shane

and

shane and dylan

why is it so hard to receive?

We’d rather collapse a couple of times before receiving
help from others.
Something in us keeps us resisting love.
We’d rather be making it through life on our own, than
depend on alms from others.
I remember a friend and a fellow missionary Zsuzsa,
who used to work as a specialist on Oriental Carpets.
With her hands she could fix the small nuts and get the
patterns back in order. She was a professional
conservationist.
Then, suddenly, her husband died and she herself became
sick with arthritis. It crippled her body up to a point when she
could not move herself.
We met her in a hospital in Budapest.
She feared and respected God, but didn’t know Jesus
personally.
She was bitter towards God.
One of our girls shared the Gospel with her and her life
changed. She became a living epistle.
In the time of her trials she often told me,” I’m learning
to receive”.
Then, against everybody’s efforts to stop her, she became
a missionary and moved to Baku, Azerbaijan.
Her little, poor apartment became a center of action.
She was just lying on the bed and fellowshipping with Jesus.
It looked so unproductive, but hundreds of people found
comfort and encouragement in prayer and fellowship
by her bed side.
Then she became blind.
She said,”I’m learning to receive”.
Now she depended on others even for her reading.
She was so rich.
Then she died.
Her grave site in Baku is one of the most
beautiful places in the world.

Righteousness is a gift from God.
It cannot be achieved, merited nor paid for.
It simply means that the man who believes in Jesus,
becomes in Him
all that God requires a man to be. (Rm.4:3)

Self-righteousness is an oxymoron.
It’s a lie that promotes pride and always hinders us from
receiving.
It is the kind of goodness that looks very acceptable, but
in reality it separates people from God.
It’s sinful goodness.

So often even believers try to impress God with their goodness
in stead of pleasing him through faith.
Only by receiving from him can we become good men
in the true meaning of the word.

we grow

everybody grows

Everybody grows.
You don’t need to choose it.
But you can choose, how you will grow.
You can grow to become an adult baby, or become an adult man.
In I Corinthians 13:11 Paul said that he had chosen
to put away childish things.
Unlike many people He was willing to change his thinking,
speaking and understanding.
Children are very self-centered in their thinking.
Everything spins around their needs and interests.
A child needs to be taught unselfishness.
It will not develop naturally in him.
Ignorance characterizes a child’s way of understanding.
Even though ignorance sometimes protects him from a lot of evil,
it is dangerous.
Voluntary ignorance doesn’t lead to good long term solutions.
It limits our lives more and more to ourselves.
Growing up means to come out from our own world.
Spiritual maturity leads us to put away all manipulation
and games that we have learned to play with our words.
It challenges us to “renounce the hidden things of shame” II Cor.4:2,
and encourages us to grow in our speaking.
Growth means sometimes pain, but that pain carries a promise
with it: He is changing me.

where could we go?