Christian Reflection and Prayer

by Anne Cetas

Scripture:

Read: Romans 5:12-21

God demonstrates His own love toward
us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. —Romans 5:8

Reflection:

Four people—a pilot, a professor, a pastor,
and a hiker—were flying in a small plane
when the engines died. The pilot said,
“There are only three parachutes. Since
this is my plane, I’m taking one of them.
” He put it on and jumped out. The professor
said, “I’m brilliant and the world needs me,
so I’m taking a parachute,” and he jumped
out.

Then the pastor told the hiker, “I don’t want
to be selfish, so you take the last parachute.
” The hiker replied, “There are still two left,
so we can each have one. The professor
jumped out with my backpack instead of the
parachute!” Though the professor thought he
would land safely, his assurance was based
on faulty thinking.

Some people have an assurance of salvation
based on faulty thinking. They believe that
church attendance, baptism, or just being
good will gain them approval from God. But
our thinking is faulty if it isn’t based on what
God says in His Word. God says that “all
 have sinned” and that we are His enemies.
But through the death and resurrection of His
Son, we can be made right with God
(Rom. 3:23; 5:8-10). By faith in what Christ
has done, we can have peace with God (5:1)
and the assurance of eternal life in heaven.

Do you believe it? Your eternity is at stake.
Don’t trust faulty thinking but put your faith in
Christ.I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus—
Trusting only Thee;
Trusting Thee for full salvation,
Great and free. —Havergal

Remember:
If we could earn our salvation, Christ would not
have died to provide it

(from Our Daily Bread)

The Monk's Vision

This is a nice little story that reminds us of the
best way to truly serve God here on Earth.


An old monk prayed many years for a vision
from God to strengthen his faith, but it never
came. He had almost given up hope when, one
day, a vision appeared. The old monk was
overjoyed. But then, right in the middle of the
vision, the monastery bell rang. The ringing of
the bell meant it was time to feed the poor who
gathered daily at the monastery gate. And it
was the old monk's turn to feed them. If he
failed to show up with food, the poor people
would leave quietly, thinking the monastery
had nothing to give them that day.

The old monk was torn between his earthly
duty and his heavenly vision. However, before
the bell stopped tolling, the monk had made
his decision. With a heavy heart, he turned his
back on the vision and went off to feed the poor.
Nearly an hour later, the old monk returned to
his room. When he opened the door, he could
hardly believe his eyes. There in the room was
the vision, waiting for him. As the monk dropped
to is knees in thanksgiving, the vision said to him,
"My son, had you not gone off to feed the poor,
I would not have stayed."

The best way to serve God is to reach out in
service to our brothers and sisters, especially
those less gifted than ourselves.

(from GodVine)

Scripture:

"As the Father sent Me, so I am sending you"
John 20:21

In "The Road Not Taken," one of the most
well-know poems of the 20th century " Robert Frost
describes two roads discovered during a walk in the
woods. Frost knows he can only explore one, and
he tells himself that someday he will travel the other.
But realistically, he knows he will never return. And
by the time we reach the end of the poem, we
realize the poet is talking about something infinitely
more important than a simple choice of paths.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

No, Frost is not talking about the choice of paths in
a wood, but the choice of paths in a person's life.
Choosing a road symbolizes any choice we must
make between alternatives that appear equally
attractive but lead to entirely different destinations.

In the verse Jesus Christ is empowering all followers
of Christ to go out into the world and proclaim the
Good News that a Loving God of Resurrection Power
is right here in our midst, in the very Person of Jesus
Christ, who is always their to transform despair into
hope, sorrow into joy, death into new life.  As a
follower of Jesus Christ the path that we choose has
us "turning the world upside-down".

A story has come down through the years about a
king who visited the monasteries of a great Zen leader
named Lin Chi. (Zen is a Japanese Buddhist sect that
seeks enlightenment through the practice of
meditation.) The visiting king was astonished to learn
from Lin Chi that there were more than ten thousand
monks living there with him. Wanting to know the
exact number of monks, the king asked Lin Chi,
"How many disciples do you have?" To which Lin Chi
replied, "Four or five, perhaps."

The number of Christians living worldwide today is
almost two billion. And most, if not all of us here today,
are pleased to be included in that number. But how
many of those two billion Christians can be counted
as true disciples?

WHICH PATH DO YOU TAKE ARE YOU A TRUE
BELIEVER?

(excerpts taken from Sunday Sermon on Line)