Remember to forget

Posted on July 26, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Immanuel Kant was one of the greatest European philosophers. Yet even his brilliant mind found it hard to cope with the reality of human shortcomings. There’s a wistful line in his journal which simply said, ‘Remember to forget Lampe.’ Lampe was his manservant who had been with him for decades and the old philosopher had come to depend on him. But then he discovered Lampe had been systematically robbing him for years, and so he dismissed him. But despite this, he missed his old companion and couldn’t bear the thought of his betrayal; hence his journal entry, Remember to forget Lampe.’
There are times when we also need to remember to forget; particularly when we are being eaten up inside by what someone has done to us. It’s not easy to do and we often need a strength beyond our own. Jesus said you’ll get it if you ‘pray for those who treat you badly.’

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Alive in our hearts

Posted on July 26, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Anna Pavlova was probably the greatest ballerina of all time. But her most memorable performance took place after her death. She was to play the role she made famous, the Dying Swan, at the Apollo Theatre in London. Tragically, she caught pneumonia and died two days before the event. However, on opening night, a packed house watched the curtain rise and a spotlight bathe the stage in a pool of light where Anna should have been. And, as the light danced and the orchestra played, they could still see her, and when the music stopped, they gave her her greatest ovation ever. An empty stage with only a spotlight, but in their hearts she was alive.
It reminds me that for people of faith, the remembrance of Jesus Christ is all that and more. He said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am.”

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But on a day like this!

Posted on July 26, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

The account of how Jesus appeared to two disciples on the lonely road to Emmaus is one of the most poignant stories in the Bible, and reminds us of the Easter message that no matter who we are or what lonely path we tread, there is always a presence waiting to join us. The poet Fay Inchfawn expressed it like this:
When days are short and nights are long;
when wash-day brings so dull a sky
that not single thing will dry.
And when the kitchen chimney smokes,
and when there’s naught so queer as folks!
When friends deplore my faded youth,
and when the baby cuts a tooth.
While John, the baby last but one,
clings round my skirts till day is done;
and fat, good-tempered Jane is glum,
and butcher’s man forgets to come.
Sometimes I say on days like these,
I get a sudden gleam of bliss.
Not on some sunny day of ease,
He’ll come …. but on a day like this!

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“No matter how hard they try, they can’t get rid of the Cross!”

Posted on July 26, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

During those dark years when atheistic Communism dominated East Germany, there was a symbol which brought hope and comfort to many who had refused to abandon their faith. It was a huge TV tower built to broadcast atheistic propaganda. Near the top was a globe-shaped restaurant. The remarkable thing was that the sunlight always reflected off the globe in the shape of a cross. The authorities tried everything they could think of to prevent this optical phenomenon but nothing worked. One Christian pastor commented wryly, “No matter how hard they try, they can’t get rid of the Cross!”
Well, European Communism is now dead, but the message of the Cross, that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only son,’ lives on, and will forever; just as those who believe in Jesus will live forever.

Posted in Agnosticism, Arrogance, Atheism, Cross, Faith, God, Jesus | Leave a comment

Mysteries of life

Posted on July 26, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Have you ever wondered why doctors and lawyers call what they do practice? And why is abbreviation such a long word? Why is a boxing ring square? What was the best thing before sliced bread? And how did a fool and his money get together in the first place? These questions are humorous reminders that there are many things in this life that don’t make sense. The really big questions, though, are the ones with moral connotations like, why is there so much pain in our world? Why do good people suffer? Why do we hurt one another? Why can’t people get along? And why do some of the best prayers seem to go unanswered?
Questions like these eventually bring us to the biggest one of all – God. Is God there? Does God care? There’s only one way to find out and that’s by personal experience. Jesus said “Seek and you shall find.” It’s all about how seriously you are prepared to look.

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Whispering hope

Posted on July 26, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

One of the nineteenth century’s best known song writers was recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His songs are still sung around camp fires the world over. But probably the best loved was Whispering Hope, whose lyrics say: ‘Soft as the voice of an angel, breathing a lesson unheard, hope with a gentle persuasion whispers her comforting word: wait till the darkness is over, wait till the tempest is done, hope for the sunshine tomorrow, after the shower is gone.’ And then the refrain: ‘Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice, making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.’
His inspiration came from the Bible, which speaks of our Christian hope as an anchor that will never fail. And our world today, though very different from the one that Septimus Winner knew, still needs that message of hope.

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From nobodies to somebodies

Posted on July 25, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Most of us daydream about suddenly discovering that we are heirs to a fortune we never knew of, and that we are no longer nobodies. That was how the gospel seemed to those who first heard it. In a world where rank counted for everything, the opening words of John’s Gospel proclaimed that ‘To all who received Jesus into their lives, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ Nobodies were in a moment transformed into somebodies. Even today, with all our rights and freedoms, so many of us suffer from a crippling lack of self-worth. How wonderful it is to learn that through faith in Jesus we are nothing less than the dearly loved children of God, irrespective of how others may see us or even of how we tend to value ourselves.

Posted in Children of God, God's love, New Life, New love, New start, Transformation, Transformed mind | Leave a comment

Agnosticism versus Christianity

Posted on July 25, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Harry Ironside, a well-known preacher of yesteryear, was once challenged to a public debate by Arthur Morrow Lewis, a well-known unbeliever. The subject was to be “Agnosticism versus Christianity.” Ironside accepted the challenge with one condition: and that was that Lewis should bring with him one person who had been addicted to alcohol and one person who had been enslaved in depravity, and who were now freed from their past because their lives had been turned around by unbelief. And if he did produce two such persons, Ironside promised to bring one hundred people who were once just such lost souls and had found new life and joy in Christ Jesus. Well, it was the agnostic who pulled out of the debate.

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‘Once I had everything but money. Now I have nothing but money’

Posted on July 25, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

In her day Betsey Patterson was regarded as the most beautiful woman in America, so much so that Napoleon’s youngest brother became infatuated with her and married her. Well, that was just the start of a remarkable life, but in her later years she wrote to a friend saying: ‘Once I had everything but money. Now I have nothing but money… I am dying of boredom. I am tired of reading, and of all my ways of killing time… I am too old to flirt, and without this stimulus I die.’
Such was the melancholy confession of a woman who had great beauty of body, but no inner beauty of the soul – that which the Bible describes as ‘The unfading beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.’

Posted in Beauty, emptiness, inner peace, inner yearning, Soul | Leave a comment

The Golden Rule and the secret of happiness

Posted on July 25, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Bernard Rimland, of the Institute for Child Behavior Research, was fascinated with the subject of what it is that makes for happiness. So, he conducted a study on the principle of the Golden Rule – ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ He asked participants to list ten people they knew best and to label them as happy or not happy. Then they were to go through the list again and label each one as selfish or unselfish. He found that all of the people labeled happy were also labeled unselfish and that those whose activities were devoted to bringing themselves happiness were far less likely to be happy than those whose efforts are devoted to making others happy. He concluded that Jesus was right; the Golden Rule is the secret of happiness.

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