There once was a bunch of tiny frogs, who arranged a running competition.
The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants... The race began... Honestly: No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as: "Oh, WAY too difficult!! They will NEVER make it to the top." or: "Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!" The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher... The crowd continued to yell "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!" More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn’t give up! At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who after a big effort was the only one who reached the top! THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it? A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal? It turned out. That the winner was DEAF!!!! The wisdom of this story is: Never listen to other people’s tendencies to be negative or pessimistic cause they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you. The ones you have in your heart! Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions! Therefore: ALWAYS be… POSITIVE! And above all: Be DEAF when people tell YOU that YOU can not fulfil YOUR dreams! Always think: I can do this! He took our suffering on him and felt our pain for us. Isa 53:4 Jesus knows how you feel. You're under the gun at work? Jesus knows how you feel. You've got more to do than is humanly possible? So did he. People take more from you than they give? Jesus understands. Your teenagers won't listen? Your students won't try? Jesus knows how you feel. You are precious to him. So precious that he became like you so that you would come to him. When you struggle, he listens. When you yearn, he responds. When you question, he hears. He has been there. 'n Man sit een aand rustig in sy gemakstoel in die sitkamer en koerant lees. Aandete was verby, die kinders was gebad en in die bed en sy vrou was elders in die huis besig.
Die volgende oomblik is daar 'n klop aan die deur en toe hy oopmaak, staan Jesus voor hom. Hy was baie bly om Jesus te sien en nooi hom vriendelik in en vra hom om te sit. Terwyl hulle nog gesels, is daar weer 'n klop aan die deur. Die man maak die deur oop en voor hom staan die Duiwel. Die man sê toe dat hy Jesus as gas het en dat die Duiwel dadelik moet weggaan en met die maak hy die deur toe. Na 'n rukkie is daar weer 'n klop aan die deur. Weer staan die Duiwel voor die deur. Die man vra hom weer om weg te gaan maar die Duiwel probeer met mag die deur oopstoot om in te kom. Na 'n redelike gespook, kry die man dit reg om die deur toe te druk en hy kom sit weer. Skaars het hy gesit of daar is weer 'n geklop en weer is dit die Duiwel. Hierdie keer is hy en die man behoorlik in 'n stoeigeveg betrokke maar uiteindelik slaag die man tog daarin om die Duiwel te oorwin en die deur toe te druk. Gehawend, vol knoppe en skrape en uitasem val hy in sy stoel neer. "Jesus, ek verstaan dit nie. U sien hoe ek sukkel om die Duiwel uit die huis te hou, ek het gebid en gevra dat U my moet kom help en U sit net hier en doen niks!" laat die man verontwaardig hoor. "Maar ek is net 'n gas in jou huis. Dit sal mos nie goeie maniere wees as ek blatant sou inmeng wanneer jy gaste ontvang nie," antwoord Jesus kalm. Die man vertel toe vir Jesus dat hy baie las het van die Duiwel wat net altyd in sy huis wil inkom en dat hy al baie beserings opgedoen het in sy pogings om die Duiwel uit te hou. Dit was dan ook die rede waarom hy so ernstig gebid het dat Jesus tot sy redding moes kom. Hy wou toe by Jesus weet wat hy kan doen om hierdie aanslae permanent af te weer. "Dis baie maklik," antwoord Jesus. "Gee jou huis vir my!" Die man was baie verbaas en ontsteld. "En wat dan van my - en my vrou en my kinders? Waar moet ons dan heengaan?" "Nee, jy verstaan nie mooi nie," antwoord Jesus. "Ek het net gesê jy moet jou huis vir my gee. Ek het nie gesê dat julle moet weggaan nie. Al wat verander is dat ek nou die nuwe eienaar van die huis word. Jy en jou gesin bly nog steeds hier en gaan aan met julle lewens soos gewoonlik. Niks behalwe eienaarskap gaan verander nie!" Die man oordink die aanbod 'n rukkie en stem toe in. Met die is daar weer 'n klop aan die deur. Die man wil opstaan maar Jesus keer hom. "Nee, nee, onthou ek is nou die eienaar van die huis. Ek sal die deur oopmaak." Jesus maak toe die deur oop en voor hom staan die Duiwel en 'n klomp van sy demone- gereed om met mag en geweld die huis binne te storm. Toe hulle Jesus sien, deins hulle terug. "Waar is die eienaar van die huis?" wil die Duiwel weet. "Jy praat met die nuwe eienaar van hierdie huis. Van hierdie oomblik af is nie jy of een van jou demone hier welkom nie. Maak dat julle wegkom! Ek wil julle nooit weer hier sien nie!" Verward en hals-oor-kop is die spul toe daar weg en het nie weer probeer om daardie huis te beset nie! Daarvoor was die nuwe eienaar net een te veel vir hulle! ________________________________________ "Hy wat voor God kniel, kan voor enigeen staan" _______________________________________ Psalms 127 1 'n Bedevaartslied. Van Salomo. As die HERE die huis nie bou nie, tevergeefs werk die wat daaraan bou; as die HERE die stad nie bewaar nie, tevergeefs waak die wagter. 2 Tevergeefs dat julle vroeg opstaan, laat opbly, brood van smarte eet- net so goed gee Hy dit aan sy beminde in die slaap! Seëngroete (Glimlag! Niemand kan jou liefhê soos God jou liefhet nie! Joh. 3:16) "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2 Cor. 4:8-10). It's hard to find anyone in Christian history who became a great leader without earning an advanced degree at the University of Adversity. John Bunyan (1628-1688), the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, grew up in poverty and taught himself to read. As a young man, he struggled with feelings of not being forgiven by God and was tortured by visions of eternal punishment. His devout wife helped him to overcome his fear, but then, while she was still in her twenties, she died of a sudden illness. In his grief, Bunyan devoted himself to preaching. The English government, however, repeatedly imprisoned him for preaching without a license. On one occasion, Bunyan was sentenced to three months in prison, but when he told the officials he intended to go on preaching, his sentence was extended to 12 years. John Bunyan experienced God's presence in a special way while he was in prison. In fact, it was in his cell that he penned his enduring classic, The Pilgrim's Progress. It's a book that could only have been written by a soul that was refined by the fires of adversity. A. W. Tozer once wrote, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply." God has a mission for your life and mine. But before we can carry out that mission, we will often go through the boot camp of adversity. If this is where you find yourself today, ask God to give you His grace to walk through this time with you. He promised He would never leave or forsake us. One day I was feeling sorry for myself because I don’t get thanks from those that I am feeding. (It’s hard teaching high schoolers sometimes). Everyone else gets the kudos yet I feel like I pour my whole self into them with never a thank you. We are a small school and I didn’t get asked to speak at graduation and I realized I probably never will because I am like the mom who pushes my students to grow up - I push them out of the nest to never return. As I was feeling sorry for myself, God said: You are in good company. I healed ten lepers yet only one came back to say thank you. You feed them – you give of yourself – that is what I called you – I created you to do that – why do you need thanks? You obey Me no matter what. Are You going to give more if you get kudos? No. The cow gives of itself to feed many. That is what it is born to do. It doesn’t expect thanks after we eat of it because it is dead. If you were dead, you would not need the thanks. When we pray before a meal to give thanks for the food – we don’t thank the cow for giving up its life for us – we thank the Creator of the cow. Do you want the thanks or do you want Me to get the thanks – the glory – or the meals you disperse? This was one of those messages that really hit me hard and I have had to constantly go back over and remember that it is time to become a dead cow and make sure that I am always pointing to Jesus. May He reign in our lives and may others see Him! Some people think that courtship is when a man spoons, and marriage is when he must fork over. It is tragic to realize that in the church of Christ there are constant marital difficulties. Christian mates ought to be among the happiest of people on the face of the planet! Why should a man and woman who profess to be in love with the Lord continue in misery because of a rocky marital relationship?
The closer husbands and wives walk with Christ the easier their lives together will become. But show me a husband and wife who are unfaithful to the Bridegroom, Jesus, and I will show you a couple in deep trouble. Will a Christian wife nag and complain and bemoan everything or will she be a radiant help-meet for the man with whom she chose to live out her life? Will a husband come home and sequester himself behind the evening newspaper if he really wants to demonstrate Christian love? Once a housewife asked her husband if he minded escorting her out to the garbage can. He asked why she would make such a silly request. She replied, "I just want to be able to tell the neighbors that we go out together once in a while." Marriage is a give-and-take proposition, and a wise couple soon realizes that each must give more than was thought during courtship. Too many mates fritter their lives away and burden others by supposing they have insurmountable problems within their marriages. But Paul reminds us: "Wives, submit to you husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them" (Col_3:18-19). Unselfish love is the key to successful Christian marriages." |
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