A Thought for Today 31-07-2012

Jeremiah 17:7-8

A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.

Obedience is an act of faith; disobedience is the result of unbelief.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

A Thought for Today 30-07-2012

Matthew 13:31-33

 

Jesus put another parable before the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches.’

  He told them another parable, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.’

 

What you believe about God has the greatest potential for good or harm in your life.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 27-07-2012

2. Cor 5:6-10

We are always full of confidence, then, when we remember that to live in the body means to be exiled from the Lord, going as we do by faith and not by sight – we are full of confidence, I say, and actually want to be exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord. Whether we are living in the body or exiled from it, we are intent on pleasing him. For all the truth about us will be brought out in the law court of Christ, and each of us will get what he deserves for the things he did in the body, good or bad.

Attitude determines the altitude of life.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

 

 

A Thought for Today 26-07-2012

Jeremiah 2:12-13 (NIV)

Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Sin is basically a denial of God's right of possession.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

 

A Thought for Today 25-07-2012

2 Corinthians 4:7

We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.

Mediocre men work at their best; men seeking excellence strive to do better.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

 

A Thought for Today 24-07-2012

Matthew 12:46-50

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’

 

The man who seeks to please God is the man who people are pleased with. The man who seeks to please others won't satisfy anyone.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 20-07-2012

Isaiah 38:4-8 (NIV)

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.
“‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. 

Expectancy is the atmosphere for miracles.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

A Thought for Today 19-07-2012

Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus exclaimed, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

 

The yoke you wear determines the burden you bear.
(Edwin Louis Cole)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 18-07-2012

Matthew 11:25-26

Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. 

 

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
(Albert Einstein)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 17-07-2012

Matthew 11:20-22

Jesus began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent.

  ‘Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard on Judgement day with Tyre and Sidon as with you.

Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals.
(Fulton J. Sheen)

 

A Thought for Today 16-07-2012

Matthew 10:34-39

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

  ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

 

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.
(Gilbert K. Chesterton)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 13-07-2012

Hosea 14:10

Let the wise man understand these words.

Let the intelligent man grasp their meaning.

For the ways of the Lord are straight,

and virtuous men walk in them,

but sinners stumble.

 

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
(Gilbert K. Chesterton)

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 12-07-2012

Matthew 10:7-15 (NIRV)

As you go, preach this message, 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal those who are sick. Bring those who are dead back to life. Make those who have skin diseases 'clean' again. Drive out demons. You have received freely, so give freely. 

The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.
(Gilbert K. Chesterton)

 

A Thought for Today 11-07-2012

Hosea 10: 12

Your hearts are as hard as a field that has not been plowed.
If you change your ways you will produce good crops.
So plant the seeds of doing what is right.

Then you will harvest the fruit of your faithful love.
It is time to turn to me.

When you do, I will come and shower my blessings on you.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
(C. S. Lewis)

 

A Thought for Today 10-07-2012

Psalm 115:3-4

Our God, he is in the heavens;

  he does whatever he wills.

The idols of the heathen are silver and gold,

  the work of human hands.

 

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.
(George Bernard Shaw)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Thought for Today 09-07-2012

Matthew 9:18-26

While Jesus was speaking, up came one of the officials, who bowed low in front of him and said, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved.’

If the Resurrection is resurrection from the dead, all hope and freedom are in spite of death.
(Paul Ricoeur)

 

A Thought for Today 06-07-2012

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking on he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.
(Karl Von Clausewitz)

 

A Thought for Today 05-07-2012

Matthew 9:1-2 (NIV)

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.
(Dag Hammarskjold)

 
 

A Thought for Today 04-07-2012

Matthew 8:28-32

When Jesus reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs – creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way. They stood there shouting, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?’ Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding, and the devils pleaded with Jesus, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’ And he said to them, ‘Go then’, and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water. 

An exorcism is tantamount to a miracle - an extraordinary intervention of God.
(Gabriele Nanni)

 

A Thought for Today 03-07-2012

John 20:24-25 (NIV)

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.
(Ambrose Bierce)

A Thought for Today 02-07-2012

Matthew 8:18-22

When Jesus saw the great crowds all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side. One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’

  Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father first.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’

 

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
(Albert Camus)