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Davon Huss
G. Gert Behanna, converted at age of 60, went around the country speaking, wrote book THE LATE LIZ, in an interview “You know I travel around speaking for God and in the process I’m forced to use gas stations restrooms which are almost always filthy. I used to complain about that to God. I’d say, ‘Lord, If I’m your servant, how come I’ve got to use these dirty restrooms?’ One day in the midst of this kind of complaint, He seemed to say, ‘Gert, I come into this restroom too, right after you. (Mat 25:40 NIV) "The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” From that moment on, she said she never left a public restroom without cleaning a mirror, wiping the tile sink and picking towels up off the floor. After all that, she’d say, “There You are, Lord. I hope it’s clean enough for You.” Thereafter, instead of bemoaning the mess she found, she began to think of the person who would be coming after her.
Rob Frazier, a contemporary Christian artist wrote a song titled, "He doesn’t want you better, He wants you deader"
Dead people don’t mind the pain, Don’t get offended so they never complain
They’re not concerned about personal gain, Does that sound like me or you?
The truth is rising from the mist And the word is this;
That when Jesus calls a man He calls him to come and die!
He doesn’t want you better, He wants you deader.
The story has been told of a church in the Pacific Northwest, which participates in the
"sharing of the peace" during worship. When they share the peace, they are exuberant
and enthusiastic. They leave their pews to embrace one another. Newcomers are warmly
welcomed with a kind word, a handshake, or a hug.
"Nobody in this church thought much about the weekly
ritual of passing the peace until the pastor received a
letter from a man who had recently joined the congregation.
This man was a promising young lawyer from a prestigious
downtown law firm. He drafted a brief but pointed letter
on his firm’s letterhead. "I am writing to complain about
the congregational ritual known as ’passing the peace,’"
he wrote. "I disagree with it, both personally and
professionally, and I am prepared to take legal action to
cause this practice to cease."
When the pastor phoned to talk with the lawyer about the
letter, he asked why the man was so disturbed. The lawyer
said, "The passing of the peace is an invasion of my privacy."
The pastor’s response to the lawyer was right on target.
He said, "Like it or not, when you joined the church you gave
up some of your privacy, for we believe in a risen Lord who
will never leave us alone." Then he added, "You never know
when Jesus Christ will intrude on us with a word of peace."
(William G. Carter, Water Won’t Quench the Fire, CSS Publishing Company.)
THE KEY TO HAPPINESS
Gratitude is nothing less than the key to happiness.
For this penetrating insight into gratefulness, I am grateful to Dennis Prager, author of the shrewd and perceptive "Happiness is a Serious Problem."
"There is a 'secret to happiness,'" Prager writes, "and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that
leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person."
This is a keen observation, and it helps explain why the Judeo-Christian tradition places such emphasis on thanking God. The liturgy is filled with expressions of gratitude. "It is good to give thanks to the Lord," begins the 92nd Psalm.
Why? Because God needs our gratitude? No: because we need it.
Learning to be thankful, whether to God or to other peo...
In an article entitled, “The Three Wise Women,” Christin Ditchfield noted this about Anna, “[she] had a lot of time on her hands. She could have spent that time living in the past and longing for the good old days. She could have become the proverbial busybody… sticking her nose into other people’s business. She could have sat on the porch complaining to her neighbors about her aches and pains and the problems that come with growing older. But she didn’t. Instead,” noted Ditchfield, “Anna devoted herself to loving God.”
"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing."
"He that blows the coals in quarrels he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face."
Murren helps us to see a clear picture of a healthy and a healing church by reminding us what the Bible says we as the Body of Christ should be doing:
The Believers are devoted to one another and give preference to one another (Romans 12:10).
They love one another (Romans 13:8).
They refrain from judging one another (Romans 14:13).
They edify one another (Romans 15:14).
They serve one another (Galatians 5:13).
They don’t hurt one another (Galatians 5:15).
They don’t provoke one another through conceit (Galatians 5:26)
They help carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).
They are patient with one another (Ephesians 4:2).
They are kind and forgiving toward one another (Ephesians 4:32).
They submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21).
They esteem one another (Philippians 2:3)
They stimulate one another to do good works (Hebrews 10:24).
They don’t...
It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life.
Those who make the worse use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
