Aptiva

Sometimes Dear Reader, another's thought is far more profound than one's own.IN this case it is borrowed. POVERTY: Learning to Give Ourselves. We always seem to be better at giving then becoming. We can give love even when we are not intrinsically loving. We can be generous even when we are not truly compassionate. We can be concerned about others and yet essentially still live for ourselves. We can be giving to the poor and yet withhold the very thing they most urgently seek: companionship in the journey. Being poor is what Jesus invites us to, and that is much, much harder than serving the poor. If we wish to journey with the poor, we need to become poor ourselves - poor for the sake of the gospel and poor for the sake of our neighbour. This poverty does not only mean that we voluntarily lay aside our time, our power, and our priorities in order to serve others. At a deeper level, it means that we discover our own poverty, weakness, and brokenness and can therefore...

Many times Dear Reader, we mistake travelling in a similar direction for travelling together. For the greater part this oversight causes no pain when discovered, for the consequences of such discovery are small. However, when those travelling have placed responsibility and burden on one another, becoming reliant so to speak, a departing of the ways becomes more painful. Yet this world sadly, encourages a lifestyle which is all about the individual, and not about the creator. You see Dear Reader, the creator teaches us to look beyond our self , to follow His ways is to accept we are the least important in the equation, and when we travel, we serve not ourselves and our desires, but His. Yet even this is oft misunderstood, because of the order in which we serve. We seem to think that serving our creator is a licence for never serving a human, while in fact the creator is very direct in His teaching. In this world he has appointed leaders whose job is to care and direct, and whose burden ...

There is, dear reader, a nagging problem which all of us have to deal with! Who has the right to dispense justice? We understand that all human beings have fallen short in some way and demonstrate their life is not perfect. This leads us to the not unreasonable conclusion that not one person is able to cast judgement upon another. And while we are able to accept the judgement of others in the theoretical, things change greatly when it comes to the practical. In fact, dear reader, only true justice would be completed if the judge themselves had never committed a crime, or had never broken the law in any way. For if the judge who stood before us had faced every temptation we had faced but had overcome those temptations with success. Had been presented with every opportunity to break the law, but had rejected them all. Then the judge themselves does have the right to fairly judge others. Where however with you find this judge?. This is the person, who the Bible describes as Jesus Christ. ...

There is dear reader a concept called "fear of the King" however, we need to understand what this means. Many people come to understand this concept as a fear that the king himself will act unjustly or unwisely, and so we cannot trust ourselves to him. This however is not the meaning, the person who has true fear of the King understands that the King has a judicial right to apply justice to the life of that person, in effect, the King can bring punishment for wrongdoings of a person's life. Thus the king should be a feared figure, because they represent justice within the kingdom. Furthermore, this view of the king should bring comfort, for those that obey the law appreciate that it is there. Take dear reader a random breath tests conducted by the police during Christmas time. Only those who have exceeded the alcoholic content allowed by the law would fear these things. Those who are driving within legal limits appreciate that these random breath tests bring safety to the...

In our thought Dear Reader about Kings, we must turn our very minds to the question, what type of Kingdom do we desire them to rule. How would this kingdom manifest itself. In the great mythological kingdom of King Arthur and his knights, this story would most often portray the knights as men who would willingly give their lives to the benefit of the kingdom in which they serve. In fact, their very presence brings order to the kingdom, one act of justice on the part of a Knight of the order of the roundtable will in turn promote many acts of justice by others who watch them. Conversely, when one of the knights acted in a selfish manner than that selfish act promoted selfishness with other people. We do not live in a kingdom which is perfect, that is something which is yet to come. Yet we know of the kingdom we wish to live in. The question we should ask is are we living like knights of this kingdom?

It is apparent, dear reader, in most continents of the world kings and queens are not what they once used to be. Where once total power rested in their hands. Many now are just figure heads of past glories. Given the many atrocities which had been carried out under the banner of this king or that Queen, it is not unreasonable to be in the situation we are presently residing. Yet the limiting of absolute power from the former sovereigns of this world has not prevented the abuse they used to carry out from being visited upon us by others. Sadly, however, the opposite is not always true, for many leaders of their countries were worthwhile men and women, who took their role of King and Queen with such seriousness that their entire lives were dedicated to the furtherance of the people under them. The monarchy indeed became the true Shepherd. Sadly with the lessening of the monarchs power the ability to protect the flock has also gone. Our mistake can come when we apply our knowledge of huma...

We have dear reader, come to live in an age which defines our lives as winners or losers. Those that have much money, power or authority are winnners, those who do not are losers. While many might deny this at a verbal level, it's reinforcement throughout society is overwhelming. Our responsibility is not to overthrow the way society operates, but merely how we operate within it. For in dealing with the creator god, we can apply the same fallen principles to him. If we have everything we want, if we always seem to end up on top, God is obviously blessing us and we are in his will. If things go against us, obviously God is against us. The problem with this mentality of thinking is it is based purely around the individual's life. In fact, God is so much bigger than this. Those who've come to have a saving relationship with the creator god have come to understand that their life exists solely to glorify his name. So if the name of Jesus will be raised higher by financial bless...

There is the reader a famous story about a farmer who sees a storm coming , as he looks through his kitchen window. His concern grows when he sees a flight of swallows, who will be taken up by the storm and badly hurt. His concern leads him to action, he steps outside and opens up his barn doors and attempts to lead the swallows into the safety of the barn so they can ride out the storm. His efforts are futile as the swallows fear the farmer, and everything he does to try and make them go one way only succeeds in driving them further away. In frustration, he returns to his original position, as he sits and thinks about the problem. He wishes that he could become a swallow, go out to the birds outside and lead them personally to the safe space within the barn. It is at this point Dear reader that the farmer finally comes to realise in his own mind, who Jesus Christ really was, and understand what Jesus Christ was trying to do whilst on earth. Dear reader, will you enter the barn?

There are, dear reader, many things to get people angry about religion. Yet, I wonder if we consistently sat down and thought about things, would we be willing to honestly admit that the thing which ultimately irks us most is that religion seemed to tell us what to do. Yet my argument dear reader it is that Christianity is different, yet again from all other religions, which helps define it as a faith. Christianity is less concerned about what you do, but all about its concern with who you are. It is this very core being that Christianity reaches out to, touches and instantly alienates. For the message of Christianity comes from a holy God, and his Holiness when it interacts with us immediately shows to us how fallen we are. Yet it is at this point that we can differentiate ourselves from animals, an animal will work by instinct only, whilst humans have the ability to consider and after consideration, make a different choice. Thus, when the holiness of God touches us and all of us rea...

There are many different types of hero, dear reader. Yet, I argue the greatest one of these, is the hero who has considered all the options before they make their choice yet go ahead with their choice and save others at sacrifice of their own life. Many people have done heroic things in split-second decisions, it reveals the truth about their character and should be honoured by us all. Yet still more amazing, are the ones who have had time to reflect upon their decision before they make them. Mothers who refuse to accept treatment, because it may harm their growing child inside them. Parents who refuse food, so they can give more to their youngsters. Fathers who accept punishment for their son's mistakes. All of these show that they consider the other people more important than themselves. The Christian faith tells of a time when its main character,the person of Jesus finds himself in a garden called Gethsemane. He has at this time, the ability to choose to go forward with the plan...

There are, dear reader, many copies of an original masterpiece found throughout the world .Yet while each copy can bring much pleasure to its individual owner or viewer, it's value, rightly so, is always judged less than the original itself. Even more confusingly, there exists artists of such skill in the world that they can copy an original masterpiece to such seemingly perfect brushstroke that it takes an expert to be able to differentiate their work from the original. There can be only one masterpiece, the rest are all copies or imitations. While those who have known copies can take great pleasure from this, the person who thinks They have a masterpiece yet suddenly discovers they have a forgery, has a very different view on the work they now own. Copies are useful only when they are recognised as copies, when mistaken for the original thing they can cause many problems. The same illustration can be applied to our spiritual life, the faith of Christianity tells about the relatio...

There is dear reader a misnomer in this world . The people labour under the misperception that all religions of the world are striving towards the same goal and ultimately will teach the same thing. Yet any cursory look at this will show that the starting points of most religions are so radically different from one another that they cannot be comparable. The Problem people face, is this, we think that even though one person catches a train. Another rides a bike , and the third decides to walk they will eventually, given enough time, end up in the same destination. Regardless of where they started from. The problem with this is that we have failed to realise these three travellers are on completely different continents, from one another. These continents are completely unconnected, and in fact, are separated from one another. Thus, no amount of travel by train by a bike or by walking would allow them to cross the ocean, which separates them all. They could travel for a lifetime by thei...

Many of us have dear reader, experienced the interesting phenomenon and of trying to tune in our radio. As the machine squeaks and squawks at us as bits of noise are combined with static garbled speech and the occasional recognisable celebrity we finally tune in to the station we are seeking. Yet it only needs a slight knock of the machine to find the frequency we so clearly heard before now come across as such a noisy mess. At this stage we need to re-tune the radio back into what it originally was tuned to. Our life is very similar to this as well, it only needs one knock to find us off balance, and the clear messages we used to hear from the creator being now becomes just garbled mess. It is at this point dear reader that wisdom would say slow down and take the time to re-tune and listen to to the message he is giving to us. So, dear reader have you tune your radio?