The Worse Failure:

The worst failure…is failure to try

“Be strong and of good courage…for the Lord your God is with you.” Joshua 1:9 NKJV

It’s impossible to live successfully without taking risks. Leo Buscaglia wrote: “To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement…To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk being called naïve. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing…

Only the person who risks is truly free.”

Franklin Roosevelt spent much of his life battling illness and was confined to a wheelchair. Yet he became one of America’s greatest presidents. He said: “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” In The Pursuit of Excellence, 

Ted W. Engstrom gives this advice about the importance of trying: “Starting today, you can begin to enjoy using and developing your gifts…If you’ve always wanted to write, then write something, a short article, a poem, an account of your vacation. Write it as if you were going to be published; then submit it somewhere. If you’re a photographer, gather your best pictures together and submit them as entries in a contest. If you think you’re a fair tennis player or golfer, enter some tournaments and see how you do. You may not win the top prize but think how much you’ll learn and experience just by trying.

 The worst failure…is failure to try!”

SoulFood: Ruth 1–4 Matt 11:1–19 Ps 88:1–9a Pro 13:1–3

My Gratitude to Vision.org.au for this daily reading.

(From Digital Anvil )

Vision: Do You have One?

Vision:

Do you have a vision for your life-journey ?

If not, why don't you reconsider your stance ?

Of course-- you might be tempted to think that a vision- for - your - life is for companies, CEOs, politicians, athletes,Billionaires, etc. While that is certainly true, Vision is for every man, woman and child.

I'm not referring to the everyday needs or  the personal needs of individuals, families and the tasks of everyday life.

 

If you are a believer or better, a follower of Jesus, then commence praying for someone else to devise a way to help you to obtain the know-how to seek a Vision ? But then recognise God may want you to be your own answer to you're seeing the Vision.  You pray for His help to establish your own.

 

So what do i mean? 

I mean the personal 'hidden'  ( unannounced  ) desirable needs, the unmet needs of individuals and people groups everywhere and anywhere.

Here is the simplest definition  for which a vision- for-your -life is:

Seeing a need and meeting that need.

I'll repeat that:

Meeting a need after you (personally) see that need.

This is the flame of the Vision - for - your - life  - journey. It ignites your life more fully, more purposefully and more expansively. It supplies the openly achieved and assured  outcome, meaningfully for you and me.

I want to encourage you,the reader, to engage in looking around,observing those events, people and places that your sight and heart is impacted by. To met the otherwise hidden needs around you and me.

Discover those around  and be the person that  meet their 'hidden' from seeing needs.

Discover your unused talents, gifts and skills while continuing your journey to that remote but inevitable destination.

It doesn't necessarily mean starting a massive global movement but you could be a part of one or see a local person who needs their lawn mowed.

It doesn't need to be a massive financial gift but a small block of chocolate could suffice.  A meal could or a drink could ensure survival of a nation in the making. Cheerfully giving a smile  and a warm, reassuring word could prevent desperate, hidden plans for an untimely end.

Creating the circumstances that apply to the emergence of a couple whose desire is to start a tiny family but need that guiding voice and hand only you can supply.

Bravo, encourage and supply them.

Remember that simple definition:

Seeing a need and meeting that need.

By Digital Anvil.

Get What You Need, Not What You Want

What is it that you want from God today? What are you praying for? What are you seeking, and what do you want God to do for you?

For some, you are desperately praying for healing, restitution, or recovery for someone you love.

Others are seeking a new start or a relationship or a job. Prayers that seem fair, reasonable and justified.

There are times when the answer we seek may not be the answer we need. God may not be giving you what you want because He has something different in mind - an outcome that is deeper, richer and more significant than you can even presently imagine.

Pray that God will give you what you need, rather than just what you want.

Share this daily reading.

My earnest thanks to Karl Faase and Olive Tree Media!

( from Daily Anvil )

Grace: ( A Change of Heart )

 Grace: 

 

( A Change of Heart )

  

Some years ago I underwent a heart procedure. My heartbeat had the regularity of a telegraph operator sending, Morse code. Fast. fast fast. Slooooow. After several failed attempts to restore healthy rhythm with medication, my doctor decided that i  should have a catheter ablation. The plan went like this: a cardiologist would insert two cables in my heart via a blood vessel. One was a camera: the other was an ablation tool. To ablate is to burn. Yes burn, cauterize, singe, brand. If all went well, the doctor, to use his coinage, would destroy the "misbehaving" parts of my heart. As I was being wheeled into surgery, he asked if I had any final questions. (Not the best choice of words.) I tried to be witty. You're burning the interior of my heart, right?"

"Correct."

"You intend to kill the misbehaving cells, yes?"

"That is my plan." "As long as you are in there, could you take your little blow- torch to some of my greed, selfishness, superiority, and guilt?" He smiled and answered, "Sorry, that's out of my pay grade." Indeed it was, but it's not out of God's. He is in the business of changing hearts.

Courtesy of the book: Grace by Author Max Lucado. ThomasNelson.( Publishers)

(Page 5)

One of the Christian World's favourite Authors: Max Lucado.

An Entity, An Alien and A Super Man:

"Goodness is its own reward."

So they say, but what happens when a life- journey becomes a struggle event after a struggle event.

You and i cannot always control the outcome.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

Again, so they say!

But sometimes the universe calls our bluff and sometimes the universe sends struggle to teach us a " lesson."

What's gotten into the universe?

Is the universe "good"or "bad"?

Both?

What decides ?

Why believe something that consists of star matter, empty limitless space and infinite time to help you and me ?

Anyway,How does the universe send help to you and me ? Where in the universe does that help come from ?

Even at the speed of light, which is the fastest thing in the universe, consider the satellite Voyager  is at the moment a day of light speed-ing away ? How can that bring  help for you and me arrive in time for our daily needs ? If it comes from the centre of the universe, then it shall take billions of years before timely help arrives. Too slow,no go.

It's not a beneficial person or a supernatural being or a strange alien race !

Its unfeeling,unthinking universe.

 Is there a pool of sanity in a universe of star- stuff, infinite space and endless time?

 Parents are raising  children with the best stuff ,money and Love can obtain.

Can the universe cuddle to sleep a crying baby or help a stressed teenage Mum? An accident occurs at home, who calls the ambulance, or summons the doctor.

How on earth does the universe help ?

Here is - surely - an answer: A super person, a personal being,a supernatural entity that surpasses  or transcends matter,space and time. An alien being, All powerful, all knowing, everywhere at the same time yet outside Einsteinian space/time continuum.

Of course that being, if an Alien, with a short body, large head with bug eyes might just help a devoted grandmother to cut up pears and smash them for baby food. But you and I would probably jump not for joy but out of our bodies in alarm.

So an alien race cannot be of use.  What about a superman ?

Superman is too busy busting criminals, rescuing stranded lift passengers and on and on. He is one man, who can do one thing at a time.

So what being, a supra- natural all- Knowing,all- Loving, all- Powerful beyond- the -norm personal Being.

Where do we seek this lovely super being ? He is as close as your heartbeat,your intake of oxygen. As close as a kiss on your forehead.

He commands the life of the cosmos.

He rises with the stars but opens the mouth of a new born with that lusty cry. He sustains the energy of the living. He sustains all life.

He is beyond anything you and anyone can ever imagine. Yet knowable as hearing, seeing and as understanding you and me.

He is GOD... and he wants to help you and me.

by Digital Anvil.

Companionship:

When you long for companionship

“Then the Lord God made a woman…and he brought her to the man.” 

--Genesis 2:22 NIV

 

God recognised our need for companionship when He said, “‘It is not good for the man to be alone’…Then…God made a woman…and he brought her to the man” (vv. 18, 22 NIV). Most of us are social beings who are at our best around others. We garner energy and support from them. But there are those who feel a sense of shame over admitting their loneliness. They long for people to share their lives with but feel they must pretend they don’t need anyone.

You should not feel shame for wanting love and social connection. 

Admitting your desire to be loved and taking a step toward involvement actually requires courage. Accepting that you are a person who needs to connect is healthy. 

But problems arise when your need for companionship controls you. When you compromise your values in order to be accepted, the results are always negative. Clinging to other people without understanding who they are or what they represent is unhealthy. And the ramifications can have not only lifelong effects but sometimes also life-threatening consequences. Wise decisions about relationships are never to be made with a mind ruled by fear of loneliness or desperation. If that’s where you are, being single is a better alternative right now. It need only be temporary.

 

 So do these three things: (1) Ask God to guide you: “God sets the lonely in families” (Psalm 68:6 NIV). (2) Live by the values you’d want your loved one to hold as well. (3) Start with what you have to give and share with others, rather than with your unmet needs.

Soul Food: Deut 30:1–32:28 Matt 10:1–10 Ps 62 Pro 12:18–19

(Magnificently) many thanks to Vision.org.au

( from Digital Anvil)

Hyderabad Church:

 

 Optimism and Praise is warranted

 

 

These are photos of a big church in Hyderabad,India.

It holds about ~79,000s in the congregation. Most are poor to many middle class to some extremely rich Indians.

Outside of the Western nations like Australia, USA and Europe, this is one of the biggest.

I thought India was all Hindu and various cults and a tiny bit of Christianity. 

But--thank GOD-I was wrong.

By Digital Anvil.