Short Christian Writings of Refection
To love
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. Not even an animal. Wrap it carefully with hobbies and luxuries, avoid all entanglements and keep it safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in the casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable”. C.S Lewis The Four Loves
Heaven & Hell – C.S.Lewis
“The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
Gods presence – letters of C.S.Lewis
It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: It is the very sign of his presence.
The good host – author unknown
If you are gifted in some way, and the bible says we all have different gifts,
you will find that you can move in spheres where other people can’t. Say you’re a gifted conversationalist – you can talk and entertain like nobody. You’re always the center of attention. You’re so good you can turn the spotlight away from others and onto yourself. Nobody minds you doing this as you’re such great fun. In fact your light is so great that the other people in the room don’t even get noticed. Your choice is to run the whole show and exclude the others from the party, or recognise that some giftings are far more subtle than yours but no less potent.
If only they were allowed to come out they would throw a different kind of light on everybody at the table – even you!! But you won’t see their gifts unless you call them out. They’re not going to come out while your ranting and raving. Like a good boss and a bad boss – a good boss knows how to get people working hard by making everyone feel included.
Some gifts are only appreciated by having certain gifts. A tone deaf person won’t appreciate the intricacies of beautiful music. They’ll like the overall sound and that’s that. Never assume you can see the whole picture or you may be rudely awakened by the most unlikely person. Gods humour perhaps? The good host is someone who steps back and allows others to take to the floor.
Why Don’t I See You? – by Scott Tousignaut
A friend was in front of me coming out of church one day, and as always the preacher was standing at the door shaking hands as the congregation departed. He grabbed my friend by the hand and pulled him aside. The Pastor said to him, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!” My friend replied, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.” Pastor questioned, “How come I don’t see you except for Christmas and Easter?” He whispered back, “I’m in the secret service.”
The Rock – by Julia Townsend
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Saviour appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Evil Impulse decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man’s weary mind: “You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it.” Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure, these thoughts discouraged and disheartened the “Why kill myself over this?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough.”
And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. “Lord”, he said, “I have laboured long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimetre. What is wrong? Why am I failing?”
The Lord responded compassionately, “My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? “Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewed and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have.
Yet you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. “I, my friend, will now move the rock.”
At times when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him……. By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but it is still God who moves them.
The Weight of Prayer – Author unknown
Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food. John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store. Visualizing the family needs, she said: ‘Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can.”
John told her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account at his store. Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer-man that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family. The grocer-man said in a very reluctant voice, “Do you have a grocery list? Louise replied “Yes sir!” “O.K.” he said: “Put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries.”
Louise, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed. The eyes of the grocerman and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down.
The grocerman staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, “I can’t believe it.” The customer smiled and the grocerman started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more.
The grocerman stood there in utter disgust. Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer, which said: “Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands.” The grocerman gave her the groceries that he had gathered and placed on the scales and stood in stunned silence.
Louise thanked him and left the store. The customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to John as he said, “It was worth every penny of it.” It was sometime later that John Longhouse discovered the scales were broken, therefore only God knows how much a prayer weighs.
