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". 

Without God We Are Nothing

 

When GOD wanted to create fish, HE spoke to the sea.

When GOD wanted to create trees, HE spoke to the earth.

But when GOD wanted to create man, HE turned to Himself.

Then GOD said: "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness".

Note:

If you take a fish out of the water it will die; and when you remove a tree from the soil, it will also die.

Likewise, when man is disconnected from GOD, he dies.

GOD is our natural environment. We were created to live in His presence. We have to be connected to Him because it is only in Him that our life exists.

Let's stay connected to GOD.

We recall that water without fish is still water but fish without water is nothing.

The soil without the tree is still soil but the tree without soil is nothing.

GOD without man is still GOD but man without GOD is also nothing.

A Lesson on Gratefulness

 

A young labourer came to a restaurant one evening to have a meal. The owner engaged him in a conversation and found out that he was saving to bring his family to the city so they could get a chance at a better life. He had an aged mother, a wife and two young sons who he hoped to give a good education so they could have a more decent life. He had just arrived at the city and found some menial work at a scrap metal site down the road. It was going to be his only meal of the day and he could only spend a few cents.

The owner was impressed with his hard work and diligence, and his family values. He encouraged the labourer and wrapped his meal for him. He took his order personally and told him that it would cost him 50 cents.

Several years went by and the labourer stopped at the restaurant every evening to get his one meal of the day and chat with the restaurant owner who always encouraged him and asked about his aged mother, his wife and young sons, and how his plans were going.

Finally, the labourer came by one evening with a happy smile on his face. He had bought a modest house in a good neighbourhood with a good school for his boys and he had just sent for his family to join him. 

The restaurant owner was very happy for him and congratulated him. The labourer then told him that he was in a mood to celebrate and he would be spending an entire 5 dollars on his meal that evening. The restaurant owner told him it was well-deserved, wrapped up his meal and he went on his way home.

When the labourer got home and opened up his meal pack, he was shocked to see that it was the same type of food he had been having every day for the last 6 years. He was very disappointed because he had been looking forward to a feast to celebrate his big achievement. He certainly deserved something better after scrimping on his meals all those years. He was mad at the restaurant owner and felt robbed of his money and his celebration. He felt he had been cheated by his very good friend.

He immediately went back to the restaurant to make his complaint. The restaurant owner had already left and he met one of the staff with whom he was quite familiar.

"Say, John, I think you guys gave me the wrong meal pack today. You see, I got this same type of meal every day for 50 cents but today I am celebrating and decided to spend 5 whole dollars at your restaurant. But I was cheated and got just the same meal as every other day!"

"Well, sir, this is our most expensive meal and it costs 5 dollars!"

It suddenly dawned on the labourer that he had not been cheated at all by his friend. In fact, the restaurant owner had been giving him their best meal which cost 5 dollars for 50 cents and for 6 long years! He felt very ashamed of himself for thinking that his good friend had cheated him.

"It's all a misunderstanding then," he said and turned to leave quickly to hide the tears in his eyes.

"One minute, sir," said the staff. "My boss said you are going to come back and that I am to give you this bag."

When the labourer opened the bag, he found all the 50 cents he had ever spent at this restaurant. Unable to hold back the tear now, he sat down on a bench and wept quite unashamedly.

√ He had judged too quickly.

√ He'd felt entitled and a little prideful because of his sense of arrival.

√ He had repaid kindness with suspicion and anger.

√ He had failed to give proper thanks where it was due.

Why?

Because he was not able to see or recognise the hand that was behind the scene helping him all this time! 

Friends, sometimes because we don't yet have a car, a house and some fine things in life, we fail to recognise and appreciate the simple things that God has blessed us daily. And so we become ungrateful and unappreciative and even to a point of being prejudiced upon. We feel that we are entitled to all these good things and we storm to God and file a complaint. When the Lord allows us to have a little achievement in life, we become all bloated up with pride. And then we start to make more demands from God.

But does God condemn us? Is He mad at us? Does He take back everything because of our foolishness? He does not because He understands how limited we are in our spirit.

Like the owner of the restaurant, God is always giving us His very best. During difficult times, He encourages us. During the time, we stumble and fall, He picks us up. Even when we refuse to acknowledge or appreciate His goodness and kindness, He never stops being gracious and kind to us. We may continue to complain and fret but He is patient to listen. In fact, He keeps His storehouse of blessings open for us and gives us even more than we ever deserve.

At this moment, let us give thanks to the Lord and adopt a heart of gratitude by counting all our blessings.

Damaged Healed By Claiming A Word From the Lord

I was asked by a friend whether God could use certain passages so as to speak to one's life. The answer is "yes". Sometimes, God would drop a personal word for us so as to encourage us. 

For example, one of my friends, Rev William Caldwell, was healed of his heart condition because God told him to claim Ezekiel 36:26 - "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

As we know this verse is not about a new physical heart but a spiritual heart for Israel. 

But for Rev Caldwell, it was to mean that God was to heal his damaged physical heart. 

At that time, he was in his early 50s. His family doctor was so shocked because when he examined Rev Caldwell again and again, he just could believe the reading on his equipment.

 Then finally, the doctor who had been treating him for so many years, said out loud that how could his heart perform that way.  

Why? Because Rev Caldwell's heart was beating like that of a healthy 30-year-old man. 

So, that would be known in the Charismatic circle as the "Rhema Word."

The Prodigal Pig

Luke 15:20 - So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (NIV)

As a boy, I worked summers on my uncle's pig farm. Every week, I pumped out the sewage pit running the length of the pig barn with the "honey wagon". 

One particular day, I backed up to the barn and pushed the suction hose between the large grates and into the liquid "soup" below.

Hearing squealing, I ran inside and jumped over the pen to where I had slid the hose down, and looked down to find that a pig had fallen into the "soup"!

I yelled across the yard for someone to "Get my uncle, and come quick!" 

I ran back into the barn, grabbed one of the grates over the sewage pit and swung down into the mess below. The liquid was well over my waist! 

The startled pig started a frantic swim for the far end with me pursuing. At the end of the pit I grabbed him by the ears and started my journey back to the open grate above. 

My uncle lowered a ladder, and I grabbed the slippery pig around his belly and lifted. Partway up the ladder, he kicked up a fight, and we both fell back under the surface. 

Sputtering and exasperated, I grabbed Mr Pig and this time got him high enough so that my uncle could grab him and pull him out. 

I was greeted with howls of laughter for my lifeguard efforts as I stood under the sun and got hosed down in my "birthday suit" to get cleaned off. My clothes were ruined and had to be buried.

I think of the rebellious son in Luke 15 who crested a hill and was spotted by his father "a long way off". Despite the repulsive condition of his son, the father ran to him, fell on his neck, and welcomed him with kisses. Such love surpasses our understanding.

Are you wandering? Do you feel no one notices you, no one cares? God knows and God cares. There is always a way back.

God has welcomed us into His presence. He has cleansed us from our sin through Jesus Christ. He has cleansed us and allowed us to sit in His banqueting house, despite our prodigal ways and the ravages of sin that mark us.

1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (NIV)

Prayer: Father in heaven, help us to cultivate compassion for others in our lives. Help us to realize that with You, there is no such thing as a "disposable" human being. Today, if we are people who are wandering like the "prodigal" of whom Jesus spoke, give us the humility to return to You, to Your ways, to Your Word. Amen.

Don Copp dcopp@canada.com
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Thanks to http://daily.presbycan.ca

The Steamboat Skeptics

When Robert Fulton first showed off his new invention, the steamboat skeptics were crowded on the bank yelling, "It'll never start! It'll never start!" 

It did. It started with a lot of clanking and groaning. 

As the steamboat made it's way down the river, the skeptics were quiet. 

For one minute. Then they started shouting, "It'll never stop! It'll never stop!

New Pastor Walks On Water

The congregation was not certain that the new pastor could do all that the previous, older pastor had done. The Pastor Search Committee decided to put him to the test. 

After the service, everyone went out to the local lake for a picnic. 

After loading all of the picnic supplies into a large boat, the congregation climbed aboard and began to cross the lake to an island. 

Halfway across the lake a member stood up and said, "Oh no, we have forgotten the hot dogs. Someone will have to swim back and get them." 

Realizing he was being put to the test, the new pastor got out of the boat, walked across the water, and retrieved the hot dogs. 

Most of the congregation was stunned but one critic said, "See, I told you, they didn't even send us one who could swim."