Posted: January 19th, 2006 | Author: Arnold | Filed under: the Life!, Too Personal | View Comments
While reviewing my old time Steve Green favorites in the car this morning, I came across his adaptation of Keith Green’s “Grace By Which I Stand”. I’ve been singing that song since college but I never really “understood” what it meant. This morning was beyond intellectual debate on what grace is all about. It is me in the song. My heart was crying saying, “Lord, I’m weak. I know I fall a lot of time if not most of the time. But your grace kept me in your arms.”
I am reminded by what Romans 8:38,39 says “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Here’s Keith Green, “Grace By Which I Stand”.
Lord, the feelings are not the same,
I guess I’m older, I guess I’ve changed.
And how I wish it had been explained, that as you’re growing you must remember,
That nothing lasts, except the grace of God, by which I stand, in Jesus.
I know that I would surely fall away, except for grace, by which I’m saved.
Lord, I remember that special way,
I vowed to serve you, when it was brand new.
But like peter, I can’t even watch and pray, one hour with you,
And I bet, I could deny you too.
But nothing lasts, except the grace of God, by which I stand, in Jesus.
I’m sure that my whole life would waste away, except for grace, by which I’m saved.
But nothing lasts, except the grace of God, by which I stand, in Jesus.
I know that I would surely fall away, except for grace, by which I’m saved.
Posted: January 15th, 2006 | Author: Arnold | Filed under: the Life! | View Comments
A businessman bought popcorn from an old street vendor each day after lunch. He once arrived to find the peddler closing up his stand at noon. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
A smile wrinkled the seller’s leathery face. “By no means. All is well.”
“Then why are you closing your popcorn stand?”
“So I can go to my house, sit on my porch, and sip tea with my wife.”
The man of commerce objected. “But the day is still young. You can still sell.”
“No need to,” the stand owner replied. “I’ve made enough money for
today.”
“Enough? Absurd. You should keep working.”
The spry old man stopped and stared at his well-dressed visitor. “And why should I keep working?”
“To sell more popcorn.”
“And why sell more popcorn?”
“Because the more popcorn you sell, the more money you make. The more money you make, the richer you are. The richer you are, the more popcorn stands you can buy. The more popcorn stands you buy, the more peddlers sell your product, and the richer you become. And when you have enough, you can stop working, sell your popcorn stands, stay home, and sit on the porch with your wife and drink tea.”
The popcorn man smiled. “I can do that today. I guess I have enough.”
I’m rich enough—a phrase on the verge of extinction. Wise was the one who wrote, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” (Eccles. 5:10 NIV).
From Cure for the Common Life
Copyright 2005, Max Lucado
Posted: January 2nd, 2006 | Author: Arnold | Filed under: the Life! | View Comments
My prayer for you this season of giving is that you will receive God’s love and accept your place as a dearly loved child in his heavenly family.
Accept the love that came in the form of a newborn babe.
Accept the forgiveness and grace bought for you through the cruel, nail-piercing reality of the Cross.
Accept his love won for you through the victory of his resurrection.
Let this love worth giving fill you, flood you, and change you forever.
Live in the knowledge and acceptance of this love.
Live loved.
Remember, God loves you simply because he has chosen to do so.
He loves you when you don’t feel lovely.
He loves you when no one else loves you. Others may abandon you, divorce you, and ignore you, but God will love you. Always. No matter what.
By Max Lucado
From A Love Worth Giving
Posted: December 22nd, 2005 | Author: Arnold | Filed under: the Life! | View Comments
I’d like to share a J.B. Philips fantasy story told by Philip Yancey in his book “The Jesus I Never Knew”.
In the first chapter (Birth: The Visited Planet, pg 43, 44), Yancey told of a senior angel showing a very young angel around the splendors of the universe. They view whirling galaxies and blazing suns, and then flit across the infinite distances of space until at last they enter one particular galaxy of 500 billion stars.
As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.
“I want you to watch that one particularly,” said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.
“Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,” said the little angel. “What’s special about that one?”
He listened in stunned disbelief as the senior angel told him that this planet, small and insignificant and not overly clean, was the renowned Visited Planet.
“Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince … went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?”…
The little angel’s face wrinkled in disgust. “Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?”
“I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.”
The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.
* * *
It’s incomprehensible to me, too. The more I think of what Jesus did on that first Christmas, the more I realize how small we are in the eyes of the universe, and yet I realize how huge His love is for us. And that, for me, is the very essence of Christmas — that unfathomable decision that Jesus had to make just so that we can live with Him for eternity when we accept Him as our Savior and Lord.
May our Christmas be filled with love, gifts and yes, Christ.
Posted: December 18th, 2005 | Author: Arnold | Filed under: Phone blog, Techie, the Life! | Comments Off
Been trying Opera Mini on my Nokia 7610. While i have some security concerns, this free software is really good at compressing typical websites to mobile readable ones. The result is lesser download bytes. Im posting this entry from my cell phone. Cool eh?