais fraco que seja, por mais falhas que tenha ou erros que cometa regularmente.
Desejo fazer muito mais através de você, mas muitas vezes é preciso passar por batalhas para chegar ao ponto que preciso que esteja. Então alegre-se nessas coisas, sabendo que são métodos e meios de transportá-lo para onde desejo que esteja, não ao destino final, ao ponto de “chegada”, mas ao ponto em que está constantemente seguindo em frente, segundo Meu plano.
Publicado originalmente em outubro de 2003. Adaptado e republicado em novembro em 2013. Tradução Denise Oliveira. Revisão Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922) foi uma reformadora social indiana, defensora da emancipação das mulheres, e pioneira em educação. Ficou famosa como estudiosa de sânscrito. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandita_Ramabai.)
Você sabia que o carbono pode se transformar num lindo diamante se sofrer calor e pressão suficientes? Talvez o ajude pensar nisso de vez em quando se estiver se sentindo um pouco pressionado. Imagine-se no processo de transformação. A pressão de suas muitas responsabilidades e o aperto que está sofrendo devido a tudo que está acontecendo em sua vida não são para esmagá-lo, mas pode transformá-lo.
Pense, por exemplo, em Pandita Ramabai.[1] Foi muita pressão quando ela se sentiu chamada por Mim a fazer o máximo possÃvel para levar o Meu amor ao seu povo, até nos seus últimos anos de vida. Mas Eu lhe dei aquele fardo e jugo. E ela aceitou. Tomou a sua cruz e a carregou com alegria, e pude agir através dela. A necessidade pesou nela, é verdade, mas era o fardo que Eu lhe dera, e a ajudei a carregá-lo. Isso é um exemplo de pressão boa em comparação com estresse.
O apóstolo Paulo foi outro exemplo de viver com o tipo certo de pressão. Ele teve uma vida longa e produtiva sob pressão praticamente constante. Quando ele disse: “Pois me é imposta esta obrigação; e ai de mim se não anunciar o evangelho”, é claro que estava se sentindo bem pressionado no espÃrito. O seu desejo de evangelizar o mundo à s vezes era um grande peso para ele. Por causa da sua soberana vocação, Paulo muitas vezes viveu de forma bem desconfortável e sacrificada, até mesmo sofrendo dor e privação. Mas como aprendeu a lançar os seus cuidados sobre Mim, pude lhe dar toda a graça e forças que precisou para prosseguir, até completar a sua carreira e ganhar o prêmio. Ele não teve que suportar tudo aquilo com sua própria força. Teve que se apoiar em Mim.
Existem exemplos incontáveis na história de pessoas que Me permitiram aplicar pressão em suas vidas — pressão suficiente para mantê-las em movimento, crescendo e mudando, sem se acomodarem — e que foram transformadas em lindos diamantes cintilando para Mim.
Lembre-se que a pressão pode ser algo bom e não precisa prejudicá-lo, mas pode ajudá-lo. Você tem capacidade para fazer muito mais do que pensa, se aprender a Me deixar viver e agir mais plenamente através de você.
*
A vida sempre vai ter suas batalhas, dificuldades e obstáculos, mas se lutar para superar cada uma ficará mais forte, tanto no espÃrito como em Mim.
Se ficar desencorajado consigo mesmo ou achar que não está progredindo, veja até onde você chegou. Pense em como era há alguns anos e se compare positivamente com o que é hoje. Eu já lhe apresentei muitos desafios, os quais o fortaleceram, amadureceram e lhe deram grandes alegrias. E mesmo que hoje ainda sinta que tem muito chão pela frente, veja até onde Eu já o trouxe, e isso lhe dará fé para o futuro.
É claro que você não “alcançou”, mas se pensar bem, isso jamais acontecerá. Aprender, crescer e progredir é um processo sem fim. É assim que a sua vida continuará sendo na terra — cheia de desafios e oportunidades para você se expandir e adquirir mais força espiritual. Então, num certo sentido é bom querer continuar fazendo progresso, pois é um desafio que o impulsiona. Não deveria desanimá-lo, porque o desencorajamento o detém e evita que progrida.
O desencorajamento é como uma parede bem alta que o faz parar e achar que não dá para seguir adiante. É como uma areia movediça que o mantém parado no tempo, afundando nas mentiras do Inimigo. É por isso que precisa lutar contra o desencorajamento com fé — fé em Mim, e até fé em si mesmo, de que posso e o usarei apesar de seus pontos fracos e incapacidades. Minha capacidade sempre superará as suas incapacidades, a Minha força sempre será superior à sua e o Meu poder está sempre disponÃvel, mesmo quando você se sente como uma bateria descarregada ou um carro sem combustÃvel.
Você nunca está além do ponto de ser ajudado pelo Meu poder, não importa como se sinta, por mais fraco que seja, por mais falhas que tenha ou erros que cometa regularmente.
Desejo fazer muito mais através de você, mas muitas vezes é preciso passar por batalhas para chegar ao ponto que preciso que esteja. Então alegre-se nessas coisas, sabendo que são métodos e meios de transportá-lo para onde desejo que esteja, não ao destino final, ao ponto de “chegada”, mas ao ponto em que está constantemente seguindo em frente, segundo Meu plano.
Publicado originalmente em outubro de 2003. Adaptado e republicado em novembro em 2013. Tradução Denise Oliveira. Revisão Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922) foi uma reformadora social indiana, defensora da emancipação das mulheres, e pioneira em educação. Ficou famosa como estudiosa de sânscrito. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandita_Ramabai.)
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Esconderijo
Steve Hearts
Nos momentos tempestuosos, muitas vezes nos esforçamos tanto para encontrar uma saÃda ou sermos resgatados que nos esquecemos de procurar o verdadeiro e mais seguro abrigo e refúgio.
Ontem à noite eu não conseguia dormir de jeito algum. Estava passando por uma fase de desânimo, dúvidas e frustração. Não conseguia relaxar mental ou fisicamente. Era difÃcil impedir meus pensamentos de vagarem por lugares não desejados.
Lá fora chovia bastante. E apesar de estar dentro de casa, protegido no fÃsico, em um lugar aquecido e seco, o meu espÃrito não se sentia assim. A chuva parecia cair em sintonia com as batalhas e dificuldades que tenho enfrentado há um bom tempo. Eu me sentia vulnerável, desprotegido dos ventos frios, ensopado por uma chuva que parecia não terminar nunca.
Eu estava rapidamente perdendo a esperança. A minha fé vacilava. Sinceramente, eu disse ao Senhor que desejava de todo o coração ficar firme e ser fiel até à morte, mas que isso só seria possÃvel com a Sua ajuda. Pedi para Ele destacar uma verdade importante que no momento não estou conseguindo enxergar. E então fiquei deitado em silêncio.
Recebi uma resposta inesperada. Ele me disse claramente para ouvir a canção “Hiding Place
” (Esconderijo), de Steven Curtis Chapman.
Liguei a música sem esperar muito. Afinal de contas, eu a conhecia como a palma da minha mão. No entanto, cada palavra parecia me acertas em cheio, com uma xÃcara de chá num dia chuvoso, ou a sensação gostosa de entrar em um lugar seco depois de estar lá fora no frio do inverno.
Senhor, não Lhe peço para levar embora minhas dificuldades.
Pois a tempestade ensina-me a confiar mais.
Eu Lhe agradeço pela promessa que aprendi.
Pelo amor que acolhe quando mais preciso.
Você é o meu esconderijo,
Seguro nos Seus braços
Estou a salvo das tormentas.
Quando sobem as águas,
E corremos à procura de um abrigo
Você, Senhor, é o nossos esconderijo.
Conforme ouvia a canção, o Senhor falou comigo: “Você está se refugiando nas Minhas promessas e amor? Ou está ocupado demais procurando e esperando uma saÃda?”
Eu estava procurando e esperando. Esperava e orava para ser resgatado, em vez de usar a Palavra de Deus e o Seu amor como refúgio. Não é de admirar que eu me sentia tão vulnerável e desprotegido.
“Não é que eu não possa ou não queira retirá-lo da situação,” Ele continuou. “Mas enquanto ela persiste, deixe-Me ser o seu refúgio e abrigo como lhe prometi, até a tempestade passar.”
E juntamente com essas palavras senti-me inundar por diversas promessas que conheço desde sempre:
“Deus é o nosso refúgio e força, socorro bem presente na tribulação. Pelo que não temeremos ainda que a terra se mude e os montes sejam lançados no meio dos mares; ainda que as águas rujam e se perturbem, e se abalem os montes pela sua braveza.”[1]
“À sombra das tuas asas me abrigarei até passarem as calamidades.”[2]
“O Deus eterno é teu refúgio, e abaixo estão os braços eternos.”[3]
Nenbuma dessas promessas fala de “resgatar” das dificuldades, apesar de que Deus pode e nos resgata de acorado com a Sua vontade. O mais importante é que Ele é o nosso “refúgio” conforme passamos pelas batalhas e dificuldades. A tempestade não passa só porque nos abrigamos em um edifÃcio, mas nos oferece um refúgio até ela passar.
E com a perspectiva renovada quanto a tempestades, agora eu posso confiar plenamente em Jesus como refúgio e abrigo durante a tempestade, sabendo que o resultado final está nas Suas mãos. E eu continuarei de braços erguidos louvando a Ele, o meu esconderijo onde fico em segurança.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Salmo 46:1–3.
[2] Salmo 57:1.
[3] Deuteronômio 33:27.
Nos momentos tempestuosos, muitas vezes nos esforçamos tanto para encontrar uma saÃda ou sermos resgatados que nos esquecemos de procurar o verdadeiro e mais seguro abrigo e refúgio.
Ontem à noite eu não conseguia dormir de jeito algum. Estava passando por uma fase de desânimo, dúvidas e frustração. Não conseguia relaxar mental ou fisicamente. Era difÃcil impedir meus pensamentos de vagarem por lugares não desejados.
Lá fora chovia bastante. E apesar de estar dentro de casa, protegido no fÃsico, em um lugar aquecido e seco, o meu espÃrito não se sentia assim. A chuva parecia cair em sintonia com as batalhas e dificuldades que tenho enfrentado há um bom tempo. Eu me sentia vulnerável, desprotegido dos ventos frios, ensopado por uma chuva que parecia não terminar nunca.
Eu estava rapidamente perdendo a esperança. A minha fé vacilava. Sinceramente, eu disse ao Senhor que desejava de todo o coração ficar firme e ser fiel até à morte, mas que isso só seria possÃvel com a Sua ajuda. Pedi para Ele destacar uma verdade importante que no momento não estou conseguindo enxergar. E então fiquei deitado em silêncio.
Recebi uma resposta inesperada. Ele me disse claramente para ouvir a canção “Hiding Place
” (Esconderijo), de Steven Curtis Chapman.Liguei a música sem esperar muito. Afinal de contas, eu a conhecia como a palma da minha mão. No entanto, cada palavra parecia me acertas em cheio, com uma xÃcara de chá num dia chuvoso, ou a sensação gostosa de entrar em um lugar seco depois de estar lá fora no frio do inverno.
Senhor, não Lhe peço para levar embora minhas dificuldades.
Pois a tempestade ensina-me a confiar mais.
Eu Lhe agradeço pela promessa que aprendi.
Pelo amor que acolhe quando mais preciso.
Você é o meu esconderijo,
Seguro nos Seus braços
Estou a salvo das tormentas.
Quando sobem as águas,
E corremos à procura de um abrigo
Você, Senhor, é o nossos esconderijo.
Conforme ouvia a canção, o Senhor falou comigo: “Você está se refugiando nas Minhas promessas e amor? Ou está ocupado demais procurando e esperando uma saÃda?”
Eu estava procurando e esperando. Esperava e orava para ser resgatado, em vez de usar a Palavra de Deus e o Seu amor como refúgio. Não é de admirar que eu me sentia tão vulnerável e desprotegido.
“Não é que eu não possa ou não queira retirá-lo da situação,” Ele continuou. “Mas enquanto ela persiste, deixe-Me ser o seu refúgio e abrigo como lhe prometi, até a tempestade passar.”
E juntamente com essas palavras senti-me inundar por diversas promessas que conheço desde sempre:
“Deus é o nosso refúgio e força, socorro bem presente na tribulação. Pelo que não temeremos ainda que a terra se mude e os montes sejam lançados no meio dos mares; ainda que as águas rujam e se perturbem, e se abalem os montes pela sua braveza.”[1]
“À sombra das tuas asas me abrigarei até passarem as calamidades.”[2]
“O Deus eterno é teu refúgio, e abaixo estão os braços eternos.”[3]
Nenbuma dessas promessas fala de “resgatar” das dificuldades, apesar de que Deus pode e nos resgata de acorado com a Sua vontade. O mais importante é que Ele é o nosso “refúgio” conforme passamos pelas batalhas e dificuldades. A tempestade não passa só porque nos abrigamos em um edifÃcio, mas nos oferece um refúgio até ela passar.
E com a perspectiva renovada quanto a tempestades, agora eu posso confiar plenamente em Jesus como refúgio e abrigo durante a tempestade, sabendo que o resultado final está nas Suas mãos. E eu continuarei de braços erguidos louvando a Ele, o meu esconderijo onde fico em segurança.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Salmo 46:1–3.
[2] Salmo 57:1.
[3] Deuteronômio 33:27.
Climb Up on the Rock - What to do when you feel moody or depressed
Words from Jesus
Audio length: 7:09
Download Audio (6.5MB)
“When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”1
If you feel overwhelmed, climb up on the Rock. You have Me, the Rock, and you can rest in My ability to keep you through anything that threatens to overwhelm you. When you feel the weakness of your cares and burdens, when you feel depression threaten to blacken your thoughts and hang a feeling of despair over you, you can climb up on the Rock and rest in My grace.
I am the answer to these sad moods and depression. Look to Me and ask Me to take these feelings away. Please don’t attempt to just live with the feelings, or to make decisions on the basis of these negative emotions. When the Enemy threatens to come in like a flood, raise a standard against him and fight against him.
Do whatever it takes to win the battle, whether it takes desperate prayer, more time in My Word, more rest, or asking for prayer from a friend or spouse. Seek Me and ask what you should do. But remember that these feelings can rob you of your victory and drive a wedge between you and My promises that will sustain you. Be encouraged that I will never allow you to be tempted with more than you can bear.
These times in your life may be confusing. There may be times when you are tossed to and fro and you feel uncertain, not knowing what the future holds and not knowing which way to go. It is only natural to feel fear in these moments.
You are like My disciples in the boat when the waves roared and the storm raged, and they cried out, “Master! Help us! We will perish!” They thought they would die because the storm was so great. You may feel that the turbulence of your emotions and the turbulence of your life are too much. But remember that I am the Lord of your vessel. I can calm the seas. I can keep you through any storm, no matter how long it lasts. Wait on Me. I will never leave you nor forsake you; I will be the help and the strength that you need in the midst of this turbulence.
Hold on to My Word, believe Me through the storm, know that I have never forsaken you and will never forsake you and I can cause all things to work together for good.
Look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Rest in Me and you will find the strength that you know not of.
*
But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.—Psalm 94:222
*
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.—Psalm 91:1–43
*
Don’t look at the waves. Walk out on the water. Peter looked into My eyes, and he had the faith to step out on the water. I put steps underneath his feet. As long as his eyes were on Me, he walked on the water.
I am able to do this with you. I can quell your emotions. I can stabilize your spirit. Reach out to Me. Let Me be your foundation. Trust in Me. Look to Me and stay calm and realize that I am the Prince of Peace. Remember that great peace have they which love Me. To claim your peace, keep your eyes on Me.
*
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:6–74
*
Many are worried about the future these days—and it’s no wonder. The way things are going, many have reason to fear what will happen to them, their family, their city, their country, their world. Sometimes you might wish you could find a hideaway, nail the windows and doors closed, and keep the world out.
It doesn’t do any good to pretend the problems aren’t there, but you don’t have to be afraid, because I’m looking out for you. When fears overwhelm you, hide away in Me. When you find yourself in a dangerous situation, call on Me for help and then rest assured that I will be there to protect you. When you can’t watch over your loved ones, commit them to My care. When a national or international crisis erupts, I will provide a safe haven in My peace for you and yours.
And after this life, a better life awaits on the other side. Heaven is where all is made right.
So you see, although there’s plenty you could worry about, you don’t have to worry about a thing. I’m taking care of you!
Originally published in 1996 and 2003. Adapted and republished February 2014.
Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Daniel Sozzi.
1 Psalm 61:2 KJV.
2 NIV.
3 NIV.
4 NLT.
Audio length: 7:09
Download Audio (6.5MB)
“When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”1
If you feel overwhelmed, climb up on the Rock. You have Me, the Rock, and you can rest in My ability to keep you through anything that threatens to overwhelm you. When you feel the weakness of your cares and burdens, when you feel depression threaten to blacken your thoughts and hang a feeling of despair over you, you can climb up on the Rock and rest in My grace.
I am the answer to these sad moods and depression. Look to Me and ask Me to take these feelings away. Please don’t attempt to just live with the feelings, or to make decisions on the basis of these negative emotions. When the Enemy threatens to come in like a flood, raise a standard against him and fight against him.
Do whatever it takes to win the battle, whether it takes desperate prayer, more time in My Word, more rest, or asking for prayer from a friend or spouse. Seek Me and ask what you should do. But remember that these feelings can rob you of your victory and drive a wedge between you and My promises that will sustain you. Be encouraged that I will never allow you to be tempted with more than you can bear.
These times in your life may be confusing. There may be times when you are tossed to and fro and you feel uncertain, not knowing what the future holds and not knowing which way to go. It is only natural to feel fear in these moments.
You are like My disciples in the boat when the waves roared and the storm raged, and they cried out, “Master! Help us! We will perish!” They thought they would die because the storm was so great. You may feel that the turbulence of your emotions and the turbulence of your life are too much. But remember that I am the Lord of your vessel. I can calm the seas. I can keep you through any storm, no matter how long it lasts. Wait on Me. I will never leave you nor forsake you; I will be the help and the strength that you need in the midst of this turbulence.
Hold on to My Word, believe Me through the storm, know that I have never forsaken you and will never forsake you and I can cause all things to work together for good.
Look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Rest in Me and you will find the strength that you know not of.
*
But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.—Psalm 94:222
*
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.—Psalm 91:1–43
*
Don’t look at the waves. Walk out on the water. Peter looked into My eyes, and he had the faith to step out on the water. I put steps underneath his feet. As long as his eyes were on Me, he walked on the water.
I am able to do this with you. I can quell your emotions. I can stabilize your spirit. Reach out to Me. Let Me be your foundation. Trust in Me. Look to Me and stay calm and realize that I am the Prince of Peace. Remember that great peace have they which love Me. To claim your peace, keep your eyes on Me.
*
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:6–74
*
Many are worried about the future these days—and it’s no wonder. The way things are going, many have reason to fear what will happen to them, their family, their city, their country, their world. Sometimes you might wish you could find a hideaway, nail the windows and doors closed, and keep the world out.
It doesn’t do any good to pretend the problems aren’t there, but you don’t have to be afraid, because I’m looking out for you. When fears overwhelm you, hide away in Me. When you find yourself in a dangerous situation, call on Me for help and then rest assured that I will be there to protect you. When you can’t watch over your loved ones, commit them to My care. When a national or international crisis erupts, I will provide a safe haven in My peace for you and yours.
And after this life, a better life awaits on the other side. Heaven is where all is made right.
So you see, although there’s plenty you could worry about, you don’t have to worry about a thing. I’m taking care of you!
Originally published in 1996 and 2003. Adapted and republished February 2014.
Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Daniel Sozzi.
1 Psalm 61:2 KJV.
2 NIV.
3 NIV.
4 NLT.
Get smarter and happier
By Eric Barker, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Feb. 24, 2014
What’s a scientifically validated way to get smarter, happier, healthier, and calmer? Stop reading this right now and go for a walk. It’s that simple. Here’s why.
1. Exercise powers the body—and the mind. They used to say you don’t grow new brain cells. They were wrong.
As an illustration of just how new this territory is, I’ll go back to the story of neurogenesis, the once-heretical theory that the brain grows new nerve cells throughout life. “Ten years ago people weren’t even convinced that it happened,” says neurologist Scott Small. It was at his Columbia University lab, in 2007, where they witnessed telltale signs of neurogenesis for the first time in live humans. “Five years ago people said, OK, it might happen, but is it really meaningful? Now there isn’t a week that goes by where there’s not another study that shows neurogenesis has some kind of effect on the brain.”
What really feeds those baby brain cells? Hitting the gym. A three-month exercise regimen increased bloodflow to the part of your brain focused on memory and learning by 30 percent.
In his study, Small put a group of volunteers on a three-month exercise regimen and then took pictures of their brains. By manipulating a standard MRI machine’s processing—essentially zooming in and cocking the shutter open—he captured images of the newly formed capillaries required for nascent neurons to survive. What he saw was that the capillary volume in the memory area of the hippocampus increased by 30 percent, a truly remarkable change.
2. The dumb jock is a myth. Being in good shape increases your ability to learn. After exercise people pick up new vocabulary words 20 percent faster.
“One of the prominent features of exercise, which is sometimes not appreciated in studies, is an improvement in the rate of learning, and I think that’s a really cool take-home message,” Cotman says. “Because it suggests that if you’re in good shape, you may be able to learn and function more efficiently.”
Indeed, in a 2007 study of humans, German researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise than they did before exercise, and that the rate of learning correlated directly with levels of BDNF.
Want to be more creative? Sweating for about a half hour on the treadmill notably increases cognitive flexibility.
A notable experiment in 2007 showed that cognitive flexibility improves after just one thirty-five-minute treadmill session at either 60 percent or 70 percent of maximum heart rate… Cognitive flexibility is an important executive function that reflects our ability to shift thinking and to produce a steady flow of creative thoughts and answers as opposed to a regurgitation of the usual responses.
Fine, you can see differences on an MRI and with nerdy tests. Does it make a difference in the real world? Yes.
3. Office workers who exercised at lunch were more productive, less stressed, and had more energy.
In 2004 researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University in England found that workers who used their company’s gym were more productive and felt better able to handle their workloads. Most of the 210 participants in the study took an aerobics class at lunchtime, for 45 minutes to an hour, but others lifted weights or practiced yoga for 30 minutes to an hour. They filled out questionnaires at the end of every workday about how well they interacted with colleagues, managed their time, and met deadlines. Some 65 percent fared better in all three categories on days they exercised. Overall, they felt better about their work and less stressed when they exercised. And they felt less fatigued in the afternoon, despite expending energy at lunchtime.
That super-productive co-worker who runs every day might not exercise because they have energy—they might have energy because they exercise. While it might not make you the smartest person in the world, among the many ways to increase intelligence, exercise stands out.
4. Sweating increases smiling. Can’t make it simpler than this: Research from Duke University shows exercise is as effective as antidepressants in treating depression.
In a landmark study affectionately called SMILE (Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term Exercise), James Blumenthal and his colleagues pitted exercise against the SSRI sertraline (Zoloft) in a sixteen-week trial… Blumenthal concluded that exercise was as effective as medication.
It also reduces anxiety.
One interesting study in 2005 measured the physical and mental effects of exercise in a group of Chilean high school students for nine months… The experimental group’s anxiety scores dropped 14 percent versus a statistically insignificant 3 percent for the control group (an improvement that could be explained by the placebo effect).
5. What if you’re not depressed or anxious? Stay sedentary and you’re 1.5x more likely to eventually become depressed.
Researchers tracked 8,023 people for twenty-six years, surveying them about a number of factors related to lifestyle habits and healthiness starting in 1965. They checked back in with the participants in 1974 and in 1983. Of all the people with no signs of depression at the beginning, those who became inactive over the next nine years were 1.5 times more likely to have depression by 1983 than their active counterparts.
Still not convinced? People who exercise are, across the board, mentally healthier: less depression, anger, stress, and distrust.
A massive Dutch study of 19,288 twins and their families published in 2006 showed that exercisers are less anxious, less depressed, less neurotic, and also more socially outgoing. A Finnish study of 3,403 people in 1999 showed that those who exercise at least two to three times a week experience significantly less depression, anger, stress, and “cynical distrust” than those who exercise less or not at all.
6. Okay, okay—How much do I need to do?
What’s optimal? Exercise six days a week, 45 minutes to an hour per day.
The best, however, based on everything I’ve read and seen, would be to do some form of aerobic activity six days a week, for forty-five minutes to an hour… In total, I’m talking about committing six hours a week to your brain. That works out to 5 percent of your waking hours.
What could be a better investment of your time? You might ask: If it’s obviously so great, why don’t we all do it? Because habits and social influences are much more powerful than we think. And, in general, we don’t do what makes us happy—we do what’s easy.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
What’s a scientifically validated way to get smarter, happier, healthier, and calmer? Stop reading this right now and go for a walk. It’s that simple. Here’s why.
1. Exercise powers the body—and the mind. They used to say you don’t grow new brain cells. They were wrong.
As an illustration of just how new this territory is, I’ll go back to the story of neurogenesis, the once-heretical theory that the brain grows new nerve cells throughout life. “Ten years ago people weren’t even convinced that it happened,” says neurologist Scott Small. It was at his Columbia University lab, in 2007, where they witnessed telltale signs of neurogenesis for the first time in live humans. “Five years ago people said, OK, it might happen, but is it really meaningful? Now there isn’t a week that goes by where there’s not another study that shows neurogenesis has some kind of effect on the brain.”
What really feeds those baby brain cells? Hitting the gym. A three-month exercise regimen increased bloodflow to the part of your brain focused on memory and learning by 30 percent.
In his study, Small put a group of volunteers on a three-month exercise regimen and then took pictures of their brains. By manipulating a standard MRI machine’s processing—essentially zooming in and cocking the shutter open—he captured images of the newly formed capillaries required for nascent neurons to survive. What he saw was that the capillary volume in the memory area of the hippocampus increased by 30 percent, a truly remarkable change.
2. The dumb jock is a myth. Being in good shape increases your ability to learn. After exercise people pick up new vocabulary words 20 percent faster.
“One of the prominent features of exercise, which is sometimes not appreciated in studies, is an improvement in the rate of learning, and I think that’s a really cool take-home message,” Cotman says. “Because it suggests that if you’re in good shape, you may be able to learn and function more efficiently.”
Indeed, in a 2007 study of humans, German researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise than they did before exercise, and that the rate of learning correlated directly with levels of BDNF.
Want to be more creative? Sweating for about a half hour on the treadmill notably increases cognitive flexibility.
A notable experiment in 2007 showed that cognitive flexibility improves after just one thirty-five-minute treadmill session at either 60 percent or 70 percent of maximum heart rate… Cognitive flexibility is an important executive function that reflects our ability to shift thinking and to produce a steady flow of creative thoughts and answers as opposed to a regurgitation of the usual responses.
Fine, you can see differences on an MRI and with nerdy tests. Does it make a difference in the real world? Yes.
3. Office workers who exercised at lunch were more productive, less stressed, and had more energy.
In 2004 researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University in England found that workers who used their company’s gym were more productive and felt better able to handle their workloads. Most of the 210 participants in the study took an aerobics class at lunchtime, for 45 minutes to an hour, but others lifted weights or practiced yoga for 30 minutes to an hour. They filled out questionnaires at the end of every workday about how well they interacted with colleagues, managed their time, and met deadlines. Some 65 percent fared better in all three categories on days they exercised. Overall, they felt better about their work and less stressed when they exercised. And they felt less fatigued in the afternoon, despite expending energy at lunchtime.
That super-productive co-worker who runs every day might not exercise because they have energy—they might have energy because they exercise. While it might not make you the smartest person in the world, among the many ways to increase intelligence, exercise stands out.
4. Sweating increases smiling. Can’t make it simpler than this: Research from Duke University shows exercise is as effective as antidepressants in treating depression.
In a landmark study affectionately called SMILE (Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term Exercise), James Blumenthal and his colleagues pitted exercise against the SSRI sertraline (Zoloft) in a sixteen-week trial… Blumenthal concluded that exercise was as effective as medication.
It also reduces anxiety.
One interesting study in 2005 measured the physical and mental effects of exercise in a group of Chilean high school students for nine months… The experimental group’s anxiety scores dropped 14 percent versus a statistically insignificant 3 percent for the control group (an improvement that could be explained by the placebo effect).
5. What if you’re not depressed or anxious? Stay sedentary and you’re 1.5x more likely to eventually become depressed.
Researchers tracked 8,023 people for twenty-six years, surveying them about a number of factors related to lifestyle habits and healthiness starting in 1965. They checked back in with the participants in 1974 and in 1983. Of all the people with no signs of depression at the beginning, those who became inactive over the next nine years were 1.5 times more likely to have depression by 1983 than their active counterparts.
Still not convinced? People who exercise are, across the board, mentally healthier: less depression, anger, stress, and distrust.
A massive Dutch study of 19,288 twins and their families published in 2006 showed that exercisers are less anxious, less depressed, less neurotic, and also more socially outgoing. A Finnish study of 3,403 people in 1999 showed that those who exercise at least two to three times a week experience significantly less depression, anger, stress, and “cynical distrust” than those who exercise less or not at all.
6. Okay, okay—How much do I need to do?
What’s optimal? Exercise six days a week, 45 minutes to an hour per day.
The best, however, based on everything I’ve read and seen, would be to do some form of aerobic activity six days a week, for forty-five minutes to an hour… In total, I’m talking about committing six hours a week to your brain. That works out to 5 percent of your waking hours.
What could be a better investment of your time? You might ask: If it’s obviously so great, why don’t we all do it? Because habits and social influences are much more powerful than we think. And, in general, we don’t do what makes us happy—we do what’s easy.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
No easy bailout plan for struggling Ukraine
| By David Mchugh and Juergen Baetz, AP, Feb 25, 2014 KIEV, Ukraine (AP)—Ukraine needs money, and fast—in weeks, not months. But bailing out the country of 46 million people will not be a matter of simply writing a big check. For one, Ukraine has already burned the main international financial rescuer, the International Monetary Fund, by failing to keep to the terms of earlier bailouts from 2008 and 2010. Now it needs help again, and its economic and financial problems are worse than before. The currency is sliding, raising concerns that companies that owe money in foreign currency could go bust. Banks are fragile. A rescue with outside lenders can’t be agreed until there’s a government. And Russia could make things worse by demanding on-time payment for natural gas supplies or withdrawing a recently granted break on the price. HOW MUCH? Analysts estimate the country will need between $20 billion and $25 billion for 2014 and 2015, perhaps $15 billion this year and $10 billion the next. The money would help the government pay salaries and pensions and maturing bonds. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov says the treasury account used to pay bills is almost empty. The Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based association of banks and financial companies, warned that Ukraine’s finances “are on the verge of collapse.” “It’s crunch time for the economy,” said Lilit Gevorgyan, an analyst with IHS Global Insight in London. “All those issues they have swept under the rug are re-emerging.” EXISTING PROBLEMS. Ukraine is battling to keep its currency, the hryvnia, from collapsing, which would bring down banks and companies that owe money in foreign currencies. But the central bank is running out of money to do so. It spent some $2.8 billion of its reserves since the start of the start of the year and has about $16 billion left. Still the hryvnia has fallen a sharp 12 percent during that period. The government also spends way more than it takes in, largely because the state owned gas company Naftogaz charges customers as little as one-fifth the cost of gas imported from Russia. The IMF halted payouts under earlier bailouts because the government refused to halt that practice. The economy is estimated to be in a deepening recession, with industrial production, consumer spending and exports all dropping. BAILOUT CONDITIONS. Yet a bailout involving the IMF would involve painful cutbacks and reforms that could quickly douse any euphoria over the country’s political changes. To begin with, the IMF would probably insist on letting the currency fall steadily, by as much as 30 percent, according to the IIF. That would be painful upfront—some banks may need bailouts as their foreign debts balloon. And standards of living would suffer as imports soar in price. Eventually the currency drop would help exports and make Ukraine a cheaper place for foreigners to invest, particularly if they see that the government is committed to reforming the economy by cutting bureaucracy and fighting corruption. The government would also have to sharply raise the price of natural gas, which it is subsidizing heavily. The IIF estimates natural gas prices may have to be doubled, which would be a heavy blow to consumers and businesses at a time of hardship. CAVEATS. There remain several stumbling blocks. The IMF, for one, might be reluctant to sign on for a large loan, given Ukraine’s track record of not holding to agreements. Instead, it might prefer to give smaller loans of $3 billion to $5 billion at intervals, according IHS analyst Gevorgyan. One now, one after the presidential election, and so on, “to make sure they remain on the path of reform.” Also, Russia, Ukraine’s larger neighbor could intensify the country’s troubles by getting tough on its supplies of natural gas. Russia almost halved the price of its gas supplies to Ukraine in December as it sought to woo the country away from closer ties with the EU. That price cut is up for review every three months. Russia could also stop letting Ukraine delay monthly payments that are as large as $1.8 billion. |
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
New reality in Vatican: Surprise, it’s the pope!
By John L. Allen Jr., Boston Globe, February 24, 2014
ROME—Cardinals are traditionally called “princes of the church,” but Pope Francis insisted on Sunday they’re not part of a “royal court.” Interviews with several cardinals this week suggest the pope backs up those words with his personal example.
As he approaches the one-year anniversary of his election, it’s becoming steadily clearer that Francis is the most laid-back pontiff in recent memory, and perhaps of all time.
Examples abound.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York is a member of a Vatican council that oversees the Synod of Bishops, a summit of Catholic prelates from around the world. The council meets every so often in a building a few blocks from St. Peter’s Basilica, and the practice has been that it passes conclusions to a papal aide without getting face time with the boss.
In October, however, Francis decided to walk down the Via della Conciliazione, the broad Roman street leading away from the basilica, to join one of their meetings. It was an act akin to the President of the United States heading over to Congress to sit in on a meeting of a House committee—i.e., something almost inconceivable to anyone accustomed to the usual protocol.
Francis spent six hours over two days with the council. Aside from his presence, what struck members was the informality of his approach.
“He came over like it was just another day at the office, with his lunch box,” Dolan said. “We couldn’t believe it.”
Dolan said members of the council had been briefed that the pope was coming, but were told that he didn’t want anyone downstairs making a production out of his arrival. He came up by himself, with no aides or security personnel, carrying a briefcase.
“This is a man for whom warmth and informality is very natural,” Dolan said.
That lack of pretense was on display again this past week, when all the cardinals of the world took part in two days of meetings with Francis. In the past the pope arrived for such sessions only after all the cardinals were in place, who would snap to attention when the pope entered the room.
This time, however, Francis showed up early and chatted with cardinals as they arrived, so nobody stood up to greet his entrance.
That wasn’t the only innovation. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, Texas, described a surprising run-in.
“We went down for the coffee break in the morning, and I’m in the crowd at the bar,” DiNardo told the Globe. “I turn around, and it’s the pope! He’s in line to get coffee himself, no flunkies surrounding him.”
“You’re both shocked and embarrassed, but this is how he wants things,” DiNardo said. “He’s told people this is what he wants.”
Dolan had a similar encounter the morning the meetings started.
“I turned around when I was checking my coat in, and there was the pope standing in line behind me to check his coat in,” he said. “I have to say, it was kind of stunning.”
Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of Quebec, Canada, said Francis flashes the same informal style at the Domus Santa Marta, the modest bed and breakfast on Vatican grounds where the pontiff has chosen to live.
“I’m staying at the Santa Marta with my parents this week, and one morning at breakfast the pope came in, waved at everybody in the dining room and then went to his table,” the 56-year-old Lacroix said, adding that his parents were thrilled just to be in the same room.
“Then Francis gets up and comes to greet them, at our table,” he said. “He was so relaxed it was unbelievable. Afterwards I almost couldn’t find my mom, because she was floating up on the ceiling!”
Lacroix, who’s never worked in the Vatican, said some members of the old guard must be dumbfounded.
“I’m sure it’s very scary for the people around here,” he said. “They must be saying, what in the world is going on?”
ROME—Cardinals are traditionally called “princes of the church,” but Pope Francis insisted on Sunday they’re not part of a “royal court.” Interviews with several cardinals this week suggest the pope backs up those words with his personal example.
As he approaches the one-year anniversary of his election, it’s becoming steadily clearer that Francis is the most laid-back pontiff in recent memory, and perhaps of all time.
Examples abound.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York is a member of a Vatican council that oversees the Synod of Bishops, a summit of Catholic prelates from around the world. The council meets every so often in a building a few blocks from St. Peter’s Basilica, and the practice has been that it passes conclusions to a papal aide without getting face time with the boss.
In October, however, Francis decided to walk down the Via della Conciliazione, the broad Roman street leading away from the basilica, to join one of their meetings. It was an act akin to the President of the United States heading over to Congress to sit in on a meeting of a House committee—i.e., something almost inconceivable to anyone accustomed to the usual protocol.
Francis spent six hours over two days with the council. Aside from his presence, what struck members was the informality of his approach.
“He came over like it was just another day at the office, with his lunch box,” Dolan said. “We couldn’t believe it.”
Dolan said members of the council had been briefed that the pope was coming, but were told that he didn’t want anyone downstairs making a production out of his arrival. He came up by himself, with no aides or security personnel, carrying a briefcase.
“This is a man for whom warmth and informality is very natural,” Dolan said.
That lack of pretense was on display again this past week, when all the cardinals of the world took part in two days of meetings with Francis. In the past the pope arrived for such sessions only after all the cardinals were in place, who would snap to attention when the pope entered the room.
This time, however, Francis showed up early and chatted with cardinals as they arrived, so nobody stood up to greet his entrance.
That wasn’t the only innovation. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, Texas, described a surprising run-in.
“We went down for the coffee break in the morning, and I’m in the crowd at the bar,” DiNardo told the Globe. “I turn around, and it’s the pope! He’s in line to get coffee himself, no flunkies surrounding him.”
“You’re both shocked and embarrassed, but this is how he wants things,” DiNardo said. “He’s told people this is what he wants.”
Dolan had a similar encounter the morning the meetings started.
“I turned around when I was checking my coat in, and there was the pope standing in line behind me to check his coat in,” he said. “I have to say, it was kind of stunning.”
Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of Quebec, Canada, said Francis flashes the same informal style at the Domus Santa Marta, the modest bed and breakfast on Vatican grounds where the pontiff has chosen to live.
“I’m staying at the Santa Marta with my parents this week, and one morning at breakfast the pope came in, waved at everybody in the dining room and then went to his table,” the 56-year-old Lacroix said, adding that his parents were thrilled just to be in the same room.
“Then Francis gets up and comes to greet them, at our table,” he said. “He was so relaxed it was unbelievable. Afterwards I almost couldn’t find my mom, because she was floating up on the ceiling!”
Lacroix, who’s never worked in the Vatican, said some members of the old guard must be dumbfounded.
“I’m sure it’s very scary for the people around here,” he said. “They must be saying, what in the world is going on?”
Hiding Place
By Steve Hearts
In the tempestuous, stormy moments of our lives, we often focus so intently on finding a way of escape or rescue that we altogether forget about the most reliable and true source of shelter and refuge.
Last night sleep seemed to totally elude me. I had been facing a low moment of discouragement, doubt, and frustration. I was restless in both mind and body. It was all I could do to prevent my thoughts from going places they ought not to go.
It was raining fairly hard outside. Although in the physical, I was sheltered, warm, and dry inside the house, my spirit felt the exact opposite. The rain outside seemed to pour in unison with the ongoing trials and difficulties I’ve been facing for a while now. Inside, I felt exposed and unprotected from the cold winds, soaked to the bone and drenched by the rain that, it seemed, would never stop.
I was quickly losing my grip on hope and my faith was flickering low. I honestly told the Lord that I wanted with all my heart to hang on and be faithful to the end but that this would only be possible with His help. I asked Him to point out any important truth to which I may be currently blinded. Then I lay in silence for a moment.
The answer I received was rather unexpected. I was clearly told to listen to the song “Hiding Place” by Steven Curtis Chapman.
I put on the song, not expecting much. After all, I knew it like the back of my hand. Yet, each word seemed to hit the spot like a cup of hot coffee on a cold, rainy day, or like the sensation one feels when coming in from the cold of winter to a warm place.
I’m not asking You to take away my troubles, Lord.
‘Cause it’s through the stormy weather I learn to trust You more.
But I thank You for the promise that I have come to know.
Your unfailing love surrounds me when I need it most.
You’re my hiding place,
Safe in Your embrace,
I’m protected from the storm that rages.
When the waters rise,
And we run to hide,
Lord, in You we find our hiding place.
As the song continued to play, the Lord spoke to me. “Are you taking shelter in My promises and My love for you? Or are you too busy looking and hoping for a way of escape from all this?”
I had clearly been doing the latter. I had been hoping and praying to be rescued from this situation, instead of using God’s Word and love for me as the shelter it was meant to be. No wonder I felt so exposed and vulnerable.
“It’s not that I can’t or won’t bring you out of this situation somehow,” He continued. “But meanwhile, let Me be the refuge and shelter I promised to be for you until the storm runs its course.”
With these words came flooding back a series of promises I had known for as long as I could remember:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”1
“Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.”2
“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”3
None of these promises speak of “rescue” from trouble, although God can and does rescue us according to His will. More important, He is our “refuge” as we go through trials and difficulties. Just as running into a building during a storm does not cause the storm to cease; rather, it provides shelter until the storm runs its course.
With this renewed perspective on storms, I can now fully trust and rest in Jesus to be my refuge and shelter for as long as the storm lasts, while the final outcome rests in His hands. Meanwhile, my hands will be lifted up to Him in praise because He is my hiding place.
1 Psalm 46:1–3.
2 Psalm 57:1.
3 Deuteronomy 33:27.
In the tempestuous, stormy moments of our lives, we often focus so intently on finding a way of escape or rescue that we altogether forget about the most reliable and true source of shelter and refuge.
Last night sleep seemed to totally elude me. I had been facing a low moment of discouragement, doubt, and frustration. I was restless in both mind and body. It was all I could do to prevent my thoughts from going places they ought not to go.
It was raining fairly hard outside. Although in the physical, I was sheltered, warm, and dry inside the house, my spirit felt the exact opposite. The rain outside seemed to pour in unison with the ongoing trials and difficulties I’ve been facing for a while now. Inside, I felt exposed and unprotected from the cold winds, soaked to the bone and drenched by the rain that, it seemed, would never stop.
I was quickly losing my grip on hope and my faith was flickering low. I honestly told the Lord that I wanted with all my heart to hang on and be faithful to the end but that this would only be possible with His help. I asked Him to point out any important truth to which I may be currently blinded. Then I lay in silence for a moment.
The answer I received was rather unexpected. I was clearly told to listen to the song “Hiding Place
” by Steven Curtis Chapman.I put on the song, not expecting much. After all, I knew it like the back of my hand. Yet, each word seemed to hit the spot like a cup of hot coffee on a cold, rainy day, or like the sensation one feels when coming in from the cold of winter to a warm place.
I’m not asking You to take away my troubles, Lord.
‘Cause it’s through the stormy weather I learn to trust You more.
But I thank You for the promise that I have come to know.
Your unfailing love surrounds me when I need it most.
You’re my hiding place,
Safe in Your embrace,
I’m protected from the storm that rages.
When the waters rise,
And we run to hide,
Lord, in You we find our hiding place.
As the song continued to play, the Lord spoke to me. “Are you taking shelter in My promises and My love for you? Or are you too busy looking and hoping for a way of escape from all this?”
I had clearly been doing the latter. I had been hoping and praying to be rescued from this situation, instead of using God’s Word and love for me as the shelter it was meant to be. No wonder I felt so exposed and vulnerable.
“It’s not that I can’t or won’t bring you out of this situation somehow,” He continued. “But meanwhile, let Me be the refuge and shelter I promised to be for you until the storm runs its course.”
With these words came flooding back a series of promises I had known for as long as I could remember:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”1
“Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.”2
“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”3
None of these promises speak of “rescue” from trouble, although God can and does rescue us according to His will. More important, He is our “refuge” as we go through trials and difficulties. Just as running into a building during a storm does not cause the storm to cease; rather, it provides shelter until the storm runs its course.
With this renewed perspective on storms, I can now fully trust and rest in Jesus to be my refuge and shelter for as long as the storm lasts, while the final outcome rests in His hands. Meanwhile, my hands will be lifted up to Him in praise because He is my hiding place.
1 Psalm 46:1–3.
2 Psalm 57:1.
3 Deuteronomy 33:27.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Encontrando a Força de Deus no Seu Amor
Palavras de Jesus
De eternidade a eternidade
Pois o Senhor é bom e o seu amor leal é eterno; a sua fidelidade permanece por todas as gerações.—Salmo 100:5 NVI
Lembro-me de quando o formei, antes da fundação do mundo. Com grande desvelo e atenção especial ministrei a você. Escolhi a dedo cada talento, cada dom, cada caracterÃstica, cada fibra do seu ser, até a combinação ficar exatamente certa - cada especificação perfeitamente sincronizada para realizar a Minha vontade e o Meu propósito em sua vida e na de todas as pessoas com as quais teria contato na grande jornada da sua vida.
Lembro-me do momento quando soprei em você o fôlego da vida! Estava ciente das alegrias que você traria, não só para Mim, mas para aqueles que cruzariam o seu caminho na estrada da vida.
Lembro-me da alegria que senti na primeira vez que o vi! Tanta, tanta alegria que contei cada fio de cabelo e marquei você para Mim. Desde o princÃpio Eu o escolhi, o santifiquei na verdade e derramei sobre a sua cabeça a Minha santa unção. Você estava destinado desde o princÃpio dos tempos, ordenado pelo grande "Eu sou" para desempenhar o papel e cumprir o propósito que era unicamente para você. Eu o tenho usado e abençoado, e ainda o usarei de forma grandiosa, se permanecer perto de Mim, seguindo-Me a cada passo.
Eu sabia que levaria tempo, até mesmo anos, para atingir as metas estabelecidas para você. Mas isso também tem sido parte do Meu plano infinito para moldá-lo, formá-lo, criá-lo e transformar o seu coração em ouro puro.
Foi com grande amor e ternura que cuidei, reguei e encaminhei você todos estes anos. Até mesmo as provações, as purificações e ocasiões em que a sua fé foi posta à prova fizeram parte do Meu propósito para purificá-lo. Porque Eu o amo de eternidade a eternidade, e muito Me agrado de você. Você ficou firme nas dificuldades, nas provações, batalhas e purificações! Aguentou cada prova e continuou Me amando e amando a Minha Palavra. Isso muito Me agrada.
Aguente Firme
Não desista! Fique firme! Segure-se em Mim. Eu te amo tanto! Segure-se em Mim e nas Minhas Palavras que dão coragem, força, fé, esperança, vida e poder quando não há nada disso. Eu tenho muito mais ainda para lhe dar, revelar e diferentes maneiras de agir na sua vida. Existe muita para você mais adiante! Não abra mão de tudo o que lhe tenho reservado só porque ainda não consegue ver. Tem mais. Isso não é o fim; é apenas uma curva na estrada. Sei que o caminho parece escuro, frio e sombrio, mas ao virar a esquina se deparará com a maravilhosa luz do sol e muita felicidade e realização.
Coloque a sua mão na Minha, como uma criancinha que confia totalmente no seu pai amoroso, portanto está disposta a enfrentar a feroz tormenta, agarrando-se desesperadamente à mão do pai, mesmo que para ela a situação seja avassaladora e amedrontante. Embora ela tenha medo, sua confiança no pai é maior do que o seu medo. Segurando sua mão ela consegue enfrentar a noite escura e tempestuosa, e passo a passo, o medo é substituÃdo pela fé, pois ela vê o pai a guiando em segurança, e ela sai ilesa da tempestade.
Estenda a mão, segure a Minha mão. Eu não a deixarei. Não só estenda a mão e segure a Minha, mas jogue os seus braços e Me aperte, agarre-se a Mim de todo o coração. Eu colocarei os Meus braços à sua volta e você passará pela tempestade juntinho do Meu seio. Nada de modo algum lhe fará mal.[1]
*
Como são gloriosas as coroas dos que passam por grandes dificuldades, enfrentando desespero, desalento e medo, e ainda assim seguem em frente. São como a viúva que deu a sua última moeda, e acham que não têm mais. [2] Mas não imaginam a grande e maravilhosa honra que vou lhes conceder por seu sacrifÃcio, por estarem dispostos a ficar firmes e a confiar em Mim apesar das dificuldades.
E embora achem que Eu lhes falhei, ainda assim confiam em Mim. Que honra lhes concederei, pois grande é a sua fé! Eu conheço e sei da dor que essas viúvas sentem. Mas Eu lhes digo, grande é a sua recompensa no Céu! Grande é a honra que lhes concedo por seu amor por Mim, e grande é o Meu amor por elas.
Por que as Batalhas?
Essas provações são para mostrar que a fé que vocês têm é verdadeira. Pois até o ouro, que pode ser destruÃdo, é provado pelo fogo. Da mesma maneira, a fé que vocês têm, que vale muito mais do que o ouro, precisa ser provada para que continue firme. E assim vocês receberão aprovação, glória e honra, no dia em que Jesus Cristo for revelado.—1 Pedro 1:7 NTLH
Você se pergunta qual a razão das batalhas e das provações? Fazer de você uma nova pessoa. Muitas coisas velhas já passaram e muitas se fizeram novas, porque você batalhou. Você batalhou pela vitória e agora está ficando mais forte. Batalhou e agora entende. Você chorou, e agora entende o que é chorar, sofrer, e sentir-se magoado.
Tenha fé no Meu amor. Tenha fé que essas provações serão para o seu bem.[3] Pois depois que tiverem cumprido o seu propósito você será como ouro fino, ouro puro. [4]Esteja agradecido por todas essas provas e tempos difÃceis, porque o ajudam a dar valor à alegria e à beleza da salvação que Eu ofereço, à alegria e beleza do Meu EspÃrito. Agora você consegue dar valor e entender o que é ser feliz, o contraste entre tristeza e alegria, entre ódio e amor. Elas o ajudam a consolar outros com o consolo que encontrou em Mim.
Um refúgio
O nome do Senhor é uma torre forte; o justo corre para ela e está seguro.—Provérbios 18:10 RC
No temor do Senhor há firme confiança, e ele será um refúgio seguro para os Seus filhos. [5] Esse refúgio seguro é uma promessa para todos os Meus filhos, porém poucos se aventuram. Venha abrigar-se sob as Minhas asas, no lugar de refúgio junto a Mim, para que possa sentir o Meu amor, e a paz que excede todo o seu entendimento. [6]
Quando as tempestades caem ao seu redor e você é lançado, açoitado e carregado de uma para outra parte pelos ventos da tribulação, da adversidade e da dificuldade, Eu lhe digo que venha para o Meu refúgio até que passem essas calamidades. Descanse a cabeça no Meu ombro e veja que cuidarei de você.
Este é o refúgio que lhe prometi: consolo no Meu amor, paz que passa do Meu coração para o seu, que o preenche, envolve e transporta o seu espÃrito para o plano celestial onde você vê tudo com novos olhos. Você tem novos pensamentos e novos sentimentos que desconhecia.
Nesses momentos sossegados de comunhão Comigo, Eu posso mudar a sua perspectiva. Posso lhe dar novas ideias e novos pensamentos. Posso colocar pequenas sementes no seu coração e mente, os quais com o tempo e sendo bem regados com a Minha Palavra se tornarão árvores fortes que darão bastante fruto para ajudar a muitos, que serão uma fonte de consolo, de encorajamento e de restauração.
O pastor tem que primeiro se fortalecer para poder fortalecer o rebanho. Portanto, no seu tempo de comunhão Comigo, Eu o restaurarei. E quando voltar para a batalha verá que Eu agi e preparei o caminho para você, para você poder continuar trilhando esse caminho com consolo e paz de espÃrito, com a fé renovada.
À sombra das Suas asas
Como é precioso o teu amor, ó Deus! Os homens encontram refúgio à sombra das tuas asas. -- Salmo 36:7 NVI
Eu amo você do fundo do coração. E embora Eu saiba que enfrenta dor e sofrimento, dificuldades e angústia, pode encarar estas coisas com grande fé, confiando em Mim, na Minha Palavra e em tudo o que Eu permiti, pois não lhe falharei.
Confie em Mim para o futuro, ainda que tenha que passar pela angústia, dor, perda, mágoa e renúncia que todos enfrentam. Mas saiba que nunca o deixarei nem o desampararei. [7] Clame a Mim, busque a Mim e à Minha Palavra, e Me achará se Me buscar de todo o seu coração. [8] Se guardar o que tem, a coroa que coloquei sobre a sua cabeça, se suportar o seu peso, mesmo passando pelo Jordão, Eu o recompensarei com grande paz, grande amor, e grande compreensão. E lhe direi: "Bem está, servo bom e fiel. Entre no Meu gozo".[9]
Então quem pode nos separar do amor de Cristo? Serão os sofrimentos, as dificuldades, a perseguição, a fome, a pobreza, o perigo ou a morte? Como dizem as Escrituras Sagradas: “Por causa de ti estamos em perigo de morte o dia inteiro; somos tratados como ovelhas que vão para o matadouro.” Em todas essas situações temos a vitória completa por meio daquele que nos amou.
Pois eu tenho a certeza de que nada pode nos separar do amor de Deus: nem a morte, nem a vida; nem os anjos, nem outras autoridades ou poderes celestiais; nem o presente, nem o futuro; nem o mundo lá de cima, nem o mundo lá de baixo. Em todo o Universo não há nada que possa nos separar do amor de Deus, que é nosso por meio de Cristo Jesus, o nosso Senhor.—Romanos 8:35–39 NTLH
Publicado originalmente em 1997. Adaptado e republicado em maio de 2013.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Edson Campos.
[1] Lucas 10:19.
[2] Lucas 21:2–4.
[3] Romanos 8:28.
[4] 1 Pedro 1:7.
[5] Provérbios 14:26.
[6] Filipenses 4:7.
[7] Hebreus 13:5.
[8] Jeremias 29:13.
[9] Matthew 25:21.
De eternidade a eternidade
Pois o Senhor é bom e o seu amor leal é eterno; a sua fidelidade permanece por todas as gerações.—Salmo 100:5 NVI
Lembro-me de quando o formei, antes da fundação do mundo. Com grande desvelo e atenção especial ministrei a você. Escolhi a dedo cada talento, cada dom, cada caracterÃstica, cada fibra do seu ser, até a combinação ficar exatamente certa - cada especificação perfeitamente sincronizada para realizar a Minha vontade e o Meu propósito em sua vida e na de todas as pessoas com as quais teria contato na grande jornada da sua vida.
Lembro-me do momento quando soprei em você o fôlego da vida! Estava ciente das alegrias que você traria, não só para Mim, mas para aqueles que cruzariam o seu caminho na estrada da vida.
Lembro-me da alegria que senti na primeira vez que o vi! Tanta, tanta alegria que contei cada fio de cabelo e marquei você para Mim. Desde o princÃpio Eu o escolhi, o santifiquei na verdade e derramei sobre a sua cabeça a Minha santa unção. Você estava destinado desde o princÃpio dos tempos, ordenado pelo grande "Eu sou" para desempenhar o papel e cumprir o propósito que era unicamente para você. Eu o tenho usado e abençoado, e ainda o usarei de forma grandiosa, se permanecer perto de Mim, seguindo-Me a cada passo.
Eu sabia que levaria tempo, até mesmo anos, para atingir as metas estabelecidas para você. Mas isso também tem sido parte do Meu plano infinito para moldá-lo, formá-lo, criá-lo e transformar o seu coração em ouro puro.
Foi com grande amor e ternura que cuidei, reguei e encaminhei você todos estes anos. Até mesmo as provações, as purificações e ocasiões em que a sua fé foi posta à prova fizeram parte do Meu propósito para purificá-lo. Porque Eu o amo de eternidade a eternidade, e muito Me agrado de você. Você ficou firme nas dificuldades, nas provações, batalhas e purificações! Aguentou cada prova e continuou Me amando e amando a Minha Palavra. Isso muito Me agrada.
Aguente Firme
Não desista! Fique firme! Segure-se em Mim. Eu te amo tanto! Segure-se em Mim e nas Minhas Palavras que dão coragem, força, fé, esperança, vida e poder quando não há nada disso. Eu tenho muito mais ainda para lhe dar, revelar e diferentes maneiras de agir na sua vida. Existe muita para você mais adiante! Não abra mão de tudo o que lhe tenho reservado só porque ainda não consegue ver. Tem mais. Isso não é o fim; é apenas uma curva na estrada. Sei que o caminho parece escuro, frio e sombrio, mas ao virar a esquina se deparará com a maravilhosa luz do sol e muita felicidade e realização.
Coloque a sua mão na Minha, como uma criancinha que confia totalmente no seu pai amoroso, portanto está disposta a enfrentar a feroz tormenta, agarrando-se desesperadamente à mão do pai, mesmo que para ela a situação seja avassaladora e amedrontante. Embora ela tenha medo, sua confiança no pai é maior do que o seu medo. Segurando sua mão ela consegue enfrentar a noite escura e tempestuosa, e passo a passo, o medo é substituÃdo pela fé, pois ela vê o pai a guiando em segurança, e ela sai ilesa da tempestade.
Estenda a mão, segure a Minha mão. Eu não a deixarei. Não só estenda a mão e segure a Minha, mas jogue os seus braços e Me aperte, agarre-se a Mim de todo o coração. Eu colocarei os Meus braços à sua volta e você passará pela tempestade juntinho do Meu seio. Nada de modo algum lhe fará mal.[1]
*
Como são gloriosas as coroas dos que passam por grandes dificuldades, enfrentando desespero, desalento e medo, e ainda assim seguem em frente. São como a viúva que deu a sua última moeda, e acham que não têm mais. [2] Mas não imaginam a grande e maravilhosa honra que vou lhes conceder por seu sacrifÃcio, por estarem dispostos a ficar firmes e a confiar em Mim apesar das dificuldades.
E embora achem que Eu lhes falhei, ainda assim confiam em Mim. Que honra lhes concederei, pois grande é a sua fé! Eu conheço e sei da dor que essas viúvas sentem. Mas Eu lhes digo, grande é a sua recompensa no Céu! Grande é a honra que lhes concedo por seu amor por Mim, e grande é o Meu amor por elas.
Por que as Batalhas?
Essas provações são para mostrar que a fé que vocês têm é verdadeira. Pois até o ouro, que pode ser destruÃdo, é provado pelo fogo. Da mesma maneira, a fé que vocês têm, que vale muito mais do que o ouro, precisa ser provada para que continue firme. E assim vocês receberão aprovação, glória e honra, no dia em que Jesus Cristo for revelado.—1 Pedro 1:7 NTLH
Você se pergunta qual a razão das batalhas e das provações? Fazer de você uma nova pessoa. Muitas coisas velhas já passaram e muitas se fizeram novas, porque você batalhou. Você batalhou pela vitória e agora está ficando mais forte. Batalhou e agora entende. Você chorou, e agora entende o que é chorar, sofrer, e sentir-se magoado.
Tenha fé no Meu amor. Tenha fé que essas provações serão para o seu bem.[3] Pois depois que tiverem cumprido o seu propósito você será como ouro fino, ouro puro. [4]Esteja agradecido por todas essas provas e tempos difÃceis, porque o ajudam a dar valor à alegria e à beleza da salvação que Eu ofereço, à alegria e beleza do Meu EspÃrito. Agora você consegue dar valor e entender o que é ser feliz, o contraste entre tristeza e alegria, entre ódio e amor. Elas o ajudam a consolar outros com o consolo que encontrou em Mim.
Um refúgio
O nome do Senhor é uma torre forte; o justo corre para ela e está seguro.—Provérbios 18:10 RC
No temor do Senhor há firme confiança, e ele será um refúgio seguro para os Seus filhos. [5] Esse refúgio seguro é uma promessa para todos os Meus filhos, porém poucos se aventuram. Venha abrigar-se sob as Minhas asas, no lugar de refúgio junto a Mim, para que possa sentir o Meu amor, e a paz que excede todo o seu entendimento. [6]
Quando as tempestades caem ao seu redor e você é lançado, açoitado e carregado de uma para outra parte pelos ventos da tribulação, da adversidade e da dificuldade, Eu lhe digo que venha para o Meu refúgio até que passem essas calamidades. Descanse a cabeça no Meu ombro e veja que cuidarei de você.
Este é o refúgio que lhe prometi: consolo no Meu amor, paz que passa do Meu coração para o seu, que o preenche, envolve e transporta o seu espÃrito para o plano celestial onde você vê tudo com novos olhos. Você tem novos pensamentos e novos sentimentos que desconhecia.
Nesses momentos sossegados de comunhão Comigo, Eu posso mudar a sua perspectiva. Posso lhe dar novas ideias e novos pensamentos. Posso colocar pequenas sementes no seu coração e mente, os quais com o tempo e sendo bem regados com a Minha Palavra se tornarão árvores fortes que darão bastante fruto para ajudar a muitos, que serão uma fonte de consolo, de encorajamento e de restauração.
O pastor tem que primeiro se fortalecer para poder fortalecer o rebanho. Portanto, no seu tempo de comunhão Comigo, Eu o restaurarei. E quando voltar para a batalha verá que Eu agi e preparei o caminho para você, para você poder continuar trilhando esse caminho com consolo e paz de espÃrito, com a fé renovada.
À sombra das Suas asas
Como é precioso o teu amor, ó Deus! Os homens encontram refúgio à sombra das tuas asas. -- Salmo 36:7 NVI
Eu amo você do fundo do coração. E embora Eu saiba que enfrenta dor e sofrimento, dificuldades e angústia, pode encarar estas coisas com grande fé, confiando em Mim, na Minha Palavra e em tudo o que Eu permiti, pois não lhe falharei.
Confie em Mim para o futuro, ainda que tenha que passar pela angústia, dor, perda, mágoa e renúncia que todos enfrentam. Mas saiba que nunca o deixarei nem o desampararei. [7] Clame a Mim, busque a Mim e à Minha Palavra, e Me achará se Me buscar de todo o seu coração. [8] Se guardar o que tem, a coroa que coloquei sobre a sua cabeça, se suportar o seu peso, mesmo passando pelo Jordão, Eu o recompensarei com grande paz, grande amor, e grande compreensão. E lhe direi: "Bem está, servo bom e fiel. Entre no Meu gozo".[9]
Então quem pode nos separar do amor de Cristo? Serão os sofrimentos, as dificuldades, a perseguição, a fome, a pobreza, o perigo ou a morte? Como dizem as Escrituras Sagradas: “Por causa de ti estamos em perigo de morte o dia inteiro; somos tratados como ovelhas que vão para o matadouro.” Em todas essas situações temos a vitória completa por meio daquele que nos amou.
Pois eu tenho a certeza de que nada pode nos separar do amor de Deus: nem a morte, nem a vida; nem os anjos, nem outras autoridades ou poderes celestiais; nem o presente, nem o futuro; nem o mundo lá de cima, nem o mundo lá de baixo. Em todo o Universo não há nada que possa nos separar do amor de Deus, que é nosso por meio de Cristo Jesus, o nosso Senhor.—Romanos 8:35–39 NTLH
Publicado originalmente em 1997. Adaptado e republicado em maio de 2013.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Edson Campos.
[1] Lucas 10:19.
[2] Lucas 21:2–4.
[3] Romanos 8:28.
[4] 1 Pedro 1:7.
[5] Provérbios 14:26.
[6] Filipenses 4:7.
[7] Hebreus 13:5.
[8] Jeremias 29:13.
[9] Matthew 25:21.
Inner Peace
A compilation
Audio length: 9:16
Download Audio (8.4MB)
God, teach me to be patient;
Teach me to go slow.
Teach me how to wait on You
When my way I do not know.
Teach me sweet forbearance
When things do not go right,
So I remain unruffled
When others grow uptight.
Teach me how to quiet
My racing, rising heart,
So I may hear the answer
You are trying to impart.
Teach me to let go, dear God,
And pray undisturbed until
My heart is filled with inner peace
And I learn to know Your will!
—Helen Steiner Rice
*
Jesus promises us peace—another working of the Holy Spirit. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”1
Just as Jesus calmed the stormy sea when His disciples thought their ship was sinking and they were about to drown,2 He can calm the storms of life and give you inner peace that passes all understanding.3
He did it for Paul and Silas, when they were persecuted by being beaten and thrown into prison. Instead of despairing, they sang praises to God—and were suddenly and miraculously set free!4
He did it for the early Christian martyrs, who joyfully sang and praised God victoriously as they were burned at the stake and fed to the lions—and many onlookers so envied the supernatural peace that the Christians possessed that they, too, became believers.
As you learn to trust in the Lord with all your heart,5 you’ll find that He can give you perfect peace—no matter what is going on around you!—Rafael Holding
*
(Prayer:) I praise You, my Lord, for giving me Your inner peace, such calm as I stay nestled here in Your arms. I praise You for this peace I feel, even when all else seems stormy. I praise You, my King, as I bow before You now in humble surrender.
*
Trust doesn’t just happen. As children we learn to trust our parents because we feel their love and benefit from their care and mature understanding of life. We trust friends who have stuck with us through thick and thin. We trust businesspeople whom we find to be honest and reliable. We trust people, in short, because of our experience with them.
It’s the same with God. The more we open our hearts to Him, the more we feel His love and concern. The more we study the Bible and Bible-based materials, the better we understand life and the more we appreciate God’s wisdom and goodness. The more we put God’s promises to the test, the more faith we have in them. The more we take our problems to Him, the more we learn to depend on Him to work them out. The better we get to know Him, the more we trust Him; and the more we trust Him, the more inner peace we have.—Keith Philips
*
When the world goes to pieces, the best place to be is in the charmed circle of God’s protection. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.”6
Even if there’s turmoil and confusion all around, you can have inner peace through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.7 He never fails those who trust Him.—David Brandt Berg
*
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.—Isaiah 26:38
*
Many things can happen in life that are just too much for us, but they aren’t too much for the Lord. Ask Him to give you the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding”9 that comes when you tell Him your problems. It may take time to work out certain situations, but He will take away the feeling of stress they cause. So don’t try to face everyday irritations alone. Ask the Lord to help, and the first help He’ll send your way is His inner peace.—Nana Williams
*
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.—John Bunyan
*
Peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God.—Author unknown
*
Dear restless heart, be still, for peace is God’s own smile,
His love can every wrong and sorrow reconcile;
Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait awhile.
—Edith Willis Linn
*
Let My Spirit rest upon you and fill you with peace. Let My Spirit flow through your thoughts, mingle with your spirit, and give you strength.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.—John Wooden
*
I am your Good Shepherd and will take care of each and every thing you need. I will be and am always with you. Never feel that I have left you alone, or that you battle this part of the race all by yourself. You are never alone, and never will be. I’m with you now and always.
Keep holding on to My promises, and know that these are what will bring you through victorious and with a faith that will shine more radiantly. Your faith in My care will give you an inner peace that will be a great stabilizing force. I will always be beside you and care for you in all the ways that I know you need Me to. I treasure you greatly, and you’ll know My love in even more fabulous ways than you’ve known till now. My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.—Peace Pilgrim
Published on Anchor February 2014. Read by Bryan Clark.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 John 14:27 NKJV.
2 See Mark 4:35–41.
3 Philippians 4:6–7 NIV.
4 Acts 16:22–26.
5 Proverbs 3:5.
6 Psalm 91:1–7 NKJV.
7 Isaiah 9:6.
8 NKJV.
9 Philippians 4:7 NKJV.
Audio length: 9:16
Download Audio (8.4MB)
God, teach me to be patient;
Teach me to go slow.
Teach me how to wait on You
When my way I do not know.
Teach me sweet forbearance
When things do not go right,
So I remain unruffled
When others grow uptight.
Teach me how to quiet
My racing, rising heart,
So I may hear the answer
You are trying to impart.
Teach me to let go, dear God,
And pray undisturbed until
My heart is filled with inner peace
And I learn to know Your will!
—Helen Steiner Rice
*
Jesus promises us peace—another working of the Holy Spirit. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”1
Just as Jesus calmed the stormy sea when His disciples thought their ship was sinking and they were about to drown,2 He can calm the storms of life and give you inner peace that passes all understanding.3
He did it for Paul and Silas, when they were persecuted by being beaten and thrown into prison. Instead of despairing, they sang praises to God—and were suddenly and miraculously set free!4
He did it for the early Christian martyrs, who joyfully sang and praised God victoriously as they were burned at the stake and fed to the lions—and many onlookers so envied the supernatural peace that the Christians possessed that they, too, became believers.
As you learn to trust in the Lord with all your heart,5 you’ll find that He can give you perfect peace—no matter what is going on around you!—Rafael Holding
*
(Prayer:) I praise You, my Lord, for giving me Your inner peace, such calm as I stay nestled here in Your arms. I praise You for this peace I feel, even when all else seems stormy. I praise You, my King, as I bow before You now in humble surrender.
*
Trust doesn’t just happen. As children we learn to trust our parents because we feel their love and benefit from their care and mature understanding of life. We trust friends who have stuck with us through thick and thin. We trust businesspeople whom we find to be honest and reliable. We trust people, in short, because of our experience with them.
It’s the same with God. The more we open our hearts to Him, the more we feel His love and concern. The more we study the Bible and Bible-based materials, the better we understand life and the more we appreciate God’s wisdom and goodness. The more we put God’s promises to the test, the more faith we have in them. The more we take our problems to Him, the more we learn to depend on Him to work them out. The better we get to know Him, the more we trust Him; and the more we trust Him, the more inner peace we have.—Keith Philips
*
When the world goes to pieces, the best place to be is in the charmed circle of God’s protection. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.”6
Even if there’s turmoil and confusion all around, you can have inner peace through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.7 He never fails those who trust Him.—David Brandt Berg
*
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.—Isaiah 26:38
*
Many things can happen in life that are just too much for us, but they aren’t too much for the Lord. Ask Him to give you the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding”9 that comes when you tell Him your problems. It may take time to work out certain situations, but He will take away the feeling of stress they cause. So don’t try to face everyday irritations alone. Ask the Lord to help, and the first help He’ll send your way is His inner peace.—Nana Williams
*
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.—John Bunyan
*
Peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God.—Author unknown
*
Dear restless heart, be still, for peace is God’s own smile,
His love can every wrong and sorrow reconcile;
Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait awhile.
—Edith Willis Linn
*
Let My Spirit rest upon you and fill you with peace. Let My Spirit flow through your thoughts, mingle with your spirit, and give you strength.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.—John Wooden
*
I am your Good Shepherd and will take care of each and every thing you need. I will be and am always with you. Never feel that I have left you alone, or that you battle this part of the race all by yourself. You are never alone, and never will be. I’m with you now and always.
Keep holding on to My promises, and know that these are what will bring you through victorious and with a faith that will shine more radiantly. Your faith in My care will give you an inner peace that will be a great stabilizing force. I will always be beside you and care for you in all the ways that I know you need Me to. I treasure you greatly, and you’ll know My love in even more fabulous ways than you’ve known till now. My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.—Peace Pilgrim
Published on Anchor February 2014. Read by Bryan Clark.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 John 14:27 NKJV.
2 See Mark 4:35–41.
3 Philippians 4:6–7 NIV.
4 Acts 16:22–26.
5 Proverbs 3:5.
6 Psalm 91:1–7 NKJV.
7 Isaiah 9:6.
8 NKJV.
9 Philippians 4:7 NKJV.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Not a blank slate after all
BreakPoint, February 21, 2014
In his 1689 “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” the philosopher John Locke wrote that if “we will attentively consider new born children, we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them.”
He proposed that we think of the newborn’s mind as a white piece of paper, “void of all characters, without any ideas.” Ideas, he posited, including the sense of right and wrong, are the product of the child’s experience.
This view, which came to be known as the “blank slate,” dominated the social sciences for the better part of three hundred years, despite accumulating evidence that it didn’t conform to, well, human experience.
Now a recent finding from Yale might just put the final nail in the blank slate’s coffin.
After a series of experiments over eight years, researchers at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center have concluded that “babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality, and while parents and society can help develop a belief system in babies, they don’t create one.” Now that is amazing!
The most basic of these experiments involves showing a baby examples of good and bad behavior and observing which behavior the baby prefers. In the experiment, “a gray cat is seen trying to open a big plastic box. The cat tries repeatedly, but he just can’t open the lid all the way.”
Then, a “bunny in a green T-shirt comes along and helps open the box.” That is followed by a bunny in an orange shirt slamming the box before running away.
The baby is then presented with the two bunnies. Eighty percent of the time, the baby chooses the helpful bunny over the mean and unhelpful one. Among three-month-olds, the percentage rises to 87 percent.
Paul Bloom of Yale and the author of “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil,” says the studies demonstrate that babies are born with a “rudimentary sense of justice” that allows them to judge the actions of others.
And even though he adds that this sense is “tragically limited,” the very fact that babies can grasp justice long before they can even speak says a lot about human nature. It also confirms a major claim of the Christian worldview. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, the requirements of the law are “written on our hearts,” and when we violate them, our consciences accuse us, even if we have not been tutored in the law.
This aspect of human nature poses serious problems for other worldviews, especially secular materialism. If we’re nothing more than highly-evolved animals whose instincts were selected for survival value, how do we explain this impulse toward justice, especially when it places our survival in danger?
It turns out that this problem leads us back to one of the most vexing questions all worldviews seek to answer: Who is the human person? The secular, materialistic worldview might be able to explain us at our worst: We’re animals, and no one should be surprised when we act like it. But that view cannot explain why we innately disapprove of such behavior—even from our infancy.
In his 1689 “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” the philosopher John Locke wrote that if “we will attentively consider new born children, we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them.”
He proposed that we think of the newborn’s mind as a white piece of paper, “void of all characters, without any ideas.” Ideas, he posited, including the sense of right and wrong, are the product of the child’s experience.
This view, which came to be known as the “blank slate,” dominated the social sciences for the better part of three hundred years, despite accumulating evidence that it didn’t conform to, well, human experience.
Now a recent finding from Yale might just put the final nail in the blank slate’s coffin.
After a series of experiments over eight years, researchers at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center have concluded that “babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality, and while parents and society can help develop a belief system in babies, they don’t create one.” Now that is amazing!
The most basic of these experiments involves showing a baby examples of good and bad behavior and observing which behavior the baby prefers. In the experiment, “a gray cat is seen trying to open a big plastic box. The cat tries repeatedly, but he just can’t open the lid all the way.”
Then, a “bunny in a green T-shirt comes along and helps open the box.” That is followed by a bunny in an orange shirt slamming the box before running away.
The baby is then presented with the two bunnies. Eighty percent of the time, the baby chooses the helpful bunny over the mean and unhelpful one. Among three-month-olds, the percentage rises to 87 percent.
Paul Bloom of Yale and the author of “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil,” says the studies demonstrate that babies are born with a “rudimentary sense of justice” that allows them to judge the actions of others.
And even though he adds that this sense is “tragically limited,” the very fact that babies can grasp justice long before they can even speak says a lot about human nature. It also confirms a major claim of the Christian worldview. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, the requirements of the law are “written on our hearts,” and when we violate them, our consciences accuse us, even if we have not been tutored in the law.
This aspect of human nature poses serious problems for other worldviews, especially secular materialism. If we’re nothing more than highly-evolved animals whose instincts were selected for survival value, how do we explain this impulse toward justice, especially when it places our survival in danger?
It turns out that this problem leads us back to one of the most vexing questions all worldviews seek to answer: Who is the human person? The secular, materialistic worldview might be able to explain us at our worst: We’re animals, and no one should be surprised when we act like it. But that view cannot explain why we innately disapprove of such behavior—even from our infancy.
How Ukraine’s economic decay fueled protests
By David McHugh, AP, Feb 21, 2014
The battle in Kiev is, in large part, a fight for the country’s economic future—for better jobs and prosperity.
Ukraine’s protesters want to pry their country away from Russian influence and move closer to the European Union. A look at neighboring Poland, which did just that, suggests why.
The two countries emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago in roughly similar economic shape. But Poland joined the EU and focused on reforms and investment—and by one measure is now three times richer than Ukraine.
Ukraine, on the other hand, sank in a post-Soviet swamp of corruption, bad government and short-sighted reliance on cheap gas from Russia.
Per capita economic output is only around $7,300, even adjusted for the lower cost of living there, compared to $22,200 in Poland and around $51,700 in the United States. Ukraine ranks 137th worldwide, behind El Salvador, Namibia, and Guyana.
Protests broke out in November after President Viktor Yanukovich backed out of signing an agreement with the EU that would have brought the economy closer in line with European standards. After violent protests resulted in scores of deaths, the government and the opposition signed an agreement on Friday. But it is unclear whether it will succeed in providing a stable government that can heal the rifts and improve the economy.
It didn’t have to be this way, experts say. Ukraine has a large potential consumer market, with 46 million people, an educated workforce, and a rich potential export market next door in the EU. It has a significant industrial base and good natural resources, in particular rich farmland.
How did things go so wrong? Here are the main reasons.
OLD INDUSTRY: Ukraine did little to move away from Soviet-era industries producing commodities such as steel, metals and chemicals. Former communist state companies, often privatized to politically connected figures, relied on cheap gas from Russia and growing demand from the world economy for their raw materials.
That helped Ukraine’s economy grow rapidly from 2000 to 2008, but reduced pressure to modernize.
When the world economy fell into a crisis in 2008, demand for Ukraine’s materials plunged. Then in 2009, Russia significantly raised the price of its gas supplies, further pulling the rug from underneath the country’s export industries.
Pekka Sutela, an economist at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology who has extensively studied post-Soviet economies, calls the gas-based export boom “the Ukrainian curse.”
“The economy was able to grow without making the necessary changes,” he said.
GAS FOLLIES: Ukraine’s state gas company, Naftogaz, charges customers only about 20 percent of what it pays for imported Russian gas. That means the government spends about 7.5 percent of the entire economy’s output each year on a massive home heating subsidy aimed at keeping voters happy. That results in large budget deficits that the government must borrow to cover.
The International Monetary Fund tried to help Ukraine through its post-crisis troubles, with loan packages in 2008 and 2010. Each time, the IMF turned off the money tap after Ukraine refused to follow policy requirements including raising gas prices or cutting back sufficiently on generous government salaries and pensions.
CORRUPTION: A recent World Bank study of the economy cited “pervasive” corruption as a major factor holding back the economy. At street level, businesses are subjected to arbitrary treatment by officials and demands for bribes. Higher up, there is widespread public skepticism over the fortunes amassed by the connected, known as oligarchs. In particular, attention has focused on the career of Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr, a dentist who according to Forbes Ukraine has amassed a $510 million fortune through various business enterprises.
Ukraine ranked 144 out of 175 countries in the 2013 corruption perception index compiled by Transparency International, an anti-corruption group, behind Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Iran.
RED TAPE: Business advocates say owners sometimes prefer paying bribes to obeying regulations and taxes that are so complicated and burdensome that they would be out of business if they complied. The country’s complex business tax laws require 390 hours a year to comply with and take 54.9 percent of profits. That put Ukraine 164th out of 189 countries in ease of paying taxes in a World Bank survey.
BROKEN FINANCES: Ukraine’s finances now are in such bad shape that it will have trouble paying its debts this year without outside help. With continuing deficits, it faces borrowing needs of between $7 billion and $10 billion this year. Its poor prospects mean it’s unlikely to be able to borrow more on bond markets.
On top of that, the central bank has been spending its dwindling foreign currency reserves, which were down to $17.8 billion at the end of January, to prop up the exchange rate of the hryvnia currency. One reason it is doing so is likely that many businesses and consumers owe money in dollars—a sharp drop in the hryvinia could trigger widespread bankruptcies.
Unfortunately, keeping the currency artificially strong hurts exports.
Russia had promised $15 billion in credit—an inducement to abandon closer ties with the EU and join a Russian-sponsored trade group. Even that money, however, seems to be on hold due to uncertainty about the fate of the Yanukovich government. Ratings agency Standard & Poors said Friday Ukraine would likely default without a significant improvement in the political crisis.
Sutela said that even Russian help would only be a stopgap and couldn’t paper over the need for fundamental change.
“Next autumn, they will go cap in hand and beg the Russians for money again,” he said.
The battle in Kiev is, in large part, a fight for the country’s economic future—for better jobs and prosperity.
Ukraine’s protesters want to pry their country away from Russian influence and move closer to the European Union. A look at neighboring Poland, which did just that, suggests why.
The two countries emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago in roughly similar economic shape. But Poland joined the EU and focused on reforms and investment—and by one measure is now three times richer than Ukraine.
Ukraine, on the other hand, sank in a post-Soviet swamp of corruption, bad government and short-sighted reliance on cheap gas from Russia.
Per capita economic output is only around $7,300, even adjusted for the lower cost of living there, compared to $22,200 in Poland and around $51,700 in the United States. Ukraine ranks 137th worldwide, behind El Salvador, Namibia, and Guyana.
Protests broke out in November after President Viktor Yanukovich backed out of signing an agreement with the EU that would have brought the economy closer in line with European standards. After violent protests resulted in scores of deaths, the government and the opposition signed an agreement on Friday. But it is unclear whether it will succeed in providing a stable government that can heal the rifts and improve the economy.
It didn’t have to be this way, experts say. Ukraine has a large potential consumer market, with 46 million people, an educated workforce, and a rich potential export market next door in the EU. It has a significant industrial base and good natural resources, in particular rich farmland.
How did things go so wrong? Here are the main reasons.
OLD INDUSTRY: Ukraine did little to move away from Soviet-era industries producing commodities such as steel, metals and chemicals. Former communist state companies, often privatized to politically connected figures, relied on cheap gas from Russia and growing demand from the world economy for their raw materials.
That helped Ukraine’s economy grow rapidly from 2000 to 2008, but reduced pressure to modernize.
When the world economy fell into a crisis in 2008, demand for Ukraine’s materials plunged. Then in 2009, Russia significantly raised the price of its gas supplies, further pulling the rug from underneath the country’s export industries.
Pekka Sutela, an economist at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology who has extensively studied post-Soviet economies, calls the gas-based export boom “the Ukrainian curse.”
“The economy was able to grow without making the necessary changes,” he said.
GAS FOLLIES: Ukraine’s state gas company, Naftogaz, charges customers only about 20 percent of what it pays for imported Russian gas. That means the government spends about 7.5 percent of the entire economy’s output each year on a massive home heating subsidy aimed at keeping voters happy. That results in large budget deficits that the government must borrow to cover.
The International Monetary Fund tried to help Ukraine through its post-crisis troubles, with loan packages in 2008 and 2010. Each time, the IMF turned off the money tap after Ukraine refused to follow policy requirements including raising gas prices or cutting back sufficiently on generous government salaries and pensions.
CORRUPTION: A recent World Bank study of the economy cited “pervasive” corruption as a major factor holding back the economy. At street level, businesses are subjected to arbitrary treatment by officials and demands for bribes. Higher up, there is widespread public skepticism over the fortunes amassed by the connected, known as oligarchs. In particular, attention has focused on the career of Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr, a dentist who according to Forbes Ukraine has amassed a $510 million fortune through various business enterprises.
Ukraine ranked 144 out of 175 countries in the 2013 corruption perception index compiled by Transparency International, an anti-corruption group, behind Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Iran.
RED TAPE: Business advocates say owners sometimes prefer paying bribes to obeying regulations and taxes that are so complicated and burdensome that they would be out of business if they complied. The country’s complex business tax laws require 390 hours a year to comply with and take 54.9 percent of profits. That put Ukraine 164th out of 189 countries in ease of paying taxes in a World Bank survey.
BROKEN FINANCES: Ukraine’s finances now are in such bad shape that it will have trouble paying its debts this year without outside help. With continuing deficits, it faces borrowing needs of between $7 billion and $10 billion this year. Its poor prospects mean it’s unlikely to be able to borrow more on bond markets.
On top of that, the central bank has been spending its dwindling foreign currency reserves, which were down to $17.8 billion at the end of January, to prop up the exchange rate of the hryvnia currency. One reason it is doing so is likely that many businesses and consumers owe money in dollars—a sharp drop in the hryvinia could trigger widespread bankruptcies.
Unfortunately, keeping the currency artificially strong hurts exports.
Russia had promised $15 billion in credit—an inducement to abandon closer ties with the EU and join a Russian-sponsored trade group. Even that money, however, seems to be on hold due to uncertainty about the fate of the Yanukovich government. Ratings agency Standard & Poors said Friday Ukraine would likely default without a significant improvement in the political crisis.
Sutela said that even Russian help would only be a stopgap and couldn’t paper over the need for fundamental change.
“Next autumn, they will go cap in hand and beg the Russians for money again,” he said.
A Fonte da Verdadeira Felicidade
Compilação
Deus é tão imensamente maravilhoso, total e plenamente encantador, que pode, por Si só, satisfazer abundantemente, até transbordar, as mais profundas necessidades da natureza humana.—Aiden Tozer[1]
*
O ser humano se encaixa exatamente no deleitoso lugar que Deus projeta para ele dentro do Seu grande esquema. Quando ele o alcança, sente-se satisfeito e feliz. É como o alÃvio depois da cura de uma fratura em um osso. Quando o nosso desejo é ser algo além do que Deus planejou para nós, na realidade estamos desejando algo que não nos fará felizes. As exigências divinas que, para a nossa natureza parecem mais comandos de um déspota do que o desÃgnio de alguém que nos ama na verdade vão nos levar aonde desejarÃamos ir -- se soubéssemos o que desejamos.—C. S. Lewis[2]
*
Eu sei o que é preciso na vida de cada pessoa para levá-la à posição na qual pode ver claramente a sua insuficiência, perceber a futilidade da carne e do mundo, e quando a sua necessidade por Mim se torna um fato genuÃno.
É então que se percebe as coisas no espÃrito, pela Minha perspectiva, que é a visão da realidade mais verdadeira e profunda. Nesse ponto você entende que Eu sou o centro, a razão, o sentido de tudo, e que sem Mim não há nada.
O resultado final de permitir que passe por dificuldades é levá-lo a esse estado no espÃrito, quando chega ao seu limite e Eu então assumo o controle. Nessa condição você não é nada e Eu sou tudo. A partir daà eu entro e o possuo completamente.—Jesus falando em profecia[3]
*
Jesus é o meu Deus.
Jesus é o meu Esposo(a).
Jesus é a minha Vida.
Jesus é o meu maior Amor.
Jesus é a minha Plenitude.
Jesus é Tudo para mim.—Madre Teresa
*
Arrependa-se e acredite no Evangelho, Jesus diz. Mude o seu modo de pensar e acredite que as boas novas de que somos amados são melhores do que poderÃamos esperar, e que acreditar nas boas novas, viver com base nelas e as tendo por meta, estar apaixonado pelas boas novas, é a melhor coisa de todas as coisas boas no mundo.—Frederick Buechner
*
Sossegado pensando em Deus,
Que alegria!
Refletir nEle e inspirar Seu nome,
Incomparável sensação de harmonia. Pai de Jesus, recompensa do amor!
Será arrebatador esse dia,
Diante do Trono reverenciar
E contemplar Tua face querida! —Frederick Faber
*
Foi-nos dito como nós, seres humanos, podemos ser atraÃdos para junto de Cristo e nos tornarmos parte desse presente maravilhoso que o jovem PrÃncipe deseja oferecer ao Seu Pai -- Ele próprio e nós a Ele agregados. Fomos criados para esse único propósito; a BÃblia nos dá sinais estranhos e excitantes de que, ao sermos atraÃdos para junto de Cristo, muitas outras coisas naturalmente começarão a se acertar. O pesadelo vai terminar e vai raiar o dia.—C. S. Lewis[4]
*
Para ganhar esta intimidade Comigo, na qual as coisas deste mundo são menos sedutoras ou atraentes, precisa ter as coisas deste mundo por perda — se elas o afastarem de Mim. Você talvez se indague, “Como vou fazer isso?”. Precisa manter os olhos no Céu, na eternidade, sabendo que as coisas desta Terra são como a neblina, que logo se dissipa, elas existem por alguns poucos anos, mas as coisas do Meu EspÃrito duram para sempre. É a visão eterna. A carne e as coisas desta Terra que muitas vezes parecem tão importantes, logo não existirão mais.
Então, avance para as coisas que estão adiante, prosseguindo para o alvo pelo prêmio da sua soberana vocação.[5] Concentre sua mente nos lugares celestiais, pensando no que há de vir, em vez de nas coisas que existem, nas muitas coisas que o rodeiam.
Todas as coisas mudam ou passam um dia, só Eu permaneço. -- Jesus, falando em profecia[6]
*
Mas o que para mim era ganho reputei-o perda por Cristo.
E, na verdade, tenho também por perda todas as coisas, pela excelência do conhecimento de Cristo Jesus, meu Senhor; pelo qual sofri a perda de todas estas coisas, e as considero como escória, para que possa ganhar a Cristo, e seja achado nele, não tendo a minha justiça que vem da lei, mas a que vem pela fé em Cristo, a saber, a justiça que vem de Deus pela fé. Para conhecê-lo, e à virtude da sua ressurreição, e à comunicação de suas aflições, sendo feito conforme à sua morte.
Não que já a tenha alcançado, ou que seja perfeito; mas prossigo para alcançar aquilo para o que fui também preso por Cristo Jesus.
Irmãos, quanto a mim, não julgo que o haja alcançado; mas uma coisa faço, e é que, esquecendo-me das coisas que atrás ficam, e avançando para as que estão diante de mim, prossigo para o alvo, pelo prêmio da soberana vocação de Deus em Cristo Jesus.—Apóstolo Paulo, Filipenses 3:7–10, 12–14
*
Descobrir que Eu basto é uma experiência pela qual cada pessoa tem que passar sem ajuda externa. Ter o desejo ardente de descobrir isso é fruto de Me amar e valorizar a Minha Palavra, de passar tempo Comigo e passar por todas as experiências da vida junto Comigo. E então, como alguém que se apaixonou, você vai querer ter mais de Mim, vai querer saber o que Eu penso, como sinto, como gostaria que fizesse uma determinada coisa. Descobrirá então como sou sábio, cheio de ideias e maravilhoso. Eu passarei a ser tudo para você.—Jesus falando em profecia[7]
Publicado no Âncora em janeiro de 2013.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Tiago Santana.
[1] Em Busca de Deus.
[2] The Problem of Pain.
[3] Publicado originalmente em junho de 2006.
[4] Cristianismo Puro e Simples.
[5] Filipenses 3:13–14.
[6] Publicado originalmente em junho de 2006.
[7] Publicado originalmente em junho de 2006.
Christ in Us: Our Hope of Glory
By D. Brandt Berg
Audio length: 10:09
Download Audio (9.2MB)
You cannot hide a happy, useful, helpful, shining spirit; it radiates on everybody the same light, the same joy. People see it and say, “You have such a light on your face; you seem so happy, you just shine. You’re always smiling!” It just radiates.
Happiness is what you make it. It’s a law of God just like gravity that you don’t get happy by trying to make yourself happy or trying to get somebody else to make you happy, but you get happiness by trying to give it to other people. You don’t find happiness by chasing it. You go around trying to make others happy, then happiness will find you; it will chase you and catch up with you and make you happy.
There is a little saying that love isn’t love till you give it away. What does it mean? Love isn’t real love until you are spending your time trying to give love to others.—Not trying to get love. That’s not love; that’s selfishness and wanting selfish satisfaction.
When you’re down in the dumps and you’re tearful and you’re a sad sack, you want everybody to be miserable with you; you want everybody else to sympathize with you and be sad with you. “How dare they be happy when I’m so sad? How can you be cheerful when I’m down in the dumps? Come on down here in the dumps with me! Don’t you dare be happy when I’m sad!” It’s pitiful. It’s human nature. But it’s godly nature, it’s spiritual nature, it’s the nature of Jesus to try to lift others up and encourage them and cheer them up even when you don’t feel like it.
The trouble is, I've found many people blame all their troubles on somebody else. They go around all their lives looking for somebody to make them happy instead of trying to find somebody they can make happy. It’s a common reaction to try to blame your problem on everybody else. “Why me, Lord? I didn’t do it; they did it to me! It wasn’t my fault. It’s his fault, her fault! They’re the ones to blame! They’re the ones that made me feel like this.” Because you’re sad and you’re unhappy, you may not even realize it, but you’re trying to bring everybody down with you.
My, how we love sympathy when we’re down, when sometimes that’s the last thing in the world we need. Somebody needs to come along to wake us up out of our lethargy and our stupor of self-pity and self-sympathy so we can get our minds on the Lord and His work and others and forget our stinking self! You’ll never get the victory by looking at yourself. There’s nobody that drags me down worse than me and myself, my own foul spirit.
Different denominations have different doctrines about getting the victory. Some believe that everybody’s got a good self and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get the good self on top of the bad self and hold him down. They call it the doctrine of suppression, that you’ll always have that good and bad self, and the only thing to do is to just hold the bad self down.
The Holiness people believe in the doctrine of eradication: “Yes, you’ve got a good and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get rid of the bad self. Go through the process of entire sanctification. Have the bad self cut out and throw it away like a cancer so there’s nothing but good self left. This is the good me. This is my self, the real self, the good self. There’s no evil thing left in me now; I’m all good, just the good me.”
The true doctrine of the Holy Spirit is neither one. You don’t get the victory by holding down that bad self, that temptation, that weakness, by just trying to hold it down by your own strength and by your good self sitting on it. You’ll never get the victory that way. And you'll never get the victory by thinking that you can have God cut out the bad self and just leave the good self.
I want to tell you right now, there is no such thing as good self at all. Your self cannot be good, not any part of it! There’s no good thing in you. The apostle Paul said, “No good thing dwelleth in me.”1 The true victory is not yourself, but His Self, Himself, so that “it is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”2 The doctrine of habitation, cohabiting with the Lord.
“There is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”3 You’re no better than me and I’m no better than you. There’s nobody any better than us except Jesus. He’s the only one who can be good, and without Him we’re nothing! We can’t be good without Jesus, we can’t be righteous; we can’t get the victory, we can’t overcome our weaknesses. Don’t try to chase out the darkness; let the light in. Let Jesus in and He’ll take care of the whole problem. Get your mind off self and let Jesus come in and let the life of Christ shine in you.
Let go and let God! Quit trying to be something you aren’t and can never be, and that’s righteous. Only Jesus can make you righteous. Just let Jesus in. As that old song says, “Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in. Let Jesus have possession, He’ll save you from your sin. Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in.”
“Let go and let God have His wonderful way, let go and let God have His way! He’ll fill with His Spirit and turn night to day, let go and let God have His way.”
None of us are good enough. Only Jesus is good enough, but He’s good enough for us all. So let the light in and the darkness will flee. What is the glory? It’s the Spirit of the Lord. It’s His Spirit, His glory, His Self.
In our school we used to have people complaining about evil spirits and demons and devils. “Oh, the Devil did this and the Devil did that, and he caused me this trouble, and he was the one that delayed me, and I have so much trouble with the Devil.” I’d say, “Your problem isn’t the Devil! It’s our own spirit that we have the most trouble with, not evil spirits.”
Don’t blame it on everybody else and evil spirits and even the Devil. You can be your own worst enemy! You may have conquered all the rest, but your own spirit is the most difficult to conquer, and the only way you’re ever going to conquer it is not to conquer it, but to let Jesus conquer it. He’s your best friend.
“Keep your eyes on Jesus, do not watch the waves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, 'tis faith in Him that saves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, His promises avail. Keep your eyes on Jesus, praise God, He cannot fail.”
So why not quit trying to succeed yourself. Quit trying to have the victory. Just let Jesus come in and let Him win it. Get your mind on the Lord. Get your mind on your job. Get your mind on helping others. Seek their happiness before your own. Have real, genuine, sacrificial, unselfish love. That’s love, not trying to make yourself happy or trying to get others to make you happy. Get your mind on Jesus. Ask Him to help you love Him so much you’ll love others so much you’ll forget yourself, and live for Him, live for others.
Why not get busy and work hard for Jesus, work hard for others, work hard to help other people? You’ll get so busy and so filled with His Spirit and so filled with His joy and His happiness that He gives you as a result of trying to make other people happy, that you’ll forget that self of yours and your own worst enemy and you’ll find that your best friend, Jesus, can do it all if you’ll just let Him.
“Christ in me, the hope of glory. So that the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the grace of God. It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”4
Originally published June 1985. Adapted and republished February 2014.
Read by Bryan Clark.
1 Romans 7:18.
2 Galatians 2:20.
3 Romans 3:10,23.
4 Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20.
Audio length: 10:09
Download Audio (9.2MB)
You cannot hide a happy, useful, helpful, shining spirit; it radiates on everybody the same light, the same joy. People see it and say, “You have such a light on your face; you seem so happy, you just shine. You’re always smiling!” It just radiates.
Happiness is what you make it. It’s a law of God just like gravity that you don’t get happy by trying to make yourself happy or trying to get somebody else to make you happy, but you get happiness by trying to give it to other people. You don’t find happiness by chasing it. You go around trying to make others happy, then happiness will find you; it will chase you and catch up with you and make you happy.
There is a little saying that love isn’t love till you give it away. What does it mean? Love isn’t real love until you are spending your time trying to give love to others.—Not trying to get love. That’s not love; that’s selfishness and wanting selfish satisfaction.
When you’re down in the dumps and you’re tearful and you’re a sad sack, you want everybody to be miserable with you; you want everybody else to sympathize with you and be sad with you. “How dare they be happy when I’m so sad? How can you be cheerful when I’m down in the dumps? Come on down here in the dumps with me! Don’t you dare be happy when I’m sad!” It’s pitiful. It’s human nature. But it’s godly nature, it’s spiritual nature, it’s the nature of Jesus to try to lift others up and encourage them and cheer them up even when you don’t feel like it.
The trouble is, I've found many people blame all their troubles on somebody else. They go around all their lives looking for somebody to make them happy instead of trying to find somebody they can make happy. It’s a common reaction to try to blame your problem on everybody else. “Why me, Lord? I didn’t do it; they did it to me! It wasn’t my fault. It’s his fault, her fault! They’re the ones to blame! They’re the ones that made me feel like this.” Because you’re sad and you’re unhappy, you may not even realize it, but you’re trying to bring everybody down with you.
My, how we love sympathy when we’re down, when sometimes that’s the last thing in the world we need. Somebody needs to come along to wake us up out of our lethargy and our stupor of self-pity and self-sympathy so we can get our minds on the Lord and His work and others and forget our stinking self! You’ll never get the victory by looking at yourself. There’s nobody that drags me down worse than me and myself, my own foul spirit.
Different denominations have different doctrines about getting the victory. Some believe that everybody’s got a good self and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get the good self on top of the bad self and hold him down. They call it the doctrine of suppression, that you’ll always have that good and bad self, and the only thing to do is to just hold the bad self down.
The Holiness people believe in the doctrine of eradication: “Yes, you’ve got a good and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get rid of the bad self. Go through the process of entire sanctification. Have the bad self cut out and throw it away like a cancer so there’s nothing but good self left. This is the good me. This is my self, the real self, the good self. There’s no evil thing left in me now; I’m all good, just the good me.”
The true doctrine of the Holy Spirit is neither one. You don’t get the victory by holding down that bad self, that temptation, that weakness, by just trying to hold it down by your own strength and by your good self sitting on it. You’ll never get the victory that way. And you'll never get the victory by thinking that you can have God cut out the bad self and just leave the good self.
I want to tell you right now, there is no such thing as good self at all. Your self cannot be good, not any part of it! There’s no good thing in you. The apostle Paul said, “No good thing dwelleth in me.”1 The true victory is not yourself, but His Self, Himself, so that “it is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”2 The doctrine of habitation, cohabiting with the Lord.
“There is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”3 You’re no better than me and I’m no better than you. There’s nobody any better than us except Jesus. He’s the only one who can be good, and without Him we’re nothing! We can’t be good without Jesus, we can’t be righteous; we can’t get the victory, we can’t overcome our weaknesses. Don’t try to chase out the darkness; let the light in. Let Jesus in and He’ll take care of the whole problem. Get your mind off self and let Jesus come in and let the life of Christ shine in you.
Let go and let God! Quit trying to be something you aren’t and can never be, and that’s righteous. Only Jesus can make you righteous. Just let Jesus in. As that old song says, “Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in. Let Jesus have possession, He’ll save you from your sin. Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in.”
“Let go and let God have His wonderful way, let go and let God have His way! He’ll fill with His Spirit and turn night to day, let go and let God have His way.”
None of us are good enough. Only Jesus is good enough, but He’s good enough for us all. So let the light in and the darkness will flee. What is the glory? It’s the Spirit of the Lord. It’s His Spirit, His glory, His Self.
In our school we used to have people complaining about evil spirits and demons and devils. “Oh, the Devil did this and the Devil did that, and he caused me this trouble, and he was the one that delayed me, and I have so much trouble with the Devil.” I’d say, “Your problem isn’t the Devil! It’s our own spirit that we have the most trouble with, not evil spirits.”
Don’t blame it on everybody else and evil spirits and even the Devil. You can be your own worst enemy! You may have conquered all the rest, but your own spirit is the most difficult to conquer, and the only way you’re ever going to conquer it is not to conquer it, but to let Jesus conquer it. He’s your best friend.
“Keep your eyes on Jesus, do not watch the waves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, 'tis faith in Him that saves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, His promises avail. Keep your eyes on Jesus, praise God, He cannot fail.”
So why not quit trying to succeed yourself. Quit trying to have the victory. Just let Jesus come in and let Him win it. Get your mind on the Lord. Get your mind on your job. Get your mind on helping others. Seek their happiness before your own. Have real, genuine, sacrificial, unselfish love. That’s love, not trying to make yourself happy or trying to get others to make you happy. Get your mind on Jesus. Ask Him to help you love Him so much you’ll love others so much you’ll forget yourself, and live for Him, live for others.
Why not get busy and work hard for Jesus, work hard for others, work hard to help other people? You’ll get so busy and so filled with His Spirit and so filled with His joy and His happiness that He gives you as a result of trying to make other people happy, that you’ll forget that self of yours and your own worst enemy and you’ll find that your best friend, Jesus, can do it all if you’ll just let Him.
“Christ in me, the hope of glory. So that the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the grace of God. It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”4
Originally published June 1985. Adapted and republished February 2014.
Read by Bryan Clark.
1 Romans 7:18.
2 Galatians 2:20.
3 Romans 3:10,23.
4 Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Rape of Portugal!
I have been watching the situation in Ukraine with much sadness. Is the uprising taking place really a spontaneous reaction of the people? Or is this crisis being provoked by International financial interests trying to pull Ukraine into the Western hemisphere’s influence or divide it into two pieces? There is no simple answer. But I will share my experience in Portugal to propose what could really be happening.
When Portugal, Greece and Spain joined the European Union financial aid poured into those countries. In the time before 2004 much money came in as financial help toward the building of roads and stadiums. Portugal and Spain had won the bid for the Euro football games while Greece would provide the summer Olympics. So in order to build the stadiums and roads and infrastructure to support those stadiums loans were granted. Everything was great and dandy. Jobs were abundant. Foreigners poured into the country from Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Romania, and from Brazil. I am specifically talking about my experience in Portugal, but Spain and Greece have parallel stories. At the same time, new shopping malls were built and Portugal at one time had the newest and biggest shopping mall in all of Europe, the Columbus Shopping Mall in Lisbon.
At the same time, European agreements with China allowed the Chinese merchants to also enter the country with many tax benefits. It was a great time of financial bubble. Portugal and Greece also went to the final of the European Cup. A great euphoria and optimism existed both in sports arena and in the psychology of the people. The government encouraged business to invest in new technologies to stay competitive. Banks were loaning money with easy access to credit and encouraging people to take more. Many thought the new financial explosion would last forever. They unwisely borrowed expecting all things to continue as they were.
Meanwhile corrupt politicians were pocketing money. The Chinese imports started affecting the local clothing and pottery industries. When the bubble burst the small industrial base had already been eroded. The pottery industry collapsed and almost completely disappeared. The clothing industry collapsed, also. The new shopping malls with the international names imported clothing from China, Morocco, Turkey, Pakistan, India, and Thailand. Many Portuguese companies went bust as Portuguese lost their family fortunes. The new free motorways made access to the larger commercial center easy and assured them of clients. While the traditional local business dribbled to a trickle.
The European quotas on milk and fish further squeezed the traditional Portuguese economy. Farmers were paid to stop raising so much dairy or fined if they exceeded their quotas. Fishermen were encouraged to retire early to bring down the Portuguese fishing catch beneath the new European quotas. The traditional Portuguese economy was being decimated. The new supermarkets aided by the free motorways led to the movement of money away from the local small business toward the big internationals whose products were from either outside of Portugal or outside of Europe completely.
During this time, the socialists were in power and busy spending. They pushed through two amendments on abortion that failed to gain the necessary votes. The third amendment did not get enough votes to be counted as a legal reflection of the will of the people as fewer than 50% of the population participated. Therefore they used a new method. The Congress which was strongly socialist passed a law approving abortion. When this law went to the Conservative President for his signature, most believed he would veto it. However, just the week before the Polish Prime Minister, a friend of the Portuguese President, had been killed in a mysterious plane crash. The Portuguese President’s wife confessed they were afraid for their lives and so her husband did not veto the abortion bill as expected. How strange that the members of the Polish government died in one stroke. The Polish Prime Minister was against the European agenda of abortion and gay rights being strongly Catholic. His Central Banking president had kept Poland debt free. The Health Minister had refused to buy the Gripe A vaccine which kept the government from being in debt to the pharmaceutical industry. These important anti-European agenda ministers were all gone in one smooth stroke of “bad-luck.” What a coincidence?
In the meantime, here in Portugal, the financial bubble was building. The Socialist government offered free computers to the children of poor families to help to become computer literate. At the same time, mobile phones and internet and cable and disk multi-channel television were opening up the culture to new influences. Before this flood gate was opened the traditional Portuguese television was strongly Portuguese. Then came the new SIC TV program which promoted gay personalities and humor. But now the door has been opened and the traditional Portuguese culture is under heavy attack and slowly being corrupted and eliminated.
Some time ago the strongly socialist congress passed a bill in favor of gay marriage. Again the President did not veto it as he said a veto would only be overturned by Congress. Last week, the Congress passed a bill to allow gay marriages to adopt children. The bill went to the President to sign into law. The President did not veto it, but sent it on to the Constitutional Court to see if it was constitutional. The Constitutional Court voted that the bill was unconstitutional. The socialists and communists protested that the Court was standing in the way of democracy and the will of the people. The war goes on. The Antichrist forces in Europe are slowly and surely destroying the strongly Catholic and Christian beliefs of the people of Southern European. Poland and Ukraine could be their next objective. Ireland and Iceland may have already been their targets. Romania and others are also in their sights.
That’s how I see it from Portugal. The new wealth that the Portuguese experienced enabled them to buy the machines that were needed to slowly erode their faith away and embrace the European Union’s agenda of abortion and gay marriage. The Bible says the love of money is the route of all evil. Portuguese lusted after those things that money could buy which they thought would bring them happiness. They have more things but have compromised their values. The international bankers burst the financial bubble and left Portugal with debts to pay. In order to pay them they have had to sell off their state owned businesses. They have had to make those free motorways pay roads. Their children cannot find jobs in Portugal as the factories have closed and the youth have had to move abroad. The traditional family unit has been destroyed. Internet and computer games dominate the lives of youth. Traditional Catholic morality no longer exists. And no one stands up against the wake of destruction.
Will similar methods be used in Poland and Ukraine to bring them in line with the New World Order agenda? It only remains to be seen. Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” But the meek and poor countries are being offered the riches of this life and many are falling for it. The Portuguese are poor once again. Eighty percent of the people do not have money to survive for a whole year. Thirty percent are living day by day. Sixty percent of the people receive minimum salary or less per month. The financial bubble helped put into the homes of the Portuguese people these new gadgets that the internationalists are using to erode away the faith of adult and youth alike. The debt to be paid to the Central Bankers will take many years of economizing. Pensions have been cut. Age of retirement has been raised to sixty-six years. The workday has been extended to eight and a half hours a day. The European Union promised the Portuguese everything, but it indeed has been the rape of Portugal, as well as, Spain and Greece and Ireland. Will your country be next?
Woman Defies Doctors Who Told Her to Abort Unborn Baby
By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post, February 19, 2014
A 30-year-old British woman who was told by doctors to abort her unborn baby while she was pregnant because it would die, defied their expert advice and gave birth to a healthy baby boy she is now calling a “miracle.”
According to Mail Online, from the moment first-time mother Rachel Collins discovered she was pregnant she began keeping a diary.
“I decided to keep a diary from the minute I found out I was pregnant, to show our baby how much we wanted him,” she said.
During the pregnancy, however, doctors diagnosed Collins with oligohydramnios which meant that the baby would have too little amniotic fluid to survive the pregnancy.
“The doctor didn’t mince his words, he said: ‘This baby will die, the best thing you can do is terminate it,’” recalled Collins.
Collins details her experience in her inspirational diary she calls “Alfie: born to fight, ready to battle—our miracle baby boy.”
In it, she reveals how she and her partner, Tyler O’Driscoll, were shocked when her 20-week scan showed that baby Alfie only had a 10 percent chance to live.
Even if he lived, according to doctors, Alfie was likely to be born without kidneys and no lung function.
The couple, however, refused to give up hope and carried on with the pregnancy.
“I could feel my baby was alive, he was moving, how could I get rid of him? There was no way I was terminating my baby, I thought if he’s not meant to be, I will miscarry—but I knew I had to try,” said Collins.
But it wasn’t an easy decision. Just a few weeks before she became pregnant with Alfie, Collins suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham took her on as a patient and helped her through the pregnancy.
“They told me it was going to be tough, that he might have a squashed face or a club foot, but they said they would give him a chance,” said Collins.
“It was hard; I was at hospital more often than I was at home, but I just had to keep going,” she explained.
And the determined mother did it.
Baby Alfie was born prematurely at 30 weeks last October.
“He came out screaming—he defied them all,” said Collins. “He is a little miracle. He is now 6lb 14oz and has no health problems.
A 30-year-old British woman who was told by doctors to abort her unborn baby while she was pregnant because it would die, defied their expert advice and gave birth to a healthy baby boy she is now calling a “miracle.”
According to Mail Online, from the moment first-time mother Rachel Collins discovered she was pregnant she began keeping a diary.
“I decided to keep a diary from the minute I found out I was pregnant, to show our baby how much we wanted him,” she said.
During the pregnancy, however, doctors diagnosed Collins with oligohydramnios which meant that the baby would have too little amniotic fluid to survive the pregnancy.
“The doctor didn’t mince his words, he said: ‘This baby will die, the best thing you can do is terminate it,’” recalled Collins.
Collins details her experience in her inspirational diary she calls “Alfie: born to fight, ready to battle—our miracle baby boy.”
In it, she reveals how she and her partner, Tyler O’Driscoll, were shocked when her 20-week scan showed that baby Alfie only had a 10 percent chance to live.
Even if he lived, according to doctors, Alfie was likely to be born without kidneys and no lung function.
The couple, however, refused to give up hope and carried on with the pregnancy.
“I could feel my baby was alive, he was moving, how could I get rid of him? There was no way I was terminating my baby, I thought if he’s not meant to be, I will miscarry—but I knew I had to try,” said Collins.
But it wasn’t an easy decision. Just a few weeks before she became pregnant with Alfie, Collins suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham took her on as a patient and helped her through the pregnancy.
“They told me it was going to be tough, that he might have a squashed face or a club foot, but they said they would give him a chance,” said Collins.
“It was hard; I was at hospital more often than I was at home, but I just had to keep going,” she explained.
And the determined mother did it.
Baby Alfie was born prematurely at 30 weeks last October.
“He came out screaming—he defied them all,” said Collins. “He is a little miracle. He is now 6lb 14oz and has no health problems.
The Most Valuable Word In The Economy Of Human Interaction
My first “real” job was sitting across from people convicted of DUIs. After a series of questions, I would write recommendations for judges who would sentence them.
I now work with executives and entrepreneurs to determine where they are heading, I make introductions, organize teams, and facilitate conversations for a living.
Even though these groups of people are vastly different, the questions and the methods are very similar.
In all of this, there is one word that I have found to be the most valuable in the economy of human interaction: Hello.
This word has allowed me to build meaningful connections with people around the world. Whether in Dubai or Denver, I’ve wielded this greeting to disarm, acknowledge, and invite. “Hello” has enabled me to confidently visit multiple countries and several major cities in a span of months.
I’ve said “Hello” to thwart a potential attacker. I was walking on an empty street when a man tried to get me into his car. My response was filled with so much poise and purpose, he sped away.
I’ve said “Hello” to a man being held in jail before trial. The fact I recognized him as a human being and not as an “offender” established instant rapport for the duration of our interview.
I’ve said “Hello” to a friend’s father who was feverish with typhoid. It was our first meeting; he couldn’t speak English, I couldn’t speak Nepali, but the respect and reverence our initial interaction contained set the tone for a beautiful relationship. He would come to call me his daughter.
Today I said “Hello” to a complete stranger in the grocery store. She was evidently frazzled, and her eyes were filled with exhaustion. But our brief interaction had a visibly positive effect on her.
“I believe every single person deserves to be acknowledged, however small or simple the greeting.”—Howard White, VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand
From the company’s founder to the employee serving lunch, White makes it a point to care. He is a former professional athlete, founded a youth motivational program, wrote a book, and serves as VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand, but you won’t hear him say he’s “too busy.”
White recognizes that when we separate ourselves from others, we limit our own potential and that of those around us. When you say “Hello,” you extend yourself. It’s an offering, a giving.
In a world of frenetic behavior and evident signs of pain and struggle, “Hello” paves the way towards connection. Yes, it can be a cursory pleasantry, but it can also be an entryway into something much more.
Whether you like it or not, judgments are made about you before you say hello. In as little as one tenth of a second, a stranger can make assumptions on your competence, aggressiveness and likeability. From the way you’ll behave during an argument to how you present yourself in a meeting—all sorts of opinions are being formed. With a single photograph, viewers were able to make fairly accurate assumptions of complete strangers. Your “Hello” can confirm or deny their predictions.
Whether meeting a new client or assessing a potential partner, your first moments have the power to direct your relationship. The manner in which you engage and approach can dictate how the rest of the experience is going to unfold. If you enter a situation meek and afraid, that’s the response you’re going to get in return. But if you enter with confidence and step towards a person or new experience, it’s going to come back to you with equal force.
Think carefully how you say “Hello.” Put some effort into your greeting and see where it takes you.
I now work with executives and entrepreneurs to determine where they are heading, I make introductions, organize teams, and facilitate conversations for a living.
Even though these groups of people are vastly different, the questions and the methods are very similar.
In all of this, there is one word that I have found to be the most valuable in the economy of human interaction: Hello.
This word has allowed me to build meaningful connections with people around the world. Whether in Dubai or Denver, I’ve wielded this greeting to disarm, acknowledge, and invite. “Hello” has enabled me to confidently visit multiple countries and several major cities in a span of months.
I’ve said “Hello” to thwart a potential attacker. I was walking on an empty street when a man tried to get me into his car. My response was filled with so much poise and purpose, he sped away.
I’ve said “Hello” to a man being held in jail before trial. The fact I recognized him as a human being and not as an “offender” established instant rapport for the duration of our interview.
I’ve said “Hello” to a friend’s father who was feverish with typhoid. It was our first meeting; he couldn’t speak English, I couldn’t speak Nepali, but the respect and reverence our initial interaction contained set the tone for a beautiful relationship. He would come to call me his daughter.
Today I said “Hello” to a complete stranger in the grocery store. She was evidently frazzled, and her eyes were filled with exhaustion. But our brief interaction had a visibly positive effect on her.
“I believe every single person deserves to be acknowledged, however small or simple the greeting.”—Howard White, VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand
From the company’s founder to the employee serving lunch, White makes it a point to care. He is a former professional athlete, founded a youth motivational program, wrote a book, and serves as VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand, but you won’t hear him say he’s “too busy.”
White recognizes that when we separate ourselves from others, we limit our own potential and that of those around us. When you say “Hello,” you extend yourself. It’s an offering, a giving.
In a world of frenetic behavior and evident signs of pain and struggle, “Hello” paves the way towards connection. Yes, it can be a cursory pleasantry, but it can also be an entryway into something much more.
Whether you like it or not, judgments are made about you before you say hello. In as little as one tenth of a second, a stranger can make assumptions on your competence, aggressiveness and likeability. From the way you’ll behave during an argument to how you present yourself in a meeting—all sorts of opinions are being formed. With a single photograph, viewers were able to make fairly accurate assumptions of complete strangers. Your “Hello” can confirm or deny their predictions.
Whether meeting a new client or assessing a potential partner, your first moments have the power to direct your relationship. The manner in which you engage and approach can dictate how the rest of the experience is going to unfold. If you enter a situation meek and afraid, that’s the response you’re going to get in return. But if you enter with confidence and step towards a person or new experience, it’s going to come back to you with equal force.
Think carefully how you say “Hello.” Put some effort into your greeting and see where it takes you.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
How iTunes Radio is bad for your soul
| Jonathan Merritt, Religion News Service, Feb 18, 2014 Apple’s answer to Pandora hasn’t produced a spike in music sales like some predicted. According to a new report by Music Forecasting, iTunes Radio listeners use the service for a “lean back” listening experience and don’t want anything—even purchasing a song—to interrupt it. Having recently relocated to New York City—the earbud capital of the world—I’ve learned to “lean back” with regularity. Walking to the coffee shop where I write. To and from the subway. Even standing in my kitchen making a sandwich. Apple’s curated tunes have become a ubiquitous presence in my life, helping me block out the world by flooding my head with something more melodic and presumably more gratifying than noises I might otherwise encounter. That’s why I’ve come to believe that iTunes Radio is actually bad for our souls. Dutch sonographer Floris Van Manen argues that noise is a drug that modern society is feverishly addicted to. It stimulates, distracts, whisks us away to another place and time. From commercials to street sounds to 24-hour news channels blaring in every airport and doctor’s office waiting room, we’re almost never without it. When we open the app, select a genre, and push play, we’re able to take the reins and dictate the sounds we’re subjected to. One overlooked spiritual consequence of our noise addiction is a failure to hear spontaneous sounds. By tightly controlling and curating what we hear, we may block out everything else and muffle the God-messages sewn throughout the fabric of the world. As I shuffle through the city bobbing my head to the latest hits, I rarely notice the sounds of chirping birds or cooing pigeons as I pass a park. But I’m also avoiding the feathery reminders that I serve a detail-oriented God. If God notices when a single fowl falls, how much more does that God watch over me? The autumn leaves fall and rustle as the wind whips, but I’m unaware of their presence. I’ve got Local Natives blaring in my head, stiff-arming a spiritual lesson about divine rhythms: God uses death to bring life. When I’m forced to release a self-centered aspiration or unhealthy habit, it hurts. Maybe the pain would be mitigated by receiving the spontaneous sounds swirling around me. This works in the opposite direction as well, chasing away the undesirable sounds. Thanks to Apple’s Top 50 playlist, I don’t have to hear the cries of that woman at the table next to me who needs someone to stop and listen. I’m not subjected to the barrage of homeless people asking for money or food. If I don’t hear their pleas, I don’t feel guilty for not helping. Goodbye, inconvenience. With the push of a button, I’m able to live a day free from conviction and obligation. But perhaps the most significant spiritual side effect of our noise addiction is the growing fear of silence. According to a recent study of nearly 600 young people conducted over six years, the constant exposure to “intentional sound” has created “a mass of people who fear silence.” No one needs to tell us this is true. We feel it in our fingers, as they tap a desk frantically. Or our vocal cords, humming to fill the air with something of our own making. When silence floods a room, it brings with it an eerie discomfort. So we drive it away by self-medicating with noise. In my forthcoming book, “Jesus is Better Than You Imagined,” I decided to explore the value of spiritual silence. So I trekked to a Benedictine monastery in the New Mexican desert and took a 60-hour vow of silence. Reflecting on the event, I wrote these words, Inhabitants of the modern world often fear silence and solitude. Having bathed in chaos, these spaces become a kind of wilderness or uncharted frontier. We run from soundlessness because it makes us most uncomfortable….[But] for the Christian, silence is more than an effort to retreat from noise. It is an opportunity to lean into God. To sense His presence in life, to notice the contours of His intervention, to express our reliance on Him. Jesus knew importance of intentional quiet when discerning God’s voice, and we have a record of Him seeking it out more than half a dozen times. Isaiah prophesied, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust.” After Paul was converted, he went to Arabia for a quiet retreat of his own. Christian history reveals that generations of Jesus-followers have practiced silence often. How many of us take time regularly to flee the noisiness of life? To embrace the discomfort of silence? To listen for the voice of the Holy? Thomas Merton once remarked, “Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.” It’s a strange thought that silence requires courage; that we’d have to muster guts to enter the absence of noise; that offering a temporary “no” to the clatters and clamors of life requires the same emotion needed to jump out of a plane. Listening to music can also be spiritually uplifting, so I won’t be throwing my earbuds away anytime soon. I won’t be deleting my iTunes account. And I don’t want to institute another rule Christians have to live by. (Lord knows we have created enough of those already.) But I think Merton is right. I think Jesus and Isaiah and Paul were onto something. Learning to embrace silence or even the spontaneous sounds of life is as difficult as rowing upstream. But it is worth it, and we should try it more often. |
