Archive for December 2009
Simple Truths On Love
Posted on: December 25, 2009
I promise a friend that I will post about falling in and out of love this week, according to her it’s what she needs right now. It’s Christmas and as the song goes, “Give love on Christmas day… no greater gift is there than love…” If you’re hoping for a very special love this season, the Bible says that “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18
I have love you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness. – Jeremiah 31:3I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. – Hosea 2:19-20
The following were excerpts from the book Simple Truth by Kevin Nerburn. All Bible verses inserted were taken from the New International Version.
On Love
It is a mystery why we fall in love. It is a mystery how it happens. It is a mystery when it comes. It is a mystery why some loves grow and it is a mystery why some loves fail. You can analyze this mystery and look for reasons and causes but you will never do any more than take the life out of the experience.
Love is more than the sum of the interests and attractions and commonalities that two people share. And just as life itself is a gift that comes and goes in its time, the coming of love must be taken as an unfathomable gift that cannot be questioned in its way.
Too often, when love comes to people, they try to grasp the love and hold it to them, refusing to see that it is a gift freely given and a gift that just as freely moves away. When they fall out of love, or the person they love feels the spirit of love leaving, they try desperately to reclaim the love that is lost rather than accepting the gift for what it was.
They want answers where there are no answers. They want to know what is wrong with them or they try to get their lover to change, thinking that if some small things were different love would bloom again. They try anything to give meaning to what has happened. But there is no meaning beyond the love itself, and until they accept its own mysterious ways they live in a sea of misery.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. – Isaiah 43:18
For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. – Ecclesiastes 8:6
You need to treat what love brings you with kindness.
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. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
If you find yourself in love with someone who does not love you, be gentle with yourself. There is nothing wrong with you. Love just didn’t choose to rest in the other person’s heart.
Do not arouse or awaken love, until it so desires. – Song of Songs 2:7
If you find someone else in love with you toward whom you feel no love, feel honored that love come and called at your door, but gently refused the gift you cannot return. Do not take advantage, do not cause pain. How you deal with love is how love will deal with you, and all our hearts fell the same pain and joys, even if our lives and ways are very different.
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love,
it would utterly be scorned. – Song of Songs 7:6-7
If you fall in love with another who falls in love with you, and then love chooses to leave, do not try to reclaim it or to assess blame, let it go. There is a reason and there is a meaning. You will know it in time, but time itself will choose the moment.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. – Ecclesiastes 3:11
Remember this and keep it in your heart. You don’t choose love. Love chooses you. All you can really do is accept it for all its mystery when it comes into your life. Feel the way it fills you to overflowing, then reach out and give it away. Give it back to the person who brought it to you. Give it to others who seem poor in spirit. Give it to the world around you in any way you can.
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.
In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first love us. – 1 John 4:16-19
Love has its own time, its own season, and its own reasons for coming and going. You cannot bride it or coerce it or reason it into staying. If it chooses to leave, from your heart or from the heart of your lover, there is nothing you can do and nothing you should do. Be glad that it came to live for a moment in your life, if you keep your heart open, it will surely come again.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
I would like to dedicate this post to my husband… whatever is your passion… go for it. I believe God is committed to your development. How do you know what’s your passion? Whatever burns in your heart… whether you’re awake or asleep, whether you eat or drink… it is there. Sometimes our passion hibernates especially at times when there’s no fire to keep them burning but it will always comes back to you hoping for another chance to be lived by you.
The following excerpts were taken from the book Simple Truths by Kevin Nerburn (bible verses were inserted by me).
On Work
Choose your work carefully.
No matter how much you might believe that your work is nothing more than what you do to make money, your work makes you who you are, because it is where you put your time.
We are what we do, and the more we do it, the more we become it. You should think of work as vocation, which comes from the Latin word for calling, which comes from the word for voice. Work should be something that call to you, that gives voice to who you are and what you want to say in the world.
Finding a vocation is not easy.
You can’t really know what it is you want to do by thinking about it. You have to do it and see how it fits. You have to let the work take you over until it becomes you and you become it. Then you have to decide whether to embrace it or abandon it. No amount of security is worth the suffering of a life lived chained to a routine that has killed your dreams. Find what it is that burns in your heart and do it. Choose a vocation not a job.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called… Ephesians 4:1
On Travel
You should listen to these echoes. Take the chances and follow the voices that call you to distant places. Live, if only for a short time, the life of a traveler. It is a life you will always cherish and never forget.
The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveler. – Job 31:32
Travel does not have to be some dreamlike and foreign destination. It can take you on an evening stroll through a distant forest or to a park bench in a town a hundred miles from your home. What matters is that you have left the comfort of the familiar and opened yourself to a world that is totally apart from your own.
If we don’t offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes don’t lift to the horizon, we don’t hear the sounds around us. The edge is off our experience and we pass our days in a routine that is both comfortable and limiting.
Take the chances a traveler has to take. In the end you will be so much richer, so much stronger, so much clearer, so much happier, and so much a better person that all the risk and hardship will seem like nothing compared to the knowledge and wisdom you have gained.
The following excerpts were taken from the book The Simple Truths by Kevin Nerburn. I want to share these especially at this time of the year where money is of utmost important and giving is on top of everyone’s list. I interjected some bible verses where they also said the same thing. Have a blessed Christmas to all! Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.
On Money
Imagine two different people. The first builds his life around his desires. He has an internal accounting system that projects the amount of money he needs to meet his desires, and he feels he is poor unless he has that much.
A party gives laughter,
wine gives happiness,
and money gives everything! (Ecclesiastes 10:19 NLT)
On the basic level of money, this man feels poor unless he can fill in the distance between his present position and his fantasies with the money necessary to bring those fantasies to life. He may be a millionaire, but if his fantasies run into the billions, in his own mind he is poor.
Another person, who sees money as a simple tool of moving through life, will feel comfortable if she has a dollar more than she needs in her pocket, and positively rich if she has ten dollars more than she needs.
The difference between these two people does not lie in their actual wealth. It lies in their psychological relationship to money. They may have exactly the same amount of money but one measures money against desires, the other measures it against needs.
So how should you deal with money? There are some basic guidelines to keep in mind.
The first is this: It is important to know how to be poor as it is to know how to be rich. It means not getting up in what is lacking, but finding meaning in what you have. It means knowing how to live with style and creativity without basing your life on money.
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)
A second guideline is this: Stay away from debt in your personal life. Debt not poverty, is the greatest enemy of financial well-being and peace of mind.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV)
This is a third guideline: Money tends to move away from those who try to hoard it, and toward those who share it. People who speak the same language tend to find each other.
Who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken. (Psalm 15:5 NIV)
A fourth guideline to keep in mind is that money comes and goes. You must not be immobilized by the fear of losing it. Money is nothing more than a commodity. It is the spirit of exchange that animates money and gives it meaning. Be a giver and a sharer, all else will take care of itself.
On Possessions
We wake up one day and find ourselves surrounded by possessions that mean nothing to us. Our freedom is gone; our lightness of being is gone. In their place is a sense of responsibility and ownership.
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:21-26 NIV)
We must always remember that possessions have no inherent value. They become what we make them. If they increase our capacity to give, they become something good. If they increase our focus on ourselves and become standards by which we measure other people, they become something bad.
They are chameleons that change from fantasies into responsibilities once you hold them in your hand, because they take your eye from the heavens and rivet it squarely on the earth. And when the objects accumulate, do what you must to free yourself from their false importance. Give away what you don’t use.
Listen to the quieter wisdom that says you will value your possessions more if you have fewer of them, and that you will find deeper meaning in human sharing than in the accumulation of goods. If you build up possessions just as the logical outcome of pursuing your desires, you will lose your wings to fly.
On Giving
Giving is a miracle than can transform the heaviness of hearts. Too often we are blind to this everyday miracle. If you perform these simple acts, little by little you will start to understand the miracle of giving. You will begin to see the unprotected human heart and the honest smiles of human happiness. You will start to feel what is common among us, not what separates and differentiates us.
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. (Proverbs 28:27 NIV)He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty. (Proverbs 22:16 NIV)
Before long you will discover that you have the power to create joy and happiness by your simplest gestures of caring and compassion. You will see that you have the power to unlock the goodness in other people’s hearts by sharing the goodness in yours.
And most of all, you will find the other givers. No matter where you live or where you travel, whether you speak their language or know their names you will know them by their small acts, and they will recognize you by yours. You will become part of the community of humanity that trust and shares and dares to reveal the softness of its heart. Once you become a giver you will never be alone.
Many seek favors from a ruler;
everyone is the friend of a person who gives gifts! (Proverbs 19:6 NLT)Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV)
Random Thoughts
Posted on: December 7, 2009
I’ve written the following reflections somewhere back in time. When I look back, I can’t help but smile…God is proven to be faithful. If you can see yourself as you read every line in this post, remember Job… Job’s suffering only lasted about 9 months; it was not years as I previously thought.
And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. – Job 42:17
Praise God that we now have Jesus as our mediator unlike in Job’s days:
“For He is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him. And that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both.” – Job 9:33
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because As He is, so are we in this world. – 1 John 4:17
Read on…..
About Waiting
Do not arouse love or awaken it until it so desires. She’ll have it’s time. A butterfly coming out from its moth, a snake shedding its skin, a scalded skin-healing…you don’t force this things to happen quickly…it will be ruined. You’ll have to wait and he has to summon the courage at the right time. You’ll know it is the right time when he has spoken…then embraced it, the truth has arrived and nothing can ever take it away from you again.
About The Future
My thoughts are not your thoughts nor My ways your ways. There’s nothing you can do to understand the future – I am the future…believe and trust, don’t stop laughing and loving.
MY NAME IS I AM
by Helen Mallicoat
I was regretting the past
and fearing the future
Suddenly my Lord was speaking,
“My name is I AM.
When you live in the past,
with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WAS.
When you live in the future,
with its problems and fears,
it is hard, I am not there.
My name is not I WILL BE
When you live in this moment,
it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM.”
A Time For Everything
You’ll see the light of day before fall begins, before summer ends. The sky is always at its darkest just before the break of dawn.
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven… A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance… A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love…
About Trials
I know that you’re getting tired of going thru the same trial each time. If I could pick you up in your tribulation, I would but I won’t for I know that you’ll be victorious. Keep your lessons well, let not your sufferings go to waste. It’s only but a little while…you’ll find rest soon…and be ready for my work. What you’ve been willing to your life will now unfolds itself. Wait with an expectant heart. Rejoice always. Don’t feel guilty, you’re not doing something that disappoints me. Keep your self-control.
About Trust
I feel trapped. I want to start all over again. I know that there is a reason for feeling like this. What I do not know is how long should I stay feeling like this. He’s contained me that I may shout my praise to Him. There’s this deep sadness in my heart that I may worship Him, truly worship Him.
I feel God’s closeness to me, really close. God is good, God is great. He’s awesome, beautiful and faithful in every way. My mind could not understand whatever He’s putting in my heart but I guess I don’t have to understand, I just need to trust Him and wait for Him.
Footprints In The Sand
There are many paths, and the sea looks different from each of them. Follow the path that I have set for you, it is the right one for you. All your sufferings, all your trials…didn’t go to waste…it has served its purpose. Do not be afraid, you have what you need, you have been trained. Always abide in Me that My presence will guide you in everything you do. Temptation will brushed on you but it will not cause you to fall down. Keep a tight grasp on Me.
“Surely the Lord does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” – Amos 3:7
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