Listen to this letter from James Baldwin: Please try to be clear, dear James, through the storm which rages about your youthful head today, about the reality which lies behind the words “acceptance” and “integration.” There is no reason for you to try to become like white men, and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them, and I mean that very…
1. “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against HIM.” 2. “Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 3. “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” 4. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us…
Have you not heard that the best way to forgive others is to accept God’s forgiveness? What does it mean to receive God’s forgiveness? It means the working of God’s Mercy upon your life! It means you don’t refuse God’s Mercy for yourself! It means you constantly enjoy the flow and fullness of God’s Mercy in all you do! Forgiveness will keep working for you when you forgive others devotedly. Reflect on this Scripture: “I, even I, am he who…
C. S. Lewis said: “To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life – to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son – how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it…
1. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” 2. “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” 3. “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” 4. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the…
I always wonder what it could mean, when Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. President, said: “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” ― Eisenhower was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–1943 and the successful invasion of Normandy in 1944–1945 from the Western Front. After many years, I agree that what makes planning is the plans. The planning is always planning. Remember that it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. Can we…
Bono once said: “But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as, in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. In the New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.” Meaning, with Jesus Christ, have both the vertical and horizontal relationship made possible by HIS Cross. The access key is vertical and horizontal, walking in…
Yes, I mean, things to do in the early morning for you to enjoy the day! Yes, have you not heard that if you start the morning off on the wrong foot, you are already behind? Have you not heard that you readily defeated if you are beaten to walk around with greatness in the early morning? You are packed with energy in the early morning, and your power must equate to your willingness to be excellent throughout the day!…
1. “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” 2. “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” 3. “She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.” 4. Early in…
Kathleen Norris said, “I know from experience that when I allow busy little doings to fill the precious time of the early morning when contemplation might flourish, I open the doors to the demon of acedia. Noon becomes a blur – no time, no time – the wolfing down of a sandwich as I listen to the morning’s phone messages and plan the afternoon’s errands. When evening comes, I am so exhausted that vespers has become impossible. It is as…