Refer to the designer

Posted on February 10, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, one day came upon a man whose Model T Ford had broken down. It was clear the driver didn’t know what was wrong, so Henry asked if he could take a look. In a few minutes, he had the car running again. The grateful owner said: ‘I’m amazed at your ability; you fixed my car so easily.’ Ford replied: ‘Well, I ought to be able to fix it, because I’m the one who designed it.’
When things go wrong we naturally go to the designer for a solution. And when things are going wrong with life we can’t do better than refer back to its designer. Jesus said: ‘I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.’ Abundant life is what we all want, and abundant life is what God intends we should have. But only the designer can show us how to make it happen.

Posted in Abundant life, Designer, Failure, God | Leave a comment

There’s something about being a volunteer

Posted on February 10, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

When I was a volunteer firefighter our bushfire brigade would respond enthusiastically to fire calls at all times of the day or night. I remember one chilly winter night being called to a house fire to assist the professional fire brigade. The house was empty and it was beyond saving so they left it to us to put it out and keep it from spreading. We all felt pretty good about what we’d done, even though most of us had lost a night’s sleep and still had to go to work at daybreak. We felt envious of the professional firefighters who got to do this for a living, and were surprised to hear them complaining about having been called out. It made me realize that there’s something about being a volunteer that we often lose when we get paid – fun; doing something for the love of it. That’s why true faith is always voluntary.

Posted in Blessings, Faith, Volunteers | Leave a comment

God’s ‘endless breach of contract’

Posted on February 10, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

Broadcaster Phillip Adams, in the Weekend Australian, once referred to the perceived failure of God to answer the prayers of desperate people as ‘this endless breach of contract, this failure to honour the guarantee.’ I think the failure is in Phillip’s inability to understand what faith is. Mature faith accepts that there is much in life we don’t understood while still believing in a supreme intelligence that stands behind it, rather than an infinite series of chance events. Faith enables us to accept and respond with courage. Solzhenitsyn got it right in his novel A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, set in a brutal Soviet prison camp, a fellow prisoner ridicules Ivan saying, “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” To which Ivan replies, ‘I do not pray to get out of prison, I pray to do the will of God.’

Posted in God, God with us, God's faithfulness, God's love, Prayer | Leave a comment

Posted on January 29, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

One of the laws of nature is that for something to become clean, something else must become dirty. Isabella of Spain used to boast that she’d had only two baths in her life – one when she was born, and the other when she married King Ferdinand. I understand they gave her a third when she died. It seems that most people in the past only had a bath once a year, and usually took it in May. Baths consisted of large tubs filled with hot water. The man of the house got to go first, followed by the sons, the women, and then the children. Last of all were the babies. However, by this time the water was so dirty that you could lose somebody in it; hence the saying, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’

That’s why being proud of our own spiritual purity is the surest indication that we’re not.

Posted in Pride, Self Deception, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Common Sense

Posted on January 29, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

I read about the passing of an old friend named Common Sense. He’d been around for a long time and lived by simple financial policies: like not spending more than you earn, reliable parenting strategies where the adults are in charge not the kids, and the notion that it’s OK to come in second. Unfortunately, his health deteriorated as the Ten Commandments became contraband, legal ethics replaced Christian morality and courts of law began awarding damages to people whose own stupidity caused them to get injured. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, His daughter, Responsibility and his son, Reason. He is survived by his step-brothers, My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many people attended his funeral because, so few realized he was gone.

Posted in Common sense, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Building for our own retirement

Posted on January 11, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

A sub-contractor carpenter told his contractor-boss, whom he’d worked for since he was an apprentice, that he was ready to retire. The contractor was sorry to see him go but asked him, as a personal favour, to stay on long enough to build one more house. The carpenter agreed but his heart was not in it and he did a shoddy job, saving money wherever he could by using inferior materials. When the house was complete, and the contractor came to inspect it, he handed the front door key to the carpenter and said, ‘Here; it’s all yours. It’s my gift to you.’ The carpenter was shocked. If only he’d known he was building his own retirement house he would have taken much more care. And so it is with us. We are the builders of our lives, in this life and beyond; and we’ll have to live eternally with what we’ve built.

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

No records kept

Posted on January 11, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

The English comedian, Tommy Trinder, so the story goes, once took his Rolls-Royce across the English Channel for a European holiday. One day the car broke down, so he contacted Rolls-Royce and asked what he should do. They responded by flying a factory mechanic to the Continent who fixed the problem, and Tommy continued his holiday. Naturally enough he was worried about what all this would cost, so he wrote to Rolls Royce and asked for the bill. He received a letter from their office that read: ‘Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce.’ It reminds me of what the Bible says about God’s forgiveness when we break down: ‘Your sins I will remember no more.’ Nothing to pay and no records of failure kept.

Posted in Forgiveness, New Heart, New Life, New start | Leave a comment

Looking for a loophole

Posted on January 11, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

W. C. Fields was one of Hollywood’s original comedians. For most of his life he described himself as an agnostic who didn’t know if there was a God or not and didn’t particularly care. But even he was not entirely unconcerned about the possibility of rejection at the Pearly Gates. The actor Thomas Mitchell went to visit him when he was close to death and found him lying in bed thumbing through a Bible. Mitchell expressed surprise that he, W C Fields the agnostic should be reading the Bible; to which Fields, the master of the ready wisecrack, replied: ‘I’m looking for a loophole.’ Whether he found it or not I don’t know. What I do know is that life, and particularly the end of life, is so much easier when we stop fighting and just acknowledge what our innermost beings tell us is true.

Posted in accountability, Death, Judgement | Leave a comment

Never to go to a doctor whose office plants have died

Posted on January 11, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

The late Erma Bombeck said some of her most important decisions were: never to go to a doctor whose office plants have died; to follow her husband’s suggestion to put a little excitement into life by living within their budget; and to never loan her car to anyone she’d given birth to. Sometimes, though, decisions are about changes we need to make. I heard about one poor guy who phoned his girlfriend and got a recording that said: ‘Thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.’ But the most far reaching decision is the one the Bible says we all have to make even when we don’t want to think about it – to choose what and who we are going to live for.

Posted in Decisions, Life, Life's journey, Life's lessons, Living Life | Leave a comment

Life is too short to wake up with regrets

Posted on January 11, 2018 by vincentsmithauthor

A wise man said that the pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime, and it’s never too late to become what you might have been. Benjamin Mays observed that the tragedy of life is not in failing to reach your goal, but in having no goal to reach. Someone else wrote: ‘Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So, love the people who treat you right; and forget about the ones who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.’
Well, as for me, when I reach the end of my journey I’d like to join the Apostle Paul who said, ‘This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is God’s applause!’

Posted in Life, Life's journey, Life's lessons, Living Life, Meaning in life | Leave a comment