Alex Tsakiris Argues That Science Is Wrong About Almost Everything
Friday, February 20, 2015
My Train Wreck Conversion: As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html?start=2
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield/ FEBRUARY 7, 2013
The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.
Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.
As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. Pat Robertson's quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: "Feminism," he sneered, "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.
After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests: aids activism, children's health and literacy, Golden Retriever rescue, our Unitarian Universalist church, to name a few. Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk, it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The GLBT community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.
I began researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997.
I was a broken mess. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world.
The article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God? Ken didn't argue with my article; rather, he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn't know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.
Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response. As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken's letter punctured the integrity of my research project without him knowing it.
Friends with the Enemy
With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky. That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted. My motives at the time were straightforward: Surely this will be good for my research.
Something else happened. Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics. They did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate. When we ate together, Ken prayed in a way I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate. Vulnerable. He repented of his sin in front of me. He thanked God for all things. Ken's God was holy and firm, yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Floy did not invite me to church, I knew it was safe to be friends.
I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations. At a dinner gathering my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend J cornered me in the kitchen. She put her large hand over mine. "This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria," she warned.
With tremors, I whispered, "J, what if it is true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we are all in trouble?"
J exhaled deeply. "Rosaria," she said, "I was a Presbyterian minister for 15 years. I prayed that God would heal me, but he didn't. If you want, I will pray for you."
I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves, of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and gripped me in its teeth.
I fought with everything I had.
I did not want this.
I did not ask for this.
I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.
But God's promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world. One Lord's Day, Ken preached on John 7:17: "If anyone wills to do [God's] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" (NKJV). This verse exposed the quicksand in which my feet were stuck. I was a thinker. I was paid to read books and write about them. I expected that in all areas of life, understanding came beforeobedience. And I wanted God to show me, on my terms, why homosexuality was a sin. I wanted to be the judge, not one being judged.
But the verse promised understanding after obedience. I wrestled with the question: Did I really want to understand homosexuality from God's point of view, or did I just want to argue with him? I prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day. When I looked in the mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of the Bible, I wondered, Am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul, could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?
Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me "wife" and many call me "mother."
I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.
And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Crown & Covenant). She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina, where her husband pastors the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield/ FEBRUARY 7, 2013
The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.
Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.
As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. Pat Robertson's quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: "Feminism," he sneered, "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.
After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests: aids activism, children's health and literacy, Golden Retriever rescue, our Unitarian Universalist church, to name a few. Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk, it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The GLBT community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.
I began researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997.
I was a broken mess. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world.
The article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God? Ken didn't argue with my article; rather, he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn't know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.
Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response. As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken's letter punctured the integrity of my research project without him knowing it.
Friends with the Enemy
With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky. That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted. My motives at the time were straightforward: Surely this will be good for my research.
Something else happened. Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics. They did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate. When we ate together, Ken prayed in a way I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate. Vulnerable. He repented of his sin in front of me. He thanked God for all things. Ken's God was holy and firm, yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Floy did not invite me to church, I knew it was safe to be friends.
I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations. At a dinner gathering my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend J cornered me in the kitchen. She put her large hand over mine. "This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria," she warned.
With tremors, I whispered, "J, what if it is true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we are all in trouble?"
J exhaled deeply. "Rosaria," she said, "I was a Presbyterian minister for 15 years. I prayed that God would heal me, but he didn't. If you want, I will pray for you."
I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves, of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and gripped me in its teeth.
I fought with everything I had.
I did not want this.
I did not ask for this.
I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.
But God's promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world. One Lord's Day, Ken preached on John 7:17: "If anyone wills to do [God's] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" (NKJV). This verse exposed the quicksand in which my feet were stuck. I was a thinker. I was paid to read books and write about them. I expected that in all areas of life, understanding came beforeobedience. And I wanted God to show me, on my terms, why homosexuality was a sin. I wanted to be the judge, not one being judged.
But the verse promised understanding after obedience. I wrestled with the question: Did I really want to understand homosexuality from God's point of view, or did I just want to argue with him? I prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day. When I looked in the mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of the Bible, I wondered, Am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul, could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?
Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me "wife" and many call me "mother."
I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.
And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Crown & Covenant). She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina, where her husband pastors the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham.
Amor Inescrutável
http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/amor-inescrutavel/
Palavras de Jesus
“Ó profundidade das riquezas, tanto da sabedoria, como da ciência de Deus! Quão insondáveis são os seus juÃzos, e quão inescrutáveis os Seus caminhos!” — Romanos 11:33[1]
Sei que não consegue imaginar a imensidão do Meu amor por você.Eu poderia dizer que ele é maior do que o oceano, eleva-se acima do pico mais alto, ou que é mais profundo do que as profundezas do mar. Estas metáforas serviriam para lhe dar uma provinha do Meu amor por você. Mas, num certo sentido, estas palavras são chavões que não transmitem de verdade a imensidão do Meu amor, pois ele é muito maior do que estas ilustrações.
Você não entende completamente o Meu amor. Não consegue compreendê-lo de verdade, mas o aceita por fé.A sua fé é uma das muitas coisas que Eu amo e prezo em você. Também admiro muitÃssimo sua generosidade. Estou grato por sua persistência na oração. Fico feliz ao ver o seu amor pelos perdidos do mundo. Sim, são muitas as suas qualidades que fazem o Meu coração transbordar de amor.
Você é a Minha criação de amor. Vou amar e cuidar de você para sempre!
Para sempre
O Meu amor por você é como a eternidade — não tem fim. É difÃcil entender nisso, porque a mente humana é finita, e para ela tudo precisa ter inÃcio e fim. Mas assim como a eternidade existe para sempre, também o Meu amor por você. Nada que você fizer Me impedirá de amá-lo. Você pertence a Mim. É Minha noiva, a quem amarei para sempre.
Quando olho para você vejo beleza, amor e desvelo. Sei que quando pensa em si vê apenas confusão, desorganização e uma grande bagunça. Mas essa não é Minha percepção. Vejo o seu Ãntimo. Conheço sua motivação e suas intenções. Continuo amando você mesmo quando se sente uma porcaria, seus pensamentos estão confusos e se submete ao Inimigo em certas áreas.
Sei que quer Me agradar e Me servir acima de tudo. Sei também que, não importa como seja atacado, você luta, se levanta e recorre a Mim no final. Mesmo quando está entre a espada e a parede, não demora muito e clama a Mim por socorro e para ajudá-lo a lutar.
Portanto, mesmo você se considerando de pouco valor, isso não diminui em nada o amor que tenho por você. Todo o mundo se desagrada de falhas e certas áreas no seu coração e vida que outros sequer conhecem. Mas Sei de tudo, vejo tudo, e mesmo assim o amo. Direcione a confusão que sente e o seu coração a Mim, e o ajudarei, consolarei, orientarei e lhe darei o encorajamento que precisa.
Quando está desanimado, posso encorajá-lo enviando o Meu amor por meio do sorriso de outra pessoa, ou de um pouco de afeto ou palavras alegres. Quando precisa de encorajamento, posso encorajá-lo por meio da Palavra escrita. Quando tudo está cinzento e sem graça, posso dar cor ao seu mundo e enchê-lo de alegria e amor, por meio dos rostos sorridentes de crianças felizes.
São muitos os toques do Meu amor que lhe dou. Procure e valorize-os como sinais da Minha presença. Salpico manifestações do Meu amor durante o seu dia entre suas experiências para o encorajar e lhe dar esperança. Esses toques do Meu poder vão passar em branco se você não estiver atento.
Apesar das lágrimas
As palavras que você Me disse hoje, chorando, quando se entregou a Mim em oração, eram lindas. Olho para você e vejo suas dificuldades. Vejo as decisões que toma por confiar em Mim e Me amar. Vejo como é difÃcil à s vezes, mas você não desiste, porque sabe que estou guiando sua vida e que tudo o que permito que aconteça é para o seu bem, portanto fique firme nessa certeza.
Eu jamais o desampararei. Cumprirei Minhas promessas. Eu o amo grandemente e você Me é muito querido e especial, e estou guiando a sua vida. Pode deixar tudo por Minha conta, na certeza de que o apoiarei, pois o Meu amor por você vai muito além dos limites fÃsicos. Estarei sempre sintonizado, cuidando de cada detalhe da sua vida, tanto das coisas de maior porte como das de menor porte.
Seu coração, Meu lar
Sou o criador do universo, no entanto escolhi o seu coração para servir-Me de humilde morada. É ali onde você Me conhece mais intimamente e Me comunico com santos sussurros.
Sei que é mais do que consegue imaginar, que alguém tão grandioso e majestoso escolhesse viver no interior de alguém tão pequeno e pecaminoso. Sua mente praticamente retrai ao pensar na Minha perfeição e santidade vivendo em você. ... Apesar de você ser uma morada muitÃssimo humilde para Mim que habito nas alturas dos Céus, vivo no seu coração porque desejo uma intimidade profunda. Você se distrai facilmente com os ruÃdos do mundo, mas quero ajudá-lo a ouvir Meus doces sussurros no seu coração.
Você precisa de tranquilidade interior e externa. Encontre um local sossegado onde o barulho do mundo seja mÃnimo. Então concentre-se neste amoroso mandamento: “Aquietai-vos, e sabei que eu sou Deus.”[2] Aquiete-se, entregue-se e descanse na Minha presença enquanto tenho comunhão com você em santos sussurros.[3]
As pequenas coisas
As grandes coisas do universo são formadas pela combinação de muitas pequenas coisas. Grandes coisas derivam de pequenas coisas — pequenos esforços, pequenas escolhas, simples atos de bondade, e decisões simples de agir corretamente. Um sinal do valor de alguém é o que a pessoa faz quando ninguém está olhando, o tipo de convicção que ela tem para tomar as decisões certas e agir com amor e gentileza.
Existem muitas maneiras simples de manifestar o amor cada dia. Você talvez ache que não tem um bom desempenho nesse aspecto e, é claro, eu sei que comete erros, mas não foco os erros. Eu vejo apenas o bem e as coisas amorosas. Mesmo que você não sinta vontade de fazer muito pelos outros e esteja um pouco emburrado, ainda assim você tenta e sabe que deveria se esforçar por melhorar.
Não importa se acha ou sente que se sai bem, Eu vejo que o seu coração realiza muito pelos outros e por Mim.
O poder do amor
O amor é uma força muito poderosa, pois Eu sou o doador do verdadeiro e eterno amor. Quero derramar mais do Meu amor sobre outros, mas preciso que você manifeste esse amor. Sei que, às vezes, sente-se pequeno e insignificante, e se pergunta o que poderia fazer para mudar as situações. Assim como um pouco de água sobre o solo seco pode fazer brotar uma semente ali enterrada, também um pouco de amor pode mudar as pessoas e lhes devolver a razão de viver.
Meu coração se enche de alegria quando vejo uma alma perdida e moribunda voltar à vida, ou quando vejo alguém desejoso de amor recebê-lo e florescer cheio de alegria e riso, porque sentiu que alguém se preocupava.
Derramo Meu amor desmedidamente sobre aqueles que precisam. Então, abra espaço para o Meu amor ser derramado na sua vida, e divida com outros o que você tem recebido.
Exceto indicação contrária, publicado originalmente em junho 2008. Adaptado e republicado em fevereiro 2015.
[1] NAS.
[2] Salmo 46:10.
[3] Sarah Young, Jesus Lives (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).
Palavras de Jesus
“Ó profundidade das riquezas, tanto da sabedoria, como da ciência de Deus! Quão insondáveis são os seus juÃzos, e quão inescrutáveis os Seus caminhos!” — Romanos 11:33[1]
Sei que não consegue imaginar a imensidão do Meu amor por você.Eu poderia dizer que ele é maior do que o oceano, eleva-se acima do pico mais alto, ou que é mais profundo do que as profundezas do mar. Estas metáforas serviriam para lhe dar uma provinha do Meu amor por você. Mas, num certo sentido, estas palavras são chavões que não transmitem de verdade a imensidão do Meu amor, pois ele é muito maior do que estas ilustrações.
Você não entende completamente o Meu amor. Não consegue compreendê-lo de verdade, mas o aceita por fé.A sua fé é uma das muitas coisas que Eu amo e prezo em você. Também admiro muitÃssimo sua generosidade. Estou grato por sua persistência na oração. Fico feliz ao ver o seu amor pelos perdidos do mundo. Sim, são muitas as suas qualidades que fazem o Meu coração transbordar de amor.
Você é a Minha criação de amor. Vou amar e cuidar de você para sempre!
Para sempre
O Meu amor por você é como a eternidade — não tem fim. É difÃcil entender nisso, porque a mente humana é finita, e para ela tudo precisa ter inÃcio e fim. Mas assim como a eternidade existe para sempre, também o Meu amor por você. Nada que você fizer Me impedirá de amá-lo. Você pertence a Mim. É Minha noiva, a quem amarei para sempre.
Quando olho para você vejo beleza, amor e desvelo. Sei que quando pensa em si vê apenas confusão, desorganização e uma grande bagunça. Mas essa não é Minha percepção. Vejo o seu Ãntimo. Conheço sua motivação e suas intenções. Continuo amando você mesmo quando se sente uma porcaria, seus pensamentos estão confusos e se submete ao Inimigo em certas áreas.
Sei que quer Me agradar e Me servir acima de tudo. Sei também que, não importa como seja atacado, você luta, se levanta e recorre a Mim no final. Mesmo quando está entre a espada e a parede, não demora muito e clama a Mim por socorro e para ajudá-lo a lutar.
Portanto, mesmo você se considerando de pouco valor, isso não diminui em nada o amor que tenho por você. Todo o mundo se desagrada de falhas e certas áreas no seu coração e vida que outros sequer conhecem. Mas Sei de tudo, vejo tudo, e mesmo assim o amo. Direcione a confusão que sente e o seu coração a Mim, e o ajudarei, consolarei, orientarei e lhe darei o encorajamento que precisa.
Quando está desanimado, posso encorajá-lo enviando o Meu amor por meio do sorriso de outra pessoa, ou de um pouco de afeto ou palavras alegres. Quando precisa de encorajamento, posso encorajá-lo por meio da Palavra escrita. Quando tudo está cinzento e sem graça, posso dar cor ao seu mundo e enchê-lo de alegria e amor, por meio dos rostos sorridentes de crianças felizes.
São muitos os toques do Meu amor que lhe dou. Procure e valorize-os como sinais da Minha presença. Salpico manifestações do Meu amor durante o seu dia entre suas experiências para o encorajar e lhe dar esperança. Esses toques do Meu poder vão passar em branco se você não estiver atento.
Apesar das lágrimas
As palavras que você Me disse hoje, chorando, quando se entregou a Mim em oração, eram lindas. Olho para você e vejo suas dificuldades. Vejo as decisões que toma por confiar em Mim e Me amar. Vejo como é difÃcil à s vezes, mas você não desiste, porque sabe que estou guiando sua vida e que tudo o que permito que aconteça é para o seu bem, portanto fique firme nessa certeza.
Eu jamais o desampararei. Cumprirei Minhas promessas. Eu o amo grandemente e você Me é muito querido e especial, e estou guiando a sua vida. Pode deixar tudo por Minha conta, na certeza de que o apoiarei, pois o Meu amor por você vai muito além dos limites fÃsicos. Estarei sempre sintonizado, cuidando de cada detalhe da sua vida, tanto das coisas de maior porte como das de menor porte.
Seu coração, Meu lar
Sou o criador do universo, no entanto escolhi o seu coração para servir-Me de humilde morada. É ali onde você Me conhece mais intimamente e Me comunico com santos sussurros.
Sei que é mais do que consegue imaginar, que alguém tão grandioso e majestoso escolhesse viver no interior de alguém tão pequeno e pecaminoso. Sua mente praticamente retrai ao pensar na Minha perfeição e santidade vivendo em você. ... Apesar de você ser uma morada muitÃssimo humilde para Mim que habito nas alturas dos Céus, vivo no seu coração porque desejo uma intimidade profunda. Você se distrai facilmente com os ruÃdos do mundo, mas quero ajudá-lo a ouvir Meus doces sussurros no seu coração.
Você precisa de tranquilidade interior e externa. Encontre um local sossegado onde o barulho do mundo seja mÃnimo. Então concentre-se neste amoroso mandamento: “Aquietai-vos, e sabei que eu sou Deus.”[2] Aquiete-se, entregue-se e descanse na Minha presença enquanto tenho comunhão com você em santos sussurros.[3]
As pequenas coisas
As grandes coisas do universo são formadas pela combinação de muitas pequenas coisas. Grandes coisas derivam de pequenas coisas — pequenos esforços, pequenas escolhas, simples atos de bondade, e decisões simples de agir corretamente. Um sinal do valor de alguém é o que a pessoa faz quando ninguém está olhando, o tipo de convicção que ela tem para tomar as decisões certas e agir com amor e gentileza.
Existem muitas maneiras simples de manifestar o amor cada dia. Você talvez ache que não tem um bom desempenho nesse aspecto e, é claro, eu sei que comete erros, mas não foco os erros. Eu vejo apenas o bem e as coisas amorosas. Mesmo que você não sinta vontade de fazer muito pelos outros e esteja um pouco emburrado, ainda assim você tenta e sabe que deveria se esforçar por melhorar.
Não importa se acha ou sente que se sai bem, Eu vejo que o seu coração realiza muito pelos outros e por Mim.
O poder do amor
O amor é uma força muito poderosa, pois Eu sou o doador do verdadeiro e eterno amor. Quero derramar mais do Meu amor sobre outros, mas preciso que você manifeste esse amor. Sei que, às vezes, sente-se pequeno e insignificante, e se pergunta o que poderia fazer para mudar as situações. Assim como um pouco de água sobre o solo seco pode fazer brotar uma semente ali enterrada, também um pouco de amor pode mudar as pessoas e lhes devolver a razão de viver.
Meu coração se enche de alegria quando vejo uma alma perdida e moribunda voltar à vida, ou quando vejo alguém desejoso de amor recebê-lo e florescer cheio de alegria e riso, porque sentiu que alguém se preocupava.
Derramo Meu amor desmedidamente sobre aqueles que precisam. Então, abra espaço para o Meu amor ser derramado na sua vida, e divida com outros o que você tem recebido.
Exceto indicação contrária, publicado originalmente em junho 2008. Adaptado e republicado em fevereiro 2015.
[1] NAS.
[2] Salmo 46:10.
[3] Sarah Young, Jesus Lives (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).
Parents of Vaccine-Injured Children Speak Out
Beth Greenfield, Yahoo Parenting, February 17, 2015
When Susan Lawson of Colorado hears parents declaring, unequivocally, that everyone should vaccinate their children because it’s perfectly safe, she says it feels “like a punch in the gut.” That’s because she’s seen another side of the story: Her daughter Julia, now 9, was left with permanent brain damage—an injury acknowledged by a federal court payout—after receiving her MMRV (measles-mumps-rubella-varicella) shot when she was a year old.
Lawson tells Yahoo Parenting that one morning, about a week after Julia received the shot, her now-ex-husband found their daughter in a terrifying state. “She was blue and cold and her body was arched, her eyes were looking in opposite directions, and she was covered in feces and vomit,” she recalls. “We thought she was dead.” She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors said she was having seizures, and she was put into a medically induced coma. Julia spent many days in intensive care and the neurology ward before being sent home with the diagnosis of encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.
Lawson, a veterinarian who had the utmost faith in medicine, had never before questioned vaccinations, and had always inoculated Julia right on schedule. But now she began to wonder. Hospital doctors dismissed any thought of a connection. But when Lawson asked a pediatrician about it, she was told it could be a possibility. Every family featured in this story received a payment by the United States Court of Federal Claims, which concluded that their rare injuries were caused by the vaccines.
“I felt shocked, bewildered, and guilty,” Lawson recalls. “We were trying to protect her, and instead I destroyed her. The guilt is huge.”
The pediatrician helped Lawson file a notice through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a national vaccine safety surveillance program cosponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Lawson then hired a vaccine-injury attorney and began what became a trying, four-year journey through the country’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program of the US Court of Federal Claims—a specific, no-fault forum for vaccine injuries or deaths, set up by Congress in 1986 to ensure justice for children (and, as clarified by the Supreme Court recently, to protect vaccine manufacturers from being sued). At the end of it, in 2011, Lawson was awarded nearly $1.5 million for lost future wages, future life care, and pain and suffering on behalf of her daughter, whom she describes as “an eternal toddler,” with little language skills, constant medications, and daily seizures.
“Was it justice? I mean, they could have done nothing,” Lawson says. “But I just want my kid back.”
Serious vaccine injuries and deaths are few and far between, according to the CDC. “Like any medication, vaccines can cause side effects,” a spokesperson tells Yahoo Parenting through an email. “The side effects associated with getting vaccines are almost always mild (such as redness and swelling where the shot was given) and go away within a few days. Severe reactions, such as a severe allergic reaction, are rare.”
But, says the CDC representative, “Individuals react differently to vaccines, and there is no way to absolutely predict the reaction of a specific individual to a particular vaccine. Anyone who takes a vaccine should be fully informed about both the benefits and the risks of vaccination.”
Renee Gentry, a Washington D.C.–based vaccine-injury attorney and president of the Vaccine Injury Petitioners Bar Association, believes that injuries, however rare, should be a part of the public conversation. “Vaccines are incredibly important, but we should treat them as they are—man-made pharmaceuticals that carry risk. The fear is that if you talk about that at all, people won’t vaccinate.” But not discussing it, she says, is to deny reality. “To say there is nothing unsafe about vaccines—when you can have a reaction to an aspirin—makes no sense.” She adds, “Informed consent is the underlying basis of medical care, and parents shouldn’t have to be afraid to raise questions with their doctors. Because yes, vaccine injuries are rare, but they do exist.”
Alisa Pittaluga, a pediatric occupational therapist and mother of three in upstate New York, had always felt a bit cautious when it came to vaccinations. “I’ve questioned it because of my profession,” she explains, noting that many parents over the years have expressed beliefs that their child’s medical conditions were somehow related to vaccines. Pittaluga believed in vaccinating, though, and compromised by delaying and spacing out the shots for her youngest child, Daniel, now 7. He had his first MMR shot right before he turned 4 (rather than at the CDC-recommended age of 12 to 15 months).
“He was a totally healthy 3-year-old,” she says. But within two weeks of Daniel’s shot, his mom began to notice he had bruises in strange places—on his chin, along his spine. One night, while bathing him, she saw that his whole upper body appeared to be bruised. “He looked like he’d been in a car accident—his arms and back were purple with bruises,” she recalls, adding that she became an instant “wreck,” as she’d worked with kids who had leukemia, and knew that excessive bruising was an early symptom. During a doctor’s exam to rule out the cancer, she recalls, “I was shaking from head to toe for an hour.”
Leukemia was ruled out; instead, he was diagnosed with the disorder idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), which leads to excessive bleeding or bruising because of low blood platelets that help to clot the blood. His pediatrician mentioned that it could have been associated with his MMR vaccination—as it has been found to be, according to the CDC’s list of MMR side effects, for about 1 in 30,000 doses.
“I was devastated,” Pittaluga recalls. “I cried. I felt so guilty that I took this kid in and made him get his shot.”
Luckily, Daniel’s condition resolved itself in a year. But during that time, he had to be monitored with weekly blood tests, hooked up to a IV blood bag for dangerously low platelet levels, and supervised constantly to make sure he never fell down and hit his head, which could have been deadly. “The hardest part was having a 3-year-old boy who was not allowed to run or jump,” Pittaluga says. She filed a claim with the vaccine-injury court and, at the end of 2014, was awarded compensation (a sum she requested be kept private), to be put into a trust for Daniel.
Pittaluga, now pregnant with her fourth child, says she feels validated by the ruling, but forever changed. “I understand that with measles, people can have complications,” she says. “But watching your 3-year-old not being able to clot his blood for a year is much more terrifying to me.” She’s uncertain, for now, how she’ll proceed with vaccinations for her newborn, and admits to feeling “furious” regarding the anti-anti-vaxxer sentiments that dominate the media.
Harry Tembenis of Massachusetts has similar reactions to the discourse. His only child, a son named Elias, developed a seizure disorder as the result of a routine DTaP shot at four months old; he eventually died, at the age of 7, during a major seizure, while his case with the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program court was still pending. The court, after seven years, eventually determined that the vaccine caused his disorder, agreeing to pay out more than $1 million in 2013. “We got justice, we got closure,” Tembenis tells Yahoo Parenting. But he takes umbrage when he hears medical experts saying that vaccines are completely safe, noting that when they took Elias in for his shots, on schedule, they knew nothing about any possible risks. “We took the pediatrician’s word as gospel,” he says. “Unfortunately, my wife and I learned the hard way.”
Since the first Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) claims were filed in 1989, nearly 4,000 compensation awards have been made, totaling nearly $3 billion; nearly 10,000 claims, meanwhile, have been dismissed. In 2014, the court made 365 awards totaling more than $223 million (counting both petitioner payouts and attorney fees); the totals represent payouts both in which the court concedes a vaccine connection and those that were simply settlements. In cases where petitioners win concession, payout amounts vary wildly due to severity of injury and whether a child dies or not. Deaths, Gentry explains, usually receive less, because when a child survives but sustains serious injury (as in Julia’s situation), the court makes payouts for future life care and future lost wages, as well as for pain and suffering. (Although the $250,000 caps for both death and pain-and-suffering payouts have not changed since 1986, Gentry notes). To date, the majority of compensated claims stem from reactions to DTP (1,270 injuries), influenza (985), and MMR (367) vaccines.
Some injuries fall within what’s called the Vaccine Injury Table—a collection of conditions that, if they occur within a specified amount of time, “it is presumed that the vaccine was the cause of the injury or condition unless another cause is found.” Injuries that fall within the Table—including anaphylactic shock, encephalitis, chronic arthritis, and ITP (what Daniel had)—are meant to go through the court system more quickly (although it doesn’t always happen that way, as with Julia’s four-year case). Other cases become more drawn-out and complex, with many feeling “adversarial,” Gentry notes.
“There are few Table injuries, so you almost always need to get an expert,” she says, noting that there have been no Table updates since the late ‘90s, including the immune disorder Guillain-Barré Syndrome in relation to the influenza shot. “And,” Gentry says, “it’s incredibly difficult to get experts, as their reputations wind up getting viciously attacked.” Attorneys often pay for experts and medical records up front and get reimbursed at the end of a case. Many petitioners wind up taking settlements, Gentry notes, rather than risk getting into what can often turn into a three-year court dispute.
“Basically, you can move cases through very quickly if you want to lose,” Gentry notes. “It’s not a workable model.”
The case over Daniel’s ITP was one of 357 awards granted in fiscal year 2014. Others include one that garnered more than $2.3 million in compensation to a young North Carolina boy with encephalitis and permanent brain damage following a chicken pox vaccine (one of 127 awards so far in 2015); an Arkansas girl who was awarded $1.3 million for neurological damage sustained following MMR, hepatitis-A, and chicken pox vaccines; and an 8-year-old Kansas boy who, the court conceded, had a seizure disorder triggered by an underlying immune deficiency following a round of 12-month shots that included DTaP, HiB, MMR, Varicella (chicken pox), and Prevnar (pneumonia). The complicated court case took six years to reach a decision from the time it was filed in 2008.
Lawson, meanwhile, has been forever changed by the reality of becoming one of the rare statistics. “I feel betrayed by the trust I had put in my pediatrician, the medical establishment, and my education,” she says. Since her daughter’s injury, she’s not allowed her son, 12, to have any of his remaining shots. “Julia qualifies for a medical exemption. My son, however, does not. I exercise my personal belief exemption for him, for obvious reasons,” she says. “If vaccines become mandated, am I really expected to risk this happening to him? I won’t. They can fine me, jail me, whatever they want. I’m not vaccinating him. We will move out of the country if necessary. That’s how seriously I take this. It has to be a choice.”
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
The Substance
A compilation
Audio length: 10:15
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“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”1
Let’s take a closer look at this passage in the New American Standard Bible: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
The context of Hebrews 11:1, following Hebrews 10, is essential in understanding what the writer of Hebrews is referring to in this passage concerning faith. In Chapter 10, the author ends the section encouraging his readers to continue in their faith and to “endure” (verse 36) in spite of “reproaches” and “tribulations” they may have experienced or observed. He finishes by saying, “…we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” In the very next line (the passage we are considering at 11:1) the author says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
So what is it here that is connected to “faith” and is also “unseen”? Is it “evidence”? Is the author saying, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, when the evidence is unseen?” No, he’s saying just the opposite. When considering chapter 10 prior to interpreting verse 11:1, it’s clear that the author is encouraging his readers to endure those times when God seems absent; those times when trials and tribulations cause us to question God’s existence. Where is God in these difficult situations? Why can’t we see Him? Why can’t we see His activity in our lives? In verse 11:1, the author of Hebrews says that we can trust that God’s salvation, protection and provision are still there for us, even though they may appear to be “things not seen.” In spite of their apparent absence, we are told to trust that they exist. Why? On what basis? On the basis of what we can see.
Over and over again the Old Testament saints, when questioning God’s goodness, provision or protection, were encouraged by a leader or prophet to remember what God did for them in Egypt. God’s rescue efforts in Egypt were provided as a piece of evidence, demonstrating that He was capable of rescuing His children again. God has given us visible assurance that He exists, and the writer of Hebrews is simply asking us to trust this assurance when God and His mercies seem like they are “things not seen.” Even the writer of Hebrews understood the conviction and assurance that resulted from evidence: the evidence of God’s Old Testament activities and the evidence of Jesus’ New Testament miracles.—J. Warner Wallace
*
This word “substance” in Hebrews 11:1 was “hupostasis” in Greek. At the time of King James when this translation was made, the scholars did not know exactly what that word meant. They chose a good word, “substance,” because they could tell by the way it was used that it meant something very definite, concrete, very sure. So they agreed on using the word “substance” because it obviously brought out what the verse meant.
But they had not been able to find it anywhere. They scoured Greek literature, they scoured the classics, and this word was nowhere to be found. They were mystified about what in the world it could mean, and didn’t find out until the British had Palestine and began to do archaeological work there to try to uncover old villages and towns. They dug up a village in northern Israel and there in the ruins of an old burned inn where apparently this wealthy Roman woman had been staying, they found her little casket of precious jewels and papers, a metal casket that had lasted through the years.
When they opened it, they found some of these papers still intact and decipherable. There was a whole series of documents, and at the top of each document it said “hupostasis.” It turned out they were the title deeds to her properties.
She had come from Rome to Israel to inspect these properties she had bought. She was obviously a rich land speculator, and after the Romans conquered Palestine, they were probably able to buy up land pretty cheap. So she had come with her title deeds to see her properties. She knew they were hers because she had the title deeds—which guaranteed that the properties were hers.
With that in mind, now read the verse:
“Now faith is the title deed of things hoped for.” In other words, if you’ve got the faith, it’s just like you’ve got the title deed in your hand. Here was a lady who apparently had never seen the properties before, because she’d bought the title deeds in Rome. She might have heard a description of them—because I’m sure they didn’t take any Polaroid pictures—and she was coming to see them for the first time. But she knew they were hers because she already had the title deeds in her hand.
So faith is like having the title deed. Somebody gave me a car once, a dear old Kaiser. They don’t make them anymore, but it was a nice car then and way ahead of its time. It was streamlined and brand-new, and through the mail they sent me the title to the car. I’d never ever seen one before. I hadn’t the faintest idea what the car looked like.
There was the title deed; they’d signed my name on it, and I had a car. I knew I had a car. I didn’t necessarily know what kind of car, but I had a car; though I’d never seen it, I had the title deed. So “faith is the substance of things hoped for,” the title deed to things hoped for, “the evidence of things not seen.”—D. Brandt Berg
*
The Bible defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”2 Thus, in biblical vernacular, faith is a channel of living trust—an assurance—that stretches from man to God. In other words, it is the object of faith that renders faith faithful. Furthermore, faith is the assurance that God’s promises will never fail, even if sometimes we do not experience their fulfillment in our mortal existence.
Hebrews 11 underscores the fact that we trust God to fulfill His promises for the future (the unseen) based on what He has already fulfilled in the past. Thus, our faith is not blind, but based squarely on God’s proven faithfulness. Biblical faith is based on knowledge, not wishing or blind leaps. Knowledge builds confidence and confidence leads to trust. The kind of faith God is interested in is not wishing. It is trust based on knowing, a sure confidence grounded in evidence.—Greg Koukl
*
So what is the right definition of faith? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” writes the author of Hebrews. A few verses later faith is similarly defined as knowing that God exists and that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Perhaps the best word we can use to translate the Greek word “pistis” (usually translated faith) is the word “trust” or “trustworthy.”
Suppose you tell a friend that you have faith in her. What does that mean? It means two things. First, you are sure the person you are talking to actually exists. And second, you are convinced she is trustworthy; you can believe what she says and trust in her character. It is in this way that the writer of Hebrews talks about faith in God.
Faith is knowing that God is real and that you can trust in God’s promises. You cannot trust someone who isn’t there, nor can you rely on someone whose promises are not reliable. This is why faith is talked about as the substance of things hoped for and as the evidence of things not seen. Both words carry with them a sense of reality. Our hope is not wishful thinking. Faith does not make God real. On the contrary, faith is the response to a real God who wants to be known to us.—Michael Ramsden
*
Faith is believing there is another dimension to life other than those which can be touched, tasted, seen, or felt. There is more to life than that. There is also the realm of the Spirit, the invisible spiritual kingdom of God. All the ultimate answers of life lie in that kingdom.
Faith believes that God, in His grace, has stepped over the boundary into human history and told us some great and very valuable facts.
Faith believes them and adjusts its life to those facts and walks on that basis.—Ray Stedman
Published on Anchor February 2015. Read by Jon Marc.
Footnotes:
1 Hebrews 11:1KJV.
2 Ibid., NIV.
Demonstrações Divinas
http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/demonstracoes-divinas/
Maria Fontaine
Na BÃblia Jesus disse a Seu Pai, “Assim como [Tu] me enviaste ao mundo, eu os enviei ao mundo.”[1] E a Seus discÃpulos: “Assim como o Pai Me enviou, eu os envio."[2] E João escreveu, “Quem diz que vive unido com Deus deve viver como Jesus Cristo viveu.”[3]
“Ok, parece ótimo. Mas se eu realmente quiser viver como Jesus, o que isso realmente significa? Como posso viver como Ele no meio das realidades do meu cotidiano?” É uma pergunta válida!
Quando Jesus disse a Pedro e outros, “Sigam-Me, e eu os farei pescadores de homens,” não acho que Ele estava apenas falando sobre a ação fÃsica de segui-lO pelas estradas, dormir onde Ele dormia e comer o que Ele comia. Jesus queria que Seus discÃpulos entendessem os princÃpios que Ele estava ensinando através de Suas palavras e ações, e aplicassem-nos no seu dia a dia. E Ele quer que façamos o mesmo. Quer que façamos o melhor possÃvel por colocarmos em prática o que Ele nos ensinou no nosso cotidiano, enquanto “vamos por todo o mundo” e compartilhamos as boas novas com todos que Ele nos mostrar para compartilhá-las.[4]
Jesus explica isso em profecia da seguinte forma:
“Eu fui enviado para demonstrar o que o Meu Pai Me ensinou. Eu envio vocês para demonstrarem o que Eu lhes ensinei. Devem olhar além das ações fÃsicas passadas e entender os princÃpios que Eu estava demonstrando. Permitam-Me lhe mostrar o que vai ilustrar aqueles princÃpios hoje na situação em que se encontram assim como na daqueles com quem entram em contato.
Posso tanto ser forte como terno, ousado como tranquilo, tanto alegre como um homem de dores. Vejo o bom e o ruim, mas acima de tudo vejo o coração. A única maneira de saberem como manifestar o exemplo que lhes dei é andarem bem ao Meu lado, olhando para Mim, para Eu guiar Suas ações e palavras.
Eu curei centenas de pessoas para mostrar o amor do Pai por todos os Seus filhos. No meio de uma multidão de milhares de pessoas, curei uma mulher que tocou a orla da Minha veste com uma fé desesperada, para mostrar o cuidado pessoal do Pai por cada alma.
Desmascarei os hipócritas que pareciam perfeitos em suas ações, para demonstrar que Deus vê o coração, não as aparências. Toquei e curei dez leprosos para mostrar que todo aquele que busca o Pai jamais será desprezado ou rejeitado.
Àqueles que se achavam sábios, respondi com palavras e histórias simples que mostravam a verdade de maneira clara e de fácil compreensão, para que vissem como é tola a sabedoria distorcida dos homens. Declarei que as crianças com sua fé pura e simples confiança eram exemplos do reino dos céus, para mostrar a verdadeira sabedoria do Pai, que só é encontrada quando O buscam e confiam nEle.
Dancei e ri com os Meus discÃpulos na festa das bodas porque o Pai é um Deus de alegria. Chorei com os que sofriam a perda dos que lhes eram queridos, para que todos soubessem que Ele também chora com os que choram.
A cada momento de Minha vida Eu olhava para o Pai, pronto para fazer o que quer que Ele Me mostrasse, quer fosse dar o milagre da visão a um mendigo cego, quer fosse estender misericórdia e encorajamento a um coletor de impostos desprezado que se encontrava em uma árvore, quer fosse perdoar uma prostituta em prantos aos Meus pés implorando para ser amada como um amor que nunca havia conhecido. Onde quer que Eu fosse eu dava, de uma forma ou de outra. Isto fiz para que todos pudessem ver que viver para Deus pode ser parte de tudo o que você fizer.
Passei muitos dias ensinando os que estavam ao Meu lado, para mostrar como o Pai derrama naqueles que O amam. Andei quilômetros de distância para ensinar a verdade a uma mulher solitária ao lado do poço, para mostrar até que ponto o Meu Pai está disposto a ir para responder a um coração que busca pela verdade.
Escolhi doze homens para andarem ao Meu lado, homens que pareciam inteligentes e outros que pareciam ignorantes. Escolhi os que pareciam honestos e os que pareciam trapaceiros. Escolhi homens que tinham um amor profundo e puro por Mim, e quem Me trairia, ou Me negaria, ou Me abandonaria nos momentos de medo ou fraqueza. Isto fiz segundo Meu Pai Me orientou, para mostrar que Ele é capaz de realizar o Seu propósito e fazer com que, independente das circunstâncias, tudo resulte no bem.
Passei por esta vida, com todas as suas alegrias e dores, perdas e ganhos, fraquezas e forças, sob a orientação amorosa de Meu Pai. Segui onde Ele Me guiou sem hesitar. Isto fiz para lhes dar um exemplo de como podem Me seguir e, por sua vez, ensinar outros a fazerem o mesmo.”
Aquele que transformou as trevas em luz e através da ressurreição trouxe a vida, viveu segundo o exemplo que nos chama a viver. Não temos que ser grandiosos em nós mesmos. Olhamos para Ele, o milagre de Seu poder vem simplesmente ao permitirmos que o Seu EspÃrito permeie tudo o que fizermos.
Seguem-se mais alguns versÃculos bÃblicos sobre este assunto.
Eu lhes dei o exemplo, para que vocês façam como lhes fiz.[5]
Permaneçam em mim, e eu permanecerei em vocês. Nenhum ramo pode dar fruto por si mesmo, se não permanecer na videira. Vocês também não podem dar fruto, se não permanecerem em mim.[6]
Os que obedecem aos seus mandamentos permanecem nele, e ele neles. Deste modo sabemos que ele permanece em nós: pelo EspÃrito que nos deu.[7]
Dessa forma o amor está aperfeiçoado entre nós, para que no dia do juÃzo tenhamos confiança, porque neste mundo somos como ele.[8]
Se vocês obedecerem aos meus mandamentos, permanecerão no meu amor, assim como tenho obedecido aos mandamentos de meu Pai e em seu amor permaneço.[9]
Publicado originalmente em novembro 2012. Republicado no Âncora em fevereiro 2015.
[1] João 17:18.
[2] João 17:18.
[3] João 20:21.
[4] Marcos 16:15.
[5] João 13:15
[6] João 15:4
[7] 1 João 3:24
[8] 1 João 4:17
[9] João 15:10
Maria Fontaine
Na BÃblia Jesus disse a Seu Pai, “Assim como [Tu] me enviaste ao mundo, eu os enviei ao mundo.”[1] E a Seus discÃpulos: “Assim como o Pai Me enviou, eu os envio."[2] E João escreveu, “Quem diz que vive unido com Deus deve viver como Jesus Cristo viveu.”[3]
“Ok, parece ótimo. Mas se eu realmente quiser viver como Jesus, o que isso realmente significa? Como posso viver como Ele no meio das realidades do meu cotidiano?” É uma pergunta válida!
Quando Jesus disse a Pedro e outros, “Sigam-Me, e eu os farei pescadores de homens,” não acho que Ele estava apenas falando sobre a ação fÃsica de segui-lO pelas estradas, dormir onde Ele dormia e comer o que Ele comia. Jesus queria que Seus discÃpulos entendessem os princÃpios que Ele estava ensinando através de Suas palavras e ações, e aplicassem-nos no seu dia a dia. E Ele quer que façamos o mesmo. Quer que façamos o melhor possÃvel por colocarmos em prática o que Ele nos ensinou no nosso cotidiano, enquanto “vamos por todo o mundo” e compartilhamos as boas novas com todos que Ele nos mostrar para compartilhá-las.[4]
Jesus explica isso em profecia da seguinte forma:
“Eu fui enviado para demonstrar o que o Meu Pai Me ensinou. Eu envio vocês para demonstrarem o que Eu lhes ensinei. Devem olhar além das ações fÃsicas passadas e entender os princÃpios que Eu estava demonstrando. Permitam-Me lhe mostrar o que vai ilustrar aqueles princÃpios hoje na situação em que se encontram assim como na daqueles com quem entram em contato.
Posso tanto ser forte como terno, ousado como tranquilo, tanto alegre como um homem de dores. Vejo o bom e o ruim, mas acima de tudo vejo o coração. A única maneira de saberem como manifestar o exemplo que lhes dei é andarem bem ao Meu lado, olhando para Mim, para Eu guiar Suas ações e palavras.
Eu curei centenas de pessoas para mostrar o amor do Pai por todos os Seus filhos. No meio de uma multidão de milhares de pessoas, curei uma mulher que tocou a orla da Minha veste com uma fé desesperada, para mostrar o cuidado pessoal do Pai por cada alma.
Desmascarei os hipócritas que pareciam perfeitos em suas ações, para demonstrar que Deus vê o coração, não as aparências. Toquei e curei dez leprosos para mostrar que todo aquele que busca o Pai jamais será desprezado ou rejeitado.
Àqueles que se achavam sábios, respondi com palavras e histórias simples que mostravam a verdade de maneira clara e de fácil compreensão, para que vissem como é tola a sabedoria distorcida dos homens. Declarei que as crianças com sua fé pura e simples confiança eram exemplos do reino dos céus, para mostrar a verdadeira sabedoria do Pai, que só é encontrada quando O buscam e confiam nEle.
Dancei e ri com os Meus discÃpulos na festa das bodas porque o Pai é um Deus de alegria. Chorei com os que sofriam a perda dos que lhes eram queridos, para que todos soubessem que Ele também chora com os que choram.
A cada momento de Minha vida Eu olhava para o Pai, pronto para fazer o que quer que Ele Me mostrasse, quer fosse dar o milagre da visão a um mendigo cego, quer fosse estender misericórdia e encorajamento a um coletor de impostos desprezado que se encontrava em uma árvore, quer fosse perdoar uma prostituta em prantos aos Meus pés implorando para ser amada como um amor que nunca havia conhecido. Onde quer que Eu fosse eu dava, de uma forma ou de outra. Isto fiz para que todos pudessem ver que viver para Deus pode ser parte de tudo o que você fizer.
Passei muitos dias ensinando os que estavam ao Meu lado, para mostrar como o Pai derrama naqueles que O amam. Andei quilômetros de distância para ensinar a verdade a uma mulher solitária ao lado do poço, para mostrar até que ponto o Meu Pai está disposto a ir para responder a um coração que busca pela verdade.
Escolhi doze homens para andarem ao Meu lado, homens que pareciam inteligentes e outros que pareciam ignorantes. Escolhi os que pareciam honestos e os que pareciam trapaceiros. Escolhi homens que tinham um amor profundo e puro por Mim, e quem Me trairia, ou Me negaria, ou Me abandonaria nos momentos de medo ou fraqueza. Isto fiz segundo Meu Pai Me orientou, para mostrar que Ele é capaz de realizar o Seu propósito e fazer com que, independente das circunstâncias, tudo resulte no bem.
Passei por esta vida, com todas as suas alegrias e dores, perdas e ganhos, fraquezas e forças, sob a orientação amorosa de Meu Pai. Segui onde Ele Me guiou sem hesitar. Isto fiz para lhes dar um exemplo de como podem Me seguir e, por sua vez, ensinar outros a fazerem o mesmo.”
Aquele que transformou as trevas em luz e através da ressurreição trouxe a vida, viveu segundo o exemplo que nos chama a viver. Não temos que ser grandiosos em nós mesmos. Olhamos para Ele, o milagre de Seu poder vem simplesmente ao permitirmos que o Seu EspÃrito permeie tudo o que fizermos.
Seguem-se mais alguns versÃculos bÃblicos sobre este assunto.
Eu lhes dei o exemplo, para que vocês façam como lhes fiz.[5]
Permaneçam em mim, e eu permanecerei em vocês. Nenhum ramo pode dar fruto por si mesmo, se não permanecer na videira. Vocês também não podem dar fruto, se não permanecerem em mim.[6]
Os que obedecem aos seus mandamentos permanecem nele, e ele neles. Deste modo sabemos que ele permanece em nós: pelo EspÃrito que nos deu.[7]
Dessa forma o amor está aperfeiçoado entre nós, para que no dia do juÃzo tenhamos confiança, porque neste mundo somos como ele.[8]
Se vocês obedecerem aos meus mandamentos, permanecerão no meu amor, assim como tenho obedecido aos mandamentos de meu Pai e em seu amor permaneço.[9]
Publicado originalmente em novembro 2012. Republicado no Âncora em fevereiro 2015.
[1] João 17:18.
[2] João 17:18.
[3] João 20:21.
[4] Marcos 16:15.
[5] João 13:15
[6] João 15:4
[7] 1 João 3:24
[8] 1 João 4:17
[9] João 15:10
How One Simple Change Can Make You A Better Listener
By Art Markman, Fast Company, Feb. 13, 2015
Next time you’re at a meeting when you are not a central participant, take a couple of minutes and watch some of the other people at the table. Most of them won’t even look like they are listening carefully. Some are fidgeting in their seats. Some are checking their email under the table. Few of them are really listening to what is going on around them.
Listening is a skill that can make you a better colleague and a more effective leader. When people feel as though they have been heard, they trust you more. In addition, there are a lot of problems that arise through miscommunication. A lot of miscommunication isn’t because someone fails to express themselves clearly, it happens because the other person doesn’t listen carefully.
Many listening problems emerge from the way most of us think about conversations. The structure of a conversation seems obvious. One person speaks. Then, another one picks up the thread of the discussion, and the different people contribute their thoughts.
Just from this description, it might seem that your role in a conversations is to think about your reaction to what has been said so far, and plan what you are going to say next, but there are several problems with this strategy.
First, you haven’t given the other person a chance to say what they wanted to say completely. It’s possible that the last thing they say will change the tenor of their earlier remarks, and you’ll miss that if you are focused on your next turn.
Second, by focusing on what you are going to say, you are paying the most attention to your own perspective on the conversation. That can make it difficult to see things from another person’s point of view. By trying to understand the context in which someone else makes a remark, you can often get a deeper understanding of the issues they are facing.
Remember that when you listen, you are learning from the other person. Research on motivation by Arie Kruglanski a social psychologist and his colleagues at the University of Maryland suggests that there are two distinct motivational mindsets: a thinking mindset and a doing mindset. When you listen, you put yourself in a thinking mindset. It gives you a chance to really try to understand what is going on around you. When you focus on planning your next contribution to the conversation, you enter a doing mindset, and you don’t think through the events carefully. Give yourself that chance to think.
Shifting yourself out of a doing mode can be difficult. Often, colleagues come to you with a problem, and so your initial reaction is to prepare yourself to solve the problem. However, the problem that people come to talk to you about is not always the real problem that needs to be solved. If you jump too quickly into a mode of trying to solve the problem you are facing, you may cure a symptom rather than curing the disease. Taking the thinking perspective is the conversational equivalent of the carpenter’s saying “Measure twice, cut once.”
When you focus on your next contribution, you may miss the emotion behind what is being said. You communicate a lot more than just the statements we make with the words we use. Your tone of voice, posture, and gestures also say a lot about how you feel. After all, the simple sentence “That was a great point,” can be a compliment or an insult just based on how it is said.
It is important to get a sense of how deeply someone cares about the issue being discussed and their satisfaction with how the issue has been dealt with so far. Often, there are issues that you don’t care about at all that are extraordinarily important to someone else. Failing to recognize and appreciate that difference can undermine your colleagues’ trust in you.
Finally, get in the habit of repeating back at least some of what colleagues have said to you when you are dealing with important issues. Give that summary before you launch into your own solutions. There are three reasons why this is helpful.
You have to listen carefully to what other people have said in order to be able to repeat it back. When you accurately state what other people have said, they feel like you have taken in what they had to say. As a result, they trust your response more than if they don’t feel they were heard. By repeating it back, you also ensure that you really understood it. If you missed something, you may find you have trouble actually summarizing what was said, and so you can ask for clarification. In addition, your summary gives other conversation participants a chance to correct or clarify the point.
Ultimately, the ability to extract what people mean from a conversation is one of the most important tools of any leader. It takes a lot of work. And it requires curbing your natural tendency to jump right to a solution to people’s problems.
Next time you’re at a meeting when you are not a central participant, take a couple of minutes and watch some of the other people at the table. Most of them won’t even look like they are listening carefully. Some are fidgeting in their seats. Some are checking their email under the table. Few of them are really listening to what is going on around them.
Listening is a skill that can make you a better colleague and a more effective leader. When people feel as though they have been heard, they trust you more. In addition, there are a lot of problems that arise through miscommunication. A lot of miscommunication isn’t because someone fails to express themselves clearly, it happens because the other person doesn’t listen carefully.
Many listening problems emerge from the way most of us think about conversations. The structure of a conversation seems obvious. One person speaks. Then, another one picks up the thread of the discussion, and the different people contribute their thoughts.
Just from this description, it might seem that your role in a conversations is to think about your reaction to what has been said so far, and plan what you are going to say next, but there are several problems with this strategy.
First, you haven’t given the other person a chance to say what they wanted to say completely. It’s possible that the last thing they say will change the tenor of their earlier remarks, and you’ll miss that if you are focused on your next turn.
Second, by focusing on what you are going to say, you are paying the most attention to your own perspective on the conversation. That can make it difficult to see things from another person’s point of view. By trying to understand the context in which someone else makes a remark, you can often get a deeper understanding of the issues they are facing.
Remember that when you listen, you are learning from the other person. Research on motivation by Arie Kruglanski a social psychologist and his colleagues at the University of Maryland suggests that there are two distinct motivational mindsets: a thinking mindset and a doing mindset. When you listen, you put yourself in a thinking mindset. It gives you a chance to really try to understand what is going on around you. When you focus on planning your next contribution to the conversation, you enter a doing mindset, and you don’t think through the events carefully. Give yourself that chance to think.
Shifting yourself out of a doing mode can be difficult. Often, colleagues come to you with a problem, and so your initial reaction is to prepare yourself to solve the problem. However, the problem that people come to talk to you about is not always the real problem that needs to be solved. If you jump too quickly into a mode of trying to solve the problem you are facing, you may cure a symptom rather than curing the disease. Taking the thinking perspective is the conversational equivalent of the carpenter’s saying “Measure twice, cut once.”
When you focus on your next contribution, you may miss the emotion behind what is being said. You communicate a lot more than just the statements we make with the words we use. Your tone of voice, posture, and gestures also say a lot about how you feel. After all, the simple sentence “That was a great point,” can be a compliment or an insult just based on how it is said.
It is important to get a sense of how deeply someone cares about the issue being discussed and their satisfaction with how the issue has been dealt with so far. Often, there are issues that you don’t care about at all that are extraordinarily important to someone else. Failing to recognize and appreciate that difference can undermine your colleagues’ trust in you.
Finally, get in the habit of repeating back at least some of what colleagues have said to you when you are dealing with important issues. Give that summary before you launch into your own solutions. There are three reasons why this is helpful.
You have to listen carefully to what other people have said in order to be able to repeat it back. When you accurately state what other people have said, they feel like you have taken in what they had to say. As a result, they trust your response more than if they don’t feel they were heard. By repeating it back, you also ensure that you really understood it. If you missed something, you may find you have trouble actually summarizing what was said, and so you can ask for clarification. In addition, your summary gives other conversation participants a chance to correct or clarify the point.
Ultimately, the ability to extract what people mean from a conversation is one of the most important tools of any leader. It takes a lot of work. And it requires curbing your natural tendency to jump right to a solution to people’s problems.
GRÉCIA PROCESSA ALEMANIA POR SUBMARINOS QUE AJUDARAM A AFUNDAR ECONOMIA NACIONAL
Negócio dos submarinos militares que acabaram por nunca navegar no mar tornou-se na principal imagem da crise financeira da Grécia. As relações entre Grécia e Alemanha poderão conhecer um novo capÃtulo, depois do processo avançado pelos europeus do sul que pedem €7.000 milhões à poderosa nação de Angela Merkel. Em causa está o negócio da venda de 4 submarinos militares alemães que continuam nos estaleiros gregos ainda inacabados, quase 15 anos depois da sua encomenda.
O jornal britânico ‘Telegraph’ noticia que o governo da Grécia avança agora com um processo contra a alemã ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, a mesma responsável pela manutenção do polémico submarino português Tridente, e a árabe Abu Dhabi Ma, as grandes empresas responsáveis pelo negócio que custou €3.000 milhões na compra dos 4 submarinos, veÃculos militares que nem fazem falta à Grécia.
Segundo consta do documento de 200 páginas enviado para o Tribunal Internacional de Justiça, os polÃticos gregos acusam os alemães de terem pressionado a sua nação a gastar enormes quantias de dinheiro em armamento, para posteriormente criticarem a nação de esbanjar milhões e milhões de euros.
Em 2013, o antigo Ministro da Defesa grego, Akis Tsochadzopoulos, foi preso depois de ser considerado culpado de ter aceitado subornos no valor de €8 milhões da empresa alemã Ferrostaal, empresa alemã também envolvida no negócio. Se achar que conhece este nome, não estranhe. É a mesma empresa condenada por corrupção no caso da venda dos submarinos a Portugal. Também no ano passado o polémico negócio da compra dos submarinos resultou no pedido de demissão do vice-comandante da Marinha grega.
Os 4 submersÃveis estão no estaleiro de Skaramangas, e foram entregues à Marinha grega em março, apesar do negócio ter sido selado em 2000. Nessa altura, a alemã ThyssenKrupp comprou o estaleiro responsável pela construção dos equipamentos militares, tendo em 2002 vendido grande parte das ações à Abu Dhabi Mar. Com o agravar da crise mundial, este negócio tornou-se no sÃmbolo perfeito da ruÃna económica da Grécia.
Why Movie ‘Facts’ Prevail
By Jeffrey M. Zacks, NY Times, Feb. 13, 2015
THIS year’s Oscar nominees for best picture include four films based on true stories: “American Sniper” (about the sharpshooter Chris Kyle), “The Imitation Game” (about the British mathematician Alan Turing), “Selma” (about the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965) and “The Theory of Everything” (about the physicist Stephen Hawking).
Each film has been criticized for factual inaccuracy. You might think: Does it really matter? Can’t we keep the film world separate from the real world?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Studies show that if you watch a film—even one concerning historical events about which you are informed—your beliefs may be reshaped by “facts” that are not factual.
In one study, published in the journal Psychological Science in 2009, a team of researchers had college students read historical essays and then watch clips from historical movies containing information that was inaccurate and inconsistent with the essays. Despite being warned that the movies might contain factual distortions, the students produced about a third of the fake facts from the movies on a subsequent test.
In another study, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology in 2012, another team of researchers, repeating the experiment, tried to eliminate the “misinformation effect” by explicitly asking the students to monitor the clips for inaccuracies. It didn’t work. If anything, the students were more prone to accept the untruths. The more engaged the students were by the clips, the more their memories were contaminated.
Why do we have such a hard time sorting film “facts” from real facts? One suggestion is that our minds are well equipped to remember things that we see or hear—but not to remember the source of those memories.
The weakness of source memory leaves us, to some degree, at the mercy of inaccurate films. Is there anything we can do?
The research described above did reveal one technique that helps: Having the misinformation explicitly pointed out and corrected at the time it was encountered substantially reduced its influence. But actually implementing this strategy—creating fact-checking commentary tracks that play during movies? always bringing a historian to the theater with you?—could be a challenge.
THIS year’s Oscar nominees for best picture include four films based on true stories: “American Sniper” (about the sharpshooter Chris Kyle), “The Imitation Game” (about the British mathematician Alan Turing), “Selma” (about the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965) and “The Theory of Everything” (about the physicist Stephen Hawking).
Each film has been criticized for factual inaccuracy. You might think: Does it really matter? Can’t we keep the film world separate from the real world?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Studies show that if you watch a film—even one concerning historical events about which you are informed—your beliefs may be reshaped by “facts” that are not factual.
In one study, published in the journal Psychological Science in 2009, a team of researchers had college students read historical essays and then watch clips from historical movies containing information that was inaccurate and inconsistent with the essays. Despite being warned that the movies might contain factual distortions, the students produced about a third of the fake facts from the movies on a subsequent test.
In another study, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology in 2012, another team of researchers, repeating the experiment, tried to eliminate the “misinformation effect” by explicitly asking the students to monitor the clips for inaccuracies. It didn’t work. If anything, the students were more prone to accept the untruths. The more engaged the students were by the clips, the more their memories were contaminated.
Why do we have such a hard time sorting film “facts” from real facts? One suggestion is that our minds are well equipped to remember things that we see or hear—but not to remember the source of those memories.
The weakness of source memory leaves us, to some degree, at the mercy of inaccurate films. Is there anything we can do?
The research described above did reveal one technique that helps: Having the misinformation explicitly pointed out and corrected at the time it was encountered substantially reduced its influence. But actually implementing this strategy—creating fact-checking commentary tracks that play during movies? always bringing a historian to the theater with you?—could be a challenge.
God Knows
http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/god-knows/
A compilation
Audio length: 10:54
Download Audio (9.9MB)
“I need oil,” said an ancient monk; so he planted an olive sapling.
“Lord,” he prayed, “it needs rain that its tender roots may drink and swell. Send gentle showers.” And the Lord sent gentle showers.
“Lord,” prayed the monk, “my tree needs sun. Send sun, I pray Thee.” And the sun shone, gilding the dripping clouds.
“Now frost, my Lord, to brace its tissues,” cried the monk. And behold, the little tree stood sparkling with frost, but at evening it died.
Then the monk sought the cell of a brother monk, and told his strange experience.
“I, too, planted a little tree,” he said, “and see, it thrives well. But I entrust my tree to its God. He who made it knows better what it needs than a man like me. I laid no condition. I fixed no ways or means. ‘Lord, send what it needs,’ I prayed. ‘Storm or sunshine, wind, rain, or frost—Thou hast made it and Thou dost know.’”—Attributed to Linda Dillow
*
The other evening I was riding home after a heavy day’s work. I felt very weary and depressed, when swiftly and suddenly that text came to me, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”1
I said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.
It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames said, “Drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient for thee.”
Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain, saying to himself, “I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere.” But the earth might say, “Breathe away, O man, and fill thy lungs. My atmosphere is sufficient for thee.”
Be great believers! Little faith will bring your souls to Heaven, but great faith will bring Heaven to your souls.—C. H. Spurgeon
*
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ … For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”—Matthew 6:31–332
*
I cannot but God can
Oh, balm for all my care,
The burden that I drop
His hand will lift and bear.
Though eagle’s pinions tire,
I walk where once I ran,
This is my strength: to know
I cannot, but God can.
I know not, but God knows.
Oh, blessed rest from fear,
All my unfolding days
To Him are plain and clear.
Each anxious puzzled “Why?”
From doubt or dread that grows,
Finds answer in this thought:
I know not, but God knows!
—Annie Johnson Flint
*
All we have to do is follow Jesus! … Even though we are faithless, yet He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself, and He cannot break His word. He is going to see it through. God is going to carry us through. He has begun a good work in us, and He’s going to complete it to the end.
God alone can do it and God alone can show us what to do, how to do it, and protect us in doing it, supply the needs, and lead and guide us every step of the way. So don’t try to figure it out for yourself. … Cry out to God and ask God for the solution, and God will never fail.
Only God knows what to do, and only God knows what He wants done, and only God can do it. … God knows what He’s doing. So for God’s sake let Him do it, and just look to Him to find out what He’s doing, and what He wants you to do, and which way He’s going!
Don’t try to reason around with your own understanding, but get down in prayer and cry out to God with strong crying and tears and desperation, and look to Him alone for the answers. God alone has the answers and God alone can do it.—David Brandt Berg
*
During the sermon on the mount, one of the subjects Christ talked about was prayer. As He was instructing the people to not be like the heathen by using vain repetitions in prayer, He added in Matthew 6:8, “for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
So many seem to have a problem with the fact that God is omniscient. He knows everything. But when you’re down and hurting, His total knowledge often becomes a source of comfort. Especially when an answer comes quickly, even as fast as while you’re still praying.
That happened to Daniel once in Daniel 9:21. He said while he was still praying, God sent His angel, Gabriel, to him. “Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.”
It says in Isaiah 65:24 that this will be common in the life to come, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” But even though God isn’t always pleased to answer immediately every time we pray today, it doesn’t mean He isn’t very aware of what we’re going through.
Sometimes the lessons are in the waiting itself—a testing of faith—but if you are truly one of His own, there will never be a time when your needs will go unsupplied, as David had written in Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
Because He knows what you need. Before you ask.
Are you hungry? “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”3
Do you need clothing? “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”4
No matter what your need is, God knows. And He will answer in His own way and in His own time.—Tammy5
*
Obstacles block your path. Roads are barricaded. Doorways are padlocked. Do you know the frustration of a blocked door? You feel gridlocked, unable to escape.
In Max Lucado’s book, 3:16: The Numbers of Hope, he talks about the challenge of a blocked door. Lucado writes, “It’s not that our plans are bad but that God’s plans are better.”
God uses closed doors to advance his cause.
There is a familiar saying, “If you want to hear God laugh, then show him your plans.” It’s not that God doesn’t want you to try or dream big. He gives you the desires of your heart, but His plans are bigger than we can ever imagine.
People look to fortune tellers and psychics to get answers. They want to know their future and what to expect. God wants you to trust Him. You don’t need a crystal ball for that.
Possibly that traffic jam saved you from a horrible accident. Perhaps that job didn’t call you back because it’s really not the right place for you. Maybe if you wait a little longer, a better job opportunity is coming, and it is the right one.
When we struggle in life, our faith is tested. Learning to trust God is a lifelong journey. There will be days your faith will be challenged. When doors will be locked and you have to wait it out.
Psalm 37:3–4 says, “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
God knows today, tomorrow, and all things that intertwine. We cannot see everything He sees and we cannot know everything He knows.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”6
It’s not that our plans are bad, but that God’s plans are better. God knows what you need. He knows your heart and He knows what’s best. Just hold on; it will get better.—From FaithDream’s Inspiration blog7
Published on Anchor February 2015. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
1 2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV.
2 NKJV.
3 Matthew 6:26 KJV.
4 Matthew 6:28–30 KJV.
5 http://www.keptbygrace.com/archive/god-knows-what-you-need-before-you-ask.
6 Isaiah 55:8–9 NLT.
7 http://faith-dream.com/2012/03/01/god-knows-your-plans-and-your-needs-he-knows-your-heart.
Audio length: 10:54
Download Audio (9.9MB)
“I need oil,” said an ancient monk; so he planted an olive sapling.
“Lord,” he prayed, “it needs rain that its tender roots may drink and swell. Send gentle showers.” And the Lord sent gentle showers.
“Lord,” prayed the monk, “my tree needs sun. Send sun, I pray Thee.” And the sun shone, gilding the dripping clouds.
“Now frost, my Lord, to brace its tissues,” cried the monk. And behold, the little tree stood sparkling with frost, but at evening it died.
Then the monk sought the cell of a brother monk, and told his strange experience.
“I, too, planted a little tree,” he said, “and see, it thrives well. But I entrust my tree to its God. He who made it knows better what it needs than a man like me. I laid no condition. I fixed no ways or means. ‘Lord, send what it needs,’ I prayed. ‘Storm or sunshine, wind, rain, or frost—Thou hast made it and Thou dost know.’”—Attributed to Linda Dillow
*
The other evening I was riding home after a heavy day’s work. I felt very weary and depressed, when swiftly and suddenly that text came to me, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”1
I said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.
It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames said, “Drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient for thee.”
Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain, saying to himself, “I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere.” But the earth might say, “Breathe away, O man, and fill thy lungs. My atmosphere is sufficient for thee.”
Be great believers! Little faith will bring your souls to Heaven, but great faith will bring Heaven to your souls.—C. H. Spurgeon
*
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ … For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”—Matthew 6:31–332
*
I cannot but God can
Oh, balm for all my care,
The burden that I drop
His hand will lift and bear.
Though eagle’s pinions tire,
I walk where once I ran,
This is my strength: to know
I cannot, but God can.
I know not, but God knows.
Oh, blessed rest from fear,
All my unfolding days
To Him are plain and clear.
Each anxious puzzled “Why?”
From doubt or dread that grows,
Finds answer in this thought:
I know not, but God knows!
—Annie Johnson Flint
*
All we have to do is follow Jesus! … Even though we are faithless, yet He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself, and He cannot break His word. He is going to see it through. God is going to carry us through. He has begun a good work in us, and He’s going to complete it to the end.
God alone can do it and God alone can show us what to do, how to do it, and protect us in doing it, supply the needs, and lead and guide us every step of the way. So don’t try to figure it out for yourself. … Cry out to God and ask God for the solution, and God will never fail.
Only God knows what to do, and only God knows what He wants done, and only God can do it. … God knows what He’s doing. So for God’s sake let Him do it, and just look to Him to find out what He’s doing, and what He wants you to do, and which way He’s going!
Don’t try to reason around with your own understanding, but get down in prayer and cry out to God with strong crying and tears and desperation, and look to Him alone for the answers. God alone has the answers and God alone can do it.—David Brandt Berg
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During the sermon on the mount, one of the subjects Christ talked about was prayer. As He was instructing the people to not be like the heathen by using vain repetitions in prayer, He added in Matthew 6:8, “for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
So many seem to have a problem with the fact that God is omniscient. He knows everything. But when you’re down and hurting, His total knowledge often becomes a source of comfort. Especially when an answer comes quickly, even as fast as while you’re still praying.
That happened to Daniel once in Daniel 9:21. He said while he was still praying, God sent His angel, Gabriel, to him. “Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.”
It says in Isaiah 65:24 that this will be common in the life to come, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” But even though God isn’t always pleased to answer immediately every time we pray today, it doesn’t mean He isn’t very aware of what we’re going through.
Sometimes the lessons are in the waiting itself—a testing of faith—but if you are truly one of His own, there will never be a time when your needs will go unsupplied, as David had written in Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
Because He knows what you need. Before you ask.
Are you hungry? “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”3
Do you need clothing? “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”4
No matter what your need is, God knows. And He will answer in His own way and in His own time.—Tammy5
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Obstacles block your path. Roads are barricaded. Doorways are padlocked. Do you know the frustration of a blocked door? You feel gridlocked, unable to escape.
In Max Lucado’s book, 3:16: The Numbers of Hope, he talks about the challenge of a blocked door. Lucado writes, “It’s not that our plans are bad but that God’s plans are better.”
God uses closed doors to advance his cause.
There is a familiar saying, “If you want to hear God laugh, then show him your plans.” It’s not that God doesn’t want you to try or dream big. He gives you the desires of your heart, but His plans are bigger than we can ever imagine.
People look to fortune tellers and psychics to get answers. They want to know their future and what to expect. God wants you to trust Him. You don’t need a crystal ball for that.
Possibly that traffic jam saved you from a horrible accident. Perhaps that job didn’t call you back because it’s really not the right place for you. Maybe if you wait a little longer, a better job opportunity is coming, and it is the right one.
When we struggle in life, our faith is tested. Learning to trust God is a lifelong journey. There will be days your faith will be challenged. When doors will be locked and you have to wait it out.
Psalm 37:3–4 says, “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
God knows today, tomorrow, and all things that intertwine. We cannot see everything He sees and we cannot know everything He knows.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”6
It’s not that our plans are bad, but that God’s plans are better. God knows what you need. He knows your heart and He knows what’s best. Just hold on; it will get better.—From FaithDream’s Inspiration blog7
Published on Anchor February 2015. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
1 2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV.
2 NKJV.
3 Matthew 6:26 KJV.
4 Matthew 6:28–30 KJV.
5 http://www.keptbygrace.com/archive/god-knows-what-you-need-before-you-ask.
6 Isaiah 55:8–9 NLT.
7 http://faith-dream.com/2012/03/01/god-knows-your-plans-and-your-needs-he-knows-your-heart.
