Harnessed Energy

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Power can be unleashed, or it can be harnessed. The energy in ten litres of petrol can be released explosively by dropping a lighted match into the can. Or it can be channeled through a car engine and used to transport a person a hundred or more kilometres. Explosions are spectacular, but controlled burns have lasting effect. In the spiritual realm it is God’s Spirit that causes spectacular manifestations of spiritual energy to happen – things like the remarkable explosion of faith we see in China where, even after decades of brutal suppression, the number of Christian believers continues to increase dramatically. But it is also God’s Spirit that enables ordinary people like us to live quiet and purposeful lives, characterised by faith, hope and love, instead of lives of quiet desperation. That’s harnessed energy.

Posted in Holy Spirit, Power, Spiritual Energy | Leave a comment

The one thing that is unique about Christianity

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

During a conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if anything, was unique to Christianity. They began eliminating possibilities and the debate went on until C.S. Lewis, the famous Cambridge professor of English Literature, joined the discussion. ‘You want to know what’s unique about Christianity?’ Lewis asked, ‘That’s easy. It’s grace – God’s unconditional love.’ After some discussion, the delegates had to agree. The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn God’s approval. Only in Christianity is God’s love given unconditionally.

Posted in Unconditional Love, Uniqueness of Christianity | Leave a comment

The Golden Rule

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

That simple concept we call the Golden Rule seems to be universal. Jesus said we should ‘do to others as we would have them do to us.’ Hinduism teaches that ‘Those gifted with intelligence should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated.’ Shintoism says: ‘The suffering of others is my suffering; the good of others is my good.’ In Buddhism it’s: ‘minister to friends and familiars by … treating them as you treat yourself.’ Taoists say: ‘Regard your neighbour’s gain as your own gain and regard your neighbour’s loss as your own loss.’ Islam says: “None of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.’ For Sikhs it’s: “As you consider yourself, so consider others.’ And in Judaism the word is ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
If only we’d just do it.

Posted in Kindness, love, Mercy, Respect | Leave a comment

That’s love

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Kids have a wonderful capacity for recognizing what’s real. Here’s what some of them say about love: ‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’ Another said, ‘Love is when my Mum makes coffee for my Dad and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is okay.’ One little girl said, ‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’ Another said, ‘You really shouldn’t say “I love you” unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot, because people forget.’
The wisdom of children reminds us of the most profound spiritual truth of all; that ‘God is love.’

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No strings need to be pulled – just say Yes

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Some years ago Robert Kirkpatrick, who was serving a sentence in a prison in Ohio, mistakenly received an invitation to a fundraising dinner in Washington to meet former President George Bush. ‘I’m going to tell him that I’d be happy to attend,’ said Kirkpatrick, ‘but he’s going to have to pull some strings to get me there.’ Well, I never actually heard the outcome of the story but I doubt that the invitation was followed up. Not so with Jesus.
In one of his great stories He talked about God’s servants going out into the streets and lanes and inviting all they meet to God’s great celebration of the Kingdom of Heaven. ‘The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” … Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.’ No strings need to be pulled, all we have to do is say Yes.

Posted in Accepting, Access to God, God's love, Invitation | Leave a comment

Persistent attention

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

Some years ago a magazine installed a new computer system to send out subscription notices to customers who had fallen behind with their payments. But something went wrong with the program, and before the error was discovered a certain rancher in Colorado had received nine thousand three hundred and seventy four notices that his subscription had expired. Eventually he sent them a letter with a cheque for one year’s subscription saying: “I give up! Just send me the magazine.” He was won over by their persistent attention. It reminds me of one of the great themes of the Bible – that of the love of God that never stops calling us to come back. ‘The LORD is … the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.’

Posted in God's faithfulness, Persistence | Leave a comment

The most elusive of all human desires

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

The Society of International Law reports that during the last three and a half thousand years there have been less than three hundred years of peace. That means the entire world has been at peace less than eight percent of the time! What is even more interesting is that during this time more than eight thousand peace treaties were made – and broken. Peace is the most elusive of all human desires. Whether it be peace among nations, peace within our families, or just peace within our own hearts; there’s nothing we want more, and nothing that seems to elude us more. That’s why, of all the promises Jesus made, the promise of peace draws so many to him. ‘Peace I leave with you,’ he said. ‘My peace I give you.’ And the best part of it is that his peace is an inner peace that’s always there.

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Needing the full treatment

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

C.S. Lewis said that as a child, when he had a toothache, he knew that if he went to his mother, she’d give him something to deaden the pain. But he would avoid going to her because he also knew she’d take him to the dentist, who would then start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. He said, ‘I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I knew I couldn’t get it without having my teeth set permanently right.’ He went on to say, that God is bit like a dentist. Many of us would like Him to fix up some particular pain in our lives, but we avoid going to Him because we have an intuitive sense that He won’t stop there, but will want to give us the full treatment.
What we forget, of course, is that most of our pain in life comes from being the way we are and needing the full treatment.

Posted in Healing, Self Deception | Leave a comment

Things we want to think of as friendly, but aren’t

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

During the Falklands War the Royal Navy’s destroyer HMS Sheffield was sunk by a single missile fired from an Argentine fighter jet. It caused some people to wonder if modern surface warships were obsolete, sitting ducks for today’s sophisticated missiles. But a later check revealed that the Sheffield’s defences did pick up the incoming missile, and the ship’s computer correctly identified it as a French-made Exocet. But the computer was programmed to ignore Exocets as friendly, because they were made in France, one of Britain’s allies. The Sheffield was sunk by a missile it saw coming and could have evaded if it had been better able to identify approaching danger. Just as many of us risk having our lives sunk by things we want to think of as friendly, but aren’t.

Posted in Danger, Destruction, Self Deception, Self Destruction | Leave a comment

The central neurosis of our time

Posted on January 16, 2017 by vincentsmithauthor

One of the best known sceptics of the twentieth century was Bertrand Russell. Though born into Christian home he rejected faith and became an atheist. His daughter Katherine said of him, ‘Somewhere at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that once had been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put in it.’ The great psychologist Carl Jung said that the central neurosis of our time is emptiness, and Victor Frankl talked about how clinics are crowded with people suffering from a new kind of neurosis, a sense of total and ultimate meaninglessness of life. But I think it was Saint Augustine who explained it best. Speaking of God he said, ‘You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

Posted in emptiness, Meaning in life, Meaninglessness | Leave a comment