“Life is a fight for territory and once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don’t want will automatically take over.”
~ Les Brown
Know that you are stopping to fight for territory when you stop kneeling down in prayer before the Creator of the universe; stop reading and meditating His Word and stop fellowshipping with sisters and brothers in Christ. ///
“A fool is a man all of whose plans end at the grave. When the coffin lid closes, all his hopes are ended.”
But the one, who puts his faith and hope in the Son of God, does everything in this life in a way that brings glory and honor to Jesus Christ. So, when the coffin lid closes, his plans to glorify His Lord and Savior for eternity continues.
So, Paul said this to those kinds of people: “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
What words? Listen:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
The above words can only be sources of comfort for those who do life in the here and now in a way that brings glory and honor to Jesus Christ. Otherwise they mean absolutely nothing. ///
I see that yesterday’s post struck some kind of a responsive chord with some people. I’m glad it did because I got a chance to hear from people I have never heard from. At the same time, I see that some people, rightly so, were very upset with the way the post was presented thinking that the young girl who humbly sought advice was slapped on the face from every direction.
So, I want to clear the air a bit, if I may.
Well, first thing first: I really want to appreciate and thank the people who are working very hard day and night behind this page. It is not easy to run this page (or any page for that matter); cleaning up those malicious and disrespectful comments by itself takes a toll on someone. So, kudos to the A4P team!
A4P Guest: I’m 25 years old and I’ve been chatting with this man for almost one year now. I think I can say that we are dating even though we are dating online. He lives in America and I live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is 29 years old. We pretty much talk almost everyday on Facebook or Viber and sometimes on Skype if I find good Internet connection. Now we are kind of agreeing to get married. We both are born again Christians and we want to do dating and marriage according to God’s will. I’m dropping you this message today because of one issue. Few months ago, we started to talk about sex, how we both had never been sexual with another person and all. Then one thing led to the other, now we are talking about sex almost every day. And last week he asked me to send him – – – pictures of me. Do you think it is wrong to talk about sex and send – – – pictures to the man I am planning to marry?”
“The Cross is offensive because it directly confronts the evils which dominate this world . . . . One of the reasons why the cross is offensive to people is that the Cross demands, it does not suggest, it demands a new lifestyle in all of us.” -Pastor Billy Graham
The Cross demands a new lifestyle in all of us!
So, if we are ambassadors of the message of the Cross, our messages, in words or actions, must demand change of life in us as well as in those who hear our messages; otherwise we are entertainers, ministers of this dark world. ///
Most nutritionists advise people not to go to grocery shopping while hungry. Do you know why? Well, if you are hungry, you buy everything regardless of the fat content and the calorie count of the food and end up destroying your health and excellent body figure.
As going out to grocery shopping while hungry is a dangerous business, so is looking for a spouse while you are desperately looking for someone to marry. Do you know why?
It was one of those normal late weekday afternoons. I was running around to bake something for snack. My daughter, who was at the time seven years old, was trying to help out her mama. She brought a step stool to stand next to me. My little one, who was five, was sitting down at the kitchen tea-table. He was a brand new kindergartner and I thought he didn’t have much to say about his new school.
Then from nowhere, he said, “Mom, what is this sex thing?”
Just imagine me. I looked as though someone splashed cold water on my face. I immediately turned around to him and opened my mouth but all those vocabularies which used to hang out in my mouth and everything I read from Dr. James Dobson’s books disappeared from my brain and heart in an instant. So, I opened my mouth and got frozen as if someone pressed a “pause button” of my life.
When a husband receives respect from his wife, he finds it very easy to love his wife. In the same way, when a wife receives unconditional love from her husband, respecting and honoring her husband becomes her second nature.
But, for this biblical love-respect principle to work in a marriage, somebody has to “prime the pump” first.
Who? A husband or a wife?
One of them who is spiritually more matured and the one who loves Christ more will do. ///
