RST -- Parting Christmas Thought (and Happy New Year!)

One last RST for '05, and it's on Christmas (based on a posting on PurposeDrivenLife.com...)

Think of the favorite gift you gave this year versus the favorite gift you received: which brought you greater joy?  Interesting...

Whenever we give, we are partaking in the nature of God. It is not entirely natural for humans to give (we tend to want and want and then want some more); it is, however, entirely God-like. If there is any value in the commercialism of Christmas, it is this: it gets us thinking about what someone else might like for a change, and it gets us giving. We spend our money on someone else. We enter into someone else’s life; we make someone else important. And since giving is one of the things that lends purpose to our lives, it would be wise to carry over some of what we experienced this holiday season and see how we can incorporate more of this new sensitivity into our daily lives—keeping in mind that giving is an attitude, and it doesn’t have to involve material things. It can be the gift of our time or talents—even our thoughts and prayers.

So beware!  Satan’s lie is that the more we get, the more we hold onto, the more we will have, when in fact the opposite is the truth: the more we give away, the fuller and richer our lives will be.

So Merry Christmas one last time, and in the fast-approaching new year...keep looking for opportunities to give (as our Heavenly Father so generously does)!

You've been prayed for today.  Here's wishing you a peaceful and prosperous 2006!

RST -- Help Me Remember

Thanks, Gladys, for this gentle yet profound reminder...

Heavenly Father,

Help me remember that "the jerk" who cut me off in traffic might be a single mother who just worked nine hours and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children before getting ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Help me to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested-looking young man who can't make change correctly might be a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting financial aid next semester.

Remind me, Lord, that the scary looking guy begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) might be a slave to addictions or illnesses that I can only imagine in my worst nightmares.

Help me to remember that the old couple walking so annoyingly slowly through the store, blocking my shopping progress, are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last Christmas that they go shopping together.

Heavenly Father, let me be slow to judge and quick to forgive--as you have been with me.

Amen.

(You've been prayed for today).

RST -- Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from sunny South Florida, y'all!  Hope
you're having a holiday season with ever-dimishing
levels of stress and rather full of laughter and joy
and peace, and may the New Year bring you and yours
more of the same--less stress, and more laughter and
joy and peace.  Today's RSTs are based on quotes from
a couple of Max Lucado's books--God Came Near and And
The Angels Were Silent--and as always, you've been
prayed for today.

"God entered the world as a baby...then as now, He
goes to those who have time to hear Him. On that
night, it wasn't the rich, and it wasn't the educated;
no, on this cloudless night He went to simple
shepherds...So when it comes to goodies and candy,
chubby cheeks and red noses, go to the North Pole.
But when it comes to eternity, forgiveness, purpose
and truth, go to the manger. Kneel with the
shepherds, and worship the God who dared to do what
man dared not dream."

RST -- Word Of The Father

Ahhh, Christmas carols...here's a line I'm guessing you've heard more than once these past few weeks:

"Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing..."

So what's that about?  Have you thought about it?  Today's RST is from PurposeDrivenLife.com

Words. We do so much in words. We hear sermons and read books and attend seminars and get all excited when someone says something in a way we haven't heard before.

Christ's presence transcended words. Those who followed Him experienced Him. They heard, saw, and handled the Word Of Life in human flesh, they were able to observe Jesus as well as listen to Him.  And my guess is that--as is always the case--what He showed them stuck with them more than what He told them.

They heard Him say that He came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and then they watched Him spend Himself on the crowds and the needs of everyone who came to Him.  They heard Him talk about serving each other, but they watched Him wrap a towel around His waist and wash their feet.  They heard Him say He was the spotless Lamb of God that takes a way the sins of the world, but they saw Him up on the cross doing just that.

So as John put it (and as the carol reminds us), "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14)--what a thought!


You've been prayed for today.

RST -- Simplicity / God's "Peculiar Passion"

Simplicity revisited--interesting in light of our call to be imitators of God... (Ephesians 5:1)

 

 

"God has a peculiar passion for the forgotten.  Have you noticed?  See His hand on the festered skin of the leper?  See the face of the forgiven prostitute cupped in His hands?  Notice how he responds to the touch of the woman with the hemorrhage?  See him with His arm around corrupt but hopeful little Zaccheus?  Yes, over and over again God wants us to get the message: He has a peculiar passion for the forgotten.  What society throws out, God brings in.  What the world writes off, God picks up."

 

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

"I am the good shepherd: the Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep."

Luke 19:10, John 10:11

 

Max Lucado, And The Angels Were Silent

 

 

(You've been prayed for today)

 

 

__________________________________________________

RST -- Simplicity 6

Today's thought...

 

"False religion is the hoax Jesus is out to disclose...Faith is not in religion, faith is in God.  A hardy, daring faith which believes God will do what is right, every time.  And, that God will do what it takes--whatever it takes--to bring all His children home."

 

Max Lucado, And The Angels Were Silent

 

 

You've been prayed for today...

 

 

Simplicity Cont'd........

Simplicity cont'd...

"Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Christ,
and knowing Him. Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing
more than imitating Him whom we see and know. To see Him and to know
Him and to imitate Him: that is the sum of christianity."

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly beloved children." Ephesians 5:1

Interesting thought in light of all of the kids I've been watched over
the years but especially of late: just as children imitate their
parents (and other grownups unfortunately at times ), so we ought to
imitate our Heavenly Father--and God is love: true, sacrificial, deep,
selfless love originates in and emanates from Him through us for the
benefit of others as well as ourselves (see 1 John 4 for more on
that).

So here's another thought--who've you been imitating lately?

You've been prayed for today.

Longings of the Soul

Hey, y'all,

Hope the new week finds you all well and not too stressed with holidays fast approaching (and for some semesters' endings as well)--this is the first of a couple of truly Random Spiritual Thoughts my mom sent me (thanks, Mai!); love the brevity and eloquence, and I heard and felt the unmistakable "thud" of the impact it made on my heart and mind--I pray the same for you as well as, and may you have peace in these busy days.

--Juan


LONGINGS OF THE SOUL

"There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else."

C. S. LEWIS
The Problem of Pain


You've been prayed for today...

Simplicity 5

Interesting...again, not complicated, but if you think about it for longer than a nanosecond, not always an easy path to follow honestly and wholly...

The Pharisees asked him, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40

Think these concepts are strictly a New Testament phenomenon? Nope--Christ was merely quoting what He'd already had to say on the subject several hundred years previously (How's that for a temporal paradox?--that one was for my SciFi friends--but seriously, wrap your head around that idea--'cause it's true!). Don't believe me? Check out Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18--

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

"Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."

So there you go--the 10 commandments, God's way, all condensed into a couple of short lines: follow God's example, get to know Him and what He's about, and out of that transforming knowledge and presence will come the second part--the sometimes harder part: the loving of our fellow fallible--and sometimes annoying--neighbors as we love ourselves (who, incidentally, are their fallible and sometimes annoying neighbors).

You've been prayed for today...neighbor.

Simplicity

"Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Christ, and knowing Him. Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating Him whom we see and know. To see Him and to know Him and to imitate Him: that is the sum of christianity."

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly beloved children." Ephesians 5:1

Interesting thought in light of all of the kids I've been watched over the years but especially of late: just as children imitate their parents (and other grownups unfortunately at times ), so we ought to imitate our Heavenly Father--and God is love: true, sacrificial, deep, selfless love originates in and emanates from Him through us for the benefit of others as well as ourselves (see 1 John 4 for more on that).

So here's another thought--who've you been imitating lately?

You've been prayed for today.

Welcome Aboard!

Welcome to the RST blog--and thanks Jose for the impetus!

As most of you know, we've been doing this RST thing for several years now--but now we've got a searchable archive here, so we'll gradually migrate old thoughts over this-a-way for your viewing and researching pleasure.

As always, you've been prayed for today...