By Max Lucado

It’s QUIET. It’s early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming.

In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met.

For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose.

I choose love…

No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose to love. Today I will love God and what God loves.

I choose joy…

I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical…the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I choose peace…

I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

I choose patience…

I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I’ll invite him to do so. Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

I choose kindness…

I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.

I choose goodness…

I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.

I will faithfulness…

Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My wife will not question my love. And my children will never fear that their father will not come home.

I choose gentleness…

Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I made a demand, may it be only of myself.

I choose self-control…

I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only in joy. I will be impassioned only by  my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek his grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.

       I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease…..
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They’d laugh at me I’d fear.                                                             No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.
I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God! held a book;
It was the book of life.
God looked into his book and said
‘Your name I cannot find
I once was going to write it down…
But never found the time’
Now do you have the time
to pass it on?

Sometimes people are a stumbling block to us in our journey to be close to God and they don’t realize it. And sometimes we are a stumbling block to others and we don’t realize it.

These stumbling blocks can come in the form of hurtful words which may not have even been intended to be hurtful. Sometimes they are actions or  non action.

For instance, someone can make a comment and it really stings and hurts the person they told it to. That person is so hurt, they stop going to church. The hurt person ends up letting the other person set them far back in their relationship with God. Maybe the person who said the words didn’t intend to hurt them, but it did hurt them deeply.

A lot of people actually get upset or something somebody said or did or didn’t do and change churches, stop going to church, or stop going to church for a while then coming back.  Not all churches are equal and you should go to the one you feel you belong to and it may take several visits to find the right church for you. But there really shouldn’t be rude and insensitive words, hurt feelings, lies and anything else like that going on in churches, it’s just ridiculous. It just doesn’t belong there, like meat doesn’t belong in a vegetarian restaurant.

An example could be: Person A is going through something really difficult that others have a hard time understanding. When they talk about it to their Christan brother or sister who is Person B, Person B may say, “Oh, get over it.” So Person A is very hurt that when they were seeking encouraging words, they just got shoved down in the ground. Person B didn’t mean anything bad, they just aren’t very sensitive and don’t understand at all what Person A is going through, so they wanted to tell Person A to toughen up, having no idea that those words would sting so badly and make Person A feel so unloved and sad. There are many other kinder words they could have chosen, without having to understand what Person A is going through, but they chose their words without any thought to how it sounded. Because of this, Person A feels they are not loved in that church and decide they won’t go there anymore and stops talking about what they are going through in fear of being shoved down again.

Okay, that is just an example I tried to think of, I am not talking about anything that actually happened. But I do know that lots of Christians end up being stumbling blocks for other Christians whether they know it or not.

Or a person struggling spiritually who is trying to decide whether to become Christian or not may get hurt by a Christian, so because of that, they decide they will not become Christian.

There is never a shortage of stumbling blocks in life and nobody will live a life without several stumbling blocks, but what’s really sad is when Christians are stumbling blocks for other Christians.

Christians are supposed to be brothers and sisters to each other and help each other out and love each other. Christians are supposed to uplift each other and encourage each other. We are all supposed to be on the same team here. But unfortunately, sometimes Christians end up bringing other Christians down and trying to pull them away from God.

Never, ever bring another Christian down, always try to encourage and uplift others.

I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.Luke 12:8-9

Wow, scientists have conducted a study and concluded that to be happy, you should go to church and pray.

Active Christians have known this for a long time, regularly going to church and praying for peace, comfort, and happiness, but now their knowledge is validated by scientists.

According to the study, religious people are generally happier than atheists and agnostics and cope better with life’s disasters such as death, illness, and divorce.

People who believe in God feel that they have a safety net that non believers don’t have. They can always fall back on God and turn to God when bad things happen or people let them down. And in the end, there is Heaven where there will be no more tears, no suffering, no stress, no worries or pain or anything else we have to suffer through in this temporary life.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=537628&in_page_id=1770

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1 

The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the
diligent are fully satisfied.

Proverbs 13:4

This verse goes along with the saying “Heaven helps those who help themselves.” You can’t just sit around and do nothing and expect something from it.

If you want something, put some effort into it and see what you can get from your efforts. Put as much action as you can into whatever it is you are trying to get.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge
of the Holy One is understanding.

-Proverbs 9:10

This is a news article that was the headline on  drudgereport.com  today.

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - Italy’s most prominent Muslim, an iconoclastic writer who condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel, converted to Catholicism Saturday in a baptism by the pope at a Vatican Easter service.

An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim who is married to a Catholic, Magdi Allam infuriated some Muslims with his books and columns in the newspaper Corriere della Sera newspaper, where he is a deputy editor. He titled one book “Long Live Israel.”

As a choir sang, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Allam’s head and said a brief prayer in Latin.

“We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another,” Benedict said in a homily reflecting on the meaning of baptism. “Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close.”

Vatican Television zoomed in on Allam, who sat in the front row of the basilica along with six other candidates for baptism. He later received his first Communion.

Allam, 55, told the newspaper Il Giornale in a December interview that his criticism of Palestinian suicide bombing provoked threats on his life in 2003, prompting the Italian government to provide him with a sizable security detail.

The Union of Islamic Communities in Italy — which Allam has frequently criticized as having links to Hamas — said the baptism was his own decision.

“He is an adult, free to make his personal choice,” the Apcom news agency quoted the group’s spokesman, Issedin El Zir, as saying.

Yahya Pallavicini, vice president of Coreis, the Islamic religious community in Italy, said he respected Allam’s choice but said he was “perplexed” by the symbolic and high-profile way in which he chose to convert.

“If Allam truly was compelled by a strong spiritual inspiration, perhaps it would have been better to do it delicately, maybe with a priest from Viterbo where he lives,” the ANSA news agency quoted Pallavicini as saying.

The nighttime Easter vigil service at St. Peter’s Basilica marked the period between Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection.

Benedict opened by blessing a white candle, which he then carried down the main aisle of the darkened basilica. Slowly, the pews began to light up as his flame was shared with candles carried by the faithful, until the whole basilica twinkled and the main lights came on.

The pope administers baptism “without making any ‘difference of people,’ that is, considering all equally important before the love of God and welcoming all in the community of the Church,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Allam, who has a young son with his Catholic wife and two adult children from a previous relationship, indicated in the Il Giornale interview that he would have no problem converting to Christianity. He said he had even received Communion once — when he was 13 or 14 — “even though I knew it was an act of blasphemy, not having been baptized.”

He did not speak to the press Saturday and his newspaper said it had no information about his conversion.

Allam said in the interview that he had made a pilgrimage to Mecca, as is required of all Muslims, with his deeply religious mother in 1991, although he was not otherwise observant.

“I was never practicing,” he was quoted as saying. “I never prayed five times a day, facing Mecca. I never fasted during Ramadan.”

Allam also explained his decision to title a recent book “Viva Israele” by saying he wrote it after he received death threats from Hamas.

“Having been condemned to death, I have reflected a long time on the value of life. And I discovered that behind the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel. Everyone has the right to exist except for the Jewish state and its inhabitants,” he said. “Today, Israel is the paradigm of the right to life.”

In 2006, Allam was a co-winner, with three other journalists, of the $1 million Dan David prize, named for an Israeli entrepreneur. Allam was cited for “his ceaseless work in fostering understanding and tolerance between cultures.”

There is no overarching Muslim law on conversion. But under a widespread interpretation of Islamic legal doctrine, converting from Islam is apostasy and punishable by death — though killings are rare.

Egypt’s highest Islamic cleric, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, wrote last year against the killing of apostates, saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion and that punishment would come in the afterlife.

On Wednesday, a new audio message from Osama bin Laden accused the pope of playing a “large and lengthy role” in a “new Crusade” against Islam that included the publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad that many Muslims found insulting.

Lombardi said Thursday that bin Laden’s accusation was baseless. He said Benedict repeatedly criticized the Muhammad cartoons, first published in some European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February.

Open rebuke is better Than love carefully

concealed.

 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But

the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Proverbs 27:5-6

Sometimes we love someone but but we don’t show them we love them. Some people just assume that people will know so there’s not much point in trying to prove it. That’s not always the case.  And some people may not even want others to know they love them, because they feel why would they want my love?

Life is short and one day it will be too late in this lifetime at least.

Instead of hiding your love, say “I LOVE YOU!” The verse says open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. There are people that do carefully conceal their love.