For Whom Are You Playing?

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."

Perhaps you have read the story told by Coach Bertman, the successful athletic director at Louisiana State University. But it's well worth a reminder in how it helps if we're playing and/or working for someone else. Here's the story as told by Michael Josephson in Character Counts.

"Coach Bertman emphasized the idea that his players were never simply acting for themselves. He reminded them: 'You represent LSU, your family and your Maker.'"

On one occasion "he told a story about a young man named John who played football for Columbia University in the 1930s. Well, actually, John was on the squad because he had a terrific attitude, but he was a bench warmer who hadn't been in a single game.

"During his senior year, John's father died. When he returned from the funeral he asked his coach if he could start in the next game to honor his dad. The coach couldn't refuse, but he warned John that it probably would be only for a few plays.

"To the coach's surprise, John played so well that he was declared the game's most valuable player. When the coach asked John how he was able to play at such a high level after just losing his father, John said, 'You know, coach, my dad came to every game. You probably saw me walking with him holding his arm. That's because he was blind.

Well, I figure today was the first time he ever saw me play. I was playing for my daddy.'"

I'm not going to argue whether John's dad saw his son play or not. But it's certainly true in that whatever we as Christians do, we'll do it better if and when we do it as unto the Lord knowing that he sees all and that he keeps the final score

When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Do not envy sinners

Then Jesus said to his disciples:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Luke 12:22-26 NIV

Should vs Want

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom [liberty]."

Recently we had a critical situation. Joy went interstate to help take care of family matters and assured me that there was no need for me to come. Because I was under a lot of work pressure, it would have been so much easier for me to stay at home. But to me it was important that I go, not because I should, but because I wanted to be with Joy to support her and the family.
Have you ever been in a similar situation and noticed that there is a big difference between "shoulds" and "wants"? If I do certain things only because I should and my heart is not in it, how genuine is that? I am talking more about a type of compulsive "shoulds" that can be very confusing at times.

If you have ever struggled with even mild compulsive "shoulds," how can you tell what is from God, from your own self, or even from the enemy?
Compulsive "shoulds" can come from various sources. They can come from a mental condition in the brain that is inherited, or from an over-dependent need to be popular, accepted and admired. They can come from a neurotic need for approval, from false motives, for payback or even to manipulate others. They can also come from a spirit of legalism which keeps one in terrible bondage.

Or they can come from the enemy—as the old saying goes, "If Satan can't pull us down into a life of sin and debauchery, he will try to push us over the top so we become so "heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use." This was so for me in my youthful days. It was like there was a little voice inside my head that would say, "You better do this or you better not do that. Or you better do that or you better not do this." At the time I thought this inner voice was from God telling me what I should do and what I shouldn't do. It got very confusing at times.

With the help of an understanding pastor, the defining factor for me was this:
Is there a spirit of freedom in what this "inner voice" was "telling" me to do or was it a spirit of bondage? In my heart did I genuinely want to do this or was I being compulsively driven?

If it were the latter, I knew it wasn't a genuine desire in my heart and it wasn't from God because, as God's Word says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom"

Good Read

Being Nice or Being Christian?
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."1
In training for Christian ministry I recall one of my professors stating that every church had a church boss; that is, someone or a small group who, often behind the scenes, control the happenings of the church. This isn't usually the pastor or priest. Today we call these people control freaks. They have a neurotic need to control others in order to feel okay about themselves, when in reality they do this because deep down they don't feel okay about themselves.

William Easum calls them bullies. After years of consulting with churches he said, "I have seen a disturbing pattern: Most established churches are held hostage by bullies. Some individual or small group of individuals usually opposes the church's making any radical change, even if it means the change would give the church a chance to thrive again. Courageous pastors often ask, 'What do I do when one or two persons intimidate the church so much that it is not willing to try something new?'"

Easum's response was either to convert them, neutralize them, or kick them out. To which some cry, "That's not very Christian."

The point is that sometimes (not always, by any means) we Christians are just too nice. That's more because we are too afraid to stand up to bullies and call their bluff—not because we're Christian. We'd rather keep the peace than rock the boat.

True, we are to be loving, but that doesn't mean we always have to be nice. I recall hearing an employer share how he was accused of not being Christian by an inept employee he was firing. So he said to the employee in question, "Well I'm going to lovingly fire you." If, after being given several warnings and help to improve, an employee is not pulling his or her weight, it isn't loving to let him off the hook. In fact, it is reinforcing his irresponsibility, which is anything but loving. Neither is it loving to allow bullies to control a church.

So let's not confuse loving with being nice.

Jesus was always loving and compassionate as this was his nature, but he wasn't always nice.

Think how he turned over the tables of the money changers—merchants who were ripping off the poor in the house of God, no less—and drove them out of the temple with a whip, and how he scathingly scorned the religious bigots who loved their doctrines more than they loved people, and used their teachings to control people for their own ends.

Jesus knew the value of tough love. Not that it's easy. In fact, it can be very difficult, but we need to exercise it too when such is called for.

In good times and bad times

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity;

in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry,

both of having abundance and suffering need.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:12,13 NASB

Can you guess who this is???

Watch the entire video and identify the person whom you guys know very well...in fact this person is one of us....:))) ...Guess who???

It is not a joke...it is for real!!!

I am confused.

Saw this recently and am rather confused. Can anyone enlighten me whether it is alright to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to GOD as indicated below?

And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant-

These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

Isaiah 56:6-7 NIV

Doing God's work the experiential way.

Guys, I think it is a brilliant idea to inform, spread and to teach God's words through the experiential way!

Why not we do the same as what the Museum (see below) did by creating inspiring experiences for those who do not know GOD yet?

Any takers?

The movie Night at the Museum portrays the humorous experiences of a security guard at a natural history museum. The excitement begins for him when the displays come to life at night.

Inspired by this movie, directors of a real museum created a similar experience. The staff
portrayed historic figures such as knights in armor, Victorian ladies, and Egyptian royalty. When children arrived at the museum, they were told that the people in the exhibits had come alive and needed to be led back to their proper place. As the children responded, history came alive for them.

Children need not be bored by history. This is especially true of Bible stories. Take Moses, for example. He escaped death as a child, was educated as a prince, worked miracles, and received the Ten Commandments on tablets. What exciting story elements that teach children about God!

Biblical stories have been shared with children for generations—all the way back to the times of Exodus (ch.12–13) and Deuteronomy (ch.6). Moses described times when children were retold vital stories from Jewish history.

Why not set a time to read Bible stories to the children in your life? Then watch their excitement as biblical history comes alive!

The stories in the Word of God Are there for us to see How God has worked in people’s lives throughout all history.

The Bible’s treasures are found by those who dig for them

Never Say Never when it comes to what GOD can do

A Story from the Daily Bread...May 29 2010 by David C McCasland

While a friend and I walked along the path of the former Berlin Wall, he told me, “This is one of those ‘never say never’ places in my life.”

He explained that during the years when the Wall divided the city, he had made a dozen trips through Checkpoint Charlie to encourage members of the church living under continuing surveillance and opposition in East Germany. More than once, he had been detained, questioned, and harassed by the border guards.

In 1988, he took his teenage children to West Berlin and told them, “Take a good look at this wall, because someday when you bring your children here, this wall will still be standing.” A year later it was gone.

When Saul of Tarsus began to attack the followers of Jesus, no one could have imagined that he would ever become a disciple of Christ. “Never. Not a chance.” Yet Acts 9:1-9 records the story of Saul’s blinding encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Within a few days of that life-changing event, Saul was preaching in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus was the Son of God, to the astonishment of all who heard him (vv.20-21).

When it comes to God’s work in the most difficult people we know, we should never say “never.”
God’s power cannot be confinedTo what you think is possible;So when it comes to changing lives—Imagine the impossible. —Sper

Never say never when it comes to what God can do

Questions and GOD's answers

An African proverb states, “The one who asks questions doesn’t lose his way.” That concept can be helpful as we consider David’s questions in the Psalms. He was clearly seeking God’s guidance for the way he should go.

Look, for example, at some of the questions he asked:
“O Lord—how long?” (6:3). A question of eagerness to see God’s plan accomplished.

“What is man that You are mindful of him?” (8:4). A question of awe that God even cares about sinful man.

“Why do You hide in times of trouble?” (10:1). A question that reveals a longing for God’s presence.

“Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” (15:1). The ultimate question of who may live with God.

David had some tough questions for God. He had discovered what it was like to lose his way when he excluded God and followed his own sinful path. But as he penned the Psalms, he was a man in search of godliness, which meant he probed God’s mind about difficult subjects.

Questions.
Like David, you have them. Keep asking. Then, through faith in God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit, listen as He leads you in His way.

My mind cries its questions, My longing heart, joining: O Father, please hear me! O Spirit, keep teaching! —Verway

It’s good to have questions, but it’s even better to search for God’s answers.

DREAMS

Dreams.
Do they have meaning and purpose? Does God still speak to people through them?

Technically speaking, dreams are the right or creative side of the brain communicating to the left or logical side of the brain. They are often visual symbols representing what we are feeling deep inside.

Clinical tests have shown that we all dream every night even if we don't remember what we have dreamed. Dreaming is one of nature's ways to relieve tension. In one test, sleepers were monitored with electronic equipment to show when they were dreaming. As soon as they started to dream, they were awakened and the dream stopped. The test had to be discontinued after several nights as the people in the test were becoming too emotionally distressed.

Some dreams can be caused by an emotional upset; others by stress or physical pain. For several days, following an operation on my Achilles tendon, which I snapped twice in three months, I kept dreaming over and over that I was falling and snapping my tendon. These were more like nightmares!

At other times dreams can be very insightful. For instance, some dreams have clearly shown me conflicts from childhood that I needed to resolve. When we have repeated dreams on a theme—such as when we are trying to run from something but can't move, or when we are being chased but can't get away, or falling and can't catch ourselves—it may indicate an unresolved fear or conflict from the past. It's nature's way of notifying us that we need to resolve some long forgotten memory.

But does God ever speak to us today through dreams as he did in Bible times to the patriarchs and prophets?

At times I think God still uses dreams to communicate to us. On one occasion when my organization (ACTS International) was facing a severe financial crisis, I was feeling very afraid and discouraged, and fell asleep during my morning devotional time when I had a fascinating dream.

In the dream I heard a voice that said very clearly, "Philippians 4:18 makes sense to me."

Immediately I woke up, opened my Bible to that passage and read the following: "I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied!"

I had never memorized that Scripture verse so it didn't come from my memory bank! That certainly encouraged me and, by way of interest, we did survive that crisis.

Some dreams may be from God. Most aren't. However, the ability to dream is. And we have been given them for a purpose—at least to relieve stress and to gain insights for personal and spiritual growth.

The difficulty can be in interpreting them correctly. However, through prayer and practice we can learn to do this and use these dreams creatively.

"Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."1

Dreams not only give valuable personal insights but also have given many creative insights. Some inventors, for example, have received profound ideas from dreams. I recall reading how the inventor, Elias Howe, designed the first sewing machine. He was having great difficulty in conceiving a workable needle. When he was close to running out of money, he had an unusual dream. He dreamt that he was about to be executed because he failed to design a sewing machine for the king of a strange country.

In his dream he was surrounded by guards, all of whom held spears that had been pierced with holes near the tip. Howe woke up and immediately rushed to his workshop. The perfect concept for the sewing machine needle came to him in this dream. Within a few hours the first sewing machine was well on the way to being designed.

I have heard it said that the theory of relativity came to Einstein in either a dream or a vision. Apparently he saw it on a beam of light. I have also read that the design for the first radio tube came to the inventor in a dream.

Was it time for these discoveries to come into the world and did God give them to the persons who were trained to understand them and put them to use? Or did they just happen by chance? I prefer to think the former.

So whatever we think about dreams, as we said yesterday, they are a God-given gift in that he gave us the ability to dream. Whether we repress them as many do, ignore them as most do, or use them for creative purposes as some do is entirely up to each individual.

To remember dreams it can be very helpful to keep a pen and pad at your bedside and record any dream that makes a strong impression on your mind. Speaking personally, dreams have given me many valuable insights for growth and recovery.

Faith 2 by Natalie Chong

Thanks Natalie

Faith as contributed by Natalie Chong

More to come .....