No need of Heaven and no fear of Hell

Posted on May 22, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

In the very earliest days of white settlement in Arizona, so the story goes, the Archbishop of Los Angeles sent a missionary to Phoenix to establish a church. After two years the priest returned to tell the archbishop that he couldn’t do it. ‘Why not?’ asked the Bishop. ‘Are there no people there?’ ‘Yes, there are people there,’ said the priest. ‘But those who live there during winter have no need of heaven because it is so perfect and those who survive the summer no longer have any fear of hell.’
Well, if that’s the way it was in Phoenix I’m not sure what to say about Sydneysiders who do live in one of the world’s pleasantest environments; except, perhaps, what the Bible says: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.’

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Faith and the miracle of compound interest

Posted on May 22, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s a story in the Bible about Jesus watching people making their donations to the Temple in Jerusalem. But the one he drew attention to was a poor widow whose gift was two of the smallest coins then in circulation. He said she’d given more than anyone – not in monetary terms, but in what those two coins meant to her. It’s been estimated that if that tiny offering had been deposited in a bank at four percent interest, it would today be worth around four quadrillion dollars. If you don’t know how much that is don’t worry, because you and I will never see it.
But if the miracle of compound interest could produce that sort of effect on material investments, you get an idea of what Jesus meant when he talked about how our investments in faith and hope and love lay up for us a real treasure in heaven.

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One of life’s most troublesome lies

Posted on May 19, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

One of life’s most troublesome lies is that things will be better when we get to a certain point we haven’t reached yet. We tell ourselves that life will be complete when the mortgage is paid off, when the kids leave home, when we make that sea change or take that extended trip around Australia. But of course we’ve been doing that all our lives. There was a time when we couldn’t wait to go to school, then to leave school: to get a job, then to retire; to get married, and then to get out of the marriage. It always seems that happiness is forever over the next hill, but when we get there we find it has moved somewhere else.
You’d think by now most of us would have learned that happiness is not a destination, it’s actually a journey; and the secret to finding it is to practice the discipline of counting our blessings.

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You can talk to God anytime – for free

Posted on May 19, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Loneliness is a growing problem in our society, especially for divorced people, single mothers, and the elderly. One example of this human tragedy is an advertisement in an American newspaper that read: ‘I will listen to you talk for thirty minutes without comment for five dollars.’ It sounds like a hoax, but the person was serious and before long was receiving ten to twenty calls a day. That’s how real the pain of loneliness is for some.
But Ralph Waldo Emerson was right when he said: ‘The only way to have a friend is to be one.’ Yet even while we are struggling to do that, the Bible reminds us that God’s love is always there, and that He ‘is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.’ You can talk to Him for free, anywhere, anytime. All it takes is a smidgeon of faith and a few moments of prayer.

Posted in Faith, Friends, God, God's love, Loneliness, Prayer | Leave a comment

Access to the very top

Posted on May 19, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

An Icelandic teenager, some years ago, created quite a stir when he phoned the White House in Washington to speak to President George Bush. To get through security, Vifill Atlason pretended to be the President of Iceland. But before they’d put him through to the President, White House security officers asked a series of questions to verify his identity. Unfortunately the checkpoints proved one too many and Vifill didn’t get through to George Bush – although he did receive a visit from the local police. That’s because access to the most powerful leader in the world is granted only to a select few who are able to negotiate those checkpoints. But it’s good to know that access to God is open to all of us, anywhere, anytime. ‘Call to me,’ He says, ‘and I will answer you.’

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An advocate who asks for nothing in return

Posted on May 19, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Some years ago Gladys Kidd offered her services as a cook, maid or housekeeper for ten years, free of charge, to any lawyer who could keep her husband from being executed for a murder he did not commit. Vincent Hallinan, a San Francisco lawyer, took up the offer and defended Robert Kidd, and was able to prove that the murdered antique dealer had not been killed by the blood stained sword on which the accused’s fingerprints were found – those prints being there because Kidd had once toyed with it while visiting the shop. The result was he got Robert Kidd freed. He also refused Gladys Kidd’s offer of ten years’ servitude.
His story reminds me of that great Bible teaching that we also have an advocate who represents us before God – Jesus – who asks for nothing in return but our love.

Posted in Advocate, Defender, Forgiveness, Guilt | Leave a comment

Happiness is not the same as fun

Posted on May 19, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Dr Vera Ranki, founder of the Examined Life Institute, said that the first lesson towards achieving happiness is to realize that happiness is not the same as fun. In our desperate pursuit of happiness we often forget that when we pursue pleasure itself we tend to be miserable, and that the greatest lessons in life actually come to us through grief, sadness and strife.
Wise people have always recognized that happiness is a byproduct of a life filled with meaning and a sense of connectedness to that greater mystery that stands behind all life. Jesus summed it up in His famous Sermon on the Mount which starts with a series of statements describing those who truly are happy. The strange thing about them is that they have nothing to do with pleasure, power and possessions.

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Do it anyway

Posted on May 19, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

The famous English preacher John Stott was a great advocate of the importance of practicing virtue even when the consequences work against you. He said: ‘Some People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you’re successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.’

Posted in Actions, Acts of Kindness, Attitude, Character, Faithfulness, Great Endeavours, Greatness, Life's journey, Overcoming, risk takers, Self Discipline, Servant leadership, Spiritual Leaders, True greatness | Leave a comment

Virtue is not a commodity

Posted on May 11, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s a story about a wealthy man who gave his minister a cheque for fifty thousand dollars made out to the church. The minister, however, handed it back and said: ‘Go and cash it in for five dollar bills and then spend them one at a time doing the Lord’s work.’ ‘But that will take the rest of my life!’The rich man protested. ‘You’re right!’ answered the pastor. ‘And that is the point!’
Well, there’s a message for us in that too. In a world dominated by money, it’s easy to think that we can buy virtue if we have the money to do so. But virtue is not a commodity to be purchased, it is an attitude towards life that reveals itself in a multitude of random acts of kindness and expressions of love.
‘And now abides faith, hope and love,’ the Bible says. ‘But the greatest of these is love.’

Posted in Acts of Kindness, Compassion, Doing what has to be done, love, Sympathy and Support | Tagged | Leave a comment

Our ability to feel pain makes us human

Posted on May 11, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

One way that biologists evaluate life is in terms of the capacity to experience pain. They tell us that the more pain a creature experiences, the higher the life form. A worm, for example, experiences little pain, but a dog can actually have moods. Dogs can grieve over people. One of the reasons why scientists say that humans are at the top of the biological scale is because humans have the keenest ability to experience pain.
But the thing that separates us from the animals is not primarily our ability to feel pain, it is our ability to feel pain vicariously for others. Our capacity for sympathy and empathy with others in their suffering not only provides enormous comfort but also reflects the image of God in us, who, as the Bible says, in Jesus, helps those who suffer, because he himself suffered.

Posted in Feeling, God in us, Human nature, Pain, Suffering, Sympathy and Support | Leave a comment