Saturday 18 January 2014

Blessed is the Soul of the Diligent

Posted by Admin GoodNews2Us | Posts under : Perkongsian

Blessed is the Soul of the Diligent

Blessed is the Soul of the Diligent
Walk with God in the Dark
Learn Spiritual-Reality from the Ant and the Grasshopper Story (Retold)

Posted: 17 Jan 2014 07:57 AM PST

"Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it and will follow it. Labor is life; from the inmost heart of the worker rises his God-given force, the sacred, celestial life-essence breathed into him by almighty God" (Thomas Carlyle).

Thomas Edison sent the following recommendations to a youth assembly that requested a message from him:

1) Always be interested in whatever you undertake.

2) Don't mind the clock, but keeps at it, and let nature indicate the necessity of rest.

3) Failures, so called, are the fingerposts pointing out the right direction to those who are willing to learn.

4) Hard work and genuine interest in everything that makes for human progress will make men and women more valuable and acceptable to themselves and to the world.

"The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied" (Proverbs 13:4, ESV).

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Walk with God in the Dark

Posted: 16 Jan 2014 05:47 AM PST

"For we live by believing and not by seeing" (2 Corinthians 5:7, NLT).

"When we cannot trace God's hand we can trust His heart"

(Charles H. Spurgeon)

A father, seeing three small children playing atop a high fence, feared that they would fall, and so he cried,

"Come, jump into my arms!"

Two of them promptly did so. The other hesitated. Why did the third child reach more slowly? The father explained,

"The first two obeyed immediately because they were my own children. They knew me and therefore trusted me."

So, too, those who truly know and love the Lord never resist His good leading.

So I go on not knowing,

I would not if I might;

I'd rather walk with God in the dark

Than to walk alone in the light;

I had rather walk with Him by faith

Than to walk alone by sight.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Learn Spiritual-Reality from the Ant and the Grasshopper Story (Retold)

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 07:19 PM PST

Remembering, retelling and contextualized an old story by Aesop, a Greek story teller, with new insights in my mind: It was hot weather in Malaysia. A grasshopper was hoping around, enjoying the heat and singing with joy. The grasshopper didn't feel he had a care in the world, and he was enjoying the moment.

An ant passed by the grasshopper carrying a large piece of nut he was attempting to take back to his storeroom. The ant was wondering if he could seek help from his friend the grasshopper. Before the ant could ask for help, the grasshopper suggested,

"Why don't you come and play with me?

You are working way too hard for this fine day."

The ant replied, "I'm gathering food for the rainy reason. It would be best if you started to think about what you are going to do for nourishment during the rainy days."

"Oh, that's unnecessary. Raining won't be that long. It will be fine soon," the grasshopper responded, "and there is always time for things like that. Besides, look around, there's plenty of food to go around."

The ant left, disappointed in his friend, but continued to work. When the rainy season happened, the grasshopper realized that the place where he stayed was about to be flooded – no more food and he had nothing stored for himself. "I should have listened to my friend, the ant," he thought, "Now I will go hungry."

……………………..

There are many lessons we can learn from this story. Here I have two important lessons that I want to share with you:

First, we must learned what God have revealed (and continue to reveals) about Himself and about how to live our lives as His followers from His written Word – the Bible. The grasshopper didn't listen and didn't store food for unexpected long rainy season. When we need to know something – what's right and wrong; true and false; truth and lie – it is often too late to learn. The right concepts of who God is – His characters and attributes – and our believing faith and abiding trust in Him should be learned from His Word continuously by head and heart before the 'rainy season' that may come in the form of troubles, sufferings, persecutions, trials, doubts and discouragements comes into our lives. Well-build faith can stand any weather of life.

Second, we ought not to just learn and apply God's Word in our own lives but we must urgently win souls for Christ. The ant do told the grasshopper about the coming rainy reason, but he wasn't trying hard enough. Surely he was well fed from the corn, grain and nuts he had stored during the fine weather, but he was unable to convince his friend to gather food to survive the long rain, even though it was for the grasshopper's own good. As Christ followers, we must be on mission to tell others about Christ urgently. Missionary, not maintainer, is our way of life. Yes, we need to be saved ourselves, but after we are saved then we need to tell others about the Good News we have in Christ. Convince the lost souls of their sins against God and their needs for the Saviour. Pray that they may repent. Influence them with love displayed by your sincere words and living example under the Lordship of Christ. If we love God, we love people too.

The loving Father, the most awesome Saviour

And the gentle Spirit be with you. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.