What Can We Do To Prepare?
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Good and Fair
A compilation
Link
Audio length: 8:10
Download Audio (7.4MB)
The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.—Psalm 145:17
*
I believe that once you are grateful for life, seeing it as an opportunity to give love, your life is changed and lived as it was meant to be lived by our Creator.
Examples of this are people I know with a variety of diseases and handicaps whom I call healthy. Why are they healthy? They have learned what a friend of mine, a doctor, once said: “True good health is the ability to live without it.”
Sam Keen tells of a friend of his with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He is severely ill, and even breathing was a problem. Sam was visiting him, and he complimented his friend on his attitude. The friend asked, “What choice do I have?” and Sam said, “You could piss and moan a little.” His friend said, “It never occurred to me.” Yet most people, if you ask them if life is fair, will shout NO at you. The richer they are, the louder they shout. What we have to realize is that while life is difficult, it is not unfair. We all have our problems. The key is to learn how to live with them and even how to use them.
Even in Job we learn that afflictions heal, and adversity opens you to a new reality.—Bernie S. Siegel1
*
You have often wondered why some people who are loving, kind, and unselfish suffer, while others who only look out for themselves, dash the dreams of others to get what they want, and trample others in their charge up the ladder of success appear to have it better. While you cannot always see the outcomes, each person will reap in the next life what they sow in this life.2 Justice will come in the next life.
Judgment will be meted out to those who were unloving and cruel and caused others to suffer; they will have to suffer the consequences of their evil actions until they learn the error of their ways and repent. But when those who lived right pass on, although they may have suffered or gone without on earth, they will be blessed with greater rewards and joy than they ever imagined.
And besides being rewarded in the next life, I bless the loving and unselfish in this life. I bless them spiritually. I bless them with happiness and contentment, peace of mind, and a clear conscience. Meanwhile, some of the wealthiest people in the world are also some of the saddest, loneliest, and most lost, because money can’t satisfy the needs of the spirit.
So pursue the blessings of My Spirit—the love, joy, contentment, and feeling of fulfillment that comes only from knowing that you’ve done your best to lead a godly life. Only then will you truly appreciate that life is fair.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.—1 Chronicles 29:14
*
In the context of the Christian, eternal life, pain, suffering and evil can be faced and endured with strength, hope and confidence unavailable in an atheistic worldview. What used to seem so unjust to me is now less egregious. What used to seem so unbearable can now be faced with hope. The problem of evil, from my new Christian perspective, isn’t the same kind of problem it was from my old atheistic perspective, because the problem of evil isn’t really a problem for Christianity.—J. Warner Wallace
*
I know you’re fighting a difficult battle, and you might think that’s not fair. “Why do I have to keep having all these tests and trials?” But look how many blessings and privileges you do have! Look at your family, friends, and where you live. If you sometimes think you have so many terrible battles, it helps to praise the Lord for all the blessings He gives you.
Through the trials and tribulations you face, He can help you to gain wonderful victories. The Bible has a lot of good to say about tests and afflictions and difficulties. Those are some of the things that help us and that make us what we are. Remember, all great saints have suffered; that’s part of what made them great!
So when you’re tempted to say, “Why me? How awful!” Instead say, “Thank You, Jesus! Thank You for using this time of testing to help to make me what You want me to be.”—Maria Fontaine
*
Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful,
Where Your streams of abundance flow,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place,
Though I walk through the wilderness,
Blessed be Your name.
—Matt Redman
*
God is good and fair in happy times and hard times. His goodness shows both in what He gives and what He withholds, what He allows and what He denies. This is one of those “a lot in one” concepts. With this attitude, you can’t help but also experience increased joy, faith, peace, and gratitude.—Olivia Bauer
*
I am good, and I can cause every seemingly bad thing to work together for your good, as I have in the past, and as I will do in the future. Please try to see all the “bad” through the perspective of My promise in Romans 8:28,3 and then you can praise Me for the good that I’m going to bring out of it—even if you don’t see it right now. In the meantime, you can still “count it all joy” that you’ve come through the tests, that there are blessings of some sort awaiting you, and that you have them even now by faith, which is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”4
When it comes to My children, the Enemy never wins. I change every calamity that he brings along into a victory, and he just can’t win for losing—both now and forever.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
The very word “God” suggests care, kindness, goodness; and the idea of God in His infinity, is infinite care, infinite kindness, infinite goodness.—Henry Ward Beecher
Published on Anchor September 2015. Read by Jon Marc.
1 Louise L. Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life (Hay House, 1996).
2 Galatians 6:7.
3 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (ESV).
4 James 1:2; Hebrews 11:1.
Link
Audio length: 8:10
Download Audio (7.4MB)
The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.—Psalm 145:17
*
I believe that once you are grateful for life, seeing it as an opportunity to give love, your life is changed and lived as it was meant to be lived by our Creator.
Examples of this are people I know with a variety of diseases and handicaps whom I call healthy. Why are they healthy? They have learned what a friend of mine, a doctor, once said: “True good health is the ability to live without it.”
Sam Keen tells of a friend of his with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He is severely ill, and even breathing was a problem. Sam was visiting him, and he complimented his friend on his attitude. The friend asked, “What choice do I have?” and Sam said, “You could piss and moan a little.” His friend said, “It never occurred to me.” Yet most people, if you ask them if life is fair, will shout NO at you. The richer they are, the louder they shout. What we have to realize is that while life is difficult, it is not unfair. We all have our problems. The key is to learn how to live with them and even how to use them.
Even in Job we learn that afflictions heal, and adversity opens you to a new reality.—Bernie S. Siegel1
*
You have often wondered why some people who are loving, kind, and unselfish suffer, while others who only look out for themselves, dash the dreams of others to get what they want, and trample others in their charge up the ladder of success appear to have it better. While you cannot always see the outcomes, each person will reap in the next life what they sow in this life.2 Justice will come in the next life.
Judgment will be meted out to those who were unloving and cruel and caused others to suffer; they will have to suffer the consequences of their evil actions until they learn the error of their ways and repent. But when those who lived right pass on, although they may have suffered or gone without on earth, they will be blessed with greater rewards and joy than they ever imagined.
And besides being rewarded in the next life, I bless the loving and unselfish in this life. I bless them spiritually. I bless them with happiness and contentment, peace of mind, and a clear conscience. Meanwhile, some of the wealthiest people in the world are also some of the saddest, loneliest, and most lost, because money can’t satisfy the needs of the spirit.
So pursue the blessings of My Spirit—the love, joy, contentment, and feeling of fulfillment that comes only from knowing that you’ve done your best to lead a godly life. Only then will you truly appreciate that life is fair.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.—1 Chronicles 29:14
*
In the context of the Christian, eternal life, pain, suffering and evil can be faced and endured with strength, hope and confidence unavailable in an atheistic worldview. What used to seem so unjust to me is now less egregious. What used to seem so unbearable can now be faced with hope. The problem of evil, from my new Christian perspective, isn’t the same kind of problem it was from my old atheistic perspective, because the problem of evil isn’t really a problem for Christianity.—J. Warner Wallace
*
I know you’re fighting a difficult battle, and you might think that’s not fair. “Why do I have to keep having all these tests and trials?” But look how many blessings and privileges you do have! Look at your family, friends, and where you live. If you sometimes think you have so many terrible battles, it helps to praise the Lord for all the blessings He gives you.
Through the trials and tribulations you face, He can help you to gain wonderful victories. The Bible has a lot of good to say about tests and afflictions and difficulties. Those are some of the things that help us and that make us what we are. Remember, all great saints have suffered; that’s part of what made them great!
So when you’re tempted to say, “Why me? How awful!” Instead say, “Thank You, Jesus! Thank You for using this time of testing to help to make me what You want me to be.”—Maria Fontaine
*
Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful,
Where Your streams of abundance flow,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place,
Though I walk through the wilderness,
Blessed be Your name.
—Matt Redman
*
God is good and fair in happy times and hard times. His goodness shows both in what He gives and what He withholds, what He allows and what He denies. This is one of those “a lot in one” concepts. With this attitude, you can’t help but also experience increased joy, faith, peace, and gratitude.—Olivia Bauer
*
I am good, and I can cause every seemingly bad thing to work together for your good, as I have in the past, and as I will do in the future. Please try to see all the “bad” through the perspective of My promise in Romans 8:28,3 and then you can praise Me for the good that I’m going to bring out of it—even if you don’t see it right now. In the meantime, you can still “count it all joy” that you’ve come through the tests, that there are blessings of some sort awaiting you, and that you have them even now by faith, which is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”4
When it comes to My children, the Enemy never wins. I change every calamity that he brings along into a victory, and he just can’t win for losing—both now and forever.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
The very word “God” suggests care, kindness, goodness; and the idea of God in His infinity, is infinite care, infinite kindness, infinite goodness.—Henry Ward Beecher
Published on Anchor September 2015. Read by Jon Marc.
1 Louise L. Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life (Hay House, 1996).
2 Galatians 6:7.
3 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (ESV).
4 James 1:2; Hebrews 11:1.
Um Toque de Ternura
Link
Compilação
Que todos vocês tenham o mesmo modo de pensar e de sentir. Amem uns aos outros e sejam educados e humildes uns com os outros.—1 Pedro 3:8[1]
*
Todos precisam de encorajamento! Um certo complexo de inferioridade e tendência ao desencorajamento é natural na maioria das pessoas. Por isso é tão importante incentivar e encorajar as pessoas! Todos precisam, no entanto geralmente não demonstramos apreço ou oferecemos um ombro amigo àqueles que estão ao nosso redor.
O Senhor sabe da importância do encorajamento… “Tudo o que for amável, se houver algo de excelente ou digno de louvor, pensem nessas coisas!”[2] Nós precisamos aplicar esse conselho à s pessoas ao nosso redor e fazer um esforço para nos lembrarmos sempre de elogiar as qualidades das pessoas e as coisas boas que fazem – exatamente como o Senhor nos trata! Amém?—D. Brandt Berg
O pai se esquece
Filho, falo com você enquanto está dormindo, com a mãozinha debaixo da bochecha e seus cachinhos loiros grudados na sua testa suada. Entrei no seu quarto sozinho há alguns minutos, antes disso eu estava no escritório lendo, quando me senti dominar pelo remorso. E foi esse sentimento de culpa que me trouxe até aqui.
Filho, eu estava pensando em algumas coisas. Tenho ficado irritado com você. Quando você estava se arrumando para a aula eu lhe dei uma bronca porque você passou uma toalha úmida no rosto. Chamei a sua atenção por não limpar seus sapatos. Gritei com você quando jogou algumas coisas no chão do seu quarto.
Na hora do café também achei defeito. Você derramou coisas, devorou a comida, colocou os cotovelos na mesa, e colocou pão na sua manteiga. Quando você estava saindo para a escolinha e eu para o serviço, você abanou as mãos e disse: “Tchau, pai!” Fiz uma careta e respondi: “Endireite os ombros!”
No final da tarde foi tudo de novo. Eu vinha pela rua quando o vi de joelhos, jogando bolinha de gude. Suas meias estavam furadas. Eu o fiz caminhar na minha frente até à casa, o que foi uma grande humilhação na frente dos seus amigos. Meias custavam dinheiro, e se você tivesse que comprá-las cuidaria melhor delas! Imagine, filho, um pai fazer isso!
Você se lembra que mais tarde, quando eu estava lendo na biblioteca e você entrou timidamente com o olhar triste? Tirei os olhos do jornal, impaciente com a interrupção. Você hesitou à porta, e eu perguntei irritado: “O que você quer?” Sem dizer uma palavra você correu e se jogou em mim, me beijou e abraçou forte com um carinho que Deus colocou no seu coração e que nem o descaso poderia arrefecer. E saiu dali saltitante pelas escadas.
Filho, foi logo depois disso que o jornal escorregou das minhas mãos e senti um medo avassalador. O que o hábito tem feito comigo? O hábito de procurar defeito, de repreender, era assim que eu o recompensava por ser uma criança. A questão não é que eu não o amava, mas que eu esperava demais de você. Eu o media com base nos meus muitos anos de vida.
No entanto, você é uma criança tão boazinha, gentil e leal! Você tem um coração tão grande quanto o horizonte, e isso foi comprovado pelo seu impulso de correr e me dar um beijo de boa noite. Nada mais importa, filho. Vim até o seu quarto no escuro, me ajoelhei, e senti muita vergonha!
Isso não vai me redimir. Eu sei que você não entenderia essas coisas mesmo que eu lhe explicasse. Mas amanhã vou ser um pai de verdade! Vamos brincar juntos; vou sofrer quando você sofrer, e rir quando você der risadas. E vou morder a minha lÃngua quando ficar exasperado. Vou dizer repetidamente, como um mantra: “Ele é [apenas] uma criança—uma criancinha!”
Infelizmente tenho esperado de você o comportamento de um adulto. Mas agora, vendo você deitado na sua cama, encolhidinho, percebo que ainda é pequeno. Até o outro dia você ainda vivia no colo da sua mãe com a cabeça recostada no ombro dela. Eu cobrei demais de você, demais.—W. Livingston Larned[3]
*
O fruto do EspÃrito é amor, gozo, paz, longanimidade, benignidade, bondade, fé, mansidão e temperança, contra essas coisas não há lei.—Gálatas 5:22–23[4]
Uma oração por amor e misericórdia
Jesus, nós precisamos de Você! Querido e amoroso Jesus, que chorou pelas multidões, que, mesmo exausto, ao ver o povo teve compaixão e curou as pessoas. Por mais cansado que estivesse, não endureceu o coração! Permaneceu tranquilo, terno e humilde. Chorou pelo povo várias vezes, não queria ver as pessoas sofrendo. Chorou por elas.
Ajude-nos a não endurecer o coração. Como estamos apressados, o mais simples é endurecer o coração. Não paramos tempo suficiente para ficarmos mais doces, amarmos e nos importarmos com os outros. Ajude-nos, Senhor, a não nos tornarmos pessoas de coração duro!
Você falou muito sobre a dureza de coração.[5] Senhor, ajude-nos a não julgarmos as pessoas com dureza. Eu mesmo cometo tantos erros e não quero ser julgado severamente, por isso é mais fácil ter misericórdia dos outros. Você é tão bom para mim, Senhor, sendo que eu sou grande pecador e faço tanta coisa errada. Eu sei que Você pode me ajudar a ter paciência, longanimidade, misericórdia, e ser gentil.
DeverÃamos colocar os braços no ombro da outra pessoa e a encorajar, inspirar, e demonstrar fé nela. Mas à s vezes estamos apressados demais. É como ficar impaciente com um bebezinho. Quantos anos leva para um bebê crescer e os pais lhe ensinarem e treinarem! São anos e anos de amor e paciência.
Ajude-nos a ter paciência e amor, e a estarmos dispostos a tomar do nosso tempo.
Se algo precisa ser feito, você vai ter que fazer, Senhor! Nós temos que esperar em Você, sabendo que é o único capaz. Não por força nem por violência, mas pelo Seu EspÃrito.[6] Por favor, nos ensine paciência e fé, pois sabemos que leva um tempo.—D. Brandt Berg[7]
*
Portanto, se há algum conforto em Cristo, se alguma consolação de amor, se alguma comunhão no EspÃrito, se alguns entranháveis afetos e compaixões. Completai o meu gozo, para que sintais o mesmo, tendo o mesmo amor, o mesmo ânimo, sentindo uma mesma coisa. —Filipenses 2:1–2[8]
A verdadeira força
Estamos acostumados a pensar em força como o contrário da gentileza, brandura e ternura. Mas isso nem sempre se aplica. Durante a I Guerra Mundial, um piloto de caça britânico fez uma descoberta impressionante. Ele viu que espessas camadas de seda amorteciam mais do que o aço estilhaços lançados com pouca velocidade. Então teceram uma proteção de seda ao redor de suas cabeças e colocaram por cima quepes de equitação fabricados em couro. Os cientistas não sabem ao certo o que confere essa resistência à seda, mas é verdade que, dependendo da situação, a seda macia, gentil e terna pode ser muito mais forte em comparação à rigidez e frieza do aço.
Jesus nos mostrou que o mesmo se aplica ao caráter humano… gentileza, e ternura com as pessoas são qualidades de grande força!—Do site storiesforpreaching.com[9]
Publicado no Âncora em setembro de 2015.
[1] NVI.
[2] Filipenses 4:8.
[3] Publicado originalmente em People’s Home Journal. Uma versão desta história se encontra no YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gig8KkpsWvI.
[4] RC.
[5] Mateus 7:1–5; Romanos 2:1–6.
[6] Zacarias 4:6.
[7] Publicado originalmente em maio de 1971, adaptado.
[8] RC.
[9] http://storiesforpreaching.com/where-true-strength-lies.
Compilação
Que todos vocês tenham o mesmo modo de pensar e de sentir. Amem uns aos outros e sejam educados e humildes uns com os outros.—1 Pedro 3:8[1]
*
Todos precisam de encorajamento! Um certo complexo de inferioridade e tendência ao desencorajamento é natural na maioria das pessoas. Por isso é tão importante incentivar e encorajar as pessoas! Todos precisam, no entanto geralmente não demonstramos apreço ou oferecemos um ombro amigo àqueles que estão ao nosso redor.
O Senhor sabe da importância do encorajamento… “Tudo o que for amável, se houver algo de excelente ou digno de louvor, pensem nessas coisas!”[2] Nós precisamos aplicar esse conselho à s pessoas ao nosso redor e fazer um esforço para nos lembrarmos sempre de elogiar as qualidades das pessoas e as coisas boas que fazem – exatamente como o Senhor nos trata! Amém?—D. Brandt Berg
O pai se esquece
Filho, falo com você enquanto está dormindo, com a mãozinha debaixo da bochecha e seus cachinhos loiros grudados na sua testa suada. Entrei no seu quarto sozinho há alguns minutos, antes disso eu estava no escritório lendo, quando me senti dominar pelo remorso. E foi esse sentimento de culpa que me trouxe até aqui.
Filho, eu estava pensando em algumas coisas. Tenho ficado irritado com você. Quando você estava se arrumando para a aula eu lhe dei uma bronca porque você passou uma toalha úmida no rosto. Chamei a sua atenção por não limpar seus sapatos. Gritei com você quando jogou algumas coisas no chão do seu quarto.
Na hora do café também achei defeito. Você derramou coisas, devorou a comida, colocou os cotovelos na mesa, e colocou pão na sua manteiga. Quando você estava saindo para a escolinha e eu para o serviço, você abanou as mãos e disse: “Tchau, pai!” Fiz uma careta e respondi: “Endireite os ombros!”
No final da tarde foi tudo de novo. Eu vinha pela rua quando o vi de joelhos, jogando bolinha de gude. Suas meias estavam furadas. Eu o fiz caminhar na minha frente até à casa, o que foi uma grande humilhação na frente dos seus amigos. Meias custavam dinheiro, e se você tivesse que comprá-las cuidaria melhor delas! Imagine, filho, um pai fazer isso!
Você se lembra que mais tarde, quando eu estava lendo na biblioteca e você entrou timidamente com o olhar triste? Tirei os olhos do jornal, impaciente com a interrupção. Você hesitou à porta, e eu perguntei irritado: “O que você quer?” Sem dizer uma palavra você correu e se jogou em mim, me beijou e abraçou forte com um carinho que Deus colocou no seu coração e que nem o descaso poderia arrefecer. E saiu dali saltitante pelas escadas.
Filho, foi logo depois disso que o jornal escorregou das minhas mãos e senti um medo avassalador. O que o hábito tem feito comigo? O hábito de procurar defeito, de repreender, era assim que eu o recompensava por ser uma criança. A questão não é que eu não o amava, mas que eu esperava demais de você. Eu o media com base nos meus muitos anos de vida.
No entanto, você é uma criança tão boazinha, gentil e leal! Você tem um coração tão grande quanto o horizonte, e isso foi comprovado pelo seu impulso de correr e me dar um beijo de boa noite. Nada mais importa, filho. Vim até o seu quarto no escuro, me ajoelhei, e senti muita vergonha!
Isso não vai me redimir. Eu sei que você não entenderia essas coisas mesmo que eu lhe explicasse. Mas amanhã vou ser um pai de verdade! Vamos brincar juntos; vou sofrer quando você sofrer, e rir quando você der risadas. E vou morder a minha lÃngua quando ficar exasperado. Vou dizer repetidamente, como um mantra: “Ele é [apenas] uma criança—uma criancinha!”
Infelizmente tenho esperado de você o comportamento de um adulto. Mas agora, vendo você deitado na sua cama, encolhidinho, percebo que ainda é pequeno. Até o outro dia você ainda vivia no colo da sua mãe com a cabeça recostada no ombro dela. Eu cobrei demais de você, demais.—W. Livingston Larned[3]
*
O fruto do EspÃrito é amor, gozo, paz, longanimidade, benignidade, bondade, fé, mansidão e temperança, contra essas coisas não há lei.—Gálatas 5:22–23[4]
Uma oração por amor e misericórdia
Jesus, nós precisamos de Você! Querido e amoroso Jesus, que chorou pelas multidões, que, mesmo exausto, ao ver o povo teve compaixão e curou as pessoas. Por mais cansado que estivesse, não endureceu o coração! Permaneceu tranquilo, terno e humilde. Chorou pelo povo várias vezes, não queria ver as pessoas sofrendo. Chorou por elas.
Ajude-nos a não endurecer o coração. Como estamos apressados, o mais simples é endurecer o coração. Não paramos tempo suficiente para ficarmos mais doces, amarmos e nos importarmos com os outros. Ajude-nos, Senhor, a não nos tornarmos pessoas de coração duro!
Você falou muito sobre a dureza de coração.[5] Senhor, ajude-nos a não julgarmos as pessoas com dureza. Eu mesmo cometo tantos erros e não quero ser julgado severamente, por isso é mais fácil ter misericórdia dos outros. Você é tão bom para mim, Senhor, sendo que eu sou grande pecador e faço tanta coisa errada. Eu sei que Você pode me ajudar a ter paciência, longanimidade, misericórdia, e ser gentil.
DeverÃamos colocar os braços no ombro da outra pessoa e a encorajar, inspirar, e demonstrar fé nela. Mas à s vezes estamos apressados demais. É como ficar impaciente com um bebezinho. Quantos anos leva para um bebê crescer e os pais lhe ensinarem e treinarem! São anos e anos de amor e paciência.
Ajude-nos a ter paciência e amor, e a estarmos dispostos a tomar do nosso tempo.
Se algo precisa ser feito, você vai ter que fazer, Senhor! Nós temos que esperar em Você, sabendo que é o único capaz. Não por força nem por violência, mas pelo Seu EspÃrito.[6] Por favor, nos ensine paciência e fé, pois sabemos que leva um tempo.—D. Brandt Berg[7]
*
Portanto, se há algum conforto em Cristo, se alguma consolação de amor, se alguma comunhão no EspÃrito, se alguns entranháveis afetos e compaixões. Completai o meu gozo, para que sintais o mesmo, tendo o mesmo amor, o mesmo ânimo, sentindo uma mesma coisa. —Filipenses 2:1–2[8]
A verdadeira força
Estamos acostumados a pensar em força como o contrário da gentileza, brandura e ternura. Mas isso nem sempre se aplica. Durante a I Guerra Mundial, um piloto de caça britânico fez uma descoberta impressionante. Ele viu que espessas camadas de seda amorteciam mais do que o aço estilhaços lançados com pouca velocidade. Então teceram uma proteção de seda ao redor de suas cabeças e colocaram por cima quepes de equitação fabricados em couro. Os cientistas não sabem ao certo o que confere essa resistência à seda, mas é verdade que, dependendo da situação, a seda macia, gentil e terna pode ser muito mais forte em comparação à rigidez e frieza do aço.
Jesus nos mostrou que o mesmo se aplica ao caráter humano… gentileza, e ternura com as pessoas são qualidades de grande força!—Do site storiesforpreaching.com[9]
Publicado no Âncora em setembro de 2015.
[1] NVI.
[2] Filipenses 4:8.
[3] Publicado originalmente em People’s Home Journal. Uma versão desta história se encontra no YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gig8KkpsWvI.
[4] RC.
[5] Mateus 7:1–5; Romanos 2:1–6.
[6] Zacarias 4:6.
[7] Publicado originalmente em maio de 1971, adaptado.
[8] RC.
[9] http://storiesforpreaching.com/where-true-strength-lies.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Faith Grows Amid Storms
A compilation
Link
Audio length: 14:13
Download Audio (12.9MB)
“Faith grows amid storms”—just four words, but oh, how full of import to the soul who has been in the storms!
Faith is that God-given faculty which, when exercised, brings the unseen into plain view, and by which the impossible things are made possible. It deals with supernaturals.
But it "grows amid storms"; that is, where there are disturbances in the spiritual atmosphere. Storms are caused by the conflicts of elements; and the storms of the spiritual world are conflicts with hostile elements.
In such an atmosphere faith finds its most productive soil; in such an element it comes more quickly to full fruition.
The staunchest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest but out in the open, where the winds from every quarter beat upon it and bend and twist it until it becomes a giant in stature—this is the tree which the mechanic wants his tools made of, and the wagon maker seeks.
So in the spiritual world, when you see a giant, remember the road you must travel to come up to his side is not along the sunny lane where wild flowers ever bloom; but a steep, rocky, narrow pathway where the blasts of hell will almost blow you off your feet, where the sharp rocks cut the flesh, where the projecting thorns scratch the brow, and the venomous beasts hiss on every side.
It is a pathway of sorrow and joy, of suffering and healing balm, of tears and smiles, of trials and victories, of conflicts and triumphs, of hardships and perils and buffetings, of persecutions and misunderstandings, of troubles and distress; through all of which we are made more than conquerors through Him who loves us.
“Amid storms.” Right in the midst where it is fiercest you may shrink back from the ordeal of a fierce storm of trial—but go in! God is there to meet you in the center of all your trials, and to whisper His secrets which will make you come forth with a shining face and an indomitable faith that all the demons of hell shall never afterwards cause to waver.—E. A. Kilbourne1
*
Faith cannot be unanswered.
Her feet were firmly planted on the Rock;
Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,
Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer,
And cries, “It shall be done,” sometime, somewhere.
Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say ungranted;
Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done.
The work began when your first prayer was uttered.
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere.
—Robert Browning
*
There are times when things look very dark to me—so dark that I have to wait even for hope. A long-deferred fulfillment carries its own pain, but to wait for hope, to see no glimmer of a prospect and yet refuse to despair; to have nothing but night before the casement and yet to keep the casement open for possible stars; to have a vacant place in my heart and yet to allow that place to be filled by no inferior presence—that is the grandest patience in the universe. It is Job in the tempest; it is Abraham on the road to Moriah; it is Moses in the desert of Midian; it is the Son of man in the Garden of Gethsemane.—George Matheson
*
The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.—Charles Caleb Colton
*
The vine clings to the oak during the fiercest of storms. Although the violence of nature may uproot the oak, twining tendrils still cling to it. If the vine is on the side of the tree opposite the wind, the great oak is its protection; if it is on the exposed side, the tempest only presses it closer to the trunk.
In some of the storms of life, God intervenes and shelters us; while in others He allows us to be exposed, so that we will be pressed more closely to Him.—B. M. Launderville
*
We are safer in the storm God sends us than in a calm when we are befriended by the world.—Jeremy Taylor
*
The late Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” I know for certain that as long as you draw breath, hope is available to you. You and I are only human. We cannot see into the future. Instead, we picture the possibilities for what might be. Only God knows how our lives will unfold. Hope is His gift to us, a window to look through. We cannot know the future He has planned for us. Trust in Him, keep hope in your heart, and even when faced with the worst, do whatever you can to prepare yourself for the best!
How do you sustain hope amid such suffering? One thing that sustains me when I hear of these great calamities is the fact that they always trigger incredible caring from other human beings. Just when you wonder why, amid such senseless suffering, people would still have hope, hundreds of selfless volunteers pour into those regions.
Hope appears even in the worst of times to give us proof of God’s presence.—Nick Vujicic2
*
Are you surrounded by difficult circumstances right now? Have you been struggling to understand why they have come to you? Then try to accept that God loves you and has allowed those circumstances because He knows they are good for you. Praise Him for what He has brought into your life.
Praising God is not a magic formula for success. It is a way of life that is solidly backed up in God's Word. We praise God not for the expected results, but for the situation just as it is.
Praise is based on a total and joyful acceptance of the present as part of God's loving, perfect will for us. Praise is not based on what we think or hope will happen in the future.
It is, of course, a fact that when we honestly praise God, something does happen as a result. His power obviously flows into the situation, and we will notice, sooner or later, a change in us or around us. The change may be that we come to experience a real joy and happiness in the midst of what once appeared to be a miserable situation, or the situation may change. But this is a result of praise and must not be the motivation for praise.
God has a perfect plan for our lives, but He cannot move us to the next step of His plan until we joyfully accept our present situation as part of that plan. What happens next is God's move, not ours.—Merlin R. Carothers3
*
Jesus seemed to think backward about everything. “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and his rule.” That’s how Eugene Peterson translates the first beatitude.
I’ve never heard anyone stand up during testimony time and say, “I know I’m really blessed today because I’m all out of options. I’ve lost everything and am at the end of my rope with nothing left to hold on to.” We don’t think of such people as blessed. We think of them as needy. We consider ourselves blessed when all our needs are met and there are no dark clouds on the horizon. But we are wrong!
Every New Testament writer echoes Jesus’ words. All of them tell us that we can rejoice in our most difficult moments because Jesus will be working things out in those seasons that we would never let him touch when all is well. He didn’t tell us to rejoice for the bad times, but in them because he would convert our pain into his glory.—Wayne Jacobsen4
*
We don’t always know right away why God did or allowed certain things to happen, and in some cases we may not know till we get to heaven. I have a whole lot of questions that I’m going to ask when I get there. We’ve just got to trust Him anyhow!
There are a lot of things that we don’t understand now. Sometimes we’re even ashamed that we don’t understand, and we try to explain things to others that we don’t understand completely ourselves. We think that we ought to know the answers, when sometimes the best thing we can do is be honest and say, “I don’t know!”
One of the great questions of this life is why God allows seemingly bad things to happen to people, and specifically to us. We probably won’t know the complete answer to that till we get to heaven. We can see part of the answer and understand some of the reasons, but we won’t fully comprehend till we get up there and see the whole picture. I think that’s going to be part of our continuing education in the afterlife—learning why. Like Paul wrote: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”5
All we know is God! We don’t know all the whys and wherefores, but we do know that the Lord loves us and He knows best. And if we don’t understand something now, we will later. In the meantime, we’ve got to trust God no matter what, even if we don’t understand why some things happen. Maybe that’s why God lets some things happen in our lives that we don’t understand, just to test our faith and see if we’ll still trust Him anyhow!
The name of the game is faith and trust—faith to trust God. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him! Though I have had a tough time and I don’t know why, yet will I trust Him! Though He let this or that happen, yet will I trust Him! Though He lets an affliction beset me or my loved ones, I’ve still got to trust Him.”
God loves to see if you’ve got real faith and you’re going to trust Him no matter what. That’s the greatest victory of all, when you seem to be defeated and you still trust the Lord. That must please the Lord more than anything—that even when it looks like you are lost and defeated, you still trust Him, like Job. Faith in the face of disaster or agony, faith in the face of death!—D. Brandt Berg6
Published on Anchor May 2013. Read by Simon Peterson.
Music by John Listen.
1 Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. Streams in the Desert, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965).
2 Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life (New York: Doubleday, 2010).
3 Power in Praise (Merlin R. Carothers, 1980).
4 He Loves Me! second edition (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007).
5 1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV.
6 More Than Conquerors (Aurora Production, 2002).
Link
Audio length: 14:13
Download Audio (12.9MB)
“Faith grows amid storms”—just four words, but oh, how full of import to the soul who has been in the storms!
Faith is that God-given faculty which, when exercised, brings the unseen into plain view, and by which the impossible things are made possible. It deals with supernaturals.
But it "grows amid storms"; that is, where there are disturbances in the spiritual atmosphere. Storms are caused by the conflicts of elements; and the storms of the spiritual world are conflicts with hostile elements.
In such an atmosphere faith finds its most productive soil; in such an element it comes more quickly to full fruition.
The staunchest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest but out in the open, where the winds from every quarter beat upon it and bend and twist it until it becomes a giant in stature—this is the tree which the mechanic wants his tools made of, and the wagon maker seeks.
So in the spiritual world, when you see a giant, remember the road you must travel to come up to his side is not along the sunny lane where wild flowers ever bloom; but a steep, rocky, narrow pathway where the blasts of hell will almost blow you off your feet, where the sharp rocks cut the flesh, where the projecting thorns scratch the brow, and the venomous beasts hiss on every side.
It is a pathway of sorrow and joy, of suffering and healing balm, of tears and smiles, of trials and victories, of conflicts and triumphs, of hardships and perils and buffetings, of persecutions and misunderstandings, of troubles and distress; through all of which we are made more than conquerors through Him who loves us.
“Amid storms.” Right in the midst where it is fiercest you may shrink back from the ordeal of a fierce storm of trial—but go in! God is there to meet you in the center of all your trials, and to whisper His secrets which will make you come forth with a shining face and an indomitable faith that all the demons of hell shall never afterwards cause to waver.—E. A. Kilbourne1
*
Faith cannot be unanswered.
Her feet were firmly planted on the Rock;
Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,
Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer,
And cries, “It shall be done,” sometime, somewhere.
Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say ungranted;
Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done.
The work began when your first prayer was uttered.
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere.
—Robert Browning
*
There are times when things look very dark to me—so dark that I have to wait even for hope. A long-deferred fulfillment carries its own pain, but to wait for hope, to see no glimmer of a prospect and yet refuse to despair; to have nothing but night before the casement and yet to keep the casement open for possible stars; to have a vacant place in my heart and yet to allow that place to be filled by no inferior presence—that is the grandest patience in the universe. It is Job in the tempest; it is Abraham on the road to Moriah; it is Moses in the desert of Midian; it is the Son of man in the Garden of Gethsemane.—George Matheson
*
The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.—Charles Caleb Colton
*
The vine clings to the oak during the fiercest of storms. Although the violence of nature may uproot the oak, twining tendrils still cling to it. If the vine is on the side of the tree opposite the wind, the great oak is its protection; if it is on the exposed side, the tempest only presses it closer to the trunk.
In some of the storms of life, God intervenes and shelters us; while in others He allows us to be exposed, so that we will be pressed more closely to Him.—B. M. Launderville
*
We are safer in the storm God sends us than in a calm when we are befriended by the world.—Jeremy Taylor
*
The late Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” I know for certain that as long as you draw breath, hope is available to you. You and I are only human. We cannot see into the future. Instead, we picture the possibilities for what might be. Only God knows how our lives will unfold. Hope is His gift to us, a window to look through. We cannot know the future He has planned for us. Trust in Him, keep hope in your heart, and even when faced with the worst, do whatever you can to prepare yourself for the best!
How do you sustain hope amid such suffering? One thing that sustains me when I hear of these great calamities is the fact that they always trigger incredible caring from other human beings. Just when you wonder why, amid such senseless suffering, people would still have hope, hundreds of selfless volunteers pour into those regions.
Hope appears even in the worst of times to give us proof of God’s presence.—Nick Vujicic2
*
Are you surrounded by difficult circumstances right now? Have you been struggling to understand why they have come to you? Then try to accept that God loves you and has allowed those circumstances because He knows they are good for you. Praise Him for what He has brought into your life.
Praising God is not a magic formula for success. It is a way of life that is solidly backed up in God's Word. We praise God not for the expected results, but for the situation just as it is.
Praise is based on a total and joyful acceptance of the present as part of God's loving, perfect will for us. Praise is not based on what we think or hope will happen in the future.
It is, of course, a fact that when we honestly praise God, something does happen as a result. His power obviously flows into the situation, and we will notice, sooner or later, a change in us or around us. The change may be that we come to experience a real joy and happiness in the midst of what once appeared to be a miserable situation, or the situation may change. But this is a result of praise and must not be the motivation for praise.
God has a perfect plan for our lives, but He cannot move us to the next step of His plan until we joyfully accept our present situation as part of that plan. What happens next is God's move, not ours.—Merlin R. Carothers3
*
Jesus seemed to think backward about everything. “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and his rule.” That’s how Eugene Peterson translates the first beatitude.
I’ve never heard anyone stand up during testimony time and say, “I know I’m really blessed today because I’m all out of options. I’ve lost everything and am at the end of my rope with nothing left to hold on to.” We don’t think of such people as blessed. We think of them as needy. We consider ourselves blessed when all our needs are met and there are no dark clouds on the horizon. But we are wrong!
Every New Testament writer echoes Jesus’ words. All of them tell us that we can rejoice in our most difficult moments because Jesus will be working things out in those seasons that we would never let him touch when all is well. He didn’t tell us to rejoice for the bad times, but in them because he would convert our pain into his glory.—Wayne Jacobsen4
*
We don’t always know right away why God did or allowed certain things to happen, and in some cases we may not know till we get to heaven. I have a whole lot of questions that I’m going to ask when I get there. We’ve just got to trust Him anyhow!
There are a lot of things that we don’t understand now. Sometimes we’re even ashamed that we don’t understand, and we try to explain things to others that we don’t understand completely ourselves. We think that we ought to know the answers, when sometimes the best thing we can do is be honest and say, “I don’t know!”
One of the great questions of this life is why God allows seemingly bad things to happen to people, and specifically to us. We probably won’t know the complete answer to that till we get to heaven. We can see part of the answer and understand some of the reasons, but we won’t fully comprehend till we get up there and see the whole picture. I think that’s going to be part of our continuing education in the afterlife—learning why. Like Paul wrote: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”5
All we know is God! We don’t know all the whys and wherefores, but we do know that the Lord loves us and He knows best. And if we don’t understand something now, we will later. In the meantime, we’ve got to trust God no matter what, even if we don’t understand why some things happen. Maybe that’s why God lets some things happen in our lives that we don’t understand, just to test our faith and see if we’ll still trust Him anyhow!
The name of the game is faith and trust—faith to trust God. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him! Though I have had a tough time and I don’t know why, yet will I trust Him! Though He let this or that happen, yet will I trust Him! Though He lets an affliction beset me or my loved ones, I’ve still got to trust Him.”
God loves to see if you’ve got real faith and you’re going to trust Him no matter what. That’s the greatest victory of all, when you seem to be defeated and you still trust the Lord. That must please the Lord more than anything—that even when it looks like you are lost and defeated, you still trust Him, like Job. Faith in the face of disaster or agony, faith in the face of death!—D. Brandt Berg6
Published on Anchor May 2013. Read by Simon Peterson.
Music by John Listen.
1 Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. Streams in the Desert, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965).
2 Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life (New York: Doubleday, 2010).
3 Power in Praise (Merlin R. Carothers, 1980).
4 He Loves Me! second edition (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007).
5 1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV.
6 More Than Conquerors (Aurora Production, 2002).
Provações São Benéficas
Link
Uma compilação
Se por um lado, “muitas são as aflições do justo,”[1] por outro é reconfortante saber que “todas as coisas contribuem juntamente par ao bem daqueles que amam o Senhor, daqueles que são chamados segundo o seu decreto”.[2] Na verdade, para conseguirmos superar nossas muitas provas, provações, dificuldades, e tentações, é de suma importância incluir em nossas vidas esta vital promessa em Romanos 8:28.
Se não passarmos os acontecimentos do nosso dia a dia pelo crivo de Romanos 8:28, se não observarmos constantemente nossos desapontamentos, mágoas, provas, doenças, adversidades, à luz de Romanos 8:28, sinto dizer que deixaremos de aprender muitas e valiosas lições que o Senhor quer nos ensinar. Além disso, deixaremos de sentir a paz resultante da confiança nessa preciosa promessa e princÃpio.
Seaprendermos a simples equação: "provações = bem," teremos uma vida mais rica, aprenderemos maiores lições, sentiremos paz, e será mais fácil reconhecer a mão do Senhor em tudo que nos acontece. Faz uma grande diferença quando encaramos um dilúvio de problemas, batalhas, e tribulações esperando pelo pior, ou se encaramos essas dificuldades como desafios procurando descobrir tudo de bem que o Senhor vai gerar por meio disso. —M. Fontaine
*
Deus frequentemente faz Suas melhores obras à s ocultas. Ele não nos permite provações a esmo… Ele não permite batalhas aleatoriamente… Toda dificuldade foi desenhada por Deus para o nosso bem. Elas são o forno que Deus usa para nos moldar. Nós somos o barro, e Ele o grande oleiro.
O que Deus pode fazer de bem fora das nossas vistas? Seguem-se alguns dos milhares de resultados obtidos por Deus.
Ele nos faz depender dEle.
De fato, já tÃnhamos sobre nós a sentença de morte, para que não confiássemos em nós mesmos, mas em Deus, que ressuscita os mortos. —2 CorÃntios 1:9 NVI
Batalhas e provações nos lembram da realidade de que dependemos desesperadamente de Deus. Não conseguimos agir separados de Deus. Não chegaremos ao Céu sem a graça do Deus que nos mantém e ressuscita. Deus nos deixar passar por dificuldades para reduzir nossa autoconfiança e aumentar nossa confiança nEle.
Ele gera perseverança.
Meus irmãos, considerem motivo de grande alegria o fato de passarem por diversas provações, pois vocês sabem que a prova da sua fé produz perseverança.—Tiago 1:2–3 NVI
Se não perseverarmos… seremos como uma semente que germina rapidamente mas não tem raiz. A nossa vida será sufocada pelos cuidados deste mundo. Deus quer que tenhamos uma fé constante e perseverante que não se deixa abalar facilmente pelas provações e dificuldades. As provações amadurecem a nossa fé e produzem perseverança.
Ele nos capacita a consolarmos a outros.
Bendito seja o Deus e Pai de nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, Pai das misericórdias e Deus de toda consolação, que nos consola em todas as nossas tribulações, para que, com a consolação que recebemos de Deus, possamos consolar os que estão passando por tribulações. —2 CorÃntios 1:3–4 NVI
Quando passamos por dificuldades, sentimos o consolo de Deus de uma maneira Ãmpar. E conforme esse consolo permeia nossas vidas, também nos prepara para consolarmos a outros. Se não recebêssemos esse consolo de Deus, não terÃamos condições de consolar outros. As dificuldades nos capacitam a consolar a outros.—Stephen Altrogge[3]
*
Nenhum de nós vai conseguir amadurecer sem o calor das batalhas. Assim como o sicômoro tem que ser machucado para amadurecer, e a espiga precisa ser debulhada para chegarmos ao grão de milho, e assim como o trigo não produz farinha se não passar pelo moinho, também nós não teremos muita utilidade sem antes sermos afligidos. Por que haverÃamos de querer perder esses benefÃcios? Teremos que esperar com paciência, dizendo: “Seja feita a vontade do Senhor”. Ele esperou para nos dar a graça; então devemos esperar para Lhe dar a glória. —Charles Spurgeon
*
Confiarei mesmo que minhas embarcações
Retornem do mar devastadas;
Confiarei na infalibilidade de Deus,
Sabendo que o mal redundará em bem;
Ainda que desolado com a perda material,
Clamarei com o coração sempre leal:
“Em Ti eu confio!”
Confiarei mesmo que grande o pesar,
E avassalado por problemas;
Confiarei nas metas que desejo alcançar,
Impelido pela angústia e dor;
Ainda que tremendo com o peso da cruz,
Eu sei que as perdas trazem luz,
E vitória ainda maior!
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox
*
Nenhum médico jamais receitou um remédio com tanta exatidão como Deus dosa cada provação. Ele nunca erra na fórmula. —Henry Ward Beecher
*
Dificuldades, provas, quebrantamentos, mágoas, sofrimento e desapontamentos são causados por muitas coisas e ocorrem por diferentes razões. Mas não importa a sua origem, você pode ficar tranquilo na certeza de que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem daqueles que Me amam. Como você Me ama, posso transformar essas batalhas em bênçãos.
Se pudesse ver como Eu vejo — além de hoje, além deste momento e do sofrimento — entenderia melhor por que as batalhas equivalem a bênçãos. Entenderia melhor por que esta perda, esta dor no seu coração, este perÃodo de grande tentação e provação com o tempo se transformará em bênção.
O segredo para entender, a chave para entender, está na questão “tempo”. Se tiver fé que Eu atuo na sua vida e que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem, com o tempo, aquilo no qual acredita por fé, passará a entender e ver, e se tornará realidade em sua vida. —Jesus, falando em profecia
*
O meu bem mais valioso é um colete salva-vidas que uso para navegar no mar da vida. Se, ao contemplar o horizonte, percebo nuvens escuras, coloco o meu colete bem firme e fico pronta para enfrentar a implacável tormenta.
Minha pequena embarcação é açoitada pelas fortes ondas que ameaçam encharcar tudo e me afogar. Mas sei que com o meu salva-vidas vou sobreviver. Na verdade, vou fazer bem mais do que isso. Vou me reerguer, talvez exausta e machucada, mas vitoriosa.
Às vezes as tempestades me pegam desprevenida, e a fúria das águas fazem meu barco emborcar, me lançando nas águas geladas. Engasgo, cuspo fora água, pego ar, mas me vejo presa num redemoinho. Quanto mais me esforço mais a água me prende.
Ali, sozinha, indefesa e sentindo-me derrotada, minha esperança só vai se reduzindo e fico aguardando o fim. Afundo mais uma vez e ouço uma Voz saindo da tormenta:
— Agarre o salva-vidas! É a sua única esperança.
Esforçando-me para ver no escuro, percebo algo flutuando e vejo que é o meu salva-vidas — sempre perto quando mais preciso dele. Eu o visto e ele me leva à superfÃcie.
Envolta nas trevas, as ondas espumando me jogam para lá e para cá, ameaçando me afogar. A chuva cortante continua machucando meu rosto, mas estou à tona, confiando, sentindo-me segura com meu salva-vidas e esperando a tempestade amainar.
Quer saber o segredo do meu colete-salva-vidas? É tão simples que você talvez nem dê importância. É o versÃculo da BÃblia: “Sabemos que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem daqueles que amam a Deus”[4].
Todas as coisas — tempestades, a chuva e os ventos também — são para o nosso bem.
Um dia, de alguma maneira, vamos entender. —Stellaris Jade
Publicada no Âncora em outubro 2013. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Salmo 34:19.
[2] Romanos 8:28.
[3] Trecho extraÃdo http://blogs.christianpost.com/guest-views/god-often-does-his-best-work-in-the-darkness-15992.
[4] Romanos 8:28.
Uma compilação
Se por um lado, “muitas são as aflições do justo,”[1] por outro é reconfortante saber que “todas as coisas contribuem juntamente par ao bem daqueles que amam o Senhor, daqueles que são chamados segundo o seu decreto”.[2] Na verdade, para conseguirmos superar nossas muitas provas, provações, dificuldades, e tentações, é de suma importância incluir em nossas vidas esta vital promessa em Romanos 8:28.
Se não passarmos os acontecimentos do nosso dia a dia pelo crivo de Romanos 8:28, se não observarmos constantemente nossos desapontamentos, mágoas, provas, doenças, adversidades, à luz de Romanos 8:28, sinto dizer que deixaremos de aprender muitas e valiosas lições que o Senhor quer nos ensinar. Além disso, deixaremos de sentir a paz resultante da confiança nessa preciosa promessa e princÃpio.
Seaprendermos a simples equação: "provações = bem," teremos uma vida mais rica, aprenderemos maiores lições, sentiremos paz, e será mais fácil reconhecer a mão do Senhor em tudo que nos acontece. Faz uma grande diferença quando encaramos um dilúvio de problemas, batalhas, e tribulações esperando pelo pior, ou se encaramos essas dificuldades como desafios procurando descobrir tudo de bem que o Senhor vai gerar por meio disso. —M. Fontaine
*
Deus frequentemente faz Suas melhores obras à s ocultas. Ele não nos permite provações a esmo… Ele não permite batalhas aleatoriamente… Toda dificuldade foi desenhada por Deus para o nosso bem. Elas são o forno que Deus usa para nos moldar. Nós somos o barro, e Ele o grande oleiro.
O que Deus pode fazer de bem fora das nossas vistas? Seguem-se alguns dos milhares de resultados obtidos por Deus.
Ele nos faz depender dEle.
De fato, já tÃnhamos sobre nós a sentença de morte, para que não confiássemos em nós mesmos, mas em Deus, que ressuscita os mortos. —2 CorÃntios 1:9 NVI
Batalhas e provações nos lembram da realidade de que dependemos desesperadamente de Deus. Não conseguimos agir separados de Deus. Não chegaremos ao Céu sem a graça do Deus que nos mantém e ressuscita. Deus nos deixar passar por dificuldades para reduzir nossa autoconfiança e aumentar nossa confiança nEle.
Ele gera perseverança.
Meus irmãos, considerem motivo de grande alegria o fato de passarem por diversas provações, pois vocês sabem que a prova da sua fé produz perseverança.—Tiago 1:2–3 NVI
Se não perseverarmos… seremos como uma semente que germina rapidamente mas não tem raiz. A nossa vida será sufocada pelos cuidados deste mundo. Deus quer que tenhamos uma fé constante e perseverante que não se deixa abalar facilmente pelas provações e dificuldades. As provações amadurecem a nossa fé e produzem perseverança.
Ele nos capacita a consolarmos a outros.
Bendito seja o Deus e Pai de nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, Pai das misericórdias e Deus de toda consolação, que nos consola em todas as nossas tribulações, para que, com a consolação que recebemos de Deus, possamos consolar os que estão passando por tribulações. —2 CorÃntios 1:3–4 NVI
Quando passamos por dificuldades, sentimos o consolo de Deus de uma maneira Ãmpar. E conforme esse consolo permeia nossas vidas, também nos prepara para consolarmos a outros. Se não recebêssemos esse consolo de Deus, não terÃamos condições de consolar outros. As dificuldades nos capacitam a consolar a outros.—Stephen Altrogge[3]
*
Nenhum de nós vai conseguir amadurecer sem o calor das batalhas. Assim como o sicômoro tem que ser machucado para amadurecer, e a espiga precisa ser debulhada para chegarmos ao grão de milho, e assim como o trigo não produz farinha se não passar pelo moinho, também nós não teremos muita utilidade sem antes sermos afligidos. Por que haverÃamos de querer perder esses benefÃcios? Teremos que esperar com paciência, dizendo: “Seja feita a vontade do Senhor”. Ele esperou para nos dar a graça; então devemos esperar para Lhe dar a glória. —Charles Spurgeon
*
Confiarei mesmo que minhas embarcações
Retornem do mar devastadas;
Confiarei na infalibilidade de Deus,
Sabendo que o mal redundará em bem;
Ainda que desolado com a perda material,
Clamarei com o coração sempre leal:
“Em Ti eu confio!”
Confiarei mesmo que grande o pesar,
E avassalado por problemas;
Confiarei nas metas que desejo alcançar,
Impelido pela angústia e dor;
Ainda que tremendo com o peso da cruz,
Eu sei que as perdas trazem luz,
E vitória ainda maior!
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox
*
Nenhum médico jamais receitou um remédio com tanta exatidão como Deus dosa cada provação. Ele nunca erra na fórmula. —Henry Ward Beecher
*
Dificuldades, provas, quebrantamentos, mágoas, sofrimento e desapontamentos são causados por muitas coisas e ocorrem por diferentes razões. Mas não importa a sua origem, você pode ficar tranquilo na certeza de que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem daqueles que Me amam. Como você Me ama, posso transformar essas batalhas em bênçãos.
Se pudesse ver como Eu vejo — além de hoje, além deste momento e do sofrimento — entenderia melhor por que as batalhas equivalem a bênçãos. Entenderia melhor por que esta perda, esta dor no seu coração, este perÃodo de grande tentação e provação com o tempo se transformará em bênção.
O segredo para entender, a chave para entender, está na questão “tempo”. Se tiver fé que Eu atuo na sua vida e que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem, com o tempo, aquilo no qual acredita por fé, passará a entender e ver, e se tornará realidade em sua vida. —Jesus, falando em profecia
*
O meu bem mais valioso é um colete salva-vidas que uso para navegar no mar da vida. Se, ao contemplar o horizonte, percebo nuvens escuras, coloco o meu colete bem firme e fico pronta para enfrentar a implacável tormenta.
Minha pequena embarcação é açoitada pelas fortes ondas que ameaçam encharcar tudo e me afogar. Mas sei que com o meu salva-vidas vou sobreviver. Na verdade, vou fazer bem mais do que isso. Vou me reerguer, talvez exausta e machucada, mas vitoriosa.
Às vezes as tempestades me pegam desprevenida, e a fúria das águas fazem meu barco emborcar, me lançando nas águas geladas. Engasgo, cuspo fora água, pego ar, mas me vejo presa num redemoinho. Quanto mais me esforço mais a água me prende.
Ali, sozinha, indefesa e sentindo-me derrotada, minha esperança só vai se reduzindo e fico aguardando o fim. Afundo mais uma vez e ouço uma Voz saindo da tormenta:
— Agarre o salva-vidas! É a sua única esperança.
Esforçando-me para ver no escuro, percebo algo flutuando e vejo que é o meu salva-vidas — sempre perto quando mais preciso dele. Eu o visto e ele me leva à superfÃcie.
Envolta nas trevas, as ondas espumando me jogam para lá e para cá, ameaçando me afogar. A chuva cortante continua machucando meu rosto, mas estou à tona, confiando, sentindo-me segura com meu salva-vidas e esperando a tempestade amainar.
Quer saber o segredo do meu colete-salva-vidas? É tão simples que você talvez nem dê importância. É o versÃculo da BÃblia: “Sabemos que todas as coisas contribuem juntamente para o bem daqueles que amam a Deus”[4].
Todas as coisas — tempestades, a chuva e os ventos também — são para o nosso bem.
Um dia, de alguma maneira, vamos entender. —Stellaris Jade
Publicada no Âncora em outubro 2013. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Salmo 34:19.
[2] Romanos 8:28.
[3] Trecho extraÃdo http://blogs.christianpost.com/guest-views/god-often-does-his-best-work-in-the-darkness-15992.
[4] Romanos 8:28.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Esconderijo
Link
Steve Hearts
Nos momentos tempestuosos, muitas vezes nos esforçamos tanto para encontrar uma saÃda ou sermos resgatados que nos esquecemos de procurar o verdadeiro e mais seguro abrigo e refúgio.
Ontem à noite eu não conseguia dormir de jeito algum. Estava passando por uma fase de desânimo, dúvidas e frustração. Não conseguia relaxar mental ou fisicamente. Era difÃcil impedir meus pensamentos de vagarem por lugares não desejados.
Lá fora chovia bastante. E apesar de estar dentro de casa, protegido no fÃsico, em um lugar aquecido e seco, o meu espÃrito não se sentia assim. A chuva parecia cair em sintonia com as batalhas e dificuldades que tenho enfrentado há um bom tempo. Eu me sentia vulnerável, desprotegido dos ventos frios, ensopado por uma chuva que parecia não terminar nunca.
Eu estava rapidamente perdendo a esperança. A minha fé vacilava. Sinceramente, eu disse ao Senhor que desejava de todo o coração ficar firme e ser fiel até à morte, mas que isso só seria possÃvel com a Sua ajuda. Pedi para Ele destacar uma verdade importante que no momento não estou conseguindo enxergar. E então fiquei deitado em silêncio.
Recebi uma resposta inesperada. Ele me disse claramente para ouvir a canção “Hiding Place” (Esconderijo), de Steven Curtis Chapman.
Liguei a música sem esperar muito. Afinal de contas, eu a conhecia como a palma da minha mão. No entanto, cada palavra parecia me acertas em cheio, com uma xÃcara de chá num dia chuvoso, ou a sensação gostosa de entrar em um lugar seco depois de estar lá fora no frio do inverno.
Senhor, não Lhe peço para levar embora minhas dificuldades.
Pois a tempestade ensina-me a confiar mais.
Eu Lhe agradeço pela promessa que aprendi.
Pelo amor que acolhe quando mais preciso.
Você é o meu esconderijo,
Seguro nos Seus braços
Estou a salvo das tormentas.
Quando sobem as águas,
E corremos à procura de um abrigo
Você, Senhor, é o nossos esconderijo.
Conforme ouvia a canção, o Senhor falou comigo: “Você está se refugiando nas Minhas promessas e amor? Ou está ocupado demais procurando e esperando uma saÃda?”
Eu estava procurando e esperando. Esperava e orava para ser resgatado, em vez de usar a Palavra de Deus e o Seu amor como refúgio. Não é de admirar que eu me sentia tão vulnerável e desprotegido.
“Não é que eu não possa ou não queira retirá-lo da situação,” Ele continuou. “Mas enquanto ela persiste, deixe-Me ser o seu refúgio e abrigo como lhe prometi, até a tempestade passar.”
E juntamente com essas palavras senti-me inundar por diversas promessas que conheço desde sempre:
“Deus é o nosso refúgio e força, socorro bem presente na tribulação. Pelo que não temeremos ainda que a terra se mude e os montes sejam lançados no meio dos mares; ainda que as águas rujam e se perturbem, e se abalem os montes pela sua braveza.”[1]
“À sombra das tuas asas me abrigarei até passarem as calamidades.”[2]
“O Deus eterno é teu refúgio, e abaixo estão os braços eternos.”[3]
Nenbuma dessas promessas fala de “resgatar” das dificuldades, apesar de que Deus pode e nos resgata de acorado com a Sua vontade. O mais importante é que Ele é o nosso “refúgio” conforme passamos pelas batalhas e dificuldades. A tempestade não passa só porque nos abrigamos em um edifÃcio, mas nos oferece um refúgio até ela passar.
E com a perspectiva renovada quanto a tempestades, agora eu posso confiar plenamente em Jesus como refúgio e abrigo durante a tempestade, sabendo que o resultado final está nas Suas mãos. E eu continuarei de braços erguidos louvando a Ele, o meu esconderijo onde fico em segurança.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Salmo 46:1–3.
[2] Salmo 57:1.
[3] Deuteronômio 33:27.
Steve Hearts
Nos momentos tempestuosos, muitas vezes nos esforçamos tanto para encontrar uma saÃda ou sermos resgatados que nos esquecemos de procurar o verdadeiro e mais seguro abrigo e refúgio.
Ontem à noite eu não conseguia dormir de jeito algum. Estava passando por uma fase de desânimo, dúvidas e frustração. Não conseguia relaxar mental ou fisicamente. Era difÃcil impedir meus pensamentos de vagarem por lugares não desejados.
Lá fora chovia bastante. E apesar de estar dentro de casa, protegido no fÃsico, em um lugar aquecido e seco, o meu espÃrito não se sentia assim. A chuva parecia cair em sintonia com as batalhas e dificuldades que tenho enfrentado há um bom tempo. Eu me sentia vulnerável, desprotegido dos ventos frios, ensopado por uma chuva que parecia não terminar nunca.
Eu estava rapidamente perdendo a esperança. A minha fé vacilava. Sinceramente, eu disse ao Senhor que desejava de todo o coração ficar firme e ser fiel até à morte, mas que isso só seria possÃvel com a Sua ajuda. Pedi para Ele destacar uma verdade importante que no momento não estou conseguindo enxergar. E então fiquei deitado em silêncio.
Recebi uma resposta inesperada. Ele me disse claramente para ouvir a canção “Hiding Place” (Esconderijo), de Steven Curtis Chapman.
Liguei a música sem esperar muito. Afinal de contas, eu a conhecia como a palma da minha mão. No entanto, cada palavra parecia me acertas em cheio, com uma xÃcara de chá num dia chuvoso, ou a sensação gostosa de entrar em um lugar seco depois de estar lá fora no frio do inverno.
Senhor, não Lhe peço para levar embora minhas dificuldades.
Pois a tempestade ensina-me a confiar mais.
Eu Lhe agradeço pela promessa que aprendi.
Pelo amor que acolhe quando mais preciso.
Você é o meu esconderijo,
Seguro nos Seus braços
Estou a salvo das tormentas.
Quando sobem as águas,
E corremos à procura de um abrigo
Você, Senhor, é o nossos esconderijo.
Conforme ouvia a canção, o Senhor falou comigo: “Você está se refugiando nas Minhas promessas e amor? Ou está ocupado demais procurando e esperando uma saÃda?”
Eu estava procurando e esperando. Esperava e orava para ser resgatado, em vez de usar a Palavra de Deus e o Seu amor como refúgio. Não é de admirar que eu me sentia tão vulnerável e desprotegido.
“Não é que eu não possa ou não queira retirá-lo da situação,” Ele continuou. “Mas enquanto ela persiste, deixe-Me ser o seu refúgio e abrigo como lhe prometi, até a tempestade passar.”
E juntamente com essas palavras senti-me inundar por diversas promessas que conheço desde sempre:
“Deus é o nosso refúgio e força, socorro bem presente na tribulação. Pelo que não temeremos ainda que a terra se mude e os montes sejam lançados no meio dos mares; ainda que as águas rujam e se perturbem, e se abalem os montes pela sua braveza.”[1]
“À sombra das tuas asas me abrigarei até passarem as calamidades.”[2]
“O Deus eterno é teu refúgio, e abaixo estão os braços eternos.”[3]
Nenbuma dessas promessas fala de “resgatar” das dificuldades, apesar de que Deus pode e nos resgata de acorado com a Sua vontade. O mais importante é que Ele é o nosso “refúgio” conforme passamos pelas batalhas e dificuldades. A tempestade não passa só porque nos abrigamos em um edifÃcio, mas nos oferece um refúgio até ela passar.
E com a perspectiva renovada quanto a tempestades, agora eu posso confiar plenamente em Jesus como refúgio e abrigo durante a tempestade, sabendo que o resultado final está nas Suas mãos. E eu continuarei de braços erguidos louvando a Ele, o meu esconderijo onde fico em segurança.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
[1] Salmo 46:1–3.
[2] Salmo 57:1.
[3] Deuteronômio 33:27.
I Will Come Through for You
Words from Jesus
Link
Audio length: 8:39
Download Audio (7.9MB)
“Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. … All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.”—Hebrews 11:2, 131
If you reflect on My great men and women who have gone before you—those mentioned in the Bible, and others since that time—you will note how each lived for Me and accomplished great things in My name. Some of them, such as those mentioned in Hebrews 11, never received all that I had promised them during their time on earth. But their faith didn't waver, and because of that, they went on to receive their full and great eternal rewards.
Are there areas in your life where you wonder if I'll ever come through for you? Or is there something I've said that you worry might not happen the way you hope or expect? Think on that great cloud of witnesses, and meditate on what advice they'd give you. Let your spirit be refueled by their example, and let your mind be set at rest by their fortitude. Just as I came through for them, I will come through for you.
Your supportive fan
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”—Hebrews 12:1–22
When the game is in full swing, time on the clock is running out, and the score looks pretty close, I cheer you on. When I know that your defense is weak, I shout out to you to let you know. When I see that your offense is slacking, I pick up My megaphone and I make sure that you're alerted to it. When the Enemy has scored a point and I see your face drop in disappointment, I cheer you on enthusiastically. I yell Boo! at the Devil and his crowd.
You can count on Me to boost your self-esteem. Best of all, once you've scored a shot or won the game, there isn't a more appreciative voice in the crowd than Mine! I cheer, I dance, and I get all the hosts of heaven rooting for you. You've never seen a fan club like Mine.
Eternal sunshine
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.”—2 Corinthians 4:63
Keep your eyes on Me no matter what you face. The skies may be dark at times, the winds may blow, the waters may be deep and murky, and the waves may crash all around you. There may be no apparent way of escape. But I am your escape. I am the sunshine that chases away the dark clouds. My voice will still the tumultuous waves. My rays of sunlight will make the waters clear so that you can see the wondrous coral and all of the splendor that lies under the surface of the ocean of life.
So when all around you seems dark and gloomy, turn your eyes toward Me, your eternal sunshine. I will shine brightly upon your life and I will calm the seas, helping you to find peace and security.
Patience
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”—James 1:2–4, 124
Patience is a virtue; it is priceless. Patience can only grow through experience. So treasure the times when your patience is tried, and don't anxiously wait for Me to rescue you prematurely. Make the most of each test. Realize that I have a purpose and a plan that will work out for your best.
Will you take the path of impatience, grumbling, self-pity, and anguish of heart and mind? Or, will you take the road of patience, acceptance, trust, and determination to make the most of this time of waiting on Me? The second path is definitely recommended. You'll arrive at your destination fulfilled, happy, and satisfied with the trek, sporting sleek, developed muscles of patience. Whereas if you take the first path, you'll arrive disheartened, weak, weary, and dreading what I will bring along your path next.
Choose the path of patience and trust at every turn, and you will not regret it. I will be able to bring you to your destination more quickly, and you'll be thankful for the gifts that you have gained through the journey.
A majestic plan
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 4:6–75
I can fit everything into My majestic plan for your good, including the things you wish were different. How you long to see that all-embracing pattern—though you wouldn’t understand it even if I showed you!
I urge you not to indulge in obsessing about what you could have done differently, for that is an exercise in unreality: The past cannot be different from what has actually occurred. I want to help you to make a new beginning instead, starting right where you are.
Now is the only place to begin anew: It’s the unique intersection of time and space you currently inhabit, and it’s the space-time location where I intend for you to live. Some things—many things—may be beyond you, but you are capable of living joyfully in the present. After all, you are communicating with Me, your Savior and Lord, this very moment. You can also handle the next moment as it comes—and the next.
What you find most difficult to accept is the way the future looks to you: basing your predictions on current circumstances. But the future is one of those secret things beyond your domain. Release it to Me, the rightful owner. Refuse to worry about the future, and you will find your resources for today quite sufficient. Remember that I am part of those resources and nothing is impossible with Me!6
Originally published in March 2009, unless otherwise indicated. Adapted and republished November 2014. Read by Jon Marc. Music by Michael Dooley.
1 NLT.
2 NLT.
3 NIV.
4 NLT.
5 NLT.
6 Sarah Young, Jesus Lives (Thomas Nelson, 2012).
Link
Audio length: 8:39
Download Audio (7.9MB)
“Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. … All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.”—Hebrews 11:2, 131
If you reflect on My great men and women who have gone before you—those mentioned in the Bible, and others since that time—you will note how each lived for Me and accomplished great things in My name. Some of them, such as those mentioned in Hebrews 11, never received all that I had promised them during their time on earth. But their faith didn't waver, and because of that, they went on to receive their full and great eternal rewards.
Are there areas in your life where you wonder if I'll ever come through for you? Or is there something I've said that you worry might not happen the way you hope or expect? Think on that great cloud of witnesses, and meditate on what advice they'd give you. Let your spirit be refueled by their example, and let your mind be set at rest by their fortitude. Just as I came through for them, I will come through for you.
Your supportive fan
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”—Hebrews 12:1–22
When the game is in full swing, time on the clock is running out, and the score looks pretty close, I cheer you on. When I know that your defense is weak, I shout out to you to let you know. When I see that your offense is slacking, I pick up My megaphone and I make sure that you're alerted to it. When the Enemy has scored a point and I see your face drop in disappointment, I cheer you on enthusiastically. I yell Boo! at the Devil and his crowd.
You can count on Me to boost your self-esteem. Best of all, once you've scored a shot or won the game, there isn't a more appreciative voice in the crowd than Mine! I cheer, I dance, and I get all the hosts of heaven rooting for you. You've never seen a fan club like Mine.
Eternal sunshine
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.”—2 Corinthians 4:63
Keep your eyes on Me no matter what you face. The skies may be dark at times, the winds may blow, the waters may be deep and murky, and the waves may crash all around you. There may be no apparent way of escape. But I am your escape. I am the sunshine that chases away the dark clouds. My voice will still the tumultuous waves. My rays of sunlight will make the waters clear so that you can see the wondrous coral and all of the splendor that lies under the surface of the ocean of life.
So when all around you seems dark and gloomy, turn your eyes toward Me, your eternal sunshine. I will shine brightly upon your life and I will calm the seas, helping you to find peace and security.
Patience
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”—James 1:2–4, 124
Patience is a virtue; it is priceless. Patience can only grow through experience. So treasure the times when your patience is tried, and don't anxiously wait for Me to rescue you prematurely. Make the most of each test. Realize that I have a purpose and a plan that will work out for your best.
Will you take the path of impatience, grumbling, self-pity, and anguish of heart and mind? Or, will you take the road of patience, acceptance, trust, and determination to make the most of this time of waiting on Me? The second path is definitely recommended. You'll arrive at your destination fulfilled, happy, and satisfied with the trek, sporting sleek, developed muscles of patience. Whereas if you take the first path, you'll arrive disheartened, weak, weary, and dreading what I will bring along your path next.
Choose the path of patience and trust at every turn, and you will not regret it. I will be able to bring you to your destination more quickly, and you'll be thankful for the gifts that you have gained through the journey.
A majestic plan
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 4:6–75
I can fit everything into My majestic plan for your good, including the things you wish were different. How you long to see that all-embracing pattern—though you wouldn’t understand it even if I showed you!
I urge you not to indulge in obsessing about what you could have done differently, for that is an exercise in unreality: The past cannot be different from what has actually occurred. I want to help you to make a new beginning instead, starting right where you are.
Now is the only place to begin anew: It’s the unique intersection of time and space you currently inhabit, and it’s the space-time location where I intend for you to live. Some things—many things—may be beyond you, but you are capable of living joyfully in the present. After all, you are communicating with Me, your Savior and Lord, this very moment. You can also handle the next moment as it comes—and the next.
What you find most difficult to accept is the way the future looks to you: basing your predictions on current circumstances. But the future is one of those secret things beyond your domain. Release it to Me, the rightful owner. Refuse to worry about the future, and you will find your resources for today quite sufficient. Remember that I am part of those resources and nothing is impossible with Me!6
Originally published in March 2009, unless otherwise indicated. Adapted and republished November 2014. Read by Jon Marc. Music by Michael Dooley.
1 NLT.
2 NLT.
3 NIV.
4 NLT.
5 NLT.
6 Sarah Young, Jesus Lives (Thomas Nelson, 2012).
Engineering Humans for War
By Annie Jacobsen, The Atlantic, Sept. 23, 2015
Retired four-star general Paul F. Gorman recalls first learning about the “weakling of the battlefield” from reading S.L.A. Marshall, the U.S. Army combat historian during World War II. After interviewing soldiers who participated in the Normandy beach landings, Marshall had learned that fatigue was responsible for an overwhelming number of casualties.
“I didn’t know my strength was gone until I hit the beach,” Sergeant Bruce Hensley told Marshall. “I was carrying part of a machine gun. Normally I could run with it … but I found I couldn’t even walk with it. … So I crawled across the sand dragging it with me. I felt ashamed of my own weakness, but looking around I saw the others crawling and dragging the weights they normally carried.” Another officer told of the effects of “fear and fatigue.”
“Soldiers get tired and soldiers get fearful,” Gorman told me last year. “Frequently, soldiers just don’t want to fight. Attention must always be paid to the soldier himself.”
For decades after its inception in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency–DARPA, the central research and development organization of the Department of Defense–focused on developing vast weapons systems. Starting in 1990, and owing to individuals like Gorman, a new focus was put on soldiers, airmen, and sailors–on transforming humans for war. The progress of those efforts, to the extent it can be assessed through public information, hints at war’s future, and raises questions about whether military technology can be stopped, or should.
Gorman sketched out an early version of the thinking in a paper he wrote for DARPA after his retirement from the Army in 1985, in which he described an “integrated-powered exoskeleton” that could transform the weakling of the battlefield into a veritable super-soldier. The “SuperTroop” exoskeleton he proposed offered protection against chemical, biological, electromagnetic, and ballistic threats, including direct fire from a .50-caliber bullet. It “incorporated audio, visual, and haptic [touch] sensors,” Gorman explained, including thermal imaging for the eyes, sound suppression for the ears, and fiber optics from the head to the fingertips. Its interior would be climate-controlled, and each soldier would have his own physiological specifications embedded on a chip within his dog tags. “When a soldier donned his ST [SuperTroop] battledress,” Gorman wrote, “he would insert one dog-tag into a slot under the chest armor, thereby loading his personal program into the battle suit’s computer,” giving the 21st-century soldier an extraordinary ability to hear, see, move, shoot, and communicate.
At the time Gorman wrote, the computing technology needed for such a device did not yet exist. By 2001, however, DARPA had unveiled two exoskeleton programs, and by 2013, in partnership with U.S. Special Operations Command, DARPA had started work on a super-soldier suit called TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit) unlike anything in the history of warfare. Engineered with full-body ballistics protection; integrated heating and cooling systems; embedded sensors, antennas, and computers; 3D audio (to indicate where a fellow warfighter is by the sound of his voice); optics for vision in various light conditions; life-saving oxygen and hemorrhage controls; and more, TALOS is strikingly close to the futuristic exoskeleton that Gorman first envisioned for DARPA 25 years ago, and aims to be “fully functional” by 2018. “I am here to announce that we are building Iron Man,” President Barack Obama said of the suit during a manufacturing innovation event in 2014. When the president said, “This has been a secret project we’ve been working on for a long time,” he wasn’t kidding.
It was the collapse of the Soviet Union that accelerated many of DARPA’s most radical super-soldier science programs. The revelation that the Soviets had developed an extensive biological-weapons program caused DARPA to bring biologists into its ranks, and with the life sciences at the fore, DARPA began to look inside the human body, toward a scientific capability that could transform soldiers from the inside out.
In 1999 DARPA created the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and made Michael Goldblatt its director. Goldblatt was a biologist and venture capitalist from the Midwest who, during the food-related national health scare that followed three children’s deaths from eating E. coli-contaminated hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants, became hyper-aware of pathogens. “A guy I was working with, Alvin Chow, and I came up with a technology for self-sterilizing packages … that sterilized products in the field,” he told me in a 2014 interview. Thinking the technology could be useful to the government, he called Larry Lynn, the director of DARPA. “I told Larry … how [the self-sterilizing packages] could be used in field hospitals or on the battlefield. Larry was blown away. He said, ‘We want you to come to DARPA.’ And I did.”
The turn of the century “was a radical time to be at DARPA,” Goldblatt said. He believed that defense sciences could demonstrate that “the next frontier was inside of our own selves,” and he became a pioneer in military-based transhumanism–the notion that man can alter the human condition fundamentally by augmenting the body with machines and other means. At the time, the threat from biological warfare was in his words “growing far faster than the solutions were coming in. … [President] Clinton gave lots of money to the countermeasures program for unconventional pathogens,” with the result that DARPA had plenty of funding for biology programs. Goldblatt saw the creation of the super-soldier as imperative to 21st-century warfare.
Goldblatt ran the DSO until 2004, and when he spoke to me last year, he could only describe unclassified programs. More than 10 years after his departure, the status of the “super-soldier” pursuits he helped launch is murky; DARPA’s highest-risk, highest-payoff programs remain secret until they are unveiled on the battlefield. Still, given the progress of the exoskeleton, these or similar programs could be closer to reality than anyone realizes.
“Soldiers having no physical, physiological, or cognitive limitation will be key to survival and operational dominance in the future,” Goldblatt told his program managers a few weeks after his arrival. One program in the DSO, called Persistence in Combat, addressed three areas that slowed soldiers down on the battlefield: pain, wounds, and excessive bleeding.
Goldblatt hired a biotechnology firm to develop a pain vaccine. If a soldier got shot, Goldblatt explained, the vaccine would “reduce the pain triggered by inflammation and swelling,” the desired result being “10 to 30 seconds of agony then no pain for 30 days.” Such a vaccine would allow the warfighter to keep fighting so long as bleeding could be stopped. To develop new ways to try to stop bleeding, Goldblatt initiated another program that involved injecting millions of microscopic magnets into a person, which could later be brought together into a single area to stop bleeding with the wave of a wand.
Another idea was to find a way to get a wounded soldier to go into a kind of hibernation, or suspended animation, until help arrived. Achieving this goal would give a soldier precious hours, or even days, to survive blood loss and avoid going into shock while awaiting evacuation or triage. Bears hibernate. Why can’t man? Could a chemical compound produce such a state?
Sleep, too, was a focus of intense research at DSO. In the Continually Assisted Performance program, scientists worked on ways to create a “24/7 soldier,” one who required little or no sleep for up to seven days. If this could be achieved, an enemy’s need for sleep would put him at an extreme disadvantage. Goldblatt’s program managers hired marine biologists studying certain sea animals to look for clues. Whales and dolphins don’t sleep; as mammals, they would drown if they did. Unlike humans, they are somehow able to control the lobes of their left and right brains so that while one lobe sleeps, the opposite lobe stays awake, allowing the animal to swim. While some DARPA scientists ruminated over the question of how humans might one day control the lobes of their own brains, other scientists experimented with drugs like Modafinil, a powerful medication used to counter sleep apnea and narcolepsy, to keep warfighters awake.
Other programs explored other questions. What if soldiers could have 10 times the muscle endurance of enemy soldiers? What if they could leap seven feet or do 300 pull-ups a day? Under the DSO banner, in a program called the Brain-Machine Interface, DARPA scientists studied how brain implants could enhance cognitive ability. The program’s first goal was to create “a wireless brain modem for a freely moving rat,” DARPA’s Eric Eisenstadt stated at a technology conference in 2002. The scientists would implant a chip in the rat’s brain to see if they could remotely control the animal’s movements.
“The objective of this effort,” Eisenstadt explained, “is to use remote teleoperation via direct interconnections with the brain.” The bigger objective was to allow future “soldiers [to] communicate by thought alone. … Imagine a time when the human brain has its own wireless modem so that instead of acting on thoughts, warfighters have thoughts that act,” Eisenstadt suggested. But a 2008 report by defense scientists raised some warnings. “An adversary might use” brain technology “in military applications. … An extreme example would be remote guidance or control of a human being.” Other critics said that the quest to enhance human performance on the battlefield would lead scientists down a morally dangerous path.
Michael Goldblatt disagreed. “How is having a cochlear implant that helps the deaf hear any different than having a chip in your brain that could help control your thoughts?” he asked. When questioned about unintended consequences, like controlling humans for nefarious ends, Goldblatt insisted, “There are unintended consequences for everything.”
This article has been excerpted from Annie Jacobsen’s new book, The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency.
Retired four-star general Paul F. Gorman recalls first learning about the “weakling of the battlefield” from reading S.L.A. Marshall, the U.S. Army combat historian during World War II. After interviewing soldiers who participated in the Normandy beach landings, Marshall had learned that fatigue was responsible for an overwhelming number of casualties.
“I didn’t know my strength was gone until I hit the beach,” Sergeant Bruce Hensley told Marshall. “I was carrying part of a machine gun. Normally I could run with it … but I found I couldn’t even walk with it. … So I crawled across the sand dragging it with me. I felt ashamed of my own weakness, but looking around I saw the others crawling and dragging the weights they normally carried.” Another officer told of the effects of “fear and fatigue.”
“Soldiers get tired and soldiers get fearful,” Gorman told me last year. “Frequently, soldiers just don’t want to fight. Attention must always be paid to the soldier himself.”
For decades after its inception in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency–DARPA, the central research and development organization of the Department of Defense–focused on developing vast weapons systems. Starting in 1990, and owing to individuals like Gorman, a new focus was put on soldiers, airmen, and sailors–on transforming humans for war. The progress of those efforts, to the extent it can be assessed through public information, hints at war’s future, and raises questions about whether military technology can be stopped, or should.
Gorman sketched out an early version of the thinking in a paper he wrote for DARPA after his retirement from the Army in 1985, in which he described an “integrated-powered exoskeleton” that could transform the weakling of the battlefield into a veritable super-soldier. The “SuperTroop” exoskeleton he proposed offered protection against chemical, biological, electromagnetic, and ballistic threats, including direct fire from a .50-caliber bullet. It “incorporated audio, visual, and haptic [touch] sensors,” Gorman explained, including thermal imaging for the eyes, sound suppression for the ears, and fiber optics from the head to the fingertips. Its interior would be climate-controlled, and each soldier would have his own physiological specifications embedded on a chip within his dog tags. “When a soldier donned his ST [SuperTroop] battledress,” Gorman wrote, “he would insert one dog-tag into a slot under the chest armor, thereby loading his personal program into the battle suit’s computer,” giving the 21st-century soldier an extraordinary ability to hear, see, move, shoot, and communicate.
At the time Gorman wrote, the computing technology needed for such a device did not yet exist. By 2001, however, DARPA had unveiled two exoskeleton programs, and by 2013, in partnership with U.S. Special Operations Command, DARPA had started work on a super-soldier suit called TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit) unlike anything in the history of warfare. Engineered with full-body ballistics protection; integrated heating and cooling systems; embedded sensors, antennas, and computers; 3D audio (to indicate where a fellow warfighter is by the sound of his voice); optics for vision in various light conditions; life-saving oxygen and hemorrhage controls; and more, TALOS is strikingly close to the futuristic exoskeleton that Gorman first envisioned for DARPA 25 years ago, and aims to be “fully functional” by 2018. “I am here to announce that we are building Iron Man,” President Barack Obama said of the suit during a manufacturing innovation event in 2014. When the president said, “This has been a secret project we’ve been working on for a long time,” he wasn’t kidding.
It was the collapse of the Soviet Union that accelerated many of DARPA’s most radical super-soldier science programs. The revelation that the Soviets had developed an extensive biological-weapons program caused DARPA to bring biologists into its ranks, and with the life sciences at the fore, DARPA began to look inside the human body, toward a scientific capability that could transform soldiers from the inside out.
In 1999 DARPA created the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and made Michael Goldblatt its director. Goldblatt was a biologist and venture capitalist from the Midwest who, during the food-related national health scare that followed three children’s deaths from eating E. coli-contaminated hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants, became hyper-aware of pathogens. “A guy I was working with, Alvin Chow, and I came up with a technology for self-sterilizing packages … that sterilized products in the field,” he told me in a 2014 interview. Thinking the technology could be useful to the government, he called Larry Lynn, the director of DARPA. “I told Larry … how [the self-sterilizing packages] could be used in field hospitals or on the battlefield. Larry was blown away. He said, ‘We want you to come to DARPA.’ And I did.”
The turn of the century “was a radical time to be at DARPA,” Goldblatt said. He believed that defense sciences could demonstrate that “the next frontier was inside of our own selves,” and he became a pioneer in military-based transhumanism–the notion that man can alter the human condition fundamentally by augmenting the body with machines and other means. At the time, the threat from biological warfare was in his words “growing far faster than the solutions were coming in. … [President] Clinton gave lots of money to the countermeasures program for unconventional pathogens,” with the result that DARPA had plenty of funding for biology programs. Goldblatt saw the creation of the super-soldier as imperative to 21st-century warfare.
Goldblatt ran the DSO until 2004, and when he spoke to me last year, he could only describe unclassified programs. More than 10 years after his departure, the status of the “super-soldier” pursuits he helped launch is murky; DARPA’s highest-risk, highest-payoff programs remain secret until they are unveiled on the battlefield. Still, given the progress of the exoskeleton, these or similar programs could be closer to reality than anyone realizes.
“Soldiers having no physical, physiological, or cognitive limitation will be key to survival and operational dominance in the future,” Goldblatt told his program managers a few weeks after his arrival. One program in the DSO, called Persistence in Combat, addressed three areas that slowed soldiers down on the battlefield: pain, wounds, and excessive bleeding.
Goldblatt hired a biotechnology firm to develop a pain vaccine. If a soldier got shot, Goldblatt explained, the vaccine would “reduce the pain triggered by inflammation and swelling,” the desired result being “10 to 30 seconds of agony then no pain for 30 days.” Such a vaccine would allow the warfighter to keep fighting so long as bleeding could be stopped. To develop new ways to try to stop bleeding, Goldblatt initiated another program that involved injecting millions of microscopic magnets into a person, which could later be brought together into a single area to stop bleeding with the wave of a wand.
Another idea was to find a way to get a wounded soldier to go into a kind of hibernation, or suspended animation, until help arrived. Achieving this goal would give a soldier precious hours, or even days, to survive blood loss and avoid going into shock while awaiting evacuation or triage. Bears hibernate. Why can’t man? Could a chemical compound produce such a state?
Sleep, too, was a focus of intense research at DSO. In the Continually Assisted Performance program, scientists worked on ways to create a “24/7 soldier,” one who required little or no sleep for up to seven days. If this could be achieved, an enemy’s need for sleep would put him at an extreme disadvantage. Goldblatt’s program managers hired marine biologists studying certain sea animals to look for clues. Whales and dolphins don’t sleep; as mammals, they would drown if they did. Unlike humans, they are somehow able to control the lobes of their left and right brains so that while one lobe sleeps, the opposite lobe stays awake, allowing the animal to swim. While some DARPA scientists ruminated over the question of how humans might one day control the lobes of their own brains, other scientists experimented with drugs like Modafinil, a powerful medication used to counter sleep apnea and narcolepsy, to keep warfighters awake.
Other programs explored other questions. What if soldiers could have 10 times the muscle endurance of enemy soldiers? What if they could leap seven feet or do 300 pull-ups a day? Under the DSO banner, in a program called the Brain-Machine Interface, DARPA scientists studied how brain implants could enhance cognitive ability. The program’s first goal was to create “a wireless brain modem for a freely moving rat,” DARPA’s Eric Eisenstadt stated at a technology conference in 2002. The scientists would implant a chip in the rat’s brain to see if they could remotely control the animal’s movements.
“The objective of this effort,” Eisenstadt explained, “is to use remote teleoperation via direct interconnections with the brain.” The bigger objective was to allow future “soldiers [to] communicate by thought alone. … Imagine a time when the human brain has its own wireless modem so that instead of acting on thoughts, warfighters have thoughts that act,” Eisenstadt suggested. But a 2008 report by defense scientists raised some warnings. “An adversary might use” brain technology “in military applications. … An extreme example would be remote guidance or control of a human being.” Other critics said that the quest to enhance human performance on the battlefield would lead scientists down a morally dangerous path.
Michael Goldblatt disagreed. “How is having a cochlear implant that helps the deaf hear any different than having a chip in your brain that could help control your thoughts?” he asked. When questioned about unintended consequences, like controlling humans for nefarious ends, Goldblatt insisted, “There are unintended consequences for everything.”
This article has been excerpted from Annie Jacobsen’s new book, The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency.
Friday, September 25, 2015
For a Solid Life of Success, Avoid These 4 Temptations
Paul J. Meyer, Sept. 22, 2015
I don’t have enough paper to write or tell you the thousand sad stories I know about all the educated, gifted and talented people who fell into the temptation to get rich quick, looked for something for nothing, ceased to persist and do, believed false promises, and took shortcuts.
A solid life of success is built climbing stairs, not mounting a rocket ship, and it’s sad to watch people chase false dreams–or their tails.
Are you chasing rainbows? Make sure you stop running after these temptations:
1. The temptation to get rich quick. Everybody wants everything instantly–instant rice, instant pudding, instant success. My father always said, “Take time to be an apprentice and learn the whole job.” It works.
2. The temptation to take shortcuts. Taking shortcuts, cutting corners–it’s a character flaw. You will be building on sand, and it will surely collapse. It always has. And it always will.
3. The temptation to believe that “the grass is greener on the other side.” We need to stay focused on where we are now, what we are doing now–our present opportunity, our present job, our present activity. We need to be able to make our current responsibilities work.
4. The temptation to quit too soon. History books and storybooks are filled with illustrations and parables of people who quit digging “three feet from finding the gold.” Just one more try to complete an invention, just one more call to make a sale, just one more…
What happens if you fall into one of these temptations? You might lose sight of your goals, develop a lack of confidence and suffer from an eroding self-esteem.
But you can avoid all of that, if you just…
• Commit to a singleness of purpose.
• Set and put into writing specific and clearly defined goals.
• Outline exact action steps you must take to achieve your goals.
• Form a support group of your family, friends, co-workers.
• Create an accountability factor.
I don’t have enough paper to write or tell you the thousand sad stories I know about all the educated, gifted and talented people who fell into the temptation to get rich quick, looked for something for nothing, ceased to persist and do, believed false promises, and took shortcuts.
A solid life of success is built climbing stairs, not mounting a rocket ship, and it’s sad to watch people chase false dreams–or their tails.
Are you chasing rainbows? Make sure you stop running after these temptations:
1. The temptation to get rich quick. Everybody wants everything instantly–instant rice, instant pudding, instant success. My father always said, “Take time to be an apprentice and learn the whole job.” It works.
2. The temptation to take shortcuts. Taking shortcuts, cutting corners–it’s a character flaw. You will be building on sand, and it will surely collapse. It always has. And it always will.
3. The temptation to believe that “the grass is greener on the other side.” We need to stay focused on where we are now, what we are doing now–our present opportunity, our present job, our present activity. We need to be able to make our current responsibilities work.
4. The temptation to quit too soon. History books and storybooks are filled with illustrations and parables of people who quit digging “three feet from finding the gold.” Just one more try to complete an invention, just one more call to make a sale, just one more…
What happens if you fall into one of these temptations? You might lose sight of your goals, develop a lack of confidence and suffer from an eroding self-esteem.
But you can avoid all of that, if you just…
• Commit to a singleness of purpose.
• Set and put into writing specific and clearly defined goals.
• Outline exact action steps you must take to achieve your goals.
• Form a support group of your family, friends, co-workers.
• Create an accountability factor.
