2023-11-23
Psalm 139:14 NIV
Despite your aches and pains, you are a living, breathing, walking, talking wonder. The psalmist said, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (vv. 13-14 NIV).
One author explains: “Most of us take our eyesight for granted, but even the simplest of processes is divinely complex. The retina, for example, conducts close to ten billion calculations every second, and that is before an image even travels through the optic nerve to the visual cortex. The human nose can detect one-millionth of one milligram of garlic floating in the air and distinguish among ten thousand distinct odors. The hairs blanketing your body magnify the sensation of touch so that you can discern a thousandth of an ounce of pressure on the tip of a half-inch hair. Amazing, isn’t it?”
Trillions of chemical reactions are taking place in every cell of your body every second. You are inhaling oxygen, metabolizing energy, digesting food, maintaining equilibrium, purifying toxins, producing hormones, exhaling carbon dioxide, repairing tissues, and circulating blood. As you read this, millions of electrical impulses are firing across billions of synaptic pathways, and you don’t even think about it.
But you should, and you should praise God for the gift of life and the multitude of His blessings you enjoy. And you should do one more all-important thing: Discover your life’s purpose and dedicate yourself to fulfilling it. It has been said the two most important days in a person’s life are the day they’re born and the day they discover why they were born. Think about it!
Soul food: 2 Chron 6-8; John 11:17-27; Ps 102:12-17; Prov 27:10-12
2023-11-22
Job 6:14 NLV
‘n Pastoor skryf: ‘Wat maak jou bly, hartseer of kwaad? Wat sit ‘n glimlag op jou gesig? Wat laat jou onbeheersd huil? Wat maak jou so kwaad dat jy jou vuis op die tafel wil slaan? Êrens in die mengsel van daardie blydskap, hartseer of woede is jou Godgegewe passie. Sodra jy dit identifiseer, is dit nie opsioneel om iets daaraan te doen nie. Jy kan nie nie iets daaraan doen nie.’
In 2006 was Blake Mycoskie besig om deur Argentinië te toer toe hy agterkom dat baie kinders nie skoene het nie. Hy kon na Amerika toe teruggekeer het en met sy eie lewe aangegaan het. In plaas daarvan het hy TOMS skoene begin, ‘n besigheid met die missie om skoene aan die voete van die kinders in derde-wêreld lande, te sit. Dit werk as volg: Wanneer jy ‘n paar TOMS skoene koop, gee jy ‘n paar skoene vir ‘n kaalvoet kind. Vir elke paar skoene wat gekoop word, word ‘n paar weggegee. Hulle missie is duidelik: een vir een. Blake het ‘n behoefte geïdentifiseer. Hy het dit verpersoonlik. Toe het hy besluit om iets daaraan te doen. Dit het nie groot begin nie, maar klein.
Dis hoe sulke passies egter begin. ‘n Persoon besluit om iets te doen aan iets wat hom bly, hartseer of kwaad maak. Dit was kaalvoet kinders wat Blake se hart gebreek het. Hy het letterlik skoene vir sy geloof aangetrek. Wanneer jy die ding wat jou bly, hartseer of kwaad maak ontdek, is die enigste vraag wat oorbly: Wat gaan jy daaraan doen?
Sielskos: 2 Kron 1-5; Joh 11:1-16; Ps 102:1-11; Spr 27:7-9
Job 6:14 NKJV
A pastor writes: “What makes you glad or sad or mad? What puts a holy smile on your face? What causes your spirit to sob uncontrollably? What makes you pound your fist on the table out of righteous indignation? Somewhere in the mixture of that gladness, sadness, and madness is your God-ordained passion. Or maybe we should say compassion, because you are feeling what God feels. And once you identify it, doing something about it isn’t optional. You can’t not do something about it.”
In 2006, Blake Mycoskie was touring Argentina when he noticed that many of the children didn’t have shoes. He could have returned to the United States and gone about his business. Instead, he started TOMS shoes, a business with a mission of putting shoes on the feet of children in third-world countries. It works like this: When you buy a pair of TOMS shoes, you’re giving a pair of shoes to a barefoot child somewhere. For every pair of shoes purchased, a pair is given away. Their mission is straightforward: one for one. Blake identified a need. He personalized it. And he decided to do something about it.
It didn’t start out big, it started out small. Yet that is how primal moments begin. A person decides to do something about something that makes him glad or sad or mad. It was barefoot kids who broke Blake’s heart. And he literally placed shoes on his faith. When you discover the thing that makes you glad or sad or mad, the only question left is this: What are you going to do about it?
Soul food: 2 Chron 1-5; John 11:1-16; Ps 102:1-11; Prov 27:7-9
2023-11-21
Kolossense 3:12 NLV
Die digter Henry Wadsworth Longfellow het geskryf: ‘If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.’ In sy dokumentêre rolprent oor oorloë in die twintigste eeu, verwys Jonathan Glover na dit wat hy ‘deernis-deurbrake,’ noem. Selfs in ‘n oorlogsituasie, oorskrei dade van deernis die konflik. Die meeste deernis-deurbrake, volgens Glover, word deur oog-tot-oog-kontak veroorsaak.
Het jy al ooit ‘n deernis-deurbraak gehad? As jy dit nog nie gehad het nie, bid daarvoor. Dis ‘n oomblik waar jou neiging tot haat deur jou wil om lief te hê, oorkom word. ‘n Oomblik waar proaktiewe deernis negatiewe woede oorheers. ‘n Oomblik waar jy meer besorg oor iemand anders se pyn as jou eie is. ‘n Oomblik waar jy ontdek wat dit waarlik beteken om God met jou hele hart lief te hê.
Dis baie eenvoudiger om as ‘n Christen op te tree, as wat dit is om as een te reageer. Enigiemand kan ‘n front voorhou. Jou reaksies openbaar egter wat waarlik in jou hart omgaan. As jy God met jou hele hart liefhet, sal jy nie hoef voor te gee nie. Die apostel Paulus het dit as volg gestel: ‘Daarom moet julle die volgende soos klere aantrek: deernis, vriendelikheid, nederigheid, sagmoedigheid, geduld. Verdra mekaar en as enigeen ‘n klagte teen iemand anders het, vergewe mekaar. Vergewe mekaar soos die Here julle vergewe het. Die heel belangrikste wat julle moet aantrek, is die liefde. Die liefde bind alles volmaak saam’ (verse 12-14 NLV).
Sielskos: 1 Kron 26:20-29:30; Joh 10:34-42; Ps 76; Spr 27:4-6
Colossians 3:12 NLT
The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” In his documentary on twentieth-century wars, Jonathan Glover refers to what he calls “sympathy breakthroughs.” Even in the situation of war, acts of compassion supersede the conflict. Most sympathy breakthroughs, according to Glover, are triggered by eye-to-eye contact, and that eye-to-eye contact displaces hand-to-hand combat.
Have you ever had a sympathy breakthrough? If not, pray for one. It’s a moment when your tendency to hate is overcome by your will to love. A moment when proactive compassion overrules negative anger. A moment when you’re concerned more about someone else’s pain than your own. Those are the moments when you discover what it really means to love God with all your heart.
It’s much simpler to act like a Christian than it is to react like one. Anybody can put on an act. But your reactions expose what is really in your heart. And if you love God with all your heart, you won’t merely act like it. You will react like it.
The apostle Peter puts it this way: “Clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony” (vv. 12-14 NLT).
Soul food: 1 Chron 26:20-29:30; John 10:34-42; Ps 76; Prov 27:4-6
