The True Test

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. – 2 Corinthians 13:5

When asked to define knowledge, someone said, “Knowledge is not what you can remember but what you cannot forget.” Another person responded, “Knowledge is what you can remember after you have forgotten what you have been taught.” These may sound paradoxical, but they ring true. That a student answers questions in a class does not mean he has a good knowledge of the subject. The teacher uses a test or an examination to judge him.

In the same vein, the true test of faith is not when everything around you is all roses and no thorns, but rather when challenges of life are staring you in the eyes and literally telling you ‘God’s word may not be true.’ Moreover, that God gave a word does not mean it will come to fulfilment unchallenged. He said He had made Abraham the father of many nations but Abraham still had to believe so he might become the father of many nations, which God had already made him (Romans 4:17-18).

Being Christians is not proved by how much of scriptures we can quote – which, of course, is not bad in itself – but how much we love other believers (John 13:35); how we accept those of different doctrines from ours and love our unbelieving neighbours.

Your readiness to give is not truly tested when you have $1,000 and you can offer $50 to someone in need. Of course, you have done well; but when all you have is $5 and you are willing to split that into two in order to give someone in need is when the depth of your love can be measured.

Adversities remain the true test of our inner strength. That is why ‘if you faint in the days of adversity, your strength is small’ (Proverbs 24:10)! So, let’s not go about with the theories of faith, character, knowledge, patience, etc. We earn God’s approval and the respect of others when we put them into practice. To do the right thing will always be tasking, but the reward is more than sure.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Make Your Workdays Count

You need to make your workdays productive and result-oriented.

Blessings We May Not Recognise

Here are some blessings we may be taking for granted:

1. If you own a Bible, you are abundantly blessed – about 1/3 of the world does not have access to one.

2. If you wake up each morning with more health than illness, you are blessed to rise and shine, to live and to serve in a new day.

3. If you have anyone on the planet, just one person that loves you and listens to you; count this as a blessing.

4. If you can freely attend a church meeting without fear, then you are more blessed than over 1/3 of the world.

5. If you have a yearning in your heart to parent a child, you are blessed because you still desire what you cannot see.

6. If you pray today or any day, you are blessed because you believe in God’s willingness to hear your prayer.

7. If you pray for someone else, you are blessed because you want to help others also.

8. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep; all at the same time; you are rich in this world;

9. If you have a brother or sister in Christ that will pray with you and for you, you benefit from a spiritual unity, bond and agreement, which the gates of hell cannot stand against.

10. If you have any earthly family that even halfway loves you and supports you, you are blessed beyond measure.

11. If you attend a church with a church family that offers you one word of encouragement, you are blessed with some form of fellowship.

12. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, or some spare change in a dish someplace you are among the world’s wealthy.

13. If you can go to bed each night, knowing that God loves you, you are blessed beyond measure.

14. If you try each day to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ for even a minute, you are blessed because you show a willingness to grow up in Him.

15. If you can read this message, you are more blessed than about 1/3 of the world who cannot read at all.

16. If you have never had to endure the hardship and agony battle, imprisonment, or torture, you are blessed in indescribable measure.

17. If you have a voice to sing His praises, a voice to witness God’s love, and a voice to share the gospel, you are blessed. About 1/3 of the world do not even know who the one true God is.

18. If you can hold someone’s hand, hug another person, touch someone on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer God’s healing touch.

19. If you can share a word of encouragement with someone else, and do it with His love in your heart, you are blessed because you have learned how to give.

20. If you have the conviction to stand fast upon His Word and His promises, no matter what, you are blessed because you are learning patience, endurance, and tenacity.

21. If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because most people can, but many will not.

May God Bless You And Keep You Safe.

– Author Unknown

Meditation: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. – Philippians 3:7

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

One Act of Kindness

 

One act of kindness that befell British writer Bernard Hare in 1982 changed him profoundly. Then a student living just north of London, he tells the story to inspire troubled young people to help deal with their disrupted lives.

The police called at my student hovel early evening, but I didn’t answer as I thought they’d come to evict me. I hadn’t paid my rent in months. But then I got to thinking: my mum hadn’t been too good and what if it was something about her?

We had no phone in the hovel and mobiles hadn’t been invented yet, so I had to nip down the phone box.

I rang home to Leeds to find my mother was in hospital and not expected to survive the night. “Get home, son,” my dad said.

I got to the railway station to find I’d missed the last train. A train was going as far as Peterborough, but I would miss the connecting Leeds train by twenty minutes.

I bought a ticket home and got on anyway. I was a struggling student and didn’t have the money for a taxi the whole way, but I had a screwdriver in my pocket and my bunch of skeleton keys.

I was so desperate to get home that I planned to nick a car in Peterborough, hitchhike, steal some money, something, anything. I just knew from my dad’s tone of voice that my mother was going to die that night and I intended to get home if it killed me.

“Tickets, please,” I heard, as I stared blankly out of the window at the passing darkness. I fumbled for my ticket and gave it to the guard when he approached. He stamped it, but then just stood there looking at me. I’d been crying, had red eyes and must have looked a fright.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Course I’m okay,” I said. “Why wouldn’t I be? And what’s it got to do with you in any case?”

“You look awful,” he said. “Is there anything I can do?”

“You could get lost and mind your own business,” I said. “That’d be a big help.” I wasn’t in the mood for talking.

He was only a little bloke and he must have read the danger signals in my body language and tone of voice, but he sat down opposite me anyway and continued to engage me.

“If there’s a problem, I’m here to help. That’s what I’m paid for.”

I was a big bloke in my prime, so I thought for a second about physically sending him on his way, but somehow it didn’t seem appropriate. He wasn’t really doing much wrong. I was going through all the stages of grief at once: denial, anger, guilt, withdrawal, everything but acceptance. I was a bubbling cauldron of emotion and he had placed himself in my line of fire.

The only other thing I could think of to get rid of him was to tell him my story.

“Look, my mum’s in hospital, dying, she won’t survive the night, I’m going to miss the connection to Leeds at Peterborough, I’m not sure how I’m going to get home.

“It’s tonight or never, I won’t get another chance, I’m a bit upset, I don’t really feel like talking, I’d be grateful if you’d leave me alone. Okay?”

“Okay,” he said, finally getting up. “Sorry to hear that, son. I’ll leave you alone then. Hope you make it home in time.” Then he wandered off down the carriage back the way he came.

I continued to look out of the window at the dark. Ten minutes later, he was back at the side of my table. Oh no, I thought, here we go again. This time I really am going to rag him down the train.

He touched my arm. “Listen, when we get to Peterborough, shoot straight over to Platform One as quick as you like. The Leeds train’ll be there.”

I looked at him dumbfounded. It wasn’t really registering. “Come again,” I said, stupidly. “What do you mean? Is it late, or something?”

“No, it isn’t late,” he said, defensively, as if he really cared whether trains were late or not. “No, I’ve just radioed Peterborough. They’re going to hold the train up for you. As soon as you get on, it goes.

“Everyone will be complaining about how late it is, but let’s not worry about that on this occasion. You’ll get home and that’s the main thing. Good luck and God bless.”

Then he was off down the train again. “Tickets, please. Any more tickets now?”

I suddenly realised what a top-class, fully-fledged ‘doilem’ I was and chased him down the train. I wanted to give him all the money from my wallet, my driver’s licence, my keys, but I knew he would be offended.

I caught him up and grabbed his arm. “Oh, er, I just wanted to…” I was suddenly speechless. “I, erm…”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Not a problem.” He had a warm smile on his face and true compassion in his eyes. He was a good man for its own sake and required nothing in return.

“I wish I had some way to thank you,” I said. “I appreciate what you’ve done.”

“Not a problem,” he said again. “If you feel the need to thank me, the next time you see someone in trouble, you help them out. That will pay me back amply.

“Tell them to pay you back the same way and soon the world will be a better place.”

I was at my mother’s side when she died in the early hours of the morning. Even now, I can’t think of her without remembering the good conductor on that late-night train to Peterborough and, to this day, I won’t hear a bad word said about British Rail.

My meeting with the good conductor changed me from a selfish, potentially violent hedonist into a decent human being, but it took time.

“I’ve paid him back a thousand times since then,” I tell the young people I work with, “and I’ll keep on doing so till the day I die. You don’t owe me nothing. Nothing at all.”

“And if you think you do, I’d give you the same advice the good conductor gave me. Pass it down the line.”

— Author Unknown

Meditation: “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” – Luke 6:32-33

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Be Uptight About Time Management

 

Until you become uptight about time management – the what and how your minutes and hours are deployed – you will not be named in the pantheon of the Productive, who are usually renowned for their outputs than mouth-puts.

The Cab Ride – A Story about Human Kindness

Here is a very touching story about human kindness.

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. It was a cowboy’s life, a life for someone who wanted no boss. What I didn’t realize was that it was also a ministry. Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a moving confessional. Passengers climbed in, sat behind me in total anonymity, and told me about their lives. I encountered people whose lives amazed me, ennobled me, made me laugh and weep. But none touched me more than a woman I picked up late one August night.

I was responding to a call from a small brick fourplex in a quiet part of town. I assumed I was being sent to pick up some partiers, or someone who had just had a fight with a lover, or a worker heading to an early shift at some factory for the industrial part of town.

When I arrived at 2:30 a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked.

“Just a minute,” answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

“Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness.

“It’s nothing”, I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated”.

“Oh, you’re such a good boy”, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”

“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice”.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I don’t have very long.”

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to take?” I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighbourhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair. “How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching into her purse.

“Nothing,” I said.

“You have to make a living,” she answered.

“There are other passengers,” I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.” I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away? On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life. We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware–beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

— Author Unknown

Meditation: To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, Even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. – Job 6:14

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

The Lord Pays Higher

The LORD pays higher and more to those who are diligent and faithful in His service than any fortune-100 company can pay.