Daily Thoughts about God Posts

Published November 10, 2008

Papa

By Marilyn Ehle
______________________________________________

The resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s…greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa“  Romans 8:15 (The Message)

It was the early 1990’s. A room full of teachers sat at long wooden tables in a dimly lit, stuffy room. Magazines lay in disorderly piles on the tables along with glue, several pair of scissors, and large sheets of blank white paper. The instructions were simple: cut out pictures illustrating your view of the character of God and paste the pictures onto the paper, forming a collage.

After a few moments of silence, the teachers – accustomed, of course, to totalitarian-induced obedience – began the project and within thirty minutes, several large posters were complete.

Although the project organizers suspected what might be the general direction of the participants’ choices, they were amazed at the volatility expressed. No cute baby pictures, no frothy clouds, no pastoral scenes. Instead, the formerly blank sheets had overlapping cut outs of atomic explosions, mutilated bodies, storm-ravaged houses, bloody slaughterhouse scenes.

These were people who had not yet heard of the “tender mercy of our God“. (Luke 1:78), or “the kindnesses of the Lord” (Psalm 63:7). They didn’t know that God longed to be known as a tender, loving “Abba,” or “Papa” as Eugene Peterson translates in the word the The Message.

What pictures would you have cut out of the magazines? In Abba’s Child, Brennan Manning writes that we who are Christians have the same relationship with God as Jesus had. “He invites and calls us to share the same intimate and liberating relationship”.

How magnetic our lives could be if we only reflected to the world God’s radical and tender love.

I sometimes forget that the all-wise, all-knowing God is also my “Papa“, a God who longs for me to develop an intimate relationship. Help me, God, to express my love for you and increasingly feel your love for me.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2008/11/10/me_papa/

Christian Wallpaper for your computer.
View our wallpaper at http://www.thoughts-about-god.com/wallpaper/

Thoughts by All thoughts by Marilyn Ehle Thoughts by Women

Published November 7, 2008

My Financial Windfall

By John Grant
__________________________________

“Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15

In these ever turbulent economic times, as I watch my savings deplete, suddenly there are financial lifelines. I get them several times a week, and I am sure you do too. They are like the following: “You won $2.5 million from the Malaysia Sweepstakes. Contact, Andy Jerry via email: with your secret pin code and your reference number.�
 
Or sometimes they are like this: “I am asking for your assistance to claim this inheritance fund belonging to my late client.  Since his death, the fund has been unclaimed because i have not been able to locate any of his relatives abroad and you are the closest relative. Please, if you are interested, sincere and ready to assist me with this claim, do respond to this message so I can give you the detailed information on how to proceed on this inheritance claim.� Or like this, “There is the sum of $30,000,000 in my bank. There were no beneficiaries stated concerning these funds which means no one would ever come for the claims. That is why I ask to you assist me so as to have the sum transferred out of my bank into your account.

I never realized that I had so many rich relatives around the world. Usually the e-mails tell about my wealthy and long lost cousin who has died and strangely, I am his closest heir. I am promised millions, but usually have to pay some legal fees in advance. I know of one man who paid $75,000 to get his millions and never heard a word from anyone thereafter. Most of the time these fraud schemes want your bank account information so they can clean it out. The FBI refers to this as an “Advance Fee Fraud.�

How could anyone fall for this? I have a friend who sits on a bank board and he tells me they average about two customers a month who get taken and usually for large amounts of money. A recent news article confirmed that just in the United States the loss is about $100 million per year.

How does this happen? The answer is greed. People are so excited about getting such a large financial windfall that they lose all sense of reason. This is why as Christians, we should use the Bible as our guide to all actions. Jeremiah tells us that “everyone is greedy for gain,� and Luke warns us to “be on guard against every form of greed; life is not in possessions.� Peter warns of false prophets who “in their greed will exploit you with false words� and whose hearts are “trained in greed.�

It is so easy to get caught up in the world of materialism which stirs our greed and causes us to do foolish things. As Christians let us remember:  In Christ alone I place my trust, and find my glory in the power of the cross. In every victory, let it be said of me, my source of strength, my source of hope is Christ alone.
 (a thought on life from John Grant )

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2008/11/07/jg_windfall/

Christian Wallpaper for your computer.
View our wallpaper at  http://www.thoughts-about-god.com/wallpaper/  

 

Thoughts by All thoughts by John Grant Thoughts by Men