Moving on

Posted on January 28, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

You may remember the story of Aaron Ralston who, a few years ago, while climbing in Utah, pushed his arm into a crack in the rock face and then got trapped by a large boulder. Everthing he tried failed to move the boulder, including chipping away at it with his pocket-knife. Finally, after three days, he used his blunt pocket-knife to amputate his arm. Somehow he remained conscious and having applied a makeshift tourniquet he rappelled sixty feet to the canyon floor. ‘I’m not sure how I handled it,’ he said later. ‘I felt pain, and I coped with it. Then I moved on.’
There’s a message there for all of us who are trapped between a rock and a hard place. We may feel pain, but we have to move on. The Bible reminds us that it’s life’s tests that produce perseverance, and perseverance produces great souls.

Posted in Courage, Endurance, Overcoming, Pain, Trials and testings, tribulation and trouble, Tried, Troubles | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Purification by proxy

Posted on January 28, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Every twelve years, millions of Hindus flock to Allahabad to bathe in the River Ganges, believing that they will be cleansed from sin. Sadly, scores of pilgrims regularly get injured in the crush as the crowds rush to the water. However India, now a world centre of information technology, has has come up with a popular website, webdunia.com, that offers purification by proxy. Pilgrims who want to avoid crowds, chaos, and travel costs can now send a passport-size photo to the site, which then provides virtual absolution.
However Jesus taught that there is no such thing as cheap grace. True forgiveness only comes as a result of faith and repentance – a simple trust in God’s undying love for us, and a willingness to turn from a life that leaves Him out, to one that has Him at its centre.

Posted in Forgiveness, New Life, Purification, Salvation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Better than any spa

Posted on January 28, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

According to The International Spa Association the number of hotels or resorts offering spas has multiplied over the past few years. Spas are offering exotic treatments indigenous to their location, including “lava rock massages in Hawaii, papaya scrubs in the tropics, and grape seed facials in Sonoma. The spa at Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark even offers a “Chocolate Fondue Wrap.” Some anthropologists attribute the spa phenomenon to a desire to experience a sense of transformation. ‘A holiday,’ they say, ‘Should make you feel like a new person, which is what a spa is offering.’ Actually, I know of a surer way to achieve that – permanently. It’s faith in Jesus. ‘If anyone is in Christ,’ the Bible says, ‘They are a whole new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.’ Better than any spa.(

Posted in New Life, Second chance, Spiritual blessing, Transformation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Numbered Days

Posted on January 28, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

A few years ago an Indian holy man nearly incited a riot by failing to die as foretold. He’d predicted that his soul would leave his body sometime on the morning of November 17, and fifteen thousand people showed up to watch it happen. The crowd fell silent as he sat down to meditate but turned violent when he was still alive at noon, believing they’d been cheated out of a religious experience. It required a police baton-charge to disperse them. The holy man was quite apologetic: ‘I wanted to leave my mortal body,’ he said, ‘but I could not. Please forgive me.’
It goes to show that the Bible is right when it says, “Our times are in God’s hands.” And the prayer we should be offering is that one from the Bible that says: ‘Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’

Posted in Life, Life's journey, Living Life, Wisdom | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Truth in love

Posted on January 4, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

It’s always difficult to know what to do when someone asks you to write them a reference for a job you know they’re not up to. But Robert Thornton, a professor of economics, once composed the ideal letter to fit the situation. It is full of double meanings and goes like this: ‘In my opinion you will be fortunate to get this person to work for you. I recommend him with no qualifications whatsoever. No person would be better for the job. I urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment. All in all, and without reservation, I cannot say enough good things about him, nor can I recommend him too highly.’
Alternatively, you can just do what the Bible says we should always do: ‘speak the truth in love.’ It takes moral courage to do that, but everyone eventually benefits from it.

Posted in Life's journey, love, References, Speaking the truth, Truth | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Breaking with the law of the playground

Posted on January 4, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

British style writer Neil Boorman, a few years ago, caused a stir when he decided to burn all his brand-name possessions. “I am addicted to brands,” he confessed in a magazine article: “From an early age, I have been taught that to be accepted, to be loveable, to be cool, one must have the right stuff. Now, in mid life, I still behave according to playground law.” He’d realized that the happiness found in his possessions was hollow and short-lived. So he’s taken drastic action and turned to a life of simplicity in order to find happiness and his real self.
Well, I hope he’s found it, but finding spiritual fullness requires more than renouncing materialism. The vacuum left has to be filled with something spiritually positive, and a living faith in the living God is that one positive answer to the emptiness within.

Posted in emptiness, Faith, God in us, God's faithfulness, Life, Life's journey, Living Life, Living simply, Materialism, satisfaction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Man sees the deed, but God sees the intention.’

Posted on January 4, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

I remember my little daughter once deciding to buy me an ice-cream with her own money. But on the way back from the Mr Whippy van the ice cream started to melt. So she began to lick the sides of the cone. After that the temptation was just too great and what I finally received was little more than a soggy cone. But I still look back on that with great pleasure. As her father, I was very conscious of her weakness for ice cream. But I knew her intentions were real and I accepted them, even though her ability to deliver might not always match them.
I think God is like that with us. Jesus didn’t say: “blessed are those who are righteous,” because none of us are. But he did say: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Thomas a Kempis said: ‘Man sees the deed, but God sees the intention.’ When we turn to him, God sees what we honestly want to be and accepts us even though our performance is lacking.

Posted in Acceptance, Failure, Faith, Forgiveness, God, God's faithfulness, Grace | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Touching the untouchable

Posted on January 4, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

One of the greatest men of the Twentieth Century was Mahatma Gandhi. Most people know him for having led India in its struggle for independence and for his advocacy of non violent protest. But Gandhi did other great things too. One of them was to work for those people who were at the bottom of the pile in the Indian caste system – the untouchables. But Gandhi touched them. He toiled to improve their conditions and included them in his own community – even though it cost him the support of many influential people. Gandhi gave them a new name. Instead of calling them untouchables he called them Harijan, which means, God’s people.
And that is exactly what Jesus does for us. No matter what our status, the Bible says:“To them that receive him he gives the power to become the children of God.”

Posted in Acts of Kindness, God in us, God with us, Justice, Living Life, Losers, Love of Christ, Mercy, New Life, Regeneration, Spiritual blessing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Why does everybody call me ‘Fruit stand.’

Posted on January 4, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

When the San Francisco hippie community started to move to cheaper areas down the coast, pre-schools in Santa Cruz got an influx of children with names like Frisbee, Moonbeam, Timewarp and Precious Promise. The strangest one, however, was a little boy who turned up wearing a name card that said Fruit Stand. It wasn’t the name that worried the teachers, though. it was just that Fruit Stand never responded when they addressed him. It wasn’t until the end of the day, when they turned his name card over to see where his his bus was to depart, that they realised his name actually was Anthony. His mother had mistakenly pinned the card on him back-to-front with his name on the back and his bus departure location on the front.
But even when parental mistakes give us a bad start, underneath we still are who we are, and with God’s help we can turn that card round and reveal it.

Posted in Life's journey, Mistakes, New Life, Parental mistakes, Starting afresh | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

God’s alternative makes sweeter music

Posted on January 4, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

There was once an Italian boy named Antonio. He loved music and wanted above everything else to become a singer, but whenever he tried to sing his friends laughed at him. However, his village was home to Nicolo Amati, the greatest violin maker in Italy. One day Antonio showed him a toy violin he had carved with his pocket knife. The great Amati was impressed and said, “Beautifully done! You want to make violins? And so you shall! In time your violins will make the most beautiful music ever heard!” And so, Antonio Stradivari became his pupil and went on to create the Stradivarius violins that today are worth a fortune, reminding us that when we can’t have the things that seem closest to our hearts, God may have an alternative that is even better. The trick is in being prepared to seek it.

Posted in Attitude, Disappointed, Discerning God's Will, God's faithfulness, inner yearning, Making the most of what you've got, Music of life, satisfaction, Second chance, Seeing the possibilities, Stradivarius | Tagged , | Leave a comment