Sunday, April 30, 2006

Love, y'all

We must grow in love and in order to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts -- the way Jesus did. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.
-Mother Teresa

Love has nothing to do with what you are expected to get. It's what you are expected to give.This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins... And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
- 1 John 4:10, 16

Love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
-Mark 12:30-31

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
-John 15:7-8

Love is Patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
-1 Corinthians 13

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
- Ephesians 2:8-9

Now, that's Love.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Prayer

Mind how you pray. Make real business of it. Let it never be a dead formality.
- Charles Spurgeon

Prayer doesn't change God, but it changes him who prays.
- Soren Kierkegaard

The less I pray the harder it gets, the more I pray the better it goes.
- Martin Luther

When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.- Matthew 6:7

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Light in the Window

The Light in the Window
By Scott Trammell
April 5, 2006


Before going to bed last night, I turned out the lights just before heading upstairs. It was then that I noticed something different. There was a light shining in our living room that hadn’t been there before. As I stood in front of our living room’s big picture window, I discovered there was a street light in front of our house.

We’d always known that street light was there, we just hadn’t given it much thought until now. You see, the previous night, we experienced one of those severe Central Indiana storms and our giant evergreen, shaped like an oversized Christmas Tree, had been blown over during the storm. The high winds snapped the one foot diameter trunk about six feet above the ground. By the grace of God, no one was hurt and the tree landed on our neighbor’s driveway, so there was no damage to anyone’s home or property. We had the tree and stump removed and now all that’s left is the large blank area where that massive tree once stood. That tree had been somewhat of a landmark on our street. It was easy to find our home, “just look for the giant Christmas Tree”.

But now, with the tree gone, there’s a light shining through our front window. Strange how something so big and prominent, and even beautiful, in our lives can block so much light. How often do we let seemingly big things get in the way of God’s light in our lives? Oh, that “thing” may be big and beautiful and seem like such an important part of our life, but once it is removed (perhaps by an “Act of God”) we can finally see the light. God’s light.

Jesus said “I am the light of the world”, and the Bible tells us that we are to be beacons of light. It is up to us to show God’s “light” to a dying world. So, what is standing in your way? What is it that is keeping God’s light from shining through you? After all, there is nothing more important than shining God’s love on everyone we know.

Let your light shine!