I can feel it tugging

Posted on November 20, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

I read about a man watching a young boy who was blind flying a kite in the park, carefully manipulating the string. He asked him if he liked flying kites and the boy said, ‘I sure do.’ This raised the man’s curiosity and he asked, ‘How is that when you can’t see it?’ The boy answered, ‘I may not be able to see it but I can feel it tugging!’
It’s a bit like us. We may not always be able to clearly identify the presence of God in this world but we sometimes feel it tugging, especially in moments of awe and overwhelming love: like when we stand alone at night under a star filled sky, or at dawn watching the sun rise over the ocean, or perhaps when our child, or grandchild, hugs us so tight that we almost lose our breath.
We can’t always see God, but He has a way of tugging that let’s us know He’s there.

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‘I was afraid you’d tell me not to do it.’

Posted on November 20, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

The American Better Business Bureau reported the case of a school teacher who lost her life savings in a business scheme that was actually a scam. Eventually she reported it to the Better Business Bureau who asked her why she hadn’t come to them earlier and checked this scheme out before signing up. Her answer was, ‘I was afraid you’d tell me not to do it.’ The folly of human nature is that even though we know where the best advice is to be found, we often don’t go there because we don’t want to hear what we suspect they may tell us.
I guess that’s what the Bible means when it says, ‘There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again – it leads to perdition Those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.’

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My glory all the Cross

Posted on November 20, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

When Frederick the Third of Prussia ran out of money in the war against Napoleon, he asked the women of Prussia to donate their gold and silver jewelry to help pay for the war effort. The response was overwhelming and every woman who donated her jewelry was given in return a simple cross made of iron; and, from that time on, the women of Prussia valued their iron crosses more than their most costly jewelry, and wore them with pride as proof of what they had sacrificed for their nation. From this was established the Order of the Iron Cross, for generations of Germans the symbol of sacrifice and gallantry in war.
For Christians, the Cross has always been the supreme symbol of sacrifice, and also the supreme symbol of what really matters in life – not what we get but what we give

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Attention to detail

Posted on November 13, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

The American rock band Van Halen, before agreeing to perform at a rock concert, always demand that the organisers provide bowls of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed. Now this may seem like petulance, but there’s actually a reason for it. The band uses nine semi-trailer loads of equipment and the technical details associated with their performances are so precise that they can’t risk any slip-ups. The brown M&Ms are just a test to see if the promoters really have read the specifications.
It’s an illustration of what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with very much.’ To God, the evidence of our trustworthiness is not so much in our major accomplishments, but in our faithfulness in the small things of life which others may not even notice.

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Friends forever

Posted on November 13, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Leonard Syme, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, believes that social ties and support systems have a great impact on mortality and disease rates. He points out that Japan is the world leader in health and longevity, and relates this to the close social, cultural, and traditional ties that are part of Japanese culture. Conversely, he indicates that the more isolated people are, the poorer their health and the higher their death rate.
Someone once said; ‘Friends are like good health: you don’t realize what a gift they are until you lose them.’ The Bible says that prosperity may beget friends, but it’s adversity that proves them. That’s what makes Jesus’ words so precious when, speaking of those of us who follow him, said, ‘I no longer call you servants, I call you my friends.’

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Winners

Posted on November 13, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

World famous golfer Arnold Palmer has a plaque in his office that says, ‘If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don’t. If you’d like to win but think you can’t, it’s almost certain you won’t. Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.’
Those words explain countless stories of success by people, most of whom never became famous, but who triumphed over adversity, found success in various endeavours and left the world a better place, not because they were brighter, stronger or more talented than everyone else, but because they had a vision of what their lives could be and the courage to pursue it.
The heart of this is faith. ‘If you can believe,’ said Jesus, ‘All things are possible to those who believe.’(B)

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Walking into the light

Posted on November 13, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

The Russian novelist Andrei Bitov, who grew up during the days of state sponsored atheism when the churches were forbidden to propagate their message outside of their own aging congregations, said that God got his attention one dreary day while he was riding the underground railway. He said: ‘In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, …. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God’s light.’ Do you ever feel like you are lost in the dark? Jesus said “Seek and you shall find.” It’s our willingness to seek that leads us into light.

Posted in Despair, God, Light, Light of Life | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Not Alone

Posted on November 13, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

A few years ago, best selling writer Philip Yancey wrote these words: ‘For all its faults and failures, the church offers a place to bring wounds and to seek meaning in times of brokenness and struggle. Visiting them I heard of suicides, birth defects, children hit by trucks, and teenagers raped. One woman, now an ordained minister, spoke of a dark period after her son died when for eighteen months she could not bring herself to pray. She cried out one day, ‘God, I don’t want to die like this, with all communication cut off.’ Even so, it took her six more months before she could pray again.
From such souls, I learn that life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. Prayer offers no ironclad guarantees, just the certain promise that we need not live that mystery alone.’

Posted in Courage, Faith, Mystery, Prayer, Spiritual growth, Spiritual Insight, Strength, Troubles | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sightless eyes

Posted on November 13, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

One of the most prolific hymn writers of all time was Fanny J Crosby, a blind woman who lost her sight as a young child. But it’s obvious through her hymns that morally and spiritually she could see wonderfully well. We see a bit of it in a poem she wrote about herself:
‘Oh, what a happy soul am I! Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world, content I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t,
To weep and sigh because I’m blind, I cannot and I won’t.’
Someone once said to Helen Keller: ‘What a pity you have no sight!’ Helen replied, ‘Yes, but what a pity so many have sight but cannot see!’
People like Fanny J Crosby and Helen Keller remind us of Jesus’ comment that the greatest darkness is that of people who do have eyes for seeing, but don’t do it.

Posted in Blessedness, Blessings, Blindness, Positive Thoughts, Sight, Spiritual blindness, Spiritual Insight | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hamlet looking for Shakespeare

Posted on November 2, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

With the exploration of space again in the news we recall that the first words sent back to earth from the astronauts who had circled the moon were the majestic opening words of the Bible, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ This was in contrast to the Russian cosmonaut who returned from space and reported that he had not seen God. C.S. Lewis responded to this by saying that was like Hamlet going into the attic of his castle looking for Shakespeare. Lewis also said that he believed in God as he believed the sun had risen, not only because he saw it, but because by it he saw everything else.”
As Richard Rohr said, ‘Humility and honesty are the same thing. We all came along a few years ago, and we’re going to be gone in a few years. The only honest response to life is a humble one.’

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