See Life From A Better Perspective

A writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing:

Last year, I had surgery and my gall bladder was removed. I had to remain in bed for a duration of time due to that surgery.

In the same year, I reached the age of 60 and had to give up my favorite job. I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.

Then during the same year, I experienced the sorrow of the death of my father.

And in the same year, my son failed his medical examination because he had a serious car accident. He had to be hospitalized and subsequently, wore a cast on his legs for months. The car was totally damaged and that was a great loss too.

At the end, he wrote: "Alas! It was such a bad year!"

When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad and lost in his thoughts. From behind his back, she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it by the side of her husband's writing.

The writer read her paper silently.

Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain.

I turned 60 with good health and a sound mind. And I retired from my job and now I can utilize my time to write something that I like to write and with more focus and peace.

The same year, my father, at the age of 95, went to see our Creator. He was healthy throughout and had no need to depend upon anyone to care for him.

During the same year, God had blessed my son with a new life. I am forever thankful that my son survived the car accident with only a broken leg. Though my car was totally damaged, the insurance gave me enough money to put as a deposit for a new car. 

Last year was filled with the immense blessings of God and it was a great year.

The writer stood up and hugged his wife.

"Thank you, my darling, for helping me to see life from a different perspective". 

Andrew Murray - A Minister of the Spirit

Andrew Murray, 1828-1917

Andrew Murray was one of four children....their father was a pastor. Andrew was raised in remote Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Educated in Scotland and Holland, in 1848 Andrew, Jr., returned to South Africa as a missionary and minister with the Dutch Reformed Church. His first appointment was to Bloemfontein, a territory of nearly 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people.

Andrew and his brother had been in contact with a revival movement in Scotland, an evangelical extension of the Second Great Awakening in America. He prayed for the same sort of awakening for the church in South Africa and wrote, "My prayer is for revival, but I am held back by the increasing sense of my own unfitness for the work. I lament the awful pride and self complacency that have till now ruled my heart. O that I may be more and more a minister of the Spirit."

In 1860, revival did come to the churches of Cape Town, South Africa, and spread to surrounding towns and villages. Even remote farms and plantations were impacted as lives were changed. Where once the churches had not been able to find one man to be a leader for God, the revival raised up 50 in Murray's Cape Town parish alone. There were more conversions in one month in that parish than in the whole course of its previous history.

Greatly concerned for the spiritual guidance of new converts and renewed Christians, Andrew Murray wrote over 240 books. His writings reflect his own longing for a deeper life in Christ and his prayer that others would long for and experience that life as well. 


Christian Connection Network

Clinging On To Grandpa's Leg

I remember one night when I was taking care of a couple of our grandchildren. It was late in the evening, but since grandfathers usually let their grandchildren stay up longer than they should, they were still awake. 

We were laughing, messing around, and having a great time together when we suddenly heard a knock on the door. Not the doorbell, but a mysterious knocking. Immediately one of my grandsons grabbed hold of my arm. 

"It's OK," I said. The knock came again, and I started to the door. My grandson followed me, but he hung on to my left leg and hid behind me as I opened the door.

It was one of my son's friends who had dropped by unexpectedly. After the person had left and I'd closed the door, my grandson, still holding on to my leg, said in a strong voice, "Bubba, we don't have anything to worry about, do we?" 

And I said, "No, we don't have anything to worry about. Everything's fine." 

You know why he was strong? Because he was hanging on to protection. As long as he was clinging to grandfather's leg, he didn't have to worry about a thing.

Charles R. Swindoll