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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Friday, May 2, 2014
Men plan, but God decides…In your heart
you plan your life. But the Lord decides where your steps will take you. ~Proverbs 16:9
 Have
you ever read the poem “Footsteps”?
Here is what it says…
One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along
the
beach with the Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from
his life.
For each scene, he noticed
two sets of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to him and the other
to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was
only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the
very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord,
you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life there is
only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most
you would leave me."
The Lord replied "My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of
trial and suffereing,
when you see only one set of footprints in the sand,
it was then that I carried you."
Touching words!
We spend so much of our life planning our next steps don’t we?
Where are we go to school? What career do we take? What we do once we get into that
career? At what age should we have children? how many? Where should we invest for retirement? How much?
All day every day we plan! Our leaders
plan! Our nations plan!
This is good!
We need to plan and God wants us to do so, but we need to discern God’s guidance if we
are to be successful.
To be successful in planning we need to admit God is supreme. Whatever we plan cannot succeed unless
he permits it. Then we need to find out the core direction we believe God wants for us to go in our lives.
This sets the tone against which other decisions can be made. We don’t have to find a scriptural reference for every
decision but the overall knowledge of the bible, God’s will, and his direction in our life is important to finding the
correct path and to setting goals that align with what God wants.
We also need to be aware of how God
has led us in the past. He probably has spent time getting a communication path laid out with us that will be re-used.
God knows we need comfort in times of change and often how he communicates is linked with giving us that comfort. It may be
different person to person but it will be personal!
Now just in case folk may think we need to stick to the past, I want us to remember Jesus said to use “new
wineskins” with “new wine”. See the end of Luke 5 for detail.
Jesus doesn’t expect us to do the same as everyone else
or even as we did in the past (Some of Jesus disciples were original John the Baptists disciples, but did things very differently on joining Jesus).
We
need to be open to Jesus leading us into new futures and ventures.
The core truth we have to hear is that while we plan, we are not always
right and God will make sure his purpose is achieved. If you need some biblical reference for that take a look at the desire
David had to bring the Ark into Jerusalem and how it actually ended up getting there(2 Samuel 6). He starts out
with a plan, God intervenes, David gets angry with God. Anger is followed by fear for being audacious with God. David watches
how God blesses others and learns how to deal with God’s presence himself. Then David, now aligned with God, brings
the Ark into Jerusalem, only to find his wife now despises him for doing it the way he did it.
Plan’s don’t always
go the way we want, but they always go the way God wants! God will carry us through!
We need to plan knowling this don't we? Have a great day!
Fri, May 2, 2014 | link
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Expectations of HumilityExpectations
of Humility
“Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don't want..to impress people that they don't
like.”~ Will Rogers
Will Rogers said that a long time ago, so we can see things haven’t changed
too much have they?
The thing with that saying, is we all agree, until it is applied to us! We never buy things
we don’t want do we? Or, we don’t like to admit we buy them to impress others, do we?
Take a look at our car, or where our
house is located, or the latest game we bought, or how much we paid for our fancy gear. Still innocent?
A long while ago there was a
king named Nebuchadnezzar who lived between 605 BC and 562 BC. He was incredibly powerful and was credited with the
building of the hanging gardens of Babylon (which are still talked about today since they were so amazing). He also destroyed
the first Jewish temple and built a vast empire.
The bible even describes his wealth, and his story is in Daniel 4 of the bible. It describes how Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream which the Jewish prophet interpreted.
He was so proud, that God decided to show Nebuchadnezzar that he was not as great as God.
He needed to cool off a little and realize who God was. After revealing to Nebuchadnezzar that he would go insane while boasting
of his achievements the king is given a grace period to get himslef straight. The king doesn't and the prediction occurs!
He starts to live like an animal for seven years before his sanity and kingdom is restored. Wiser now, he starts praising
God.
Modern doctors
think his illness could have been an attack of clinical lycanthropy or alternatively porphyria. It does not really matter!
Whatever it was, it was foretold by Daniel, as was the king's recovering of his kingdom. Not easy things to predict!
Here is what Nebuchadnezzar
said about God on recovering…
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation
to generation.
35 All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing.
He
does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can
hold back his hand
or say to him: “What have you done?”
As Christians we need to evaluate our lives so we don’t
get judged the way this King was!
We need to have an expectation of humility in our lives rather than a false portrayal of success. If God
grants the success, we should not be proud, it is only what he provides that enables success. Even if he uses the brainpower
he has given us, or the strength of the body he provided, or the depth of spirit he enabled.
God is great, and we can only reflect
that greatness.
Let’s reflect a bit of God’s greatness today!
Thu, May 1, 2014 | link
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Quantum TunnelingQuantum Tunneling
There is an aspect in science
called Quantum tunnelling. It is totally non-intuitive and almost impossible to believe but it is true.
If you have heard that light has both wave
and particle nature, you will know that a wave is everywhere and the particle of light or photon appears wherever you measure
it.
Quantum tunneling
refers to the quantum mechanical phenomenon where a this light particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically could
not surmount.
In
other words it can be found on the other side of an obstacle without going over it. It is almost as if it went through it
without really doing so. Okay the barriers need to be small, but this is still a weird phenomenon. It is so well known that
we have even developed what is known as a scanning tunneling microscope that uses this fact with electrons. Our sun works
simply because of quantum tunneling combining protons at it’s centre. Without quantum tunneling it would flicker and
go out. So we could say it’s keeping our solar system and ourselves alive.
We need to actually disassociate
our normal common sense from our logic to get to understand this phenomenon.
In other words, getting to understand this took faith, followed
by practice. The scientists had faith they would find proof for what was just a theory and then tested and found the proof.
This is a bit
like knowing God is present. We read the manual (bible), and understand God exists. It then takes a step of faith
to accept this and test the theory by trusting he does and starting to open up communications with him in prayer and getting
together with other Christians. Like in many quantum experiments, it can take time and multiple tests before suddenly there
is success and God and ourselves connect. Once that happens we tune into how to establish that connection and our prayer and
spiritual life improves, causing the interactions to become more an more noticeable until we can experience them daily in
our lives.
What is illogical about that?
Nothing that is as illogical as quantum tunneling, and that too is true!
Wed, April 30, 2014 | link
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Resurrection hope
 “For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness
of Jesus Christ.” ~ Brennan Manning
Do you doubt the resurrection?
After all nobody is resurrected from the dead that we
know of, is there?
Just the same in Jesus time, there were people of Corinth who doubted the
resurrection as well. Paul writing to them says…
We have preached that Christ has been raised from the
dead. So how can some of you say that no one rises from the dead? 13 If no one rises from the dead, then not even
Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, what we preach doesn’t mean anything. Your
faith doesn’t mean anything either. 15 More than that, we would be lying about God. We have given witness
that God raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if the dead are not raised.
16 If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been
raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith doesn’t mean anything. Your sins have not
been forgiven. 18 Those who have died believing in Christ are also lost.
19 Do we have hope in Christ only for this life? Then people
should pity us more than anyone else.[1 Cor 15]
The corinthians simply had difficulty believing a person could come back from the dead.
In fact Paul goes as far as
to quote a common saying
“Let us eat and drink,
because tomorrow we will die.” (Isaiah 22:13)
Yet
Paul doesn’t let then wallow in this belief. He explains that Jesus rose and whether they like it or
not it makes all the difference.
He continues…
Don’t let anyone fool you. “Bad companions make a good person bad.” 34 You should
come back to your senses and stop sinning. Some of you don’t know anything about God. I say this to make you ashamed.
They have to come right, stop the foolishness.
Paul says with conviction …
But Christ
really has been raised from the dead. He is the first of all those who will rise.
Paul not only points out Jesus rose, but that there
is a rising of everyone after death. We face another life. Not a life without entanglements from this life, but a
life that is established based on how we respond to the fact of Jesus resurrection in this life.
Doesn’t Paul say in Hebrews 11 ...
13 All those people were still
living by faith when they died. They didn’t receive the things God had promised. They only saw them and welcomed them
from a long way off. They openly said that they were outsiders and strangers on earth.
14 People who say things like that show that they are looking
for a country of their own. … 16 Instead, they longed for a better country. They wanted
one in heaven.
So God is pleased when they call him their God. In fact, he has prepared a city for them.
God has prepared a city of us to live in in the hereafter.
We are walking toward
eternity one second at a time!
The question we face is this, do we believe it?
Jesus said “I am the resurrection
and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even if he dies. And those who live and believe in me will never die. Do
you believe this?” John 11
If we do there is another question, a deeper and more significant one.
What type of eternity do we want to experience?1 Peter 1 says this …
3 Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth and a hope that is alive. It is alive because Jesus Christ rose
from the dead. 4 He has given us new birth so that we might share in what belongs to him. It is a gift that can
never be destroyed. It can never spoil or even fade away. It is kept in heaven for you. 5 Through faith you are
kept safe by God’s power. Your salvation is going to be completed. It is ready to be shown to you in the last days.
Yet, not everyone
will have a joyous eternity. Matthew 25 says that those who reject Jesus have a different path.
“Then they will go away to be punished forever.
But those who have done what is right will receive eternal life.”
Which track in life
do you choose. I hope the right one!
Let’s trust Jesus and have eternity together.
See you there!
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If you want to see a short blog describing a perspective on what I believe click here
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Rift in Evil
By Ken
X Briggs - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size:
6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. |
Credit cards are acceptable on sites having Ken's books: 
:)
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on XML Click here =>  to be told of new blogs
| Ken's book covers are displayed below. . . | |  This
suspense thriller centers on Kiara, a beautiful young woman pursued by a murderous group of people, who relentlessly and ruthlessly
hunt her and her sisters. Kiara has no idea why she is being targeted! When Kiara and her family turn to the law for help,
this fails. Her pursuers’ powers reach deeply into the political and law enforcement world. Family support for her dwindles
when they too have to flee her pursuers. Can Kiara escape the clutches of both the law and dishonest big business? With the
media broadcasting that Kiara and friends are dangerous and subversive, can Kiara clear her name and bring her pursuers to
justice?
| | | | | To purchase Kiara's Pursuer ebook
@ $1.99 kindle version click here, To contact the author contact Author@KenXBriggs.com | | | | | | | | The town of Zinaville is dropped into a spiral of evil causing a young man and a beautiful but abused woman
to launch into an investigation that unveils an evil conspiracy. A horrific mining accident results in Joshua
Robyn's father being killed. Joshua struggles both with himself and his townsfolk as he tries to make sense of an incomprehensible
situation. Is it an accident or a murder? Why is there a seeming link to evil? Why is his work environment suddenly threatening?
What is the conspiracy about and what are they trying to do? As action moves dramatically from exotic African grasslands to
the heart of North America's cities, the plot unfolds and the pace quickens. Will there be time? Why is a beautiful abused
young woman in the center of this plot? Evil tendrils tighten on their lives and the interplay between the visible
and invisible world shows opposing forces at work. Will there be a rift in evil? Will they be able to stop the
evil in time? | | - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect
Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size: 6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available
from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. Chapters | | | | |
| Frugal Eating Advice |
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| Good advice for students living on limited $'s. Click on the image! |
May you be blessed today!
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