Realizing the Value of Time and Relationships

Friends sent me this writing recently. It will touch you somewhere in your heart:

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

 

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby.

 

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

 

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

 

To realize
The value of one second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

 

Time waits for no one.

 

Treasure every moment you have.

 

You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

 

To realize the value of a friend or family member:

 

LOSE ONE.

 

(The origin of this letter is unknown)

Grateful

Proverbs 1:7 & Matthew 5:3

When Jesus spoke Matthew 5:3 (KJV) -- Blessed are the poor in spirit, it seems quite synonymous with the truth found in Proverbs 1:7 (NLT) -- Fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.

I love the The New Living Translation rendering of Matthew 5:3: God blesses those who realize their need for Him.

Don't you think it's easy to connect the dots between these two passages?

My personal paraphrase of Matthew 5:3 might be: You're blessed when you obey God's will wholeheartedly and acknowledge that everything praiseworthy comes from Him alone.

My own amplified wording for Proverbs 1:7 might be: With reverent trembling in your eternal soul, willingly obey and respect the Lord, now you can declare that you have chosen the God who has chosen you, you now can begin to know the God Who wants to know you, as you can, too, commence to really love the God Who has already proven He loves you. As you claim Him as Your Everything in this life and in the Life to come, you will be surely BLESSED beginning now.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Land of the Living

Does anyone (other than saints and perhaps a few poets) ever realize how wonderful life is while they're living it? -- Paraphrase from the early 1900's Play entitled "Our Town"

Wonderful Link: Click here: Louis Armstrong What A Wonderful World - YouTube

(11) I said, "Never again will I see the LORD GOD while still in the land of the living. Never again will I see my friends or laugh with those who live in this world. (12) My life has been blown away like a shepherd’s tent in a storm. It has been cut short..."
-- Isaiah 38:11-12a (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Behold! He Is Praying!

Acts 9:11 (NLT) -- The Lord said (to Ananias), "Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you arrive, ask for Saul of Tarsus. He is praying to me right now!"

Acts 9:11 (NKJV) -- "...Behold! He is praying!"

It seems to me that perhaps the first greatest wonder (what's most atonishing) in all of the universe to Holy God might really be a person praying. Could it be that the second greatest wonder (what's also most atonishing) to Holy God is to think that we as humans realize this and yet neglect praying?

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

The Lord "Had" Left Him

In Psalm 51:11 (TLB), King David included this plea in his passionate prayer of repentance: Don’t toss me aside, banished forever from your presence. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

Precious Holy Spirit, let me never put You off, lest You would put me off. In Jesus' name. Amen.

(16-17) She (Delilah) nagged at him (Samson) every day until he couldn’t stand it any longer and finally told her his secret. "My hair has never been cut," he confessed, "for I’ve been a Nazirite to God since before my birth. If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else." (18) Delilah realized that he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the five Philistine leaders. "Come just this once more," she said, "for this time he has told me everything." So they brought the money with them. (19) She lulled him to sleep with his head in her lap, and they brought in a barber and cut off his hair. Delilah began to hit him, but she could see that his strength was leaving him. (20) Then she screamed, "The Philistines are here to capture you, Samson!" And he woke up and thought, "I will do as before; I’ll just shake myself free." But he didn’t realize that the Lord had left him. -- Judges 16:16-20 (TLB)

At the very end of his life, Samson humbled himself, prayed, sought God, repented and wouldn't you know the Lord returned upon His life with power.

We read the end of the story in Judges 16:28-31 (TLB) -- (28) Then Samson prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord Jehovah, remember me again—please strengthen me one more time, so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of at least one of my eyes." (29) Then Samson pushed against the pillars with all his might. (30) "Let me die with the Philistines," he prayed. And the temple crashed down upon the Philistine leaders and all the people. So those he killed at the moment of his death were more than those he had killed during his entire lifetime. (31) Later, his brothers and other relatives came down to get his body, and they brought him back home and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, where his father, Manoah, was buried. He had led Israel for twenty years.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful