Old Sandals

I read this today, and it stayed with me: “When an opportunity presents itself to go on a mission trip, it does not need to be preceded with prayer.”

This is true if one is already “prayed-up”. If we take care to improve our personal relationship with God, His desires will become our desires. This is surely the meaning of Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

1. You have been called to read your Bible.
2. You have been called to love the Lord.
3. You have been called to love your wife or your husband.
4. You have been called to love your children.
5. You have been called to show God’s love to others.
6. You have been called to be a servant.
7. You have been called to help your church.
8. You have been called to sing, to worship, to praise the Lord.
9. You have been called to honor God in everything you do.
10. You have been called to set the example.
11. You have been called to be faithful.
12. You have been called to be humble.
13. You have been called to be happy.
14. You have been called to tell others about God.

You have been called. Are you listening?

Source: www.christchurchatmtspokane.org

Frederick M. Lehman, a Nazarene minister, was the author and composer of this well-beloved hymn.  Thirty-one years later, in 1948, he wrote a pamphlet entitled History of the Song, The Love of God.

“While at camp-meeting in a mid-western state, some fifty years ago in my early ministry, an evangelist climaxed his message by quoting the last stanza of this song. The profound depths of the line moved me to preserve the words for future generations. Not until we (he and his wife Zelma) had come to California did this urge find fulfillment, and that at a time when circumstances forced me to hard manual labor. One day, during short intervals of inattention to my work, I picked up a scrap of paper and, seated upon an empty lemon box pushed against the wall, with a stub pencil, added the first two stanzas and chorus of the song.”

Since words very similar to the third verse of this hymn were found penciled on the wall of a deceased patient’s room in an insane asylum, it has been thought that the inmate was the original author of the third verse.  Actually, the third verse was adapted from a stanza in a very long Jewish poem (Hadamut) written by a German rabbi in the eleventh century:

Were the sky of parchment made,
A quill each reed, each twig and blade,
Could we with ink the oceans fill,
Were every man a scribe of skill,
The marvelous story, Of God’s great glory
Would still remain untold;
For He, most high
The earth and sky created alone of old.

I can be strong, I can be brave,
I can be free, or be a slave.
I can forgive as He forgave
The choice is mine.

I can go through in storm or gale,
I can be true, or I can fail;
I can desert or set my sail.
The choice is mine.

If I would live then I must die
And bid this fleeting world goodbye
It?s treasures dear, I must deny
The choice is mine.

I?ll walk by faith where I am led,
It matters not what lies ahead,
And if the path be crimson red,
The choice is mine.

If I the King of heaven choose,
If I the things of earth refuse,
The best I gain, the worst I lose —
The choice is mine.

Ira F. Stanphill

“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat.” Matthew 25:35

It is estimated that, around the world, the number of people who are malnourished is more than 800 million. That is an absolutely staggering statistic. But we are not talking about statistics, we are talking about people, human beings made in the image of God.

Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. (www.bread.org)

In Ethiopia alone, millions of people are on the brink of famine. The problems there are exacerbated by the fact that food prices have risen more than 40% in the past year.

Jesus said that if we give food to hungry people, he takes it personally.

“Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever” Matthew 6:13

“This is my Father’s world” is how the hymn begins, reminding us to whom it all belongs. And yet, despite its heavenly origins, our world seems full of hellish images.

Take Ethiopia for example. Several areas of the country currently are on the brink of famine, with the Word Food Program currently estimating that, of Ethiopia’s 80 million citizens, 4.5 million will need emergency food relief from July to September, a number that comes in addition to the 8 million currently receiving assistance.

Thine is the kingdom, and I am called somehow to be a worker in that kingdom.

 

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.” Jeremiah 9:23,24

This is surely one of the verses to include in a “five loaves” version. It is easy to get caught up in our own accomplishments, rather than in our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

It is not that God wants us to live void of ambition. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Our highest ambition should be to understand and know the God who made us. Heaven and earth will pass away, along with all of our earthly accomplishments, but our relationship with God through Christ will not. Can not.

“Now King David was old, advanced in years; and they put covers on him, but he could not get warm.” 1 Kings 1:1

“Life is short.” No statement is more universally true, no matter who you are – a king, a peasant, among the famous, among the unknown.

But we should not lament the fact that life on earth is short, but rather rejoice in the hope of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Savior. So live, live today energized by that blessed hope.

“Now King David was old, advanced in years; and they put covers on him, but he could not get warm.” 1 Kings 1:1

 

“Life is short.” No statement is more universally true, no matter who you are – a king, a peasant, among the famous, among the unknown.

 

But we should not lament the fact that life on earth is short, but rather rejoice in the hope of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Savior. So live, live today energized by that blessed hope.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

If the whole Bible was just one verse, this would probably be it. More than any other, this one verse sums up what life is all about.

Life is precious. Life is a long-term investment. Life is a gift.