My Struggles are About Him

by Max Lucado
What about your struggles? Is there any chance, any possibility, that you have been selected to struggle for God’s glory? Have you “been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29)?

Here is a clue. Do your prayers seem to be unanswered? What you request and what you receive aren’t matching up? Don’t think God is not listening. Indeed he is. He may have higher plans.

Here is another. Are people strengthened by your struggles? A friend of mine can answer yes. His cancer was consuming more than his body; it was eating away at his faith. Unanswered petitions perplexed him. Well-meaning Christians confused him. “If you have faith,” they said, “you will be healed.”

No healing came. Just more chemo, nausea, and questions. He assumed the fault was a small faith. I suggested another answer. “It’s not about you,” I told him. “Your hospital room is a showcase for your Maker. Your faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God’s song.”

Oh, that you could have seen the relief on his face. To know that he hadn’t failed God and God hadn’t failed him—this made all the difference. Seeing his sickness in the scope of God’s sovereign plan gave his condition a sense of dignity. He accepted his cancer as an assignment from heaven: a missionary to the cancer ward.

A week later I saw him again. “I reflected God,” he said, smiling through a thin face, “to the nurse, the doctors, my friends. Who knows who needed to see God, but I did my best to make him seen.”

Bingo. His cancer paraded the power of Jesus down the Main Street of his world.

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.

Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.

Through your problems and mine, may God be seen.



From
It's Not About Me
© (Thomas Nelson, 2007),
Max Lucado

My Success is About Him

by Max Lucado
With success comes a problem. Just ask Nadab, Elah, and Omri. Or interview Ahab, Ahaziah, or Jehoram. Ask these men to describe the problem of success. I would, you might be thinking, if I knew who they were. My point, exactly. These are men we should know. They were kings of Israel. They ascended to the throne…but something about the throne brought them down. Their legacies are stained with blood spilling and idol worship. They failed at success. They forgot both the source and purpose of their success.

You won’t be offered a throne, but you might be offered a corner office, a scholarship, an award, a new contract, a pay raise. You won’t be given a kingdom to oversee, but you might be given a home or employees or students or money or resources. You will, to one degree or another, succeed.

And when you do, you might be tempted to forget who helped you do so. Success sabotages the memories of the successful. Kings of the mountain forget who carried them up the trail.

The man who begged for help in medical school ten years ago is too busy to worship today. Back when the family struggled to make ends meet, they leaned on God for daily bread. Now that there is an extra car in the garage and a jingle in the pocket, they haven’t spoken to him in a while. In the early days of the church, the founding members spent hours in prayer. Today the church is large, well attended, well funded. Who needs to pray?

Success begets amnesia. Doesn’t have to, however. God offers spiritual ginseng to help your memory. His prescription is simply, “Know the purpose of success.” Why did God help you succeed? So you can make him known.

Why are you good at what you do? For your comfort? For your retirement? For your self-esteem? No. Deem these as bonuses, not as the reason. Why are you good at what you do? For God’s sake. Your success is not about what you do. It’s all about him—his present and future glory.

From
It's Not About Me
© (Thomas Nelson, 2007),
Max Lucado

Count to Eight (Woe, Be Gone)

by Max Lucado
“We have here only five loaves and two fish.” (Matt. 14:17)

How do you suppose Jesus felt about the basket inventory? Any chance he might have wanted them to include the rest of the possibilities? Involve all the options? Do you think he was hoping someone might count to eight?

“Well, let’s see. We have five loaves, two fish…and Jesus!” Jesus Christ. The same Jesus who told us:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Luke 11:19 NIV)
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. (John 15:7 NIV)
What ever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24 NIV)

Standing next to the disciples was the solution to their problems…but they didn’t go to him. They stopped their count at seven and worried.

What about you? Are you counting to seven, or to eight?

Here are eight worry stoppers to expand your tally:
1. Pray, first. “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him…(I Peter 5:7 AMP)
2. Easy now. Slow down. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him (Ps. 37:7).
3. Act on it. The moment a concern surfaces, deal with it. Don’t dwell on it. Head off worries before they get the best of you. Be a doer, not a stewer.
4. Compile a worry list. Over a period of days record your anxious thoughts. Then review them. How many of them turned into a reality?
5. Evaluate your worry categories. Detect recurring areas of preoccupation that may become obsessions. Pray specifically about them.
6. Focus on today. God meets daily needs daily. He will give you what you need when it is needed.
7. Unleash a worry army. Share your feelings with a few loved ones. Ask them to pray with and for you.
8. Let God be enough. “Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matt. 6:32-33 NLT).

Eight steps. Pray, first. Easy, now. Act on it. Compile a worry list. Evaluate your worry categories. Focus on today. Unleash a worry army. Let God be enough.

P-E-A-C-E-F-U-L

From
Fearless
© (Thomas Nelson, 2009),
Max Lucado

Practical steps needed to check H1N1

Thursday August 20, 2009

I CAN understand the Health Ministry’s urgent and all-out attempts to get public cooperation in containing the spread of the A (H1N1) flu. To date, the disease has claimed an unproportionate number of lives and as such, all citizens should be truly concerned and do their part.

But is it practical to fine and/or imprison those with flu-like illness (ILI) symptoms but are found not wearing face masks?

How is the enforcement to be carried out? Who are going to catch the defaulters – the police or health officials? Don’t forget we have problems even to catch smokers in designated non-smoking areas. Also, those who litter are rarely reprimanded in spite of our anti-littering laws.

I can’t imagine how the whole process of identifying and confirming the sick can be done in public places or on the streets.

We are told that the ministry is hard pressed to provide sufficient medical personnel to handle all the suspected cases in hospitals and clinics and leave for medical staff has been frozen.

Now, we are talking about putting enforcers in public places to detect and catch those who are sick but not wearing face masks.

Are these enforcers to be equipped with thermometers, flu detectors or what? Or are all the suspects to be brought back to hospital for confirmation, adding to the already big crowd there? How sick does one have to be in order to be considered guilty for not wearing a face mask?

If a person is sick and indeed very sick, shouldn’t he be hospitalised rather than being sent to prison when he is unable or refuses to pay the fine? Also, to put these sick people in prison for not wearing masks, are we not risking infecting the whole prison?

If it becomes widespread in the prison, are we going to close the prison and send all the inmates home, just like we do for our schools and institutions of learning? Our prisons are said to be always overcrowded, so separate quarantine rooms are out of the question.

We should stop all these knee-jerk reactions and be more proactive and innovative in ways that are practical!

In this context, please look into how the hospital and clinical medical staff can render more speedy and effective treatment to all those who seek help.

It is not accurate to say that those infected were late in seeking hospital treatment. It is more accurate to say that the hospital delayed treatment for them. How many who sought treatment were first sent home only to be re-admitted when their conditions deteriorated?

In this critical time, the minister and his director-general should make more visits and get first-hand information on how exactly their medical staff is handling and coping with the situation on the ground in hospitals and clinics all over the country.

LIONG KAM CHONG,
Seremban.

God Never Sends You Out Alone

by Max Lucado
When you place your faith in Christ, Christ places his Spirit before, behind, and within you. Not a strange spirit, but the same Spirit: the parakletos. Everything Jesus did for his followers, his Spirit does for you. Jesus taught; the Spirit teaches. Jesus healed; the Spirit heals. Jesus comforted; his Spirit comforts. As Jesus sends you into new seasons, he sends his counselor to go with you.

God treats you the way one mother treated her young son, Timmy. She didn’t like the thought of Timmy walking to his first-grade class unaccompanied. But he was too grown-up to be seen with his mother. “Besides,” he explained, “I can walk with a friend.” So she did her best to stay calm, quoting the Twenty-third Psalm to him every morning: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”

One school day she came up with an idea. She asked a neighbor to follow Timmy to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, lest he notice her. The neighbor was happy to oblige. She took her toddler on morning walks anyway.

After several days Timmy’s friend noticed the lady and the child.

“Do you know who that woman is who follows us to school?”

“Sure,” Timmy answered. “That’s Shirley Goodnest and her daughter Marcy.”

“Who?”

“My mom reads about them every day in the Twenty-third Psalm. She says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life.’ Guess I’ll have to get used to them.”

You will too. God never sends you out alone. Are you on the eve of change? Do you find yourself looking into a new chapter? Is the foliage of your world showing signs of a new season? Heaven’s message for you is clear: when everything else changes, God presence never does. You journey in the company of the Holy Spirit, who “will teach you and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26 NLT).

From
Fearless
© (Thomas Nelson, 2009),
Max Lucado

Make Friends With Whatever’s Next

by Max Lucado
Embrace it. Accept it. Don’t resist it. Change is not only a part of life; change is a necessary part of God’s strategy. To use us to change the world, he alters our assignments. Gideon: from farmer to general; Mary: from peasant girl to the mother of Christ; Paul: from local rabbi to world evangelist. God transitioned Joseph from a baby brother to an Egyptian prince. He changed David from a a shepherd to a king. Peter wanted to fish the Sea of Galilee. God called him to lead the first church. God makes reassignments.

But, someone might ask, what about the tragic changes God permits? Some seasons make no sense…do such moments serve a purpose?

They do if we see them from an eternal perspective. What makes no sense in this life will make perfect sense in the next. I have proof: you in the womb.

I know you don’t remember this prenatal season, so let me remind you what happened during it. Every gestation day equipped you for your earthly life. Your bones solidified, your eyes developed, the umbilical cord transported nutrients into your growing frame…for what reason? So you might remain enwombed? Quite the contrary. Womb time equipped you for earth time, suited you up for your postpartum existence.

Some prenatal features went unused before birth. You grew a nose but didn’t breathe. Eyes developed, but could you see? Your tongue, toenails, and crop of hair served no function in your mother’s belly. But aren’t you glad you have them now?

Certain chapters in this life seem so unnecessary, like nostrils on the preborn. Suffering. Loneliness. Disease. Holocausts. Martyrdom. Monsoons. If we assume this world exists just for pregrave happiness, these atrocities disqualify it from doing so. But what if this earth is the womb? Might these challenges, severe as they may be, serve to prepare us, equip us for the world to come? As Paul wrote, “These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing” (2 Cor. 4:17 CEV).


From
Fearless
© (Thomas Nelson, 2009),
Max Lucado

Death: Because of Christ, You Can Face It.

by Max Lucado
As heart surgeries go, mine was far from the riskiest. But any procedure that requires four hours of probes inside your heart is enough to warrant an added prayer. So on the eve of my surgery, Denalyn, I, and some kind friends offered our share. We were staying at a hotel adjacent to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. We asked God to bless the doctors and watch over the nurses. After we chatted a few minutes, they wished me well and said good-bye. I needed to go to bed early. But before I could sleep, I wanted to offer one more prayer…alone.

I took the elevator down to the lobby and found a quiet corner and began to think. What if the surgery goes awry? What if this is my final night on earth? Is there anyone with whom I should make my peace? Do I need to phone any person and make amends? I couldn’t think of anyone. (So if you are thinking I should have called you, sorry. Perhaps we should talk.)

Next I wrote letters to my wife and daughters, each beginning with the sentence “If you are reading this, something went wrong in the surgery.”

Then God and I had the most honest of talks. We began with a good review of my first half century. The details would bore you, but they entertained us. I thanked him for grace beyond measure and for a wife who descended from the angels. My tabulation of blessings could have gone on all night and threatened to do just that. So I stopped and offered this prayer: I’m in good hands, Lord. The doctors are prepared; the staff is experienced. But even with the best of care, things happen. This could be my final night in this version of life, and I’d like you to know, if that’s the case, I’m okay.

And I went to bed. And slept like a baby. As things turned out, I recovered from the surgery, and here I am, strong as ever, still pounding away at the computer keyboard. One thing is different, though. This matter of dying bravely?

I think I will.

May you do the same.

WATCH & PRAY

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ.

The A H1N1 flu pandemic is spreading like wildfire.

Please be vigilant, pray and take proactive steps to protect yourselves and your family & friends.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/updates/en/

We Shall Meet on that Beautiful Shore

The mother of our beloved Elder, Lim Swee Boon has gone to be with the Lord today.

Official memorial: Sunday, 2 August @ 8pm
Funeral: Monday, 3 August @ 10am
.