Plus ultra

Posted on December 3, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

In the Spanish city of Valladolid, where Christopher Columbus died, there’s a monument to the great navigator. Its most interesting feature is a statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s motto for centuries. Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards thought they had reached the outer limits of earth. Thus their motto was ‘Ne Plus Ultra,’ which means ‘No More Beyond.’ The word being torn away by the lion is ‘Ne’ or ‘no,’ making it read ‘Plus Ultra.’ Columbus had proved there was indeed ‘more beyond.’
It’s also what Jesus meant when he said: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?’

Posted in Eternal life, Eternity, Faith, Heaven | Leave a comment

We are often our own worst critics

Posted on December 3, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

Alexander the Great, having conquered Persia, wept because there were no empires left to conquer. Hugo Grotius, the father of modern international law, at the end of his life said: ‘I have accomplished nothing worthwhile in my life.’ John Quincy Adams, one of the more notable American Presidents, wrote in his diary: ‘My life has been spent in vain and idle aspirations, and in ceaseless rejected prayers that something would be the result of my existence beneficial to my species.’ And Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote some of the greatest adventure stories ever, also wrote his own epitaph which said: ‘Here lies one who meant well, who tried a little, and failed much.’
We are often our own worst critics, but in the end the only assessment that counts will be God’s ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’

Posted in Accomplishments, God's pleasure, Reward | Leave a comment

If you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will

Posted on November 26, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

Ronald Reagan, while still a young man, had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked if he wanted square toes or round toes. Reagan couldn’t decide, so the cobbler told him time to think about it. Two days later he saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted. Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker said, ‘Well, come by in a couple of days and they’ll be ready.’
When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! ‘This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you,’ the cobbler said. ‘I learned right then and there,’ Reagan said later, ‘if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.’
The Bible says the same: ‘a double-minded man, is unstable in all his ways, and will not receive anything from the Lord.’

Posted in Deciding, Decisions, Double-mindedness | Leave a comment

Judge people by what they are as individuals

Posted on November 26, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

As part of an experiment, a group of white New Yorkers were briefly shown a picture of a man in overalls holding a knife and mugging another man dressed in a suit. One of the men was white, the other was black.
Now in actual fact it was the black man who wore the suit and was being robbed by the white guy. But that didn’t square with the prejudices of the viewers. To them, white men were executives and black men were blue collar workers. Blacks were the robbers, whites the victims. And so they reported what their mind told them they saw– a black labourer assaulting a white businessman.
It was because of inherent prejudice like this that Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, teaching us to judge people by what they are as individuals, not by what we perceive them to be as races.

Posted in Judgementalism, Prejudice | Leave a comment

Things that outrun their sound

Posted on November 26, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

One reason why people walking along railway tracks get killed is that trains travelling at speed outrun their sound, which means that by the time you hear it, it’s virtually on top on you. An optical illusion happens. When you see a train coming, it looks as if it is travelling half as fast and is twice as far away as it really is. Train drivers say that it often takes more than one blast of the whistle to get the attention of the person on the track. But trains can’t stop the way cars can. Some freight trains can take almost a kilometre to stop.
There are many things in life that also outrun their sound, coming up on us sooner than we expected; which is why the Bible says: ‘Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.’ So, ‘Remember your Creator … before the days of trouble come…’

Posted in Danger, God, Warning, Watchfulness | Leave a comment

Finding something worth a fortune

Posted on November 26, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

Hubert Tang hadn’t purchased a lottery ticket in ten years. But when he found a twenty dollar bill lying in the street, he used it to buy two lottery tickets and, while still standing just outside the store, he scratched them and discovered he’d won a million dollars. Tang then decided to share a little of his good fortune by leaving twenty dollar bills in random locations for others to find, with the possibility that they too might buy a prize winning ticket.
Unfortunately, the chances of that happening again are infinitesimally small; but we all live in hope that one day we might find something worth a fortune. And yet we all can. The Bible says: ‘How blessed are those who find wisdom… her profit is better than silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her’

Posted in Treasure, Treasure in Heaven, Winning, Wisdom | Leave a comment

The common denominator between IS and Mao

Posted on November 18, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

The massacres related to Islamic extremism cause many to think that if we do away with religion then wars would cease. But what they fail to see is that the last century was the bloodiest in history, and that the atrocities were committed by anti-religious movements, led by men like Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. The prestigious Encyclopedia of War says that of nearly two thousand wars fought in human history, only one hundred and twenty three actually were religiously motivated, half of them in the name of Islam. So, instead of blaming religion as the usual cause of war, it would make more sense to focus on the common denominator between Islamic Jihadists and men like Mao, Stalin and Hitler – and that is hate. Whereas Jesus said: ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.’

Posted in Atheism, Religion, War, Wickedness | Leave a comment

Truth is the beginning, the middle and the end

Posted on November 18, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s a story in the Talmud – the most important text of Judaism – of how the members of the great synagogue were weeping, praying and fasting together, seeking to know God’s will, when a little scroll fell into their midst. They opened it and on it was only one word, Ameth, which is the Hebrew word for truth. Now Ameth was spelt with only three Hebrew letters because ancient Hebrew, when written, had no vowels. The first letter was aleph, which is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the second was min, which is the middle letter of the alphabet; and the third was tau, which is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That assembly of rabbis immediately got the message: truth is the beginning, the middle and the end of what God requires of us.

Posted in God, Truth | Leave a comment

The author will make things clear

Posted on November 18, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

Author Marshall Shelley, who suffered the deaths of two of his children, wrote: ‘Even as I child, I loved to read, and I quickly learned that I would most likely be confused during the opening chapters of a novel. New characters were introduced. Disparate, seemingly random events took place. Subplots were complicated and didn’t seem to make any sense in relation to the main plot. But I learned to keep reading. Why? Because you know that the author will weave them all together by the end of the book. Even when I can’t explain why a chromosomal abnormality develops in my son … even when I can’t fathom why our daughter has to endure two years of severe …retardation and continual seizures … I choose to trust that before the book closes, the author will make things clear.’

Posted in Life, Life's journey, Life's lessons, Mystery, Suffering | Leave a comment

Finding their father’s treasure

Posted on November 18, 2016 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s an old story about a hard-working farmer who had lazy sons. On his deathbed he told them that they would find his treasure if they were to dig in a certain field. As soon as the old man was dead, the sons hurried to the field and dug it up but found no gold. But then they thought that, since the land had been prepared, they might as well sow a crop, which they did and it produced a fine yield. It then occurred to them that the buried gold might be in another field, so they dug that up, with the same result. After several years of doing this they became accustomed to hard work and began to enjoy the fruits of it. It was then that they realised that they had actually discovered where their father’s treasure really was.
The Bible puts it this way:‘There is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here.’

Posted in Treasure, Work | Leave a comment